Kaylin Leslie

 Kaylin arrived at 12:32am on Thursday, March 28th, 2013. She weighed 7.1 pounds and was 19 inches long. She arrived at a healthy 37 weeks.
    Mark in the delivery room.

 Sucking her thumb in the nursery.

 Grandma and Grandpa Luke were with us at 1:00am to meet their 19th grandbaby. The went home to sleep and returned the next morning to get to hold her for the first time.

 One of the highlights was when Mark brought the big brothers and sister to meet new baby sister.

 Claire is over the moon excited about having a baby sister.

 Sean is unbelievably sweet and tender with Kaylin. He knows that he is good at taking care of babies and takes his job very seriously.

 Oh Lukey! He knows Kaylin is his baby. He likes to check on her and we quite often hear ourselves say, "be careful!!"

 Geting ready to come home. Mark, Claire and I picked out her pink elephant coming home outfit last fall. It was fun to dress her up although we were surprised at how snug it fit her already.

 I couldn't get out of that hospital fast enough. I appreciate all the help and care Kaylin and I received but I was ready to go home to my family.

I had a few irregular contractions in the evening of the 27th. I was used to contracting all the time and wasn't sure if it was a false alarm or not. Around 10pm I realized things were getting serious and we needed to go to the hospital. We packed a bag and called our neighbor to come sit with our sleeping children. By the time we reached the freeway I was in hard labor. I was panicked and concerned about how much pain I was in during our 30 minute drive to UVRMC in Provo. Mark was worried that he was going to have to deliver a baby if we did not arrive in time. I was already dilated to a 7 when we arrived. Two nurses poked me several times to try and place an IV. My arms are black and blue still a week later. The anaesthesiologist administered my epidural. My two previous labors were relatively easy. I casually walked into the hospital, received my epidural then proceeded to watch a movie, talk to my husband, read and rest pain free. There are no words to express how not okay natural labor was for me. I have an incredibly low pain tolerance and was not prepared at all to manage this experience without medication. The epidural provided some relief so that I could start breathing through the contractions. The doctor came in, broke my water and baby Kaylin was born 10 minutes later. The first thing I noticed were her cheeks. They were huge! She was perfect in every way. My other babies struggled when they were born. Sean and Claire were both taken away to the NICU and I didn't see them for several hours. The nurse handed me Kaylin and we stayed skin to skin for an hour. She even latched and I was able to nurse her in the delivery room. After a month of bed rest and the constant stress of the baby arriving too early and an intense labor experience I am relieved and grateful that Kaylin is here. She is so sweet. Mark and I have a hard time putting her down and love having her in our family.