Eye Candy

Anyone up for some Mckinley-flavored eye candy? Well, ready or not, here it is.
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Today has been quite different than yesterday. I got a lot of good sleep last night and finally got a shower in this morning. It feels great.
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Pre-shower family picture.

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Kristen has spent the last 2 nights here in my room with me so Brandon could get some good sleep at home in bed. What a trooper!

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Brandon can not get enough of his daughter!!! It is so stinking cute.

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It's no different story with me.

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Who are we kidding? EVERYONE is in love with her.

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Yesterday, day 1, was FILLED with non stop visitors and a perfect happy sleeping baby. Today, day 2, was exactly opposite. This room has been DEAD and Mckinley has been crying a LOT today and last night.
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I tricked her in to holding her own binki in her mouth. It worked for at least a few minutes.

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Ahh, I finally showered and it felt so good.

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One day Mckinley will be big enough to take pictures of us so we don't have to do the self portrait thing, but for now, we're still going strong.

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Here she is again with her eyes open.

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Up until just a few minutes ago, this is how I found the other 2 members of my family.

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I know I still haven't told the whole birth story, and I may never get around to it. So here's the short story.

The hospital was supposed to call us between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning on Thursday to come in and get induced. They wasted no time and woke us up with a call at 5:28. We got ready as quick as we could and made it to the hospital by about 6:20 a.m.

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Got all checked in and changed and finally got the pitocin started at 8 in the morning. Brandon thought we might have a baby around lunch time. I was hoping for something before late afternoon.

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Nothing happened for about 4 hours, I was having contractions, at first I couldn't even feel them, then I started to at least be able to recognize them, but they weren't painful. The doctor came in and broke my water around 12:30 I think. Some of you know I had a LOT of fluid in my belly and let me just tell you, it made for some crazy times over the next few hours.

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Anyway, breaking my water did make the contractions pick up. They started getting pretty painful. Once I couldn't talk through them, I had the epidural. Here's where the story gets long and boring. Basically over the next TEN hours or so, the following happened. Sometimes the epidural took care of the pain. Sometimes it didn't. Sometimes the contractions were good and consistent, sometimes not. Sometimes Mckinley's heart rate was good, sometimes not. So we fought all these things and tried to get everything right, but I was dilating super slow and there was nothing we could do until I got to a 10.

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There was talk of a C-section. We didn't have to go that route though. Finally at midnight I started pushing. Pushed for an hour and then got a little episiotomy and she came right out. And the rest is history. What am I forgetting? Probably a lot. Oh well. It's better than nothing. Please excuse any typos you see. :)

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Oh, I guess I should say that we are very lucky and grateful that nothing was wrong with Mckinley. She didn't have to go to the NICU for anything. She has been breastfeeding pretty good which I know is a huge blessing as well. We are so grateful to have her here and to be experiencing this miracle we've been waiting for so long for.