{kennedy grace}

Please meet the newest member of the jones fam...

Kennedy Grace

I was due on Tuesday, October 7th and have never gone early with any of my other children so my hopes were not high that this one would come early.

This may be TMI but my past two labors have begun with several spouts diarrhea and this one followed suit. Friday night it started in Walmart. Gross I know - didn't enjoy having to use their bathrooms like three times before we made it out of there. I was afraid labor might be starting so we booked it home and I layed on the couch to see what might happen. I was scared and nervous and secretly didn't want this to be it.  And...nothing started. I attributed it to too many grapes and chili for dinner. The next day went on like normal with soccer games and General Conference and then Justin left that evening for the Priesthood session. The girls and I were snuggled up on the couch watching Honey I Shrunk the Kids when low and behold the running to the bathroom ensued again.

 I texted Justin immediately and told him to come home just in case this was the real deal. I then continued to call my mom (who was planning on driving up the next morning) which to my luck she had already packed and said she'd hop in the car. I then called my friend Talai to ask if she'd come sit at the house with my girls until my mom came. As soon as Talai arrived we decided to take off because although contractions were not painful they were 3 minutes apart and my last two labors were only 4 hours so we wanted to give ourselves enough time to get to the hospital and get some pain meds :)

We took off for the hospital around 8:45ish and when we got to the hospital I realized that the 10 minute drive over I had been on the phone with my mom the entire time and I didn't think I had had a single contraction :(  We got up to labor and delivery, got hooked up on all the machines in triage, and although I was having contractions they were slowly dying off. The nurse had us walk the halls for an hour and I honestly thought we'd be sent home afterward. My contractions picked back up and were 3 minutes apart but not painful at all. I was sure once we got hooked back up to monitors and I was laying in a bed they'd die off. But...much to my surprise the contractions continued and were starting to get more painful and were 1-2 minutes apart. I wasn't dialating though so they considered sending me home...but since I was progressing...just really slowly and this was my fourth baby AND my contractions were so close together they decided to keep me - I was thrilled and eager to have a baby.

We went to our room and what do you know the contractions started to die off. So we got on the ball for awhile...got in a hot bath for awhile and then got back in bed and still nothing was really helping me progress. Anytime they came and checked me I was barely progressing and they could never feel the baby's head. She was what they call 'floating' and not really burrowing down to help me dialate any.

So...after many many hours they gave me an epidural around 6am, broke my water, and then started me on petocin to try and get things going stronger to help it all move along. The epidural worked but unfortunatly was totally making me way more dumb on my right side which was totally uncomfortable so they eventually came in and lowered the dosage I was getting to try and help out with my dumbness. Despite the problems I was thrilled to have pain meds.

Finally around 10ish Sunday morning the doctor came and checked me and I had finally made it to a seven. Then my epidural started to wear off and I was starting to feel my contractions - they were coming close and hard and I was getting worried so the anestheolisgist came to check my epidural and up it a bit. I could feel my contractions in my bottom and knew it was time to push - around 11:30ish...so they got the doctor in at 11:35 - he checked me, said I was fully dialated and ready to push. I pushed through about 3 contractions and little miss was born at 11:49am.

Her heartbeat had been dropping the last couple of hours of my labor so they were worried a c-section might be in order if I didn't start progressing or her heartbeat issues got more worrisome so it was such a relief to have her finally arrive and see she was safe and healthy. The cord was wrapped around her neck but she was absolutely perfect.

This was the first labor I didn't end up throwing up either before/during/after. It didn't go as expected but what labors do? It's something that I'm always nervous and anxious about and have to say I am thrilled is over.

Kennedy is beautiful. She's calm and loves to be snuggled. She's not the best nurser but is only up once a night so I'd say she's a pretty good sleeper :)  Everyone is smitten with her. Brooklyn loves to pick her up and carry her around. Elle hasn't been the least bit jealous (knock on wood) and loves to ask, "Hold this?" Addy loves to find Kennedy when she's upset and try to please her with stuffies (stuffed animals) and her blanket.

We are pretty sure this is the completion of our family so I'm trying my hardest to enjoy this newborn stage, snuggle my little caboose as much as I can, and really eat up this special time of our life. It's one that's requiring patience on all fronts but I hope to cherish this time as much as I can because we all know it passes in the blink of an eye.

The new family of SIX!!! Ah - that seems big to me :)

Some of my sweet girlfriends who always come visit! So fun to sit and laugh and compare stories and joke around and enjoy this special experience together! (So sad I didn't get one of you Talai :(