Kinsley Hope

So I am sure I shared the birth story for Emma, so here goes for Kinsley.  I was saddened it didn’t interrupt watching the national championship game or iowa’s bowl game or any other game that I wish I hadn’t spent time watching.  Maybe I need to watch less sports if it is bringing so much dissatisfaction to my life.  Anyway,  it all started around 4:30 with me turning off my alarm and deciding Tuesday wasn’t a working out kind of day.  Coincidentally, I made of similar decision on the day of Emma’s birth because I had to take some  physical exam and wouldn’t be able to eat that morning.  Lela got up and did work out, because she’s crazy like that.  On her way back from the gym, Lela elected to treat herself to a pumpkin spice latte from Sbux, something she rarely does.  I think that woke miss Kinsley up.  After showering, Lela claimed that she didn’t feel quite right.  When I probed her what she meant it, it sounded like the convo we had with on Emma’s day of birth.  Lela said “sort of but not really.”  I was pretty sure at that point we were having a baby that day, but we went along our merry way because lela doubted it.   Basically  the moral of that story is that I am really smart, and Lela should listen to me all the time and never question me. We both went to work, I called Lela who still wasn’t convinced, but about 8:45 Lela called me that she was on her way home because she didn’t feel well and I should “work from home for a bit to see.”  I packed up after sending an email or two about Hawkeye football (you don’t want to leave people hanging important about things), and ran home.  As I arrived it was clear it was coming.  To me that meant we probably would get to the hospital around 9:45, Lela would labor for a few hours and about 2 we would get to meet our little girl.  I was wrong. . .

On the drive it was very apparent that lela’s contractions were a minute apart or so, which for those of you with children that means close.  So I sped up some, noting that Lela wasn’t a fan of life.  We pulled in to the drop off (9:50), I walked Lela in (who collapsed to the floor so they forwent the usual paper work they for some reason make birthing moms do when they get there) ran to the car, noted that valet parking had like 10 cars in it, squeeled into a parking spot and ran in.  I ran into the room and was told she was about to start pushing.  WHAAAAT?  What happened to the first labor that was allegedly fast but took 8 hrs??????  Lela pushed once, rolled onto her back, pushed twice and it was over.  10:01.  I am still processing the craziness that that was.  Lela was a champ, shocker I know.

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Kinsley was in perfect shape.  She was 7 lbs 8 oz, 18 inches tall, so shorter and chubbier than Emma.  She had less hair than Emma (who had a frickin rug that made my balding head jealous) but was perfect.  It was just nuts to be arriving at home less than an hour from when the baby was born.  Not a revelation here to anyone but it was also crazy to hold such a little person after being used to wrestling around with a crazy 2.5 yr old.

Emma did well with meeting the baby.  She hit a point after a few minutes where I think she realized that the baby was real and got quiet.  But she moved on and her favorite thing became sitting on Mommy’s lap while mommy held Kinsley, which is as safe as it sounds!  As the pictures show, Emma is doing well with everything  and wants to hold Kinsley as much as possible.  Grandpa and Grandma came down to play with her, she got to open some presents (some for her, some for Kins) so its basically a 2^nd Christmas. 

Speaking of Christmas, I didn’t post about our Christmas.  It was very quiet this year because we stuck to OP due to Lela’s state of being (as in being really pregnant).  Wet facetimed with the cousins, which was a great alternative to just calling (and apparently a shout out to the evil empire that is Apple), but it wasn’t the same without watching all the kids open presents and have fun together.  Emma enjoyed opening presents this year, though she was painfully meticulous, as in it may have taken her 3 hrs to open presents if it weren’t for prodding by  impatient daddy.  Anyway I haven’t uploaded all those pics just yet but will have more later.  Here are the first pics of the 2 together.