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Actually in this case baby made three little girls and five total family members but who’s counting. Without further ado here is the final installment of Mr. Fun’s birth missives…
Katherine Jackson Enebo (Kate) is the most recent addition to the Enebo Family. First I will give everyone the vital stats.
- Date: March 11th (yesterday)
- Time: 1:29 pm
- Weight: 9lbs, 1 oz
- Length: 21 inches
She was born at Swedish Hospital in Seattle but we had a different delivery room than both Jill and Ellie – we knew it would be tough to have all 3 girls born in the same room in different years!!!
So now for the details…(Sorry, I may be long winded here, but this is probably my last birth announcement.)
A couple of weeks ago Michelle’s doctor asked Michelle about inducing and Michelle was all about that since she was becoming quite uncomfortable and was ready to be finished with this pregnancy thing! So she said we can do the 11th or 18th and Michelle thought about it for all of like half a second…’11th works for us.’
I had to start there, since we knew the date it made for a much easier time to figure out logistics…where the girls are going and for how long, where the dog was going, me to get organized at work to take a couple of weeks off, and Michelle to have a deadline for delivery. Since we are planners this was great except for the fact that we did no know what time! Man that bugged us…we wanted all the details planned. So we had to wait for the hospital to call us anywhere from 6:30-9:30 that morning.
Piece of cake I said…I am sure it will not be until later! So my plan do do a couple hours of work (just a few things to finish), then get the girls to school and head to the hospital. No problem, this was going to be gravy. Except the hospital called at 6:10am!!! Whoa…Can you be here by 7:30 or 8:00! I said we would try to be there as soon as we could…hello…we have 2 girls to wake up, breakfast to eat, the dog to feed and showers to take and then drop off the girls before heading to the hospital in rush hour traffic!
Well we made it by 7:50am. Pretty incredible all things considered. The girls stayed with some great friends (Maggie and Anna Leist) for the day and Sally (their Mom) was a blessing to help us! I can’t give credit to Scott (their Dad), since he never saw them at his house because everything happened so fast.
Yes I did say fast…and that is not just me! Michelle agreed saying the whole process was a ‘blur’, and ‘easy’. Now before all you women friends and Moms throw something at the computer while reading this, she really said it!!! What do I mean by fast? How does 4.5 hours grab you? Start to finish. Simply amazing and thank God for scheduling because had this not been scheduled we might have had her on the bridge given how quickly she wanted to enter the world.
So we got checked in to the room (by 8:00am) and all the paperwork filled out and definitely won the nurse lottery because Dawn, our nurse, was awesome and a chatter. So she and Michelle hit it off great! Our doctor came in and broke Michelle’s water around 9am and the contractions started innocently enough and small doses of pitocin started kicking in. At this point Michelle is dilated to 1.5cm (out of 10), so we figure we have a ways to go! So what happens next? I go get coffee! Hey, I needed it after starting so early.
By 10:30 everyone was where they were supposed to be. My Mom, Michelle’s Mom and her sister, Joelle. Yes everyone was invited for this birth! The first 2 births were private affairs with just us but Michelle wanted to give gifts to our family since this does not happen every day. Even at this point Michelle and I are not sure who will actually stay in the room when Baby Kate arrives, except Joelle is the designated picture taker and loves watching TLC’s A Baby Story. Bot Mom’s were not sure about the whole bodily fluid thing or the whole watching your child in pain thing. So the nurse has pointed out a ‘grandpa corner’ which can fit both of them if they need it.
Pain, did somebody say pain? No way says Michelle! After 3 births…drugs still ROCK!! At about 11:00 there was a pretty good contraction and Michelle hit the 4cm mark. Yeah…Where is my new best friend the anesthesiologist? The epidural came just in time as several contractions later they started getting pretty serious. Everyone got lunch so there would be no passing out and we were ready for a little wait since the baby had not dropped.
Waiting…I don’t think so says Baby Kate! Joelle was just in need of some coffee herself around 1pm and the nurse said she had better hold tight while she checked Michelle. Okay but why? Well…Michelle was fully dilated and +2 which means we are ready to have a baby. This got everyone’s attention. Joelle put down her coat and picked up the camera!
But we were missing someone…a catcher! The doctor was just finished with surgery so the nurse told Michelle to hang on, not to push and to ‘cross her legs’. The doctor arrived about 10 minutes later, got all set up, and said push. So Michelle pushed…4 times to be exact and there was little Kate in all her glory!
Everyone was amazed at something:
- Wanda (my Mom): ‘…such a cool thing to be a part of from the other side.’
- Carole (Michele’s Mom): ‘You guys do make beautiful babies! 3 for 3!’
- Joelle: ‘That’s my sister, and this is NOT TLC!!’
- Michelle: ‘That was fast! But we are NOT doing this again.’
- Michele (2): ‘I am glad it was a week early because I don’t do 10 lb. babies!!’
- Allen: ‘I am glad I did not have to pick either Mom up off the floor!’
- Allen (2): ‘Michelle has not mentioned the ‘V’ word yet!!! But I suspect the pressure will be mounting soon. Yikes!
I hope this email finds everyone healthy and happy and ready to have a great weekend! We certainly will, especially Michelle; who is happy to NOT be pregnant!! Jill, Ellie and I are off to the hospital tonight for a picnic with Mom and Kate. It will be their first meeting with baby sister and both are excited to be big sisters (Jill the biggest sister of course and Ellie a big sister.)
We will talk to you all soon and I have attached two pictures of our new edition! And yes, this had been approved by Mom (the professional) for distribution- mostly because she too the pictures this morning to have it just right.
-Allen
No I will not be showing you those pictures. They were horrible. Boy have I come a long way! I will, however, share the pictures I took last weekend for her official birthday pictures.
Here are my favorites…