Kyndal Olivia's Birth Story

Well we're sure everyone knows by now, but Kyndal Olivia Freeman arrived September 1,2009 at 11:33am (Japan time) She was 7lbs. 4oz. 20 inches long.

In case anyone is wondering how it all happened...here goes....

What started out as a typical Monday on August 31st turned into a very interesting next 24 hours. Monday morning I had a doctor's appointment just for a check up. Well, turns out my blood pressure was slightly elevated so my OB sent me down to labor and delivery to be checked out. About an hour later, they decided just to go ahead and admit me to be induced being I was only 3 days from my due date and had borderline pre-eclampsia. I was excited but nervous and felt somewhat unprepared. I didn't have my bags with me or anything. I called Ken to come to the hospital since he was at work. Around 4pm that Monday afternoon they started me on pitocin and about an hour later they went ahead and broke my water. Thank goodness for the epidural is all I can say! : ) We knew we were in for a long night and I tried to sleep when I could but probably all together got maybe an hour of sleep over a 28 hour period. Around 10am or so Tuesday morning they had me start pushing. Kyndal wasn't exactly in the perfect position to be born but the pushing moved her into place. It seemed like I was pushing FOREVER. But finally at 11:33am she was born. It was such a sureal feeling to see this little baby crying and realize that it's yours. Ken and I were pretty much in shock I think. I was so tired though I barely remember most of it. They took us down to recovery where Kyndal and I napped while Ken ran home to take a shower and post some pictures on facebook.

When he got back to the hospital, about an hour or so later they came in to check Kyndal's blood sugar level. Next thing I know, a nurse comes in and takes my baby girl from my arms saying they have to take her to the nursery. I thought the lady was just being mean to me. Again, I was so tired I barely could think clearly. All I knew was something was wrong and I couldn't do anything about it. They took Kyndal to the nursery and did some tests on her. They came back in the room and said that her blood sugar was very low and she was having some trouble breathing and would need to be admitted to the NICU. They brought her back in for a second so I could see her and she had an oxygen tank attached to her little cradle. That was hard to see. It was even harder when we walked down to the NICU and seeing her and she had all kinds of wires attached to her and was on oxygen. It's extremely difficult to try and hold your baby with all these things attached to her. If you move her the wrong way machines go off, and once when I was trying to hold her, the IV that was in her foot came out and she bled all over me. That was traumatic for me. Anyway, Tuesday night the pediatrician came and talked to us and told us that a chest xray showed that she had some patches on her lungs. They weren't sure if it was from her aspirating miconium (baby poop) while she was inside of me, pneumonia, or if her little lungs just didn't transition well after she was born. So they started her on antibiotics and kept her on oxygen for a couple of days but she was weaned off the oxygen by Thursday and was breathing perfectly fine on her own by that night. They did a couple of repeat xrays and it seemed that the antibiotic worked in clearing up the patches. But Thursday afternoon, she started showing signs of jaundice. She was under the lights for a couple of days to bring her bilirubin level down.


FINALLY on Saturday afternoon we were able to bring her home. It's so amazing. Exhausting...but amazing. : ) The three of us are doing great. Kyndal smiles all the time and we're always laughing at the different faces that she makes. It's indescribable how much we love her already. We can't wait to see how she grows and changes. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. We wish that we could be there to share this precious little girl with everyone and have her meet her family. But until then we will try and keep everyone up to date on here and facebook of course. She's only been home a week and we've taken probably a hundred pictures. : ) Here are just a few.....
Love,
Ken, Angela & Kyndal