EARLY DELIVERY!!!

We have a new baby girl! She surprised us by being nearly 6 weeks early. Kaiya Grace weighed in at 5lbs and 6 ounces and was 18 and 3/4 inches long. She is a little jaundiced but she is doing really well. Mom did well throughout the whole labor/delivery process. She did it naturally and didn't go with the epidural. Her determination was awesome! It was also great to see Rachel's chiropractic care paid off. We learn in school how it helps the labor/delivery process but its reassuring to see how it works in a practical application of the knowledge learned. The doctor's/nurses/doula all commented (several times) how well rachel was doing and how quick the delivery process went.

March 12th was definitely an interesting night for us. Rachel was having "noticeable" contractions early in the afternoon. She then lost her mucous plug around 1:30. I'm thinking at this time that its not really that big of a deal. Losing the mucous plug can happen a couple of weeks before the baby is ready. We watched/timed her contractions from then on just to make sure. I must confess that I thought she was having braxton hicks and didn't think there was much to make a fuss over. She ended up having her water break around 6:45 but her contractions were about 7-8 minutes apart at that point and they were getting further apart. Knowing that most hospitals are just going to tell you to wait till there 5 minutes apart there wasn't a whole lot we can do. Well... then the water broke and it was time to get to the hospital:) We arrived at the hospital around 7:30 (after crazily running around the house (along with rachel's sister ruthie who came to help) b/c we didn't have anything ready yet. We thought we still had about 6 weeks. She labored in triage for about an hour and a half, then they took her to her delivery room where she labored for about and hour and 20 minutes and then she spent about a hour doing all the pushing and before we knew it she was here! I'm including several different pictures for those who aren't able to come out and see her!