Terrible Two's

On this day, two years ago, my second little miracle was born. I say little, even though he weighed almost 8.5 pounds! Happy Birthday to our amazing son, Joseph Myer Klinge! He has added tons of joy, frustration and love to our lives! We love you, buddy!

Second Time Around

2 years ago this Thursday, January 19th, I was headed to the hospital at 10:00pm to be induced for childbirth. As we packed up the car and Joe, my mom, his mom and I were getting into the car, I had to tell Kailyn good night because she was going to spend the night with Papa Ray. Now, you have to realize that she has been my only child up until this trip to the hospital. She started to cry because we were not going to be the same when she saw me the next time, and it was heartbreaking. I could only tell her how much I loved her and that it would never change and that I couldn't wait to have someone pick her up from school the next day to bring her out and introduce her to her new baby brother. She seemed ok with that and went with Papa.....I cried the whole way to the hospital.

We got registered and got put into our labor and delivery room and by 10:30pm, the first nurse had already collapsed my vein trying to put in an I.V. and had to call in another nurse to get it in. Let me just tell you it pinched me the entire time it was in. (I actually scar very easily and have scars from both I.V.'s from delivering my babies. I also have a scar from donating blood my senior year in high school!) Anyway, once the I.V. was in, they checked me and I was at a 3.....ALL ON MY OWN, thank you very much and almost 100% effaced. This was great news considering I knew this was my last baby and I really wanted to do the whole thing with no drugs. All natural. The nurse inserted 1/4 of a cervadil pill into my cervix and said she would check me and my contractions in a couple of hours and insert another 1/4 if necessary. Well, it wasn't, my contractions were very close and I had advanced to a 4, so they just kept my monitor on and advised that I try to get as much sleep as I could. Right. Again, my contractions were very close, and they weren't little ones, so I watched t.v. all night long, when I wasn't peeing every ten minutes, while Joe slept soundly and my mom and Robin dozed off and on while tending to me when I got up.

At 7:00am shift change, I was at a 6, but the baby wasn't down far enough for birthing. Our new nurse suggested I stand up or sit on a birthing ball and rock side to side. In the mean time, my dad came, luckily, because my contractions were hitting like rockets while I stood and rocked back and forth and my mom couldn't hold me up anymore. With my dad and Joe on each side, I rocked like a rock star, until I had a really hard contraction. I told Joe I thought I needed to go to the bathroom, so he took me in. As I was crying and peeing, he said, "You've got to get the epidural now." Unfortunately, I agreed. When we came out of the bathroom, I had my mom call the nurse. She called the anesthesiologist, said he was on his way, and kicked everyone out of the room except for Joe, but something didn't feel right. I asked her if she was going to check me, and she said, "No, do you feel like I should?" and I said, "Yes, please, something doesn't feel right." That's because I was at an 8. When the anesthesiologist came, I told him I didn't want the epidural because he couldn't guarantee me it would work with how fast I was advancing. Within minutes, I was screaming in pain. You know, like they do on all the birthing shows, and you think, they just do that for show. (I even told Joe that) I was in so much pain, I was gagging because I thought I was going to be sick. At 9:40ish am, while I had my mom in some sort of death lock begging her to take away the pain, I told the nurse I needed to push. She said, "No, you need to calm down and breathe." To which I responded, "NO, I NEED TO PUSH!" She checked me and said, "Oh my gosh, get the doctor in here now!" My mom had Joe take over so I wouldn't hurt her anymore and out of nowhere came a whole gang of people were in my room and before I knew it I was pushing with everything I had.

Joseph Myer Klinge was born at 9:49am on Thursday, January 20, 2010. He weighed 8lbs 6oz, was 20 in long and had a 14.5 in head. When he was first born, the doctor said, "Whoa, he's a big one!" After Joe cut the cord, they handed me my sweet precious womb inhabitant who was screaming desperately in my face to go back to his comfort zone. They weighed and measured and cleaned Myer up and handed him back to me. Within five minutes of his birth, he was nursing like a champ! Apparently all the screaming was because I hadn't eaten in well over 12 hours and he was starving :) Finally, the crowd that had grown outside of my room was let in. My dad, Joe's mom and dad and my Gma came in to see our sweet little man! He was perfect from head to foot. I, however, was really dizzy and my blood pressure had dropped majorly. They brought me in some food and drink and I immediately started feeling better.

