Welcome Mya Mary Kennedy!

Mya Mary Kennedy

Mya Mary Kennedy
Born March 22, 2012
6 pounds 14 ounces

She's here!  Mya Mary Kennedy was born at 3:35am on Thursday, March 22nd, 2012... at home.

Yes, at home.  Here's her exciting, beautiful, and fast story:

Wednesday afternoon I had my weekly doctor appointment.  The appointment went well and the doctor didn't indicate anything about delivering Mya early, in fact things had stayed relatively the same since my last visit.  So I left and picked up Ben at daycare and went on with my evening.  That night turned out to be our only quiet night that week (Matt's schedule was incredibly busy for the days leading up to her birth - as well as the days after).  So we enjoyed some extra fun family play time, including a new Thomas the Tank Engine book and playmat for Ben.  We had a blast!  The evening ended with Matt having a Fantasy Baseball Draft online and I ran out to do a few errands that I had wanted to get done for a while.  So overall, a normal evening.

I woke up at 1am Thursday morning due to a mild contraction.  They continued for 2 hours, but were intermittent and somewhat random.  A few were uncomfortable enough that I walked a little, but always ended up back in bed to nap and snooze for a while until the next arrived.  I honestly thought it was false labor - thinking that my little gal knew better than to show up early.  Ha ha.  At 3am I was sleeping but awoke to a loud cannon sound in my head.  I knew right away it was my water breaking.  (How do we know these things when we've never experienced that before?!?)  I ran to the bathroom and at once said, "Matt... my water just broke." in a somewhat shocked voice.  He replied mater-of-factly, "I guess that means we're going to the hospital."  So we got up and did the necessary things to get ready.  I called my doctor and chatted about what to do.  Neither one of us were concerned with a fast delivery since I was in labor with Ben for about 10 hours.  So the doctor said that as long as I left the house in an hour, we should be fine.  We called my mom by 3:10am or so who got up and started driving down to watch Ben once we left.  We continued on with our morning, not feeling rushed.  In fact I even told Matt to go sit down and enjoy his cereal and read the sports.  I walked around the house packing a hospital bag (I know - I was unprepared... no bag packed!), emailing work, and other putzy things.  I was planning on showering, but as I walked into the bathroom I noticed that my contractions were just uncomfortable enough that I decided to instead throw on a little eye make-up and tie my hair back some instead.  So I continued going about the house getting ready.  Just after 3:25am I had my first strong contraction.  It felt awful and I had to stop and breath deeply through it.  After that they intensified fast and I quickly made my way to the bathroom to sit down, thinking that would help.  In my mind I was thinking, "Oh this is going to be an awful ride to the hospital!"  Still not realizing what was really going on.  Then I had the strongest contraction and I breathed Matt's name.  As he tells it, "The way she called me was in such a way that you never would think to ignore."  So he came straight to me.  By the time he got there I had a strange feeling and my body wanted to push.  Didn't realize it, but Mya was crowning.  It was just after 3:30am.

From there things happened at lightning speed.  Once Matt reached me, I had to brace my arms in his.  We stayed like this for one agonizing contraction and then he helped me up, both of us thinking we needed to get to the car.  A half a step later we realized that was never going to happen.  Instead I went straight to the floor and Matt took over.  He dialed 911 right away and somehow managed to grab a few towels in the short seconds that occurred between my contractions.  Two long minutes and two contractions and pushes later, there was our Mya in Matt's arms.  He delivered our daughter!  Even in those crazy, hectic, somewhat alarming moments we realized just how special this was.  It was 3:35am

The three officers who were wonderful!

Within minutes of Mya's birth, three police cars showed up.  The officers were extremely calm and brought a feeling of peace to the situation.  They clamped Mya's cord, made sure that Mya and myself stayed warm, and other things I can't recall.  At 3:43am once everything was under control, they asked Matt when the baby was born.  Matt recalls looking at the clock and being shocked with how fast everything transpired!  Between 3:30 and 3:43am we had Mya!  It was only later after we heard the 911 call Matt made that we realized how fast (2 minutes!).

Soon after that my mom arrived.  Because the police cars weren't in our driveway, my mom never assumed they were at our house.  When she came in at 3:45am she saw Matt at the top of the stairs and said, "What's going on outside?" to which Matt replied, "Uh.. Molly, the baby has already been born!"  With that my mom kicked off her shoes and flew upstairs.  She quickly got out her camera and started photographing everything - which was funny since right at that moment I yelled out, "I sure hope someone is getting pictures of all this!"  That's when a police officer said, "You're mom is on top of that already."  I guess my mom and I think alike.  :-)

One of the EMTs with Mya.

That's when the ambulance arrived and the EMTs took over.  They too brought a calm attitude that continued to set us all at ease.  I have nothing but amazing, positive things to say about the help we got that night.  God sure had us well taken care of!  The EMTs cut the cord and took Mya into our bedroom to clean her up and keep warming her.  Then she was given to Matt to hold.  I was helped up and put on a stretcher.  Mya was placed in my arms at that point and the two of us were brought to the ambulance.  As we drove to the hospital, Mya nursed and I was contually monitored by the EMT.  It was surreal.  Matt followed close behind in our car, so he would have a way to get home later in the day.  My mom stayed back at the house so someone was home with Ben.  He slept through the entire thing.

Matt, a PROUD daddy!

Feeling very secure!

We arrived at the hospital by 4:30ish am.  Once there, the "normal" post delivery things took place.  Mya was weighed, measured, and looked over.  I took was taken care of and was told I was in really good shape.  Boy was it good to hear Mya and I were healthy and OK!  Mya bathed in some warm lights for a long time to warm up - her temperature dropped a lot due to being born at home.  It's not as warm there!  While she warmed up, Matt and I began the process of getting over the shock of everything that happened.  We were full of joy, but still a little overwhelmed.

Our day continued and around 9am we were brought to our new room.  As we moved from the labor and delivery wing to the new room, they played "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."  They play that song in the whole hospital whenever a baby is born.  It brought an overwhelming feeling of joy to my heart.  Not only because of Mya's arrival but also because that is Ben's favorite song to sing.  It was moving to hear that song at that moment, holding my daughter and thinking so fondly of my sleeping son at home.  God is GOOD!

Ben holding Mya for the first time.

We enjoyed having family visit throughout the day.  Mya amazed them all with her birth story and we all marveled at her beautiful beauty.  Ben came and met his sister and he had the most precious look on his face when he held her.  In that moment, he grew up so much in front of my eyes!  You could just see love pouring out from him for this little "baby," as he calls her.

Being a family of four is a beautiful thing.  We're enjoying our new family very much and cherishing all the changes it has brought us.

So it is with all my heart that I say, "Welcome, Mya!  Your Mommy, Daddy, and brother Ben are SO happy you've arrived!"

Click here to view all the pictures from that day.

A very happy family of four!  Karen, Matt, Benjamin, and Mya Kennedy.  March 22, 2012.