Kennedy's Birthday

August 25, 2012 - - -  8:08am CST - - - Kennedy Grace Spicher - - - Her Birth Story!

This blog post has been on my to do list for just about three weeks now (yes, KGS is already 3 weeks old!) but between the feedings, diaper changes, laundry, more laundry and I don't know what else, the days have been flying by.  We've had an amazing time with our little girl and are absolutely crazy about her.  So, before we share about all of the little things new parents like us get excited about, I do want to document the day our lives changed forever - 8.25.12

Nick and I enjoyed our last date night as just the two of us that Friday evening at Ruth Chris.  We had an amazing dinner and ended our night on our front porch just hanging out and talking about the anticipated arrival of our little one...which I thought surely would be after my hair appointment that was scheduled for the following week.  Well, OB wasn't too concerned about my hair or my final two weeks of early maternity leave.  12:40am was when the fun began.  I woke up and glanced at the clock as I was rolling over to get comfortable and felt what I later found out to be my water breaking.  No, it was not like the movies or even a little bit obvious.  After some waiting and excited chatter about the potential of could this be the day, Nick was convinced he should start packing his bag.  I decided to take a shower and by now was having lower back pain that was unlike any of the braxton hicks contractions I had been experiencing for the many weeks prior.  Nick texted our doctor as she said to let her know when we thought we were in labor because she was going to do her best to deliver us!  Nick started timing the "pain" and we soon realized that the consistent pattern of 4-6 minutes meant we were headed to the hospital.

Nick had to get a few pictures on the way...

We walked into the ER at 2:45am and were quickly told we would be heading home.  The doctor on call took one look at me and said it was impossible that I was in labor but was required to keep me for an hour to monitor things.  Thankfully, after an hour of waiting and some crazy back pain, a wonderful nurse confirmed that my water had broken and we weren't going anywhere.  Nick called our parents and we were officially admitted.

By 4am we were now in our private room waiting on the anesthesiologist for the epidural.  I was SO thankful for the epidural.  I actually received a light dose.  I learned (after asking the poor guy a million questions) that the dose of an epidural is based on height.  Despite my 5'9" tall girl classification, he gave me a regular girl amount so I was able to feel my legs and wiggle my toes but still have the positive effect of no pain!!

So with the epidural going and an IV in, we thought we were settling in to a long day of labor when all of a sudden things became quite eventful.  A crew of nurses came rushing in as we later found out the baby's heart rate had dropped.  After 45 minutes on oxygen and being tossed from side to side as if I was in a tumbling class, the nurses finally determined that I had quickly progressed from 1.5cm to 10cm and this baby was ready to go!  After 10 minutes of pushing, we heard from Dr. Paige who couldn't believe things were moving so fast.  Her husband was actually on call and there at the hospital to deliver us.  The nurses were amazing and such an encouragement.  It literally felt like a party in the room in between pushes, ice chips and taking polls on boys names as we had yet to make a final name decision.  At 8:08am, just 4 hours after being admitted, Kennedy Grace was in my arms.  A GIRL!  I couldn't believe it.

I can't even describe all of the emotions that I felt at that moment.  Excitement, Shock, Amazement, Joy - how did this happen so fast and was she really ours?!?  I spent the next two hours just staring at our precious little girl before they took her to the nursery for the standard tests and what not.  Nick and I were officially parents and our life as the two of us had now become three.  She's perfect and so is our new adventure that we've just begun and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Kennedy's first birthday cake!

Heading Home!

A Prayer of Thankfulness

Ever feel like a 'thank you' just isn't quite enough?  That is the feeling Nicki and I have had since 8:08 a.m. on Saturday August 25th when Kennedy Grace Spicher met the world for the first time, weighing in at 6 lbs 4oz.

Without question, this week has been the most magical, special, unbelievable, and many other adjectives combined, week we've had in our lives.  I will let Nicki post the labor and delivery story, but over the past week there have been so many moments where we have said to ourselves how thankful we are for this blessing, and it seems appropriate to stop and say a prayer of thankfulness:

God,
We want to thank you.  That's it.  Just thank you.  An all encompassing thank you for the blessing of life, and the perfect miracle that surrounds it.  We thank you for your constant presence now and forever.

We thank you for entrusting us with the life of Kennedy Grace and providing us with the wisdom, patience, humility, and faith it will take to raise her in your image.

We thank you for allowing for Nicki's incredibly smooth labor, delivery, and recovery. We want to thank you for the nurse at the ER who refused to listen to the ER doctor who told us we were "definitely going home and not having this baby for another two weeks" about five hours before Kennedy was born.

Nicki arriving at the ER at almost 3 a.m. (Kennedy was born just 5 hours later) 

We thank you for the nurses at Willow Creek who stayed another hour beyond their 16 hour shift just to be able to deliver Kennedy.  We thank you for Dr. Hix and Dr. Partridge who have guided us through this pregnancy with such love and care.  We thank you for the nursery nurses who cared for Kennedy during the first days of her life like she was their own child.


We thank you for our grandparents.  We thank you for the safe 14 hour drive from Akron and flights from Cincinnati.  We thank you for their unending love and support.  We know without them we would have been lost.  We thank you for the model they have set before us, and thank you for their unselfish giving of their time to love their new granddaughter.

We thank you for our incredible friends.  You have surrounded us by a group of people both here and around the country who have showed us limitless love through hospital visits, home visits, meals, and simple phone calls.  These friends have also shown us what it means to rely on You in times of parenting trials.  We never would have imagined a day we would deliver our first child in Fayetteville, AR - and now we can't imagine it any differently.

We thank you for our wonderful work families.  You have blessed us with co-workers who go beyond just being co-workers and truly care for our well being and our lives.  We recognize this is not common practice and want to thank you for these friends.

I want to thank you for giving us a daughter who was born with more patience and understanding than I have.  You recognized my fear of very limited knowledge of how to raise a newborn and brought us a baby that seemingly has agreed to put up with my learning curve of how to change a diaper, bathe, swaddle, and change clothes with such grace.

I want to thank you for my incredible wife, who has made pregnancy, labor, and parenting look easy.  She has proven that all the reading, preparation, nesting, organizing, was actually worth it and has made for a smooth transition in to parenting.  You made her to be a mom and for that I am thankful!

We have so much for which to be thankful, and the words thank you seem to be so insignificant.  You have given us a magical experience.  And You know, that in the coming hours, days, weeks, months, and years we will come to You asking for many many things - patience, wisdom, grace, peace, comfort, understanding, amongst others.  But at this time, in this moment, we want to just stop asking for things and offer a thank you.  We thank you.

Amen