Welcome Kayla Marie to the family

At 7 am today, Sunday, May 31st, Kayla Marie Brace was born as a happy and healthy 7 pound 8 oz and 20 inch baby girl. Baby and momma are healthy and resting after a relatively brief labor which started at 10 pm last night.



As some may know, Jenni's official due date was May 24th. We had several "last dinners out", "last grocery shopping", etc, but on Saturday night we were convinced we were destined to be induced early this coming week. All of this after a very encouraging doctor appt on Wednesday where our doc predicted labor within 24-46 hours and Jenni was already 3.5-4 cm dilated. By Saturday night we'd all but given up (despite Jenni having some light cramping), so we went to dinner at Maggiano's, visited some friends for a few minutes, and returned home around 9:30 with the intent to finish some laundry and watch a movie we've been meaning to watch for about 6 months now. 10 minutes into the movie Jenni bent down to grab a towel and said something to the effect of (sorry, events are already somewhat blurry) "UhOH, I think my water just broke". No, not a huge gush like the movies, but just a little trickle that was no-doubt her membranes rupturing. Within 10-15 minutes, she had her first contraction and they were 5 minutes apart and 30 seconds long right from the start. 40 minutes later things were obviously progressing and by 11:50 pm we were walking into the maternity ward at Highland Park Hospital (which has amazing facilities, huge birthing/recovery rooms, and an outstanding staff, btw). Here is a pic of Jenni from when we had checked into the hospital and contractions were still mild and 4 or 5 minutes apart. Still smiling!



From there, things progressed quite well and Jenni continued to have accelerating contractions. Being the middle of the night, things were quite serene and we were really able to focus on Jenni's breathing and relaxing between contractions (with the help of calming ocean sounds television on the hospital TV network, we didn't even need the iPod). The hospital had an egg shaped Yoga ball that was indispensable. Jenni was able to stay on her knees during contractions and lean over the ball while staying in bed. This was by far the most comfortable position for her even though the baby was positioned perfectly. Here is a pic of Jenni on the Yoga ball during labor. She is deep into her breathing and was basically meditating between contractions and focusing on her breathing and a little stuffed animal that looked like our dog Chomper. It was pretty amazing that she was able to do all of this with no medication and even without an IV. She was awesome.



Jenni was having a little break in the contractions and some light urges to push. I looked into the little trusty "manual" we got at the birthing class to get some kind of indication into what stage we were in and lo and behold, she fit the description of just having finished one of the most difficult stages of labor (transition) while barely breaking a sweat. Sure enough, the doctor came in shortly thereafter and Jenni was ready to push. After 2 tough hours of exhausting contractions and pushing, out came our beautiful little girl. A couple little cries were enough to ease everyone's concerns. Here is a wonderful pic of her nursing (which came quite naturally) immediately after delivery. Jenni looks like she's been at the spa for crying out loud!



There are a few more pictures with mother and father, grandparents, etc if you click on any of the pics and go to the Flickr site (no need to register).

And with that, I'm off to try to catch a few Z's while I can. Goodnight!