Happy Birthday Kara!

At 10:06 am on May 12th, 2008, Kathy and my life changed forever! A beautiful baby girl was entrusted to us by God and we were so excited and so happy to see her!! Kathy did amazing! The doctors and the nurses were amazed at how well she pushed. Awesome job Mom!! Awesome job to you too Kara!

Her full name is Kara Nicole McKinney and she was 7lbs 12oz and 21 inches long. She has huge hands and feet and will likely be a dominating athlete one day :-)

It wasn't all fun and games for Mom though. Laboring started on Sunday night around 9:30pm. Kathy started having contractions and it didn't take long before they were 4 to 5 minutes apart. At about 11:00pm, we called the doctor to see what we should do.....she didn't call back. We called her again at about 11:45pm and just before midnight, we finally got a call back. She told us to come in and they would check to see how things were going.

We arrived at the hospital and went to a holding room where the nurses could watch Kathy's contractions and check her dilation. To our disappointment, Kathy's cervix effacement (60%) and dilation (1.5cm) were the same as when we went to the doctor on Friday. They told us that we could walk around the floor for 45 minutes and they would check her again, but if there was no progress, they would have to send us home. Kathy did not want to go home, so she did as much walking as she could and sat on the birthing ball some also trying to get the baby to move down. After our 45 minutes of exercise, Kathy was at 2.5cm and about 75% effacement, so they said that was enough to admit us.

It was about 1:30am by the time they officially admitted us and moved us into the room that we're now staying in (this is also the same room where Kathy gave birth. It's a nice size room, has a cot for me to sleep on, a little bed for Kara, and apparently a leaky sink that we *just* found out about). Kathy laid in bed and had contractions with no meds till about 2:30am to 3:00am. This wasn't a fun time and if it would have went much longer, Kathy probably would have been cussing me :-). The nurses had a hard time putting an IV in her, which took a total of 4 times and 30 minutes of digging before they got one to take. Finally, Kathy was able to get some drugs to help with the contractions and almost instantly, her cervix dilated to 4cm and was 90% effaced and Kathy was much happier. She had to deal with these contractions for a little while till she was 100% effaced, but once she got there, she got the green light for the epidural which was around 4:30am. The anesthesiologist came in around 5:00am and hooked her up and life was much better from then on.

At around 5:30am, I went out to the lobby and told the grandparents to go home and get some rest for awhile because it would be a few hours before there would be a baby but of course that wasn't going to happen. They went out to their cars and slept in the cars instead of the lobby which was an icebox with uncomfortable chairs. I went back to the room and managed to get an hour of sleep since I knew Kathy would be OK for a little while. She didn't sleep but was able to rest and wasn't really bothered by the contractions. When I woke up at around 7:00, the contractions had pretty much stopped. The epidural slowed down the labor and pretty much stopped everything, so the doctor gave Kathy some pitocin to get things moving again. At this point, Kathy was able to fall asleep for about 45 minutes which was much needed rest. I sat there with her and the contractions began again and this time they more rhythmic and consistent. At about 8:30am, the doctor checked her and things were moving along pretty well. She was at 9cm now so it didn't take much pitocin to get her going.

By 9:30, Kathy was feeling pressure and starting to push Kara out! Kathy only had to push for about 20 minutes, and out popped Kara!! Kathy did awesome and it was just an amazing experience to be a part of the whole process. God blessed me with a strong and beautiful wife that gave us a strong and beautiful baby girl! Happy Birthday Kara!

Thanks be to God for giving us such a beautiful and healthy baby and for letting everything go so smoothly! We are one little happy family. Kathy and I are excited to see what Kara has in store for us as she grows up.

It's getting late and I haven't really slept much so I'm going to catch some zzz's but I'll post some videos tomorrow for everyone to check out.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, gifts, and friendship. We truely appreciate you being a part of this with us.

Love,

Steve, Kathy, and Kara