Mckinley Janes birthday!

She woke up sick today! How sad. My little girl has been so excited for this day. As we have asked her what she would like for her birthday this year, (she doesn't quite understand the concept that she gets to have toys for her birthday.) she has said that she wants a "happy birthday." To her, this means a birthday cake that she gets to blow out the candles on.
So she woke up this morning with the stomach flu. After her first throwing up cycle, she said "I want some breakfast." Her daddy had promised her that he would make her some wobbles, (waffles) on her birthday. So she helped mommy make her cupcakes while daddy cooked waffles.
Originally, we had plans for a little party where she would get to see some of her little friends, and she has been so excited about having them all over to play. But we don't want everyone to catch the stomach flu, and we figure that the best way to kill it is isolation, that way it wont mutate and come back over and over again. So, long story short, we canceled the party. So sad.
But we are going to let her blow out some candles for her "happy birthday," and open some presents. So hopefully it will still be a fun day for her. (and she gets to drink sprite which she loves.) I will post some pictures of her at the end.
The other thing that I wanted to write about before I forget is the day that she was born. It is terrible but I have never really written much about it, and I'm sure that someday she will be interested to know the events of her special day. So, my dear, here is a little birthday present for you for the future.
On December 7th, 2005, I went to the doctor for my last appointment. Mckinley was due on the 10th, but I had been walking around dilated to a 3 for 3 weeks, so we were expecting an early arrival. However, I had pretty much made it to my due date so I figured that my Dr. would suggest an induction date or something. However, Dr. Laine had been out of town for three weeks and I had been seen during those weeks by another resident Dr. Apparently the method of measuring was a little bit different between the two doctors because by Dr. Laines measurements I had lost an inch in the last three weeks. My water had not broken, and I hadn't been sick or anything so there was no good reason to account for this, and it is not a good thing to lose an inch in the last weeks of pregnancy. Mckinley's heart rate was also slower than it should have been which was a sign that she was distressed.
So Dr. Laine sent me two floors up for a cardiac stress test for the baby, which seemed like a big deal because they were waiting for me when I went up. (No waiting at the University of Utah hospital is not a good thing.) I had not felt Mckinley move that day and the people doing the stress test couldn't get her to move either. She must have been taking a nice nap because she wouldn't move for them. They wanted her to move so that they could watch what her heart rate would do when she moved.
Because of the failed stress test we had to have an emergency ultrasound. The ultrasound technicians have a way of calculating body weight of the baby by measuring the baby's femur and head etc. and according to these calculations they estimated Mckinley to be just barely five pounds. Usually not a good thing for a full term baby.
So after all of this, they sent me back downstairs to be induced. I really didn't want to be induced because I was afraid it would turn into a c section. I HAD to be at a test on friday to take my last final for the semester. However, they really felt that it was necessary to induce me so they started the pitocin and I started contracting. David was working in Park City and so I had to call him to let him know what was going on and I was so worried that he wouldn't make it in time. On the contraction monitor it was showing me having these huge contractions but they were really not hurting as much as I was thinking they would. We had this really funny anesthesiologist that encouraged us to get the epidural early before the contractions were bad and in case a c section did end up being necesary. So I got the epidural, which was done by a student who had to do it twice because she got a blood return the first time. After I got the epidural I never felt a thing the rest of the delivery. I can honestly say that the labor and delivery with Mckinley was never dificult or painful. I really got to enjoy all of it and it was so interesting to feel like an observer in the whole thing because I was so comfortable. A hard act to follow for any future deliveries.
I was on pitocin for about 8 hours, and then I was ready to start pushing. I started pushing a few minutes before my doctor came into the room and once she came in, she helped things move things along much faster. Mckinley's heart rate was not recovering between contractions so I had to have a quick episiotomy and then she was out. I only pushed for like 20 minutes if even that. My mom made it to Salt Lake for the delivery and a bunch of our friends and my sister came in afterwards to see the new munchkin.
She was an absolutely perfect baby. The ultrasound had been incorrect about what her weight would be. She was a healthy 7 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long.
A very cute memory for us was David giving her her first bath. He was so cute with her right from the start. He also changed her first messy diaper and we laughed about how awkward it was to change a brand new baby.
I couldn't sleep the night after I had her because I just kept looking over at her and seeing her bundled up sleeping. She was so beautiful to me in every way. It was so intimidating think that she was ours and we didn't know what we were doing.