Kaiya's first bath!!! - with pics!.......well sort of.

Ok up until now we had just given Kaiya sponge baths in the sink and that type of thing but last saturday we decided it was time for out little girl to have her first real bath. SO we stripped her down. cleaned her up from her diaper and wrapped her up in a towel to keep her warm ( as seen above) SO while lisa was doing that I was charged with the task of setting up her little baby tub and filling it with nice baby friendly luke warm water - I love those little hot duckies!!!!! Ne way so I got the tub ready and Lisa brought her in. We were pretty excited to have bath time with her and hoped that it would be a fun time for her. Lisa gave me a quick warning before I set Kaiya in her little hammock - " if she doesnt like it pull her out" I was like ok ok whats not to like. Can you tell im foreshadowing??? ^_^

SOOOO I place my little girl in the tub and lay her down. She sits there for about hmmm a nanosecond - looks at me and just starts screaming at me! Which triggers lisa to start screaming at me "pick her up - pick her up!!!!!" SO I reach down and scoop her up and I realize she hasnt even gotten wet yet! And then it happens. She got me good. She just let loose and started peeing all over me and her tub but that was not it, oh no. Then she started pooping on her tub as well. Now if I can make an aside through my life I have heard different quandries about items meant to clean and if they can be dirty. Like can a bar of soap be dirty??? can dust exist in a vacuum cleaner??? Well I can safely tell you all that a baby tub can be disgustingly dirty.

SO to get back to the fun im now standing there my arms are covered in baby pee and lisa is just laughing at me. I of course cant move b/c my little bundle of perfect is covered in her own waste and the only thing I have to clean her with - her tub - she has rendered unusable. SO I finally get lisa calm and she helps me get kaiya cleaned up and we give her yet another sponge bath. Then I put a fresh diapy on her and some fresh clothes. Then and only then did I get to return to the scene of the crime and clean her tub. Now it would be all fine and dandy if the story ended there but it doesnt oh no. As Lisa and I laid down to go to sleep she just looks at me and as if trying to comfort me says

"you know if your going to get peed on you want it to be by a baby"

This really got me laughing b/c I know this little anecdote was meant to comfort me but ladies and gents I got to tell you. I dont want to be peed on and even if baby pee is the least toxic of all pee in the world I still dont wish to be showered by it! SO her comment missed the mark but I did get a good chuckle out of it!

Tune in for more adventures of Kaiya the super baby as she finds new and strange ways to torment and break her daddy!

FYI - on a serious note my little girl is becoming a little medicine cabinet. currently she is getting:
Px eye gel for clogged tear ducts
Px anti-bacterial mouth stuff for thrush.
anti-gas drops for gas (duh)
decitin butt cream for diaper rash

Well thats all for now
Cheers!

1st visit to the pediatrician. She made it a whole week!

Ok so last night we started to notice quite a bit of yellowish discharge around K-bears right eye. We did some googling and it seemed that it was probably a clogged tear duct which sounds a lot worse than it is. However being new parents and hyper sensitive to anything that might be wrong with k-bear we called the pediatrician and they gave us an appointment. We went in and we were right but we did get some antibiotic eye goop for her to make sure that no infection could set in. So this might not sound like that much fun but we were able to substitute this visit for our two week visit and they did all her measurements. SOOOO after 1 week of being alive Kaiya has grown 1/2 an inch so shes now 20" and went from 7lbs 4 oz to 7 lbs 11.8 oz!!! The doctor was very very pleased with her weight gain and growth and said "See you guys in two months!" Sigh kids grow so fast!

Cheers!

Ok now its my turn!

Ok so Lisa gave her side and that was all nice and well but now its my turn to give you all the Dad's eye view. Thats right my perspective but first let me warn you that not only will it be filled with sarcasm and humor but also poor grammer and little to no punctuation. SO yeah its going to be a bit different from my wife who is a perfect writer.

Tuesday Nov 28th:
I originally had a super big gut feeling that Kaiya was going to come two weekends before but no dice. She had still not given us any indication that she might even be coming. SO going to bed on tuesday night Lisa had me officially convinced that Kaiya would not be coming until at least the following week. As I laid down to go to sleep I can remember thinking "man I should probably pack the car in case Lisa goes into labor. I think I should do that tommorow" Well little did I know I would be doing it the next day.

