Monday, June 27, 2005 - 11:12pm
Claire Roma Kennedy
7 pounds 14 ounces - 21.25" long

Thanks be to God
for this and many other miracles in our lives.


Pregnancy
Happy Birth Day
Make Room for Baby
First Month
First Year
All The Rest

Monday, June 27, 2005 - the anticipation of my birth, the most exciting time my parents have known, finally came to an end. Mommy and Daddy expected me on Fourth of July, but Mommy was suffering from a terrible pregnancy rash ("PUPPPs"). Ten days later Dr. Eagen told her we should nudge me to come now she could get better.

Daddy was suprised when Mommy called him that Monday afternoon and said "We are having a baby today!" She made him pick up a birthday cake she made and froze for me at home (he had to slice strawberries and everything for the top, AND go buy Cool Whip, before she'd let him come to the hospital!). Mommy is crazy.

At 3:15pm induction began and 8 hours later I was here. We celebrated my arrival around 1am in the birthing suite with Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me. Mommy Devil's Food cake was a big hit (but not as big as me -- everyone loves me). Here's our first family portrait, aren't I cute?

Claire 1-hr old!

After a few hours of pitocin Mommy was 7cm and 100% effaced. Those hours were pretty intense. Daddy did a good job of helping her through it. It was near time to push me out and Mommy had to get some relief. An epidural took only on the left so she could feel everything on the right, but at least her left leg was numb. Daddy wrapped her right leg (covered with a rash) in a sheet. The epidural was turned off not long after it was started so Mommy could feel when to push. That scared her and it hurt more, but it made me move along faster.

Mommy asked for a birthing mirror so she could see me coming into the world. That was also scary but the best thing in the world. She saw I had hair and still didn't know if I was a boy or a girl so it just made her more determined to get me out. When they said "It's a baby girl!" Mommy and Daddy were both so surprised. Didn't they know I had to be one or the other?