Finally...

My beautiful baby girl is FINALLY here!!! I can't even explain how extremely happy I am :) I am so in love with my little family of 4!!

The night before the scheduled c-section I didn't sleep more than 20 mins. I couldn't sleep. I was so excited and nervous. Jonathon kept telling me that I needed to rest, but instead I showered and just kind of laid in bed thinking about what my baby was going to look like and how the c-section was going to go.

Jonathon got some sleep, but woke up with me around 5:00 a.m. The night before his mom and sister decided they wanted to come, so they left American Fork at about 11 p.m. They made it here to Monticello at about 4:30 a.m. They said the roads were pretty bad, so they had to drive slow. Alexis woke up as Jonathon and I were getting ready to go up to the hospital, and was sad that she couldn't come up yet. We told her that she could come up as soon as the surgery was over, and that she'd see her baby sister in about an hour.
Jonathon and I got up to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. The nurses took me back and I got two I.V.'s put in my arms.. and then had a catheter put in. OH MY GOSH... the catheter was the very WORST part. I've never ever had anything hurt more in my life than that stupid catheter.
The lady that did my spinal was very nice. She explained how it would work, and sat right next to me the whole time. The spinal didn't hurt at all. In fact I wanted it so that the pain from the catheter would go away. It didn't take long to feel completely numb from the chest down. Once I was numb and laying down.. I was so excited to finally meet my baby girl.
The surgery took a lot longer than I remember it taking with Alexis. Dr. Black later told me that it did take longer because I guess from my last c-section I had an infection that left a ton of scare tissue. I don't know why Dr. Willis never noticed anything. It's weird that I didn't realize it had gotten infected with the first c-section. So anyways.. Dr. Black said that he had to carefully get through a lot of scar tissue, so he went really slow.
Kinleigh Rose Strickland was born at 7:47 a.m. The second I heard her sweet little cry... I started crying. Dr. Black said that he could see some brown hair.. and I didn't believe him, so I asked Jonathon if she really had hair. Jonathon said yes. Alexis didn't have any hair at all. After she was out.. Jonathon asked if I wanted him to stay next to me, or have him go with the baby.. I told him to go get lots of good pics :) Baby Kinleigh weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. She was 20 inches long! She is PERFECT!! In fact they said most c-section babies usually rate about a 6 or 7 on their scale of how healthy the baby is when they are first born. Kinleigh rated a 9.
It took quite a while for the Dr. to stitch me back up.. because of all the scar tissue he had to go through. Dr. Black said he wanted to go really slow to make sure that this c-section would heal good. So it seemed like it took forever before I really got to see Kinleigh. It was a lot faster than with Alexis though. I didn't get to see Alexis for about 2 hours because they couldn't get her temperature under control.
I was so happy to see that my mom, Jonathon's mom, Jonathon's sister, Kelly, Ami, and Alexis were waiting in my room for us. Jonathon said that Kinleigh was so calm during her first little bath and that she was just perfect :)
A lot of people think she looks just like Alexis. I think she does in a way.. and also looks different in some ways. Her skin is a lot pinker than Alexis. Alexis was a little whitey. She also has the dark brown hair! She is a very good baby. She is a great eater.. which I was so worried about because breast feeding did not work out very well with Alexis. I am getting pretty sore, and I'm just hoping that my milk will come in soon, and that the soreness will go away quickly. Kinleigh hardly ever cries. But when she does cry she lets you know that she is really upset. Her cry is the cutest thing in the whole world!! In fact Jonathon lets her cry sometimes just because he thinks it is so cute!
Alexis of course just LOVES her little sister. She is very proud of being a big sissy. She always wants to hold her! But she says that Kinleigh is always eating.. Ha Ha.
I just barely got released from the hospital today. Usually c-sections only have to stay 48 hours, but Dr. Black wanted to keep an eye on me longer since I have so inflammation from all the scar tissue and stuff. I did get my staples out today, and that wasn't fun either. I definitely HATE not being able to get up a lot, and I can't really function so well right now. Every day gets easier of course.. and I know that I'll be back to my old self soon. I'm just so glad I have my baby!!
Jonathon has been the very best husband ever! He has helped me with every little thing. He's been so great. He stayed with me the entire time in the hospital. He is GREAT with the baby.. but I knew he would be, because he is awesome with Alexis. He's changed all the diapers so far except one that I wanted to try doing on my own yesterday. She already has him wrapped around her little finger, just like Alexis did.

