Good Evening All!
If you haven't heard by now, Kari and I welcomed Caleb John Karsnick to our lives on June 25th @ 9:54am. Caleb was born weighing 7lbs 12 ounces and almost a full 22inches long. Some of that 22 inches was a severe cone shaped head resembling your favorite Saturday Night Live Condhead father Beldar (We come from France!), but that seems to be disapating and rounding out as the days go on!
Thinking back over 9 months ago when Kari and I discovered we were pregnant...I couldn't have imagined the birth of our first child going so perfectly! It was almost surreal. Sure, we had some turbulance....at some times it was SEVERE turbulance, but at the end of the day I don't things could have gone any better! And the output of our little delivery via the Karsnick baby stork is sheer perfection!
Here is how the take off and delivery went of the flight of the Karsnick Baby Stork delivering Caleb John Karsnick to our lives.
Pre-Flight Preparation.....
Friday the 24th around 11:30 am Kari shot me an e-mail at work saying that she was having some contractions and cramping and that she thought it may be a good idea to head home and think about heading to the hospital. Here's how I read that e-mail, "oh shit...it's time." I'm not going to lie, that e-mail put me into a bit of a panic on the inside, but on the outside...I decided to paly it remakably cool, cool just like the other side of the pillow, cause that is how I roll, at least in my own head! I called Kari at work and she was remakably calm. When I asked if she was on the road home yet, she replied, "no..I'm finishing up some things here at work, and collecting some phone numbers, etc." This was somewhat shocking to me. I was ready to go. Run out the door. Let's get Baby K outta there, was my thought....yet Kari was so calm and collected and just orgainzing her things.
I ran out of work and headed home. An interesting side note. I was super pumped Kari had called me at 11:30am Firday. I had the brilliant idea a few weeks earlier to sign up for a pie eating contest at work, that started at 12:30pm. I had been wishing all week that Kari would go into labor before that contest. I couldn't see myself throwing myself face first into an oreo cookie pie (don't get me wrong - who doesn't love Oreo cookie pie). Caleb wasn't even born yet, and he was already saving his pops from looking like a tool with a face full of oreo pie! Thank you Caleb!
What occured next was the best pre-labor day I could have imagined. Kari came home from work and we decided just to take it easy. She had picked up Chipotle, and we enjoyed the lunch out on our deck. Afer lunch we called the nurse and she siad really we hadn't had a consistent enough pattern of contractions, but Kari was definitley in ealry labor. The rest of the day Friday, Kari and I just hung out and spent some great time together. I mowed the lawn, she watched TV and put some of Caleb's clothes away. We took the dogs to the pet store to get some food, and treats for them, and then went to Bylery's (No Tate...no free Cake was being served) and picked up some dinner for the night. We went home, I made a marvelous dinner of grilled green beans with red pepper (threw the spice in there hoping it threw Kari into labor) and garlic with olive oil and lemon, and some chicken breasts marinated in sundried tomatoes. Quite fantastic, if I don't say so myself. The dogs hung out on our deck with us, Kari and I enjoyed our last dinner as a single married couple, took the dogs on a walk, and I enjoyed my final cigar as a single middle aged man :) We went to bed at 10 or 10:30 and...I remember thinking, what a GREAT day!
The Take Off....
This is where things get good! Around 1:15 AM Kari's water broke. That set the Baby K plan in motion. Kari and I jumped up and grabbed all the planned things. I was moving slightly faster than Kari was. She was very calm and collected. I am sure I was running around like a freak....as I loaded the car. Bags - check. Snacks - check. Baby Car Seat - check. Blow Dryer, Curling Iron...wait....what? Wher'd that come from! Kari couldn't forget her blow dryer, and two curling irons as last minute additions to the pile of stuff in the car. I figured she must have planned on doing her hair before giving birth :) That was the only explanation for those items I could think of, but as my motto for the last 9 months marched on.."who am I to argue with a pregnant woman."
We hopped in the car, but before we did I pulled a move from the movie Marley and Me. I was worried about our two glorious Golden's Sierra and Summit. As we scrambled aorund them in the early AM it was apparent they were confused! So, I pulled out two large bones, we had bought one trip to the pet store, and I gave them to them! Praying that these woul be the longest lasting bones of all time....give me 5 days of non-stop chewing and I would be ecstatic...I wasn't really thinking all that straight I would guess :)
We headed to the hospital, got Kari checked into a triage room and I proceed to play bell hop dragging the 35 plus bags we had packed.
