My Really Good Thing

Congratulations

Welcome to the world little Caroline! Congrats to Mr. & Mrs. King. Enjoy the wonderment of parenthood!


hrg

thank God! that is seriously wonderful and congratulations for sure!!

Congratulations! Babies rock!

gretschoholic wrote:

Congratulations! Babies rock!

....And when they get a little older, they "roll" too!

How are Mom, Dad and little Caroline doing?


hrg

Good (early) morning all,

First off, thank you. Jenny and I really appreciate all of your support and prayers.

Caroline is off having her hearing tested right now, and Jenny is finally asleep again, so I figured I could spend a minute over here on the iPad sending an update to you guys.

I will have a more detailed story to tell when i get back to our computer and can really take the time to share, but for now, Jenny made it through labor and delivery with no complications from her bleeding disorder, and Caroline is doing just fabulous, and let me tell you, she is the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen.

I will share one quick little tidbit before I try to join in a little sleep, as we have had a long few days with little sleep. For the past few months, Jenny was convinced it was a boy, and I have been very on the fence about what we were having, I just couldn't convince myself it was one or the other. Anyway, the one thing that I was really looking forward to you all here, this special community that I have been sharing with for so long now, was going to be the name if it were a boy.

Several months ago, we decided the names, Caroline Eleanor if it was a girl, and then we wanted to use a B name for a boy, with my middle name of Gerard. Jenny looked and I looked, and one day, she came to me with a name, and I liked the sound of it, then, after a minute, I realized why I liked the sound of it, and I knew there would be a little commotion on the board here if it were a boy. His name would have been Brighton Gerard.

I love my little girl, and I am so glad she is who she is.

Thank you all again, I will get all gushy and mushy later on ya.

-BK, JK, CK

Brian,

Congratulations to you and the whole Kool family! Looking forward to some pictures.

God bless,
Dave

been following on FB, such a great story over the last yr and now the fun really begins!

saw the fb pics- she's beautiful! I wish you all the best You've got beautiful weather for bringing her home. Enjoy every moment!

congratulations Brian & Jenny! Saw the pics on FB, she is an angel! Your lives will be changed forever, you'll love it!! Absolutely beautiful name!

Thank you again to all of the kind words you have shared, here and on The Book.

I just wanted to write a little something to share what happened to us that day, since I find quite a bit of excitement in a few places.

We had our weekly checkup last Tuesday at 8am, and we woke up a little late. We have not been on time to a single appointment thus far for this pregnancy, and why would we want to be on time for this one? While in the ultrasound room, the ultrasound tech mentioned how Jenny's fluid levels had been low before, but stabilized. Now, her levels appeared to be significantly lower than before, and we were probably going to go have a baby today. She said it so nonchalantly and carried on with the ultrasound. I am sitting next to the table thinking "Um, excuse me, can we go back to that last statement please..."

We were taken from the ultrasound to a monitor to track any contractions and the baby's heartbeat. We were sitting in that room alone for about 10 minutes discussing the potential for what could be happening, because no definitive answers were given to us yet, and we really wanted to know if we were going to have a baby or not. Eventually, our doctor came into the room and just claps his hands together and says "Ok, you are going to go downtown and have a baby today!" Just like that. Our shaking and nerves came to a stop and we had an answer. We needed to get home, pack our things, get our selves ready to go and head to the hospital at our earliest convenience. I don't think the doctor appreciated when I asked if we could wait until the Twins game was over that night.

We leave the hospital and call our parents, and there is nothing but excitement. I call my boss and break it to him that I will not be coming into work tonight, nor the next few nights. Rocky was very happy to see us come home, but he was not happy to see us running around the house, packing any final items, sending a few last minute emails, and just causing a small amount of chaos. We finally left the house around 10am, hit up the McD's so Jenny could have one last meal before not eating before delivery, and made our way to a crappy part of Minneapolis.

When we finally got to the hospital, the whole "lets go have a baby" thing got really boring. They introduced the drugs to begin the induction process and we had a ball doing absolutely nothing. I kept getting texts from people asking for updates, and I kept telling them the WNBA would probably have more highlights than in our room for quite a while. Jenny's family showed up at about 7pm, and we were still 4 hours away from the beginning of labor. Luckily, the Twins won that night, made a good start to the late night process.

We decided to attempt a little nap around 9pm, as Jenny's family headed to the waiting room to try to get some rest as well. My parents were going to wait it out at home, because they knew it would have been a very long night, and we knew that it might not even be a successful induction. Our nap was interrupted at 11pm to break Jenny's water. After that, the night got very long.

The pain started around 1am, I was watching Major League. At about 2:30am, after Major League ended, Jenny asked for her mom to come rub her back. I went and got her, and within 45 seconds of being at the bedside, her mom got lightheaded and had to put her head down. I had to giggle a little bit, but knew we had to band together. I got her some water and tried to keep both of them comfortable, but after a good 45 minutes, she wasn't doing very well. I threw Dumb and Dumber into the DVD player and went to get Jenny's dad to bring her mom back to the waiting room.

