Katherine Anora

Jon and I checked into the hospital at 5:15am, Friday morning, August 3rd.

We had technically gone in to be induced, which was my decision - being a week overdue. I was only at 1cm, so they were able to get my contractions started without medication and I labored on my own for a while.

The best part of this was that I could eat real food! (Until the active labor kicked in) Breanna came to help be a back-up coach for Jon as I went through labor. My other awesome friend, Tadd came in the morning to keep us company and help with anything we needed during the day. He supplied the fresh fruit salad, Crunch n Munch and Twix bars. All of mine and Jon's favorite things. Super fantastic!

Jon's sister Beth also came to hang out with us while I was in labor, and Tadd's wife Kelly was able to make it around 3:30pm. She got there right in time for the excitement!

To stay relaxed during labor I had made a playlist of chill music, including songs from Of Monsters and Men, Death Cab, Coldplay, soundtracks from Finding Neverland and Chronicles of Narnia, LOTR, etc. One of the nurses commented that our room had the best music of anyones. Right on :)

We also brought Gilmore Girls and watched a couple of my favorite episodes. Near the end of my labor Beth brought season 2 of Community. We watched the episode where Shirley has her baby. HAHA perfect!

After a few hours of early labor they put me on the smallest amount of pitocin possible to keep my contractions going. At 2:30pm my water broke!

From there, things really got moving. I labored another 2 hours on my own and was in a LOT of pain. When I got my epidural at 4:30pm it was FANTASTIC. Best thing ever.

I took a nap (which caused my right leg to go way more numb than my left leg) and at 7:30pm the midwife came in to check me. I was at 10cm! Suddenly everything felt really real.

Jon felt sick when they said I was going to start pushing at 8pm. He went for a walk, and then came back to give me a blessing with Ben and Tadd before the delivery began. He decided that he was too uncomfortable to be in the room and went out to the waiting room with the boys. We had talked about this before hand, so I knew that he may not be able to be there. Breanna, Kelly and Beth all stayed to help with the birth. Jon's sister would tell him as soon as our baby was born and he would come back in. I was ok with that.

After an hour and a half of pushing - our baby GIRL was born!

(I love this pic of her with her eyes open so big! It makes me laugh) 

I asked them not to announce if we had a boy or a girl. I wanted to see for myself. As soon as she was born they handed her to me and I saw her face first. My initial reaction was that she DEFINITELY looked like my side of the family. That really surprised me. Then they turned her body toward me so that I could see that she was a girl. I was SO overwhelmed and just started crying! Realizing that we had a baby girl and that I was able to deliver her was the most amazing feeling of my life.

Jon came in as they were still wiping her down on my chest. The nurse was about to take her to be weighed, so I told him that we had a girl and Jon went to look at her and take pictures.

She weighed 7lbs 7oz and was 20.25 inches long.

At this point I was INCREDIBLY shaky. I didn't realize that this was common after giving birth, but I was so wired my whole body was shaking for about 1/2 an hour. My teeth were chattering and I could hardly hold our sweet girl to feed her. Jon stood by my side and fed me fruit that Tadd and Kelly had brought (AMAZING!) That brought up my blood sugar and made the convulsions go away within 10 minutes. I am so grateful for that fresh fruit!

Because my repair and our baby's check-up/bath took such a long while, we didn't even really get a chance to hold her and look at her face to name her until around midnight. We both agreed that Katherine was the way to go. Her middle name was set - but we did adjust the spelling before deciding on Anora.

I have always wanted a little girl named Kate. That was one of my biggest favorite names since before Jon and I were married. Jon didn't want her to just be named a nickname. He wanted her to have a full given name and he has loved Katherine for a long time. We agreed that she would be Katherine - and go by Kate. Classic. Simple. And perfect :)

Our friends were SO great to stay up and wait to come in and see us. They had been there all day, helped with the birth, and now got to welcome our little girl into the world at just a few hours old. I cannot imagine a better group of people to be there for us. It was seriously the best! I wish I had gotten pictures of everyone, but it was so late and we were so tired that we just wanted to soak in the experience and didn't worry about cameras.

Jon got this picture of me before we went up to the recovery room. Man, I was exhausted!

Breanna did take this one picture of us, which was our picture of the day. I feel like you can really tell how tired we are! I don't even care that I looked horrible, because that day was so amazing that it was all worth it.

We had a lot of visitors in the hospital, which we really appreciated and enjoyed!

Ben and Breanna came back the next day, as well as Kelly and Tadd, Beth, Jon's parents, my sister Michelle and my parents, Jon's brother Mike with our niece AnnMarie, Summer and Riley, Breanne and David, Jeremy, my sister Carrie, Candice, Crystal and Jace, and if I'm leaving anyone else out I'm sorry!

We came home on Sunday morning. Jon's family wanted to make sure the neighborhood knew :)

4 days after being born we took Kate to her first pediatric check up. She was/is amazing! We are so so incredibly blessed to have a healthy, happy, calm baby. We could not have asked for a better start to our family.

Here is our support team!

Breanna - aka the Coach:

(She knew our birth plan and was vital to Kate's birth. She was so good about counting for me during pushes and keeping me going!)

Kelly - aka the Cheerleader:

(seriously, she was jumping up and down and crying with excitement before I even started pushing)

Beth - aka the Water Girl:

(She had my water there after every set of pushes to keep me hydrated and kept Jon updated by texting while he was in the waiting room)

And the grandparents!

Jon's mom:

Jon's dad:

My dad:

(I like to think that Kate is playing air guitar in this picture)

My mom:

Aunt Michelle with Kate:

(and yes, that is handlebar mustache duct tape on Kate's blanket. We tape down the end where her swaddling is tucked in so that she doesn't wiggle out. It makes such a huge difference in keeping her calm!)

Kate has had such a delightful first week of life with us. She is so snuggly, sleepy and sweet. She even sleeps through her sponge baths:

Now - Kate is 1 week old! I can't believe it. But I am enjoying EVERY day with our sweet baby girl.

Being a mom is absolutely the best feeling in the world.

Welcome to our family, baby Kate! We are so glad to have you in our lives.