While Kari and I were in the triage room we met our nurse friend that we both decided we shall forever refer to as Medusa. For multiple reasons. This nurse had the bedside manner of a bull in a china shop, and my best guest would be that she recieved her RN from some mail order truck driver school or maybe the University of Phoenix....she was just terrible. However, this may have been the best thing that ever happend to ME. I will explain later.
Medusa got us checked in, and it was apparent that she wasn't that bright as she asked them same questions about 50 times over as Kari's contractions were progressing. Medussa had the voice of a betty boop, the bad bedside manner of the Wicked Witch of the West, and the intelligence of Spicoli from Dazed and Confused. She would ask questions of Kari, right when it was obvious she was in the middle of a contraction! She didn't know how to put the baby or heart monitor's on, and when we had to lower the bed to get Kari in the prone position, Medussa hit the button on the bed that just slammed the bed to the downright position immediately, throwing Kari down in a matter of .02 seconds! This was bad! Kari was a trooper! The entire process took over an hour just to get us checked in. It probably should have taken about 15 minutes.....
At about 2:30/2:45 we were finally admitted into a labor and delivery room. Kari's contractions were "progressing" fairly rapidly, which is code for increasing in excruitating pain. We kept asking Medussa if she had called the doctor, to which she replied "oh, yeah....not yet..., we have some time." Time...wait WHAT...my wife is in labor. I highly recommended that she call the doctor, and she just kind of smiled and walked out of the room. I am sure she thought we were nuts. When we got into the labor rooma at about 3am, Kari was dialated about 2.5cm.
Much to our dismay, Medussa wouldn't let us walk around. "Yeah...we have these wireless monitors, but they don't really work...ha ha ha ha, you kind of just have to stay here." Wait...what! Again...might have possibly been the worst nurse ever! However...Medussa was my saving grace! I would recommend to any soon to be father with a wife in labor, the absolute dumbest nurse on the planet...why...well, as Kari's contractions were progressing, she was in a lot of pain. Since we had nurse Spicoli/Medussa...all of Kari's furstrations came out NOT on me...but on the nurse..PERFECT!!! So, all future dad's, find yourself a really bad nurse and you are in the clear! I couldn't have planned that part any better. Kari was cursing Medusa for the two hours of contractions she had pre-epidural...and I was in the clear.
Between 3 and 5 am Kari went from being 2.5 centimeters to about 5cm. That is a ver fast progression. We had told Medussa that Kari was in a lot of pain, and she seemed to be having rapid contractions. I could tell Kari was in pain, becuase of the subtle hints she kept giving me. Hints such as banging her head into the side of the bed with agression, and trying to bite the side rail of the bed. I may not be smart, but I was pretty sure that meant the contractions hurt. :) Medussa was a bit hesitant to give Kari an epidural, and didn't think she was progressing along fast enough. That is when I had to open my can of whoop-ass on Medussa. I went into the hallway, and essientaly told her she had no idea what she was doing and needed to give Kari an epidural immediatley or I was going to knock her upside the head. I think Medussa was startled by my forcefulness, so she came in and checked Kari out, and Kari was at about 6 so we started the epidural. It was a godsend for Kari! The epidural I mean.
Pre-epidural and post epidural were like a night and day difference. Kari went from contractions and pain, to a very joyful, happy person. She could barely feel the contractions....and just around that time Medussa's shift had ended!
Kari and I had passed the time between 6 and 8 am watching TV. The doctor came in and said we would start pushing around 8am. Kari and I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to shoot home (10 minutes away) to go check on the dogs and their bone chewing progress. I shot home and came back around the time the doctor had wanted to start to push. It was 8am. The Today show was on TV. Kari was 10 cm dialted. Green light to push and all systems go, for baby K's arrival.
This was the surreal part. Kari, and I and a nurse began pushing at 8am. Kari would push for a few minutes during a contraction, and then rest and we would watch the Today show inbetween pushing. Never did I ever envision helping my wife push, during labor, while watching Ann Curry deliver this mornings top news stories. I had envisioned a hectic enviornment, nurses everywhere, pain and screaming...it was very ho hum. The most exciting thing about the pushing part was watching Ann Curry! Wierd!
Kari was doing an AWESOME job pushing! Baby K was making a bit of progress, but when the doc came in at 9am something strange had happened! Kari actually went backwards and was only dialated 9.5 cm. That was problem number one. Problem number two....Caleb was "jammed" into Karis pelvic bone and wasn't turned/turning properly. Problem number three....Kari has a narrow pelvic area, and the doctor wasn't sure Caleb would make it out ok. Put all that together...and she recommended a c-section. Kari and I were all on-baord. We had somewhat prepared for that possibility since we knew that Caleb was going to be a larger baby.
