Duncan, OK | Baby L

Nora was born at 34 weeks (she’s now a healthy little 3 year old girl, and the Big Sister of this Birth Story) and came into the world through a pretty wild ride. With Baby Girl #2 on the way, Kylee and Dalton were hoping for a birth that would let them all stay together, was bit more relaxed, and had lots of pictures to look back on.

September started with Nora’s birthday, then Kylee’s - then on the very last day of the month, they met Baby Sister.

Kylee was scheduled for a caesarean delivery at 8:30am that morning. I arrived at 8:15am-ish. Lolli, Ppop, and Dalton were there. She was settled in the bed, patiently waiting her turn while her childhood friend tended to her as her nurse. Isn’t that incredible? Talk about a full circle moment. I’ve watched Jenny more than once be a super star with both Moms + Babies on Birth Days. But for her to be the nurse AND the friend to his Mom? Kylee really got the best of both worlds.

While we waited, I listened to everyone in the room recount the details they remembered from Nora’s Birth Day. So many things were different this time around! For one, they were all able to be in the same room. 3 years ago, the pandemic had families separated. Kylee and Baby were both healthy this go around. With the first birth, Kylee was rushed to OU at 34 weeks because of her body not handling the pregnancy well. She says she doesn’t remember much about the birth of Nora or the time right after she was born.

This time - she was awake, very aware, and anxious to have a totally different experience.

Dr. Elfrink came into see Kylee and give her a run down of what to expect, followed quickly by Steve, the anesthesiologists. Ppop circled everyone up for a prayer. Hugs and kisses were given, and then Jenny wheeled her off to the OR. As she rolled away she leaned up and said to Jenny, “Can you believe we were in gymnastics together when we were three and now you’re going with me to have a baby?!”

Then we waited, just Dalton and I, in the blue paper scrubs, with me trying to keep the conversation going to make the time pass. The 21 minutes might as well have been 21 hours - days even. When they called us back at 9:48am, Dalton didn’t waste a second walking out of the room to get to Kylee and his newest baby girl.

Steve was so attentive to both Kylee and Dalton, peeking over the curtain and keeping them updated on how the procedure was going. Reassuring Kylee that she was doing great, and that the baby was doing great.

At 10:01am, Lizzie was born!

Jenny got right to her on the warmer, and Kylee had one tear fall trickle down out of relief at the sound of Lizzie’s immediate, little baby cries. Dalton walked over to the warmer in the next few moments to get a look.

By 10:15am, Mom was seeing her newest baby for the first time and feeling her tiny face against her own cheek.

Dad went back to the room with Lizzie while they transitioned Kylee back to her regular room bed. I think his smile says it all!

When he handed Lizzie back to Mom, she squeezed her so tight - right up next to her cheek again. For the next hour or so, Lizzie ate while Jenny took care of Mom.

As we waited for Lizzie to be born, I asked Kylee how Nora was feeling about a baby sister. “Oh she’s so excited! She already plays with her babies all the time at home and shushes us all when they are ‘sleeping’.” She was pretty confident Nora would be more than willing to hold Lizzie and may not want to share ‘her’ baby with everyone else.

And Mom was absolutely right about that.

They had a Big Sister present for Nora to open - which gave Lolli time to hold Lizzie all by herself without any assistance. Nora was going to be the ultimate Big Sis. Lizzie would also get to meet her Big Brother, Daegan, after school that day. Just another sibling to giver her even more love.

And being loved too much may just be the best problem to have when you are Brand New.