Baby Neddy is Born

Over the course of the next couple of months we finished making the preparations for the birth of our new baby. She was scheduled to be born through C-Section on May 19th. I was given an unexpected privilege this time that I didn't have at Katelynn's birth. I was asked to be in the operating room to watch our daughter being born! How awesome is that -- it was like a real, live Baby Story episode!


My husband and I dropped Katelynn off at my dad and step-mom's house on May 18th. My step-dad would be traveling through the next day and he was going to pick Kate up and bring her to the hospital. That way we would get some alone time with Kennedy before we were officially a family of four. My heart broke into a million pieces as we dropped Katelynn off but luckily, my dad and step-mom sent me lots of pictures throughout the night so I was able to see how much fun she was having without me.


We arrived in Minnesota pretty late that night. We were staying at my wonderful Aunt and Uncle's house. They had left gifts for the girls in our room and a note congratulating us on our new bundle. It felt a bit like deja-vu seeing as we were just there 11 months before waiting for Katelynn to be born. 


I don't think I slept longer than 10 minutes that night. I was so excited to meet our new baby. The alarm clock went off early and we headed to the hospital. My husband went to our hospital room to wait and I went to our birthmother's prep room so I could get my scrubs on. She was waiting with her mother. We talked and caught up. I showed them pictures of Kate and we passed the time with some stories. 


The doctors came and brought our birthmother to the operating room. A few minutes later they invited me to join them. It was a beautiful thing waiting for our daughter to be born. Two mothers waiting side-by-side (well, technically one was lying down). This birth was easier for me because I knew what to expect this time. It was harder this time for our birthmother because at one point, she thought she was going to parent this baby. The emotional attachment that she had with this child was different from her first baby. (Don't get this statement wrong, she has emotional attachments to both of her children -- it was just different because she had envisioned this child as hers.)


The doctor and nurses were so professional about everything. I was able to watch Kennedy come out, trim the cord and talk to her as they weighed her and measured her. Then they placed Kennedy by her birthmother so they could spend their first few seconds together too. They did duplicates of all of the paperwork, footprints, etc. because we are both mothers and we would both want those keepsakes. 


It was so surreal when they placed her in the bassinet and we wheeled her down to meet her daddy for the first time. We took some quick pictures in the hallway and then rushed her in to the nursery to get warmed and have all of the newborn stuff done. I stayed with her the whole time. Daddy waited outside the nursery windows sending texts and pictures to family and friends. 


Once the surgery was finished and our birthmother was resting, her mother came into the nursery with me and we shared some quiet moments together as we gazed in awe at the beautiful baby God had blessed us all with.


An hour later we started the same dance we had when Katelynn was born. Family members came up to visit and we spent time again getting to know one another for the sake of our children.