Introducing Harper Grace

Harper Grace decided to make her grand entrance into this world on June 29, 2012 weighing in at 5 pounds 11.8 ounces and 19 inches long. Although she was a full month early, she is absolutely perfect. I did not feel very good most of the week prior to her birth and I wondered if this was a sign of something to come, or if it was simply the fact that I was basically 9 months pregnant, in the middle of the summer, chasing around 2 very active little boys. Thursday evening (June 28) I really did not feel well and my normal evening contractions began to get a little more intense; although, I was trying not to think too much about it because these pesky contractions were a very common occurance. Well, around 11pm they really started to increase and I began to wonder if tonight was the night I would meet my daughter. Brad and I settled in and decided to watch a movie. That was a great distraction and I continued to "labor" while we watched Crazy.Stupid.Love (which, by the way is a pretty funny movie if you haven't watched it). Finally around 1am I decided we needed to load up Paxton and head to the hospital to be evaluated. (Maddox was in Oklahoma with the Vodas). My dad and Kelly were able to keep Paxton for us and off to the hospital we went.
When we arrived I told the nurse that I though I was in labor. I am pretty sure they did not think I was actually in labor because they took their precious time getting everything set up for me to be monitored. When she checked my cervix, I was dilated to a 3-4 and 100% effaced. Because I was not dilated very far she still was not certain I was in active labor. However, once she finally hooked me up to have my contractions monitored, it took her about a minute to change her mind and inform us that we would be meeting our sweet little girl fairly soon. My contractions were measuring on the chart at about 50-70 and only a minute apart.
I was worried little Harper was still breech and we would be preparing ourselves for a c-section; however, once they took a quick look via ultrasound, they discovered that little miss had once again turned herself around and was head down. Whew.
Now, I had not been checked in the office to see if I was StrepB negative, so I needed two rounds of IV antibiotics to be on the safe side. They did not want to check my cervix again for fear of rupturing my water and they needed those antibiotics in me before Harper arrived. I could have the antibiotics every 4 hours, so they started one round, got my epidural and Brad and I tried to rest as much as we could while we waited for the antibiotics to do their thing.
The other thing they were worried about was my water breaking on its own (which remember I had way more amniotic fluid than needed) thus allowing Harper the ability to flip once again and become breech, or even scarier, her umbilical cord could slip through the cervix and came out before her. They needed to wait on Dr. Burley to arrive so they could break my water and keep a close eye on Harper.
Once the antibiotics were in, Dr. Burley came and they broke my water. This part was a little interesting because one of the nurses had to push hard on every part of my tummy and hold Harper in place so she wouldn't flip around. I am very thankful for that epidural because I am pretty sure with the amount of pressure she was having to place on my tummy that I would have thrown up!! Everything was successful. They broke my water (which was enough fluid to hold twins...ha) and Harper remained head down.
Now the active and productive labor began. The epidural worked great and it wasn't long before they were suggesting that we start pushing. They were certain she would come with just a couple quick pushes. Well, they were wrong. Once again, Harper had her own agenda. She just would not come out. It turns out that little miss was looking sunny side up and kept hitting her head on my pelvic bone and was getting stuck. Then right at the end she decided to turn a little and now her shoulder was coming out along with her head. This was the most pain I have ever been in my life and I was beyond ready for the doctor to get our little bitty daughter out! At 11:14am Harper Grace Kalivoda cooperated and we were able to meet our beautiful baby girl.
After all of that pushing and her head getting stuck, the poor things head was super swollen and bruised. It just looked like it hurt so badly. She is a trooper though and never really seemed phased by the whole ordeal.
She is beautiful, perfect and oh so tiny.
Brad and I are so in love with our newest addition. So far she is the most laid back of our crew and the only times she cries is if she has an air bubble or she is chilly. (I am eagerly praying that she remains this calm and relaxed). She loves to be held. Everything around her just swallows her up, so she definitely likes to be swaddled and held tight. She loves to be on my chest and listen to my heart beat.

Getting to hold her for the first time

Getting warm under the warmer

Her first bow

The big bow covers most of it up, but you can see how purple her little head was

Oh my sweet Sarah. This girl will never know how much I love and cherish her friendship

Watching Brad with a daughter is breathtaking 

Oh so tiny and ready to go home