Meeting more family

We were so glad some of the Kuders could come visit for the day on Friday. Corinne was so glad to meet Gigi, Papa, Aunt Janelle, and Uncle Jeremy. Thanks so much for coming, and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

Meeting Grandbaby #8

Corinne proved she's a part of the Kuder family by showing off her long tongue!

Gigi in her happy place - with a lapful of kids

Aunt Anna was able to stop in to meet Corinne on her way home from vacation.  We were glad she could make time to see us and brought us fun goodies from the Bahamas!

Coming Home Pictures

Sweet pictures of our girl in her coming home outfit lying on the quilt Tata made her!

Joshua at 6 days old - they look so much alike!

The adventure continues

It seems as though Corinne is going to keep us on our toes...once we got to the hospital after the speedy delivery, we figured the craziness was over and that after a few days to recuperate, we'd be headed home.  Unfortunately, Corinne's routine blood work came back showing high white blood cell counts and low platelet levels.  She didn't show any signs of being sick, but just to be safe, the neonatologist started her on antibiotics to knock out any infection before it became a big deal.  Fortunately, after more tests, they ruled out infection and her white blood cell counts came back to normal.  The problem with the platelets remained a mystery, though.  Again to be on the safe side, the doctor wanted to transfer her to the NICU at Wolfsons Childrens Hospital for observation.  The thought was that she either had a hematology problem (more serious) or that she had a different platelet type than me and my antibodies had crossed the placenta and were destroying her platelets (most likely).  If the second scenario were the case, it would resolve itself in a matter of weeks, but they wanted to keep a close eye on her for a few days.  The danger of low platelet levels is that she could get a bleed in her brain, but fortunately, her platelet levels were not ever as low as the threshold for serious concern. 

While we hated being apart from our girl, everyone at Wolfsons was sympathetic, friendly, and extremely professional.  Corinne stayed there from Friday evening until Tuesday afternoon.  She continued to act like a perfectly healthy baby and was eating and sleeping like a champ!  She even earned the nickname, Chubby, because at 7 pounds she looked huge compared to the premies in the NICU.  It was hard being separated from her, especially on Mother's Day, but at the same time, Daniel and I had a peace that she was okay and this was just a precaution, not something to be worried about.  We weren't able to stay with her there, so would trek back and forth to the hospital a couple times a day to try to encourage breastfeeding and drop off milk I had pumped - plus get some sweet cuddles from our girl!  We were SOOOO happy when we were able to bring her home on Tuesday at 6 days old.  At this point, every day at home feels like such a privilege and we are enjoying getting to know our sweet Corinne Nicole!

Corinne gave me a sweet Mother's Day gift and stayed awake for a long visit!

People kept calling her a boy, so I got a ginormous hair bow to eliminate the confusion

So thankful she didn't have a lot of tubes and wires and we were able to visit as much as we wanted

Corinne's "room" in NICU

The whole family came to take her home.  Josh and Brielle were so excited.  (She got to ride through the hospital in a wagon.)

Home sweet home!

I'm not a person...

At dinner tonight Brielle was talking up a storm and I commented to my parents, "She's such a little person now."  Brielle responded, "I'm not a person yet, I'm a princess."

McKenna gave Brielle this princess outfit as a "Big Sister" Gift and she loves it!

Meeting the family

First pic of the 5 of us!

Needless to say, Josh and Brielle were pretty excited to wake up Wednesday morning and find out their Baby Sister was born the night before.  They couldn't wait to get to the hospital to meet her and their reactions were sooo precious!  Both just starting giggling and were so tickled that they got to hold her.  They have continued to be an excellent Big Brother and Big Sister...so proud, gentle, and interested in everything she's doing.  It's been fun to watch them all interact!

Of course Tata and Papa were anxious to meet their newest grandbaby as well.  We forgot the camera in the rush to the hospital, so Papa brought it down to us in the middle of the night and got the first snuggle.  We could not have survived this first week with Corinne and all the adventures she had in store for us with out them.  Thanks so much, Mom and Dad, for all the babysitting, washed dishes, meals, laundry, etc...we are SO glad you were here and love you much.

And the last of the Jacksonville Nettletons...looks like Corinne has Uncle HaHa figured out already!

Corinne's Arrival

Corinne Nicole Kuder

May 4  2:47 am

7 lbs, 4 oz

19.75 inches

So, on to the birthday story...Around 1:30am I started having contractions, but I've been having a lot of false labor the past few weeks, so I wasn't sure this was the "real deal".  By 2:15am, the contractions had gotten pretty intense and had sped up from 6 minutes apart to 4 minutes apart.  I started thinking that I must have forgotten what labor feels like because I was already in serious pain and figured I still had several hours of labor ahead of me.  The contractions had only been going on for 45 minutes after all.  As soon as we decided this was for real, we called my parents to come over from their condo about 20 minutes away to stay with Josh and Brielle.  Around 2:30 my water broke and I felt the urge to push!  I told Dan, who sternly said, "DO NOT PUSH!"  He then called 9-1-1, got me in the bed, and said, "We're gonna make it to the hospital."  (Even though he knew at the time, we were not going to make it.  And, really, I did too.)

Daniel then took over as "Dr. Dan" and was telling me not to push until the fire truck arrived so we'd have equipment and a fast ride in case there were any complications.  The firemen arrived, including Fireman Dave, our kids' hero and one of our closest friends!  Dave was carrying the OB kit and got to assist Dan in delivering Corinne.  About that time my parents walked into the room too.  I pushed twice and Corinne was out!  She came out crying, pink, and perfect!  They wrapped Corinne in a towel and handed her to me, then loaded us on a stretcher, and off we went in the ambulance.  Despite all the commotion, Josh and Brielle slept through the whole ordeal!

Even though Dan works as an ER Physician Assistant, this was the first baby he's delivered.  He was completely calm and in control the whole time.  We've been laughing all week about how we never would have planned it to happen this way, but somehow it just fits - it's just the type of thing that would happen to us.  We are so thankful to God that Corinne was born safely and everything worked out fine, despite the crazy birth story!  Apparently she was in quite a hurry to make her dramatic entrance into the world!

The delivery team - Dan and Dave

I was able to piece together a timeline of the events using our cell phone call log:
1:30am    First contraction
2:00am    Start timing contractions
2:19am    Call mom and dad to come over
2:25am    Call dr. who tells us to head to hospital
2:33am    Dan calls my parents and tells them to HURRY
2:35am    My water broke and feel urge to push
2:37am    Dan calls 911
2:41am    EMS arrives
2:47am    Corinne is born!

First picture in hospital that night

We went back to thank the firemen and get a picture with Corinne a few weeks later.