Frustrating! All your new friends and family members have been waiting for updates, but the internet in the hospital went down last night.

We have been blessed with a beautiful baby girl, Hailey Nicole Nash. You are everything we hoped you’d be and more.

Born May 12, 2009
8lbs 0.5oz
20 Inches long
Thick brown hair
The most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen!

Mom checked into the hospital around 1pm on Monday (5/11). We started the cervix dilating drugs at 6pm and by 10:30am on Tuesday (5/12) Mom was barely dilated to 1cm! After a pretty miserable night, we were very disappointed to see that that was all the progress we’d made. Dr. Carmichael agreed and decided it would be best for both mom and baby to avoid any unnecessary stress and trauma and recommended that we start preparations for a C section. That was around 11:00am and you made your way into this world just a little less than an hour later, at 11:57am!

It was all pretty surreal…almost like watching it unfold from the viewpoint of someone else….very movie like. While they did the spinal on your mom, your father changed into his sterile clothes…which were way too small for his 6′ 4″ frame. Luckily seeing him in his way-too-small jumpsuit provided some much needed comic relief for all of us; unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get a full body self portrait so that image will just have to live in memory.

As soon as you came out your dad was able to grab one quick picture then they took you over to the corner of the OR where they proceeded to do all the things they do for new born babies. We just sat there, well mom laid and dad sat, staring at each other with tears in our eyes. We’d done it…we were officially parents! How scary, fun, cool, awesome, and terrific is that?! 🙂

It wasn’t long after that they told your dad he could come over and snap a few pictures. He did, and about 3 minutes later the nurse brought you over for me to see you for the very first time. You were all swaddled up and had a hat on so I couldn’t see your hair, but I was immediately amazed at just how perfect you were!

And Melissa, the sonogram lady, had it all right – you have a ton of hair, with big puffy cheeks, and a cute little button nose. After spending about 5 seconds face to face with you they whisked you off to the nursery for clean up and testing.

With love,
Brad and Kristine A.K.A. Mom and Dad

Wow, I can’t believe it. Today’s the day. They say time flies when you have children…well it’s started already. It seems like just yesterday that we were staring the pregnancy sticks.

You and mom are doing great! Mom’s asleep right now, but we only got about 4 hours of sleep last night. That was worse than we thought! Not only were the beds were uncomfortable, but the medicine they gave mom made her very crampy last light, much more than we anticipated. Fortunately mom’s asleep right now, but wakes up every few minutes. They gave her Stadol about 2am to help with the pain. The pain of the cramps wasn’t that bad, but it helped her sleep just a little. The nurse came in every couple hours to check on you and mom. I think this was just our trial run for what’s to come! Mom’s still not dilated after 12 hours. The nurse said it’s not uncommon for a c-section for women that haven’t dilated after having the medicine. But, we don’t know anything yet. The doctor will be here shortly to let us know what’s going to happen next.

The grandparents are in route. Grandma Luli and Grandpa George should be here in a couple hours. Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bruce will be driving from Iowa on Thursday. Grandpa and Grandma Nash just live up the street so we’ll give them a call when it’s closer for you to be here. Kelly is stayin’ at the house while were in the hospital and is taking care of Maddison and Jasper (your puppy and kitty).

This might be the last post before you arrive. We’ll see you in a few of hours!

Love Daddy

Hi Hailey, it’s dad.  It’s shortly after 6pm on May 11th and we are all checked in to the Las Colinas Medical Center in Irving, TX.  Mom has been here since about 1pm and is doing great.  Her BP was a little high this morning, but now that she’s on bed rest and laying on her side her pressure is back down to the normal range without medication.  Yeah!  You are both doing well.  I’m here next to mom listening to your little heart beat on the machine…it makes me smile ;).

Our daytime nurse, Tonya, just gave mom some medication to start the dilation process.  Tonya has been taking good care of you and Mom all day. 

I think Saturday night was our last of peaceful sleep for several months (or years) to come.  Mom and I were both pretty restless last night since were 99% sure you would be on your way today or tomorrow.  And, despite all of our modern technologies, they still haven’t been able to make a comfortable hospital bed.  Mom has to lie on her side to keep the BP down.  She’s got lots of wires and sensors all plugged in. So she’s not very comfy right now.  And my bed?  It’s a love seat, not a couch…a love seat.  It supposedly opens to a bed, but only one side pulls out and it’s less than 5ft. long fully extended.  So neither of us are going to get much sleep tonight.

We’re so excited to meet you it hurts!  They’ll begin the Pitocin in the morning which will start the labor.  So you should be blessing us with your presence within the next 24 hours or so…you’re mom’s really hopping for the “or so” on the short side of 24 hours ;).  She gettin’ nervous, but that’s expected for a first time mom.

We’re doing great and can’t wait to meet you!  See you soon.

Love Daddy

Kristine in the Hospital

Big Daddy, Little Sofa

I had a follow-up appointment with my regular doctor on Thursday; it was made about 6 months ago.   Though everything was great at your check-up with Dr. Carmichael on Tuesday, just 2 days later with Dr. Rathkamp my blood pressure was high.  How could that be?!  Dr. Rathkamp advised me to carry on with my day as usual and come back in the afternoon to have my BP checked again.  So I went back at 4pm yesterday….and it was still high.

After checking with Dr. Carmichael, it was decided that I needed to proceed to labor & delivery for some testing.  While we were waiting on the results the nurse called Dr. Carmichael and she said there may be a chance I would be checking in for induction.  That was a little unsettling.  Luckily, the labs came back normal so I was told I could go home but was given strict orders for bed rest.  UGH – I am not the type of person who does well on bed rest…I get way too restless!

So, here I am Friday morning on bed rest….though it’s been more like couch rest so far.  I called Dr. Carmichael this morning as instructed and she advised that we treat and monitor the blood pressure through the weekend and scheduled me to come in on Monday @ 11:30am for a new round of testing.  Depending on the results of those tests, we may check into the hospital Monday night for induction.  Either way, I am pretty sure you will make your way into this world sometime within the next week!  We’ll keep you posted….

You don’t even know it yet, but you have been blessed with the best father a little girl could hope for!  He is sweet, kind, gentle, funny, loving, caring, honest, trustworthy, loyal, fun, thoughtful…the list goes on.  We are both excited and anxious for your arrival, which your father had a dream about the other night.

He dreamt that you were born around 2pm in the afternoon and that I didn’t bother to wake him up for your birth…I just let him sleep right through it.  I reassured him that I was going to need all the support that only he can provide so that would NEVER happen!  He did get a good visual of you in his dream and he said you were just as cute as could be.  Of course, you’re our kid, how could you not be adorable!?  🙂

We had our weekly check-up yesterday.  I pulled into the parking lot and was gathering up my things when I saw somone out of the corner of my eye that was built a lot like your dad walking towards my car.  It took me a second, but to my amazement, I realized it was your father!   He had come to surprise us for one of your last doctor visits!  I was SO surprised and excited to see him!

He got to watch you on the sonogram and see you pass all of your tests.  You were doing suckling motions with your lips and tongue and Melissa (the sonogram lady) even tried to get a few 3-D shots.  None of them were great, and they are always a little distorted, but two things are fairly certain:  you still have a ton of hair and it looks as though you’ve definitely inherited my nose.  The new thing we saw, if it’s accurate, is some seriously chubby cheeks.  We’ll see if that holds true.

You’ve dropped to the 93rd percentile and weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz today.  Since I was not at all dilated we are still on track for induction on 5/19. It’s hard to believe that we’ll be havin’ a baby in just 2 weeks!