He's Here

Life's been kind of busy lately. Why, you ask? In case you haven't heard, we have a newborn in the Kolar household. Micah Benjamin was born on October 31st at 12:05 in the afternoon. I know we haven't been able to talk to a lot of you and you're curious as to everything that's been going on so I thought I would write it out here for you.

On Saturday, the 30th we went to the hospital for my regularly scheduled non-stress test. As usual, my blood pressure was elevated. Despite being hooked up to the monitors for 45 minutes, my blood pressure was not going down so I was sent for biophysical profile (a special ultrasound). Everything with the baby looked good and the technician said he would be about 8lbs. 14 oz. We went back up to labor and delivery and I was hooked back up to the monitors and my blood pressure was still elevated (160s/high 90s). After a while, our midwife called and said that we should think about being induced because of my blood pressure. All of my tests came back normal, as did the baby's so there was still no indication that the high blood pressure was negatively effecting me or the baby. However, at that point, there was no benefit to keeping the baby inside. The midwife left the decision up to us. After discussing it for a little while, Brad and I decided to go ahead and do the induction.

So, we were admitted into labor and delivery. At 12:30 I was given my first dose of cytotec, which helps ripen the cervix. Brad and I played a mean game of Phase 10 while waiting for things to happen. My mom and sister also stopped by to visit. At 4:30 I was given my second dose of cytotec and my last dose at 8:30. By then, I started having contractions, but nothing intense or real regular. Also, my mom, sisters, and Brad's mom came by for a visit. Everyone left around 10:00 and Brad and I started to settle down for the night. We tried to get some sleep, but our minds were racing making it nearly impossible to calm down. Around 1:30 I started feeling more regular, intense contractions. At this point, I was not hooked up to the IV so we decided to walk the halls. We walked up and down the halls of the ob floor for probably close to 2 hours as the contractions got closer together and more intense.

At 5:00 the nurse started my pitocin. There was almost an immediate increase in my contractions! In addition, I was now confined to my bed because I had to be hooked up to the monitors and an IV. I felt defeated because moving around really helped me deal with the pain. The nurse was awesome. She came in and tried talking to me, helping me deal with the pain. She even brought in the labor ball so that I could sit on that. I lasted another two hours like that before I finally asked for an epidural. The contractions were very intense, very close together, I was feeling nauseous, and just very emotional. Within an hour, the anesthesiologist was administering my epidural and I was feeling no pain! At this point, Brad called the grandparents and they came by. By 10:00 I was 10cm and we were waiting for the baby to drop a little bit more so that I could start pushing. Around 11:00, I was told I could start pushing. We kicked everyone out (though they didn't go very far--they all stood outside the door, listening) and started pushing. At 12:05, Micah Benjamin literally came bursting into the world! He weighed 7lbs. 9oz. and was 21 1/2in. He has lots of blond/brown hair and the longest fingers!

Micah has really changed our world. Both Brad and I are just smitten with him and cannot believe that our world ever felt complete without him. I'll close with some pictures from the past few days and a promise to write more about what life at home has been like since Micah joined us.

Exactly 40 weeks pregnant. Just before starting the induction.



Happy Halloween from Micah!



Welcome to the world, Micah Benjamin!