My mom and stepdad waited until Kailyn had finished her lunch at school and then brought my proud kindergartener out to meet her new baby brother! To say the least, she was in love, like the rest of us.

Now today, she doesn't always admit that same feeling. Like when he hits her, gets ahold of her iPod or screams at her for no reason. But she still loves him all the same. And as ornery as that handsome little boy is, we all still love him all the same. Whether he's laughing his most perfect laugh or screaming and throwing himself on the floor in a terrible tantrum, he's still our gift from God and we love him through and through!

Friday the 13th

Some people see this day as a frightening day of bad luck. NOT ME! Today is my sweet baby girl's 8th birthday! Happy Birthday, Kailyn! We love you TONS and thank God every single day for giving us a miracle like you to love!

Labor of Love

8 years ago, yesterday, was the beginning of the rest of my life. After 2 other pre-term labor scares and being put on medicine to stop labor, it seemed my sweet baby girl was going to inhabit my womb for life. However on Friday, January 9th, 2004, while I was in the midst of one of my 90 hour work weeks at 1 of my 6 Subways in Kansas City, I had labor pains again. I called Jeff and my mom and said, "This is it!" I had called the doctors office and he said to go to the hospital to be admitted with my contractions being as close as they were.

Once I got to the hospital, they hooked me up to all the machines and started an I.V. and checked me. I was, at best, at a .5 dialated and about 90% effaced. They said my contractions were strong and close, but it still wasn't my time. I needed to dialate more. They sent me home with a list of things to do to dialate or break my water or anything that would help get my baby OUT! Now, like I said, I had had 2 other scares, so this was the 3rd time my mom had driven up to Kansas City. On January 9th, she said she wasn't leaving until she had a granddaughter.

The next morning, my mom and I went to the mall and several other stores, walking almost 8 solid hours. Besides being exhausted, there was no change. On Sunday, we got up and started all over, breaking for lunch to meet Jeff at Chili's. Of course, being 9 months pregnant I ate everything in sight, including a dessert called a chocolate volcano, and then we headed home. After a few minutes, I realized that I hadn't felt baby girl move all day, so we called the doctor's office. He said go straight to the hospital and be admitted. When they hooked me up to the machines, my contractions were every minute and a half, but baby girl wasn't responding well. They used some sort of buzzer thing to poke my belly, and she moved a little and her heart rate was steady, so they wanted to watch me overnight. On Monday, the doctor wanted to test some pitocin in my I.V. to see if the baby could handle it. She handled it fine, so they decided that starting at 6pm and midnight that night, they would give me a pill to thin my cervix and at 6am on Tuesday, they would start pitocin to induce labor. Well, let me tell you, that if that pill wasn't evil enough, pitocin was the devil himself. Finally around noon, the nurse checked me and said, you're close enough to a 4, I'm going to get you that epidural now. As soon as that heaven send was in, they cranked the pitocin as high as it would go and I went to sleep. No one told me that after they broke my water, they also screwed a little heart monitor into my baby's skull. At a little after 3, the nurse woke me up to check me and said it was time to push. I said, "No thanks, I think I'll sleep a little longer." No dice. They got me into position and we tried a practice push. The nurse said, "Oh gosh, don't do that again, let me get the doctor!" The doctor came in and had me push once, and then his cell phone rang. "Excuse me," he said. "It's my son from Harvard," as my daughter's head was almost out. After that I pushed maybe 2 more times and with the help of forceps, she was out. Jeff didn't get to cut the cord, because it had been wrapped around her neck twice, but she was alive and breathing and staring right into her mama's eyes. A perfect little baby girl with 10 fingers (with deathly long talons on them) and 10 toes, weighing in at 7 lbs, 19 inches long and a 13.5 inch head, born at 4:04pm on Tuesday, January 13, 2004.

What an amazing day in my life. Kailyn Elaine Wise is a miracle straight from God's hands. I cherish her and every single thing about her every day! As her 8th birthday approaches, she is a dancing, flipping, cheering, singing, reading, dramatic, emotional, beautiful, intelligent young lady! I couldn't be more proud of the special girl that I get to call my daughter. I love my amazing girl more than words could ever explain! <3