Happy anniversary to us, happy birthday to our little man!

Up to this point, night shifts at the hospital were doing well, Tyler moved up to Boise to be with me, and we were pretty much settled in to our apartment. Tyler's brother, Kendall, was coming home from his mission in Sapporo, Japan, on Friday August 9th, so Tyler went to southern Utah on Thursday to welcome him home. He took the car so that in case I went into labor he could leave immediately rather than having to wait for a flight out. That left me carless, but I know a few people who would be willing to give me a ride to the hospital if I needed it, and a girl I work with gave me a ride to work Thursday night.

Our 2-year anniversary was August 10th, but because we thought he might come early, we had already gone to dinner a week before. Worked out well since Tyler would be in Utah on our anniversary anyway!

Friday morning I had a Dr.'s appointment, so I just stayed for the appointment and planned to ride the bus home. The Dr. said I was about 70% effaced but "not really dilated," and he thought I would be fine until Monday night when Tyler would get home. I missed the bus, but I was able to call a wonderful girl, Abbie, from the ward who came and rescued me so I didn't have to either wait 3 hours or walk home. I got home and slept for a couple hours before getting back up to go (Abbie also drove me to this) to my "functional review", a test the hospital wanted me to do to make sure I could do my job ok with my shoulder, at 1:30. This consisted of me lifting a basket around (table to waist-height shelf, shelf to floor, and table to high shelf, plus some others), and each time I did it, the guy would add a weight. Anyway, it was a LOT of lifting, especially for someone as pregnant as I was! 

My water broke while I was there (around 2:30pm), but I wasn't totally sure if that's what it was or not, so I waited about an hour and a half before I called my cousin Stephanie to let her know. I had told mom and Tyler before that I thought it was broken, but I wanted to know for sure before I called Steph. I told her that I wanted to wait around at the apartment instead of going to the hospital, but she said I'd better call Labor and Delivery and make sure they didn't want me to come in right then. I called the hospital and they did want me to come, so I called Steph back and asked her for a ride. By the time she and Jason got there around 5, I was started to have some pretty good contractions. They did a test to make sure that my water really did break, then actually admitted me to the hospital. I called Tyler when they decided to admit me and told him he'd better get on the road, but I didn't know if he was going to make it or not. I intentionally waited to tell him to come because he had just driven the 9 hours down there the day before, and I really wanted him to see Kendall. The plane was scheduled to land at 5:52pm, and by the time he got off the plane, Tyler was able to spend about a half hour with Kendall before he hopped in the car. My mom also scrambled to gather last minute stuff and headed over.

My nurse, Missy, checked my cervix as soon as I was admitted (around 6pm), and I was dilated to 5cm. By about 7pm the contractions were coming fast and hard, and I was super exhausted because I had worked a night shift the two nights before, then stayed up all day because I had to go in for the functional review. The only way I could tolerate contractions was standing, and my legs were shaking! I knew there was no way I could have enough energy to go through the labor if I didn't get some sleep, so I got an epidural. It was a good thing I did because it slowed the contractions down a lot!  Steph and Jason stayed with me at the hospital, and Jason gave me a priesthood blessing. When my mom called to check on me at about 8:30pm, I they had just checked me and I was dilated to 7cm. Mom had got there about 10:30pm, and Steph and Jason went home. My nurse and the Dr. new I was progressing pretty quickly, but they agreed that as long as the baby seemed to be alright, they would try not to do anything to speed it up and I could try to wait for Tyler. 

 Me as I waited for Tyler to get there. I tried to sleep between the contractions.

At about 2am my nurse went to get some "lunch", and while she was out, another nurse came in and wanted to check my cervix because the doctor was getting worried I would have the baby without her there. She said I was fully dilated and that the baby was right there close (and who knows how long I had been that way), and that I could start pushing if I wanted ! Tyler was still a good 2.5 hours away by our calculations, but everything looked good by the monitors, so the doctor said I could try and wait until Tyler got there. I was feeling a LOT of pressure with each contraction, and a couple times I called the nurse in to make sure I wasn't having the baby even though I wasn't pushing. I think Heavenly Father wanted Tyler to be there because I was able to wait until he got there at about 4am. 

 Tyler as he walked in the door!

As soon as he got there, the nurse called the Dr. and started setting everything up and told me to start pushing. Partway through, the Dr. told me I could reach down and feel his head if I wanted to. It was surreal! After what seemed like forever, little Kai was born at 4:54am on August 10, 2013! It was pretty crazy, but I know that Heavenly Father was watching out for all of us because everyone was able to get there safely before he was born, and there weren't any complications. (Sidenote, because the Dr. knew I was an RN, she let me see my placenta, which was surprisingly small, even to her, haha.)

That little purple thing in the middle at the bottom is some part of the baby, not sure what though, haha.

Welcome Kai Noah Whiting! He weighed 6 pounds, 9.6 ounces, and measured 20" long. When we left the hospital, he was down to about 6 pounds 2 ounces, but eating alright and still just perfect. Happy anniversary to us :)