Now, about 3:30am or so, the pain was getting very bad. Jenny was not able to have an epidural because of her bleeding disorder. The main complication that could arise from a bleed during an epidural would be paralysis, and that would be a very bad thing. So, Jenny only had some painkillers to help, and they did not. With my parent-in-laws in the room rubbing Jenny's back, I saw a small window to leave the room for 26 minutes and take a small nap in the waiting room, but also saw a chance to keep my sister-in-law company, who has some high anxiety sometimes, especially when in unfamiliar situations. So, I kept her company and made myself as comfortable as possible on an institutional carpet floor.

I went back into the room and that's when Jenny's parents left. The amount she was dilated kept increasing at a good rate, but we were still a bit away. Her pain was very bad, and there was nothing I could do. Come 6am, she told me this would be our only child, as she could not endure this pain again, and asked the nurse how much longer. We were told we were SO CLOSE (about a thousand times) and finally, it was time to push.

6:25 was when Jenny started the process of pushing. A short while into it, one of the nurses told me to get my camera ready, to which I happily obliged. With the video camera in place (to not see anything graphic) and the new digital camera powered on, it seemed like only a few seconds later that the baby was coming out.

For the past few weeks, Jenny had been convinced it would be a boy. I was very on the fence during the entire pregnancy, but I think I was leaning more towards boy than girl. When the baby came out, the doctor held her up to me and asked "What is it Daddy?" Because of the obstruction of the cord, the quick glance at the baby, and the tears welling in my eyes, I honestly didn't know what it was. So, with that, and there is now video evidence of this, my first words were "F%$&, I don't know!?!?" Which is immediately followed by Jenny saying "It's a Girl?!?!?" Daddy lost it a little bit. She was here, she was healthy, she was beautiful. We had a daughter.

I dropped to my knees to rejoice and pray for my daughter and wife and thank the LORD for the gifts he had given me, because those gifts are amazing. The baby went immediately on Jenny's chest to have bare skin contact to regulate temperatures. It would stay there for roughly an hour. I went to the waiting room to break the news, and I called my parents, who were only a few minutes away. Caroline Eleanor King was born at 7:04am on April 6, 2011.

I had only gotten those 26 minutes of sleep in the past 24 hours, and the families had now entered the delivery room and had begun the process of documenting the life of Caroline with hundreds of digital pictures, but I had yet to hold my daughter. The nurse asked who wanted to be first, to which Jenny said Daddy needed to hold her, as I sat slumped over in a rocking chair, fighting to keep my eyes open. Thanks to my father-in-law, I can share this with you.








The next few hours would be a whirlwind. We would move to another room upstairs, get checked out by multiple nurses, student nurses, doctors, pediatricians, blood doctors, a crap ton of people. By around noon-1pm, we had been rolling on about 30 hours without sleep. We threw the "Don't mess with us, we are sleeping" sign on the door, and Mommy, Daddy, and Baby curled up as a family on the bed and took a nap for about 90 minutes, but felt like 10 hours.


I share this with you because of the relationships I have formed here. I consider you friends and am so happy to be able to say whatever the hell I want to, and know that at least 1 person will listen. I thank you all for your support, prayers, love and celebration for my family and I.

Jenny coined Caroline's new catchphrase a few nights ago, and, I think I will print it on a onesie for her.

"I can't help I was born so adorable!"


Thank You.

Brian, Jenny, and Caroline King

oh boy oh boy!!! Just put my kids down for the night and its freakin midnight!! Life is wild and crazy, but I cant imagine living without my 2 sons.. they complete me and I can see you are on a brand new journey. I needed to see the video because I have been praying for you, your baby and your wife every night. This event is just a straight miracle, especially that it went so smooth. My first kids birth was a long frightful event, but the second was a sweet quick awesome situation. Ironically he is the spitfire.. In anycase thanks for letting us share in the event

Caroline is incredibly blessed by two totally smitten parents. Thanks for sharing your story. I need to go find the kleenex box now.

Happy Parenthood!
hrg

Thanks for sharing your story, Daddy! Those days were some of the best of my life - that day will be etched on your brain forever. And she's so sweet - just a lil' ol' one-hander! It'll go fast, Brian, so savor all of it.

what a sweet, beautiful story!

All things in our home have settled down quite a bit.

The visitors are still knocking at the door to meet the little bundle of perfection, and that means we get small breaks from holding her, and we are able to steal a nap here and there when the Grandparents want to take their turn.



A few weeks ago, we did have a small scare. There was an increased amount of post-partum bleeding that caused Jenny to become concerned enough to call me home from a night shift of work. We were instructed to head to the emergency room because of her bleeding disorder.

That friday night was a snowy night, and it was not a fun drive to Minneapolis in the snow. A little stressful and hectic, but when got to the hospital, the checkup confirmed that she was doing just fine, and her bleeding levels were normal. They did stress that we did the right thing to come in, as with her condition, she is obviously at a higher risk.

But for now, I have 2 sleeping beauties, and I have some laundry to fold.

-BK

These came in the mail today.
I wish we had enough to send to you all, but, DAMN, these cost us an arm and a leg!





-BK

a little miracle!

My really good thing is about to turn 1 year old next Friday.

I know some of you have been following her growth on Facebook, but I wanted to share this one here.


A head's up, this isn't even the best from this collection....



-BK