Daniel Morrison Kimmons

I am not even sure where to begin in telling you about the birth of sweet Daniel. On Monday night (June 24th) I started having contractions. They were not consistent and were "tolerable" but did wake me from sleep. I remained "uncomfortable" throughout Tuesday, but the contractions were still not consistent so I didn't worry too much. By the afternoon I noticed that I wasn't feeling him move very much. I took the kids to see "Toy Story 4" and had more than an hour and a half of loud noises and sitting time to realize that I wasn't feeling the baby. We left the movie theater, went home and packed quick bags and headed to Louisville. We dropped the kids off with my parents and Matthew and I went to the hospital. They hooked me and baby up to all the machines and after a few hours and several drs visiting later they determined that baby was fine, I was definitely having contractions, but was not in active labor so they sent me "home" but by home they meant that I was to stay in Louisville in case contractions intensified. So we piled in to mom and dad's and had to plan to stay there until baby's arrival.

Wednesday (the 26th) was fairly uneventful, other than Mom, Elliott and I went and got pedicures. Thursday morning we had a previously scheduled appointment (the last one!) with Dr. Buck. Everything looked fine at the appointment but we discussed what our plan was going to be for the next few days until Monday when we were scheduled. My dr is amazing. She gave us a direct phone number to contact her should contractions start again and she told us to contact her first, instead of going through triage and we would go ahead with the csection instead of waiting. With repeat csections the risk for uterine rupture increases so they want to avoid labor if possible. We left the office and told her we would see her Monday.

After having lunch and stopping at a couple of stores, the contractions started back. We went back to my parents and I tried all the tricks to stop braxton hicks, but they just weren't backing off. I was able to time them to 10 minutes, but they were more intense than they had been previously. I messaged Dr. Buck and after some discussion we were headed to the hospital with an Operating Room time of 10pm. Things didn't quite run on schedule and we didn't get into the OR until somewhere around 11pm. They had some trouble getting the spinal block to take which took a few more minutes.

At 11:14pm Daniel was born. He took a big stretch coming out which every one laughed about then Dr Buck held him up over the sheet for me to see. He was tiny....and had hair! After a few minutes of having baby on the other side of the room I heard them announce "5 pounds and 11.9 ounces". I was surprised he hadn't gained weight since his growth ultrasound. The rest of the procedure took a while because I had a lot of scar tissue from the previous csections.

Daniel immediately showed signs of hunger and as soon as we got to the recovery room he grabbed the bottle pulled it to his mouth and took 22mls. haha. He hasn't looked back since. Our time in the hospital was the shortest I have had and fairly uneventful. Daniel did great and my glucose has actually run a little high. While we were there there was a baby boom and the floor and the nurses were crazy we tried to lay low as much as possible.

Sunday we were finally discharged and made the journey home. It was really nice to get home and sleep in my own bed. Daniel has been amazing. He eats like a champ and actually sleeps. There have only been two or three nights where he has struggled with an upset tummy, but has otherwise been a dream. Matthew said if we had him first we may have had more babies. :) Wednesday we went to the peds for Dr. Butler to check him out and she agreed that he was perfect and we were excited that he was back to birth weight.

I am feeling pretty well. I am still a little bit sore. Dr. Buck told me it would be a rougher recovery because of all the scar tissue involved in this procedure. Some days are better than others with the soreness. I went for my first walk yesterday and am struggling some today. I also am very allergic to the dressing and adhesives that they use and am still having a pretty good allergic reaction that is actually continually spreading. I have been fairly miserable in that regard. Once that settles down I will feel like a million bucks. Glucose is still running a little high but I am just two pounds from my pre pregnancy weight...which I am pretty pumped about.

As for Drew and Elliott....that has been a very interesting story. Drew loves his brother and is constantly kissing him and interested in what he is doing, but otherwise indifferent to the entire situation. Elliott, on the other hand, is a mess. She is obsessed with Daniel, wants to hold him, feed him and love him, but I think a lot of that has to do with my attention. She has been SO clingy to me. Constantly wants to be next to me, touching me, snuggling with me...she even keeps asking for her to sleep in my bed. I notice that if Daniel is getting my attention she comes to seek attention. I am so surprised that she is having this hard of a time with him. I honestly thought she would be the indifferent one. I talked to our pediatrician about her too and she suggested that this was also the age when girls started clinging more to their mother, wanting to do the girly things and being more like mom...so baby coming probably just intensified that for her. She also said I was lucky it was a boy and not a girl. Elliott would likely be super jealous over a girl. Any helpful advice would be welcomed on this one.

This week we should settle into more of a "normal" routine instead of the chaos that has been the past two weeks with us being at mom and dads and everyone being here. Should be more of just us and I think the kids really need that.

Here are some pics that we have gathered of sweet Daniel since his arrival.

Meeting Grandpa Carl