Wed. Nov 29th:
At about 3:15 am lisa wakes me up. She tells me that I might not be going into work today and that we might want to start timing her contractions. Ok at this point im thinking. DUDE its quarter past 3 in the morning. First babies take forever. All the books say so. Also all the books say that if you wife says what mine just said to tell her that it was going to be awhile and to go back to sleep. Shes going to need her strength after all. SO I tell lisa that we should probably just try to get some sleep and she says shes going to run to the restroom but will be back and come to bed then. Im like "cool"

15 min later
She comes back and wakes me up again. Tells me we REALLY need to start timing. SO im like ok ok I can do this. SO I get my little timer and Im totally expecting mild contractions like 20-30 sec in duration that are like hmm I dunno 7-14 min apart. Something like that. Early labor. Its in all the books. SO Shes all "ok im having one" so I click start.....stop. Ok that was like a minute long not bad.....start......stop ok another one that is a min long but wait a sec. that was only like 3.5 min apart. Im thinking that cant be right...Gotta be a fluke or I screwed it up well no biggy I will get the next one right.....start.....stop hmm that was like 3 min. Ok im like dude this cant be right. All the books talk about the hours of early labor and how the whole thing takes FOREVER for a first birth. This totally cant be happening. Not yet at least. SO im sum up the next hour. CRAP! not only did the contractions get closer together but now they are like 1.5 - 2 min in length. SO its 4:30 and I call the hospital. They say they will call back. SO at this point the contractions have totally changed from what they were just an hour before. No longer are they these cute little things that lisa has to take a deep soothing breath to get through -- nuh unh. Now these are the OMG kick me in the goat butt and make me sit down contractions. Ive now realized something a bit startling.

1.) Lisa really needs me to be with her to help her get through each contraction.
2.) The car is not packed
3.) The doctor still has not called
4.) I dont have any time between contractions to either A. pack the car or B. Make another call.

SO I make a decision and tell lisa that Im going to start packing the car between contractions. Lets just say that didnt go to well. IT went something like this. Run upstairs and grab a bag. Run back down stairs - drop bag at door and run to lisa to get through the next contraction. Once over run to front door - grab bag and run to car - run back in side and get back to Lisa to start it all over again. SO i sum up the next 30 min -- dr never called and I called the hospital and told them we were coming and I was just calling to give them notice. SO we get in the car and lisa is not saying anything. Ok now this is one of those rare moments in a man's life. How often do you actually have the excuse of "my wife is in labor officer thats why im speeding!" and plus if I did get pulled over 5 sec of looking at lisa and I would have gotten a police escort! SO needless to say we had a "spirited" drive to the hospital ^_^

Chapter 2 - The birth

Ok I will not get real graphic but things progressed very very quickly. Again shock is really not even the word. Lisa and I had been to family begginings a bunch of times before. Almost everytime we came a new couple came waltzing through the door on the way to delivery their new bundle of joy. It was the same thing each time. Man and Woman nonchalantly walking in. Their was nothing nonchalant about me wheeling lisa into the room. Their was heavy breathing, Their was confusion but most of all their was panic (well I was panicking) She later told me she was trying not to push since before we got in the car!!!! SO the birth team slowly started arriving and the tub started to get filled. Then the question came. "Chris are you getting in the tub?" Well if Lisa still wants me to do that then yes. Well she did and I got in. Ok nothing like what I expected. I have seen the birthing videos which are yes pretty gross and I have even thought about this a few times before it happened but it was not what I thought it would be like. The delivery was very intense and I spent most of my time applying counter pressure to lisa's back. Ok like I had my hand in a fist with my elbow jammed against my chest and leaning all my weight into Lisa's back. And the funny thing is she still kept asking me to push harder. Im like looking at my hand and how its dissapearing into lisa's body and im like DUDE if I push any harder my fist is going to enter your back and I dont think thats going to feel all that hot. SO what was cool about it??? Well the water makes a pregnant woman very very bouyant and lisa was just really having to focus on the contractions and the pushing and was having a lot of trouble moving into other positions. SO thats where I came in. I discovered it was really easy to move her however the mid wife or the doula asked her to be. SO they would ask. She would say she couldnt move and I would just get her there. IT was almost fun! SO ok staying on track about an hour later BING BANG BOOM Kaiya popped out and went straight to Lisa's chest. OMG I was like almost balling. IT was sooo amazing it was like WOW im a dad I have a daughter -- This is the coolest thing ever. Then the mid wife said "ok dad time to cut the cord" I had totally forgotten about this part and I have to say that when she handed me the scissors my first thoguht was CRAP SCISSORS! I hate scissors and I even hate them more when I am handed them to my right hand, which they were. But I managed to cut the cord just fine and i started thinking about how the cord cutting is almost like some kind of opening ceremony for a building but instead of a library this was the opening ceremony to the next stage of my life. He He He. Ok so that was all over and in a nice twist for me was that I got to hold kaiya while they were helping to get lisa all back together. SO for like the first half hour of kaiya's life I got to hold her and snuggle her and just have some nice daddy daughter time. SO thats my take on the whole thing. IT was amazing, scary, gross, and perfect all at the same time and it was absolutely worth it. SO I hope you enjoyed my side of things and I realize I wrote a book so this might knock some of the other posts off the front page. SO if you have not seen all her cute pictures or read lisa's story then check the previous posts!