We mad the decision to do teh c-section and then the rest.... of the story was the greatest and the most stressfu part of the delivery for me.
The Landing.....
So, once the c-section had been decided, they whisked Kari away into pre-op and gave me some scrubs to wear. I changed, and they told me that they would come get me in about 20 mintues to be in the room with Kari and the arrival of Baby K. I sat and continued to watch Ann Curry masacre the morning news (Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning everyone) and noticed it had been past 30 mintues. A nurse came in to talk to me and told me that I could no longer be in the delivery room, that they had to put Kari completely under due to some complications of the epidural. My heart stopped at that moment, and all I could think of was this was not what we had planned. I was worried terribly about Kari and the delivery of Caleb. For 9 months all I had read and heard was that it is something like a 1.5% chance a mom-to-be is completley put under during a c-section. Ususally when they do it, it is because something has gone wrong. Of course, my mind immediatley went to everything bad that could happen..and the next 3 hours became quite foggy for me. Almost as if I was in an out of body expereince.
The nurse came and got me and took me to see Caleb in the nursery. This was a great/special moment and sad expereince for me. Great because I got to see my little boy, and very sad because I was very concerned about Kari's well being, and this is not the way we planned it to go. Kari and I were supposed to meet Caleb together. Kari was going to breast feed him immediatley after. We wanted the skin to skin contact after birth. I just remember sitting in a chair in the nursery wondering what the hell was going on and this was not the way it was supposed to go. I was so sad Kari wasn't with me! I cut Caleb's umbilical cord, and held him, and then had to feed him a bit of formula from a bottlle since he was starved. I actually argued with the Special Care nurse "I CAN'T give him a bottle, Kari want's to breasfeed him!" I ended up bottle feeding him....again, I was concerned and a bit lost. I realized at that moment that how much Kari meant to me.
I have known for the last 4 1/2 years Kari is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, but now with Caleb, we really are a family. It couldn't be just Caleb and me. It could never be just Caleb and Kari. The three of us together with our two pups are what make a family. I had a million thoughts running through my head, and then I pulled out the old Catholic Alter Boy in me and started saying the rosery in my head to myself. Shocking how it all came back to me at that moment in time..... I guess the 12 years of Catholic school truly is engrained in my brain.
About an hour and a half later, as I was holding Caleb, the nurse told me that Kari was moved into the post-partum room. GREAT NEWS! This is where we would stay for the next 4 days. I ran up with Caleb...and handed him to Kari...It was such a relief to see Kari was ok. It was even better to see our famliy was together. Kari said hi to Caleb.....to which her first words to Caleb were "Why'd you kick me so much"...and then about 30 seconds later, I took Caleb and Kari passed out. She was out of it due to the anastesia! It was probably another hour or so that she really came too and was coherent.
We ended up spending 3 1/2 days in the Maple Grove Hospital. And we actually just got home this afternoon! It was a perftect day to bring Caleb home because it was absolutley beautiful today!
Caleb is happy and healthy as is Kari! It is great to be home. Even Sierra and Summit love their new brother!
That concludes the story of the Karsnick Baby Stork Landing.....in Plymouth, MN.
A special thanks to my parents Joe & Karen Karsnick. They drove all the way from Michigan to see Caleb, watched the dogs, and did some work around the house!
A great thanks to John and Sue Lowe for making the journey up from Iowa and helped around the house while we were in the hospital! We came home to a sparkling clean home! Thanks!
And, from me to my wife Kari...you are AWESOME! I love you. You are amazing. You went through quite a bit over the last 9 months....and you were an absolute trooper. You did whatever you needed to do that was best for Caleb and our family by making some amazing sacrafices! I love you more than words can express.
And to Caleb...thank you. You are a beautiful little boy. You are sheer perfection to me and your mom....I can't wait to see you grow up into a man.....and I can't wait to buy you your first set of cut down golf clubs:)
Caleb Karsnick...it really was damn nice to meet ya :)
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| First Pic! |
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| First Bottle |
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| Grandma and Grandpa Lowe |
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| The Karsnick Grandparent's |
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Kari holding Caleb for the frst time...
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Beautiful little boy..
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Mom holding Caleb
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| Caleb's first smile :) |
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| First Family Photo!! Self Taken :) |
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| Kari, Grandma Sue, and Caleb |
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| Sierra and Summit meet Caleb for the first time! |
