Jaedyn Amara Carlson: Born 5/15/2013

Jaedyn Amara Carlson was born at 6:35am on May 15th, 2013. Mom and baby are both healthy, in good spirits, and gorgeous. She was 6 pounds 15.7 ounces and 18.75 inches long at birth.

She was due on May 7th, and Kyla's doctor recommended an induction at 41 weeks to avoid complications with the delivery. We tried several things to induce labor on our own. Kyla's doctor recommended "walk walk walk walk sex" (her words, not mine). I asked if it had to be in that order. In my own words, "I got her in there, and now I'm going to get her out the same way!" Alas, the baby was quite happy to stay inside Mommy well past her due date in spite of our best efforts.

We got to the hospital at 7am on 5/14, and Kyla was started on a Pitosin drip to induce labor around 8:30am. Kyla wanted to try to give birth naturally, but a side effect of inducing this way is that contractions can be more painful than labor without intervention. Kyla's mother and I tried to help as much as we could through counter pressure on her hips and massaging other parts of her body during her contractions.

By 11am, contractions became more painful and frequent as labor officially started, but Kyla toughed it out with no meds until around 7pm. At about 7pm, they gave her some Fentanyl through her IV. However, the pain was still too great, and she opted for the epidural around 8pm. It took a little bit to kick in, but Kyla was soon a lot more comfortable and things went more smoothly from then on. The labor went on through the night, and we watched some TV and movies to pass the time in between contractions. By 3am, Kyla was ready to push, but the doctor on call and most of the nurses were doing an emergency C-section on another patient, so we had to wait another hour. At 4am, Kyla started pushing. I held one of her legs at first during the initial pushing, then switched to acting as counterweight at the foot of the bed and pulled on a blanket that Kyla pulled on at the same time. She pushed that sucker out like a boss.

After two and a half hours of pushing, the baby was finally delivered. The labor officially lasted almost 20 hours. I initially thought the idea of cutting the cord was gross, but after seeing everything else, that wasn't a big deal. ;) Kyla had gotten precious little sleep during the labor, and I had gotten none. I was able to squeeze in 45 minutes after the labor, but neither of us really got much sleep until late last night, and right about that time the baby decided it was about time for her to feed like crazy. She's been a voracious little booger ever since. We're both still really tired, but we have a healthy and alert baby, and that's all we can really ask for. We're already about to be discharged (finger crossed), and Kyla is going to try to walk for her graduation (again, like a boss). Have I mentioned how adorable our brand new baby girl is? She has her mother's dimples (and her dad's love of breasts and tendency for the occasional blowout).

As part of the naming process (which we take very seriously), we've decided to dedicate a theme Bible verse that fits with their given name. Jaedyn means "God hears" in Hebrew, and Amara means "eternal" or "forever." Taken together they become "God always hears." We felt that the following from Psalm 116:1-2:

I love the Lord for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy. Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.