Cheers!

I'm a cutie!

Here are some photos of our precious little girl. Enjoy!






Here is her hospital photo.

Say hello to Kaiya!

Ok this post is more or less a teaser till I have more time to upload a ton of photos. Also Lisa is going to make her first ever blog entry on Kaiya's site and write her birth story. But until then I will leave you with this.....

UPDATE------------SEE LISA'S POST BELOW------------------------------

Our birth story

After long months of anticipation, the day finally arrived - Kaiya decided it was time to make her grand entrance on November 29!

Her vitals
Kaiya Noel Knodel
Born November 29, 2006
8:10 a.m.
7 lbs., 4 oz.
19.5 inches
Cute as can be

Our very own A Baby Story
11/28/06: Kaiya's due date
9 a.m. I talk with my doula, Amy, about my progress, which appears to be close to nothing. She is surprised I am on my way into work. "I keep making jokes that my water is going to break at the office. Maybe I just need to go into the office to get labor going."

5:30 p.m. I get home from work and my contractions are still very irregular. Chris leaves for a finance committee meeting at church.

11:30 p.m. Chris and I go to bed. Still no regular contractions.

11/29/06: Kaiya's big day
1:30 a.m. I wake up needing to go to the bathroom (for a change). I notice some contractions and try not to get my hopes up. With early labor expected to last for hours and hours, I follow the books' advice to try to rest as much as possible.

3:30 a.m. After waking up about every half hour, I finally get Chris up: "Hey, honey, I don't think you will be going into the office today. I think we need to start timing my contractions."
My midwife said that once my contractions were consistently 3-5 minutes apart for an hour, I should give a call and get ready to head to the hospital.

4:30 a.m. After timing the contractions, which are all about 3 minutes apart and last about 1 minute, we call the after-hours number for my practice and are told to wait for a doctor's call.

5 a.m. No return call yet, and the contractions are getting stronger and longer. Chris calls the hospital to let them know I'm in labor and waiting for the doctor to call us back. They say they will page him again. We also let them know that I am delivering at the birthing center, not the regular maternity ward, so they can make sure a nurse is available.

5:20 a.m. Still no call, and my contractions are coming very quickly. Chris calls the hospital: "We still haven't heard back from the doctor. I am bringing my wife to the hospital now."

5:40 a.m. We get to the hospital, and they try to take me to labor and delivery. We tell them I'm there for the birthing center (which is part of the maternity ward). Guess what... they never let a Family Beginnings nurse know we are coming. Thankfully, there is a nurse on duty, someone delivered a baby the day before.
Realizing I'm fighting the urge to push, the nurses begin to franticly page the doctor.

6:10 a.m. The doctor finally shows up to check me and confirm what we already know - I am completely dilated and can begin pushing. He will let my midwife know to come to the hospital.
My doula and her apprentice arrive and get right to work helping me work through the contractions and my horrible back labor.

6:30 a.m. We move me to the tub. Chris joins me to help support me for pushing and to give counter pressure to my back.

8:10 a.m. Kaiya emerges into the world, and Chris cuts the umbilical cord. She's absolutely beautiful, and I cry like a baby. God has given us such an unbelievable, undeserved gift. (And, yes, Chris cries, too!)

The Finale
Believe it or not, this is the abbreviated version of our story. There are lots of fun little details to share, but I'm sure not everyone wants to hear that. If you do, please just ask. We hope you all enjoy reading this post and admiring our daughter - we just love gazing at her all day long!

View pictures of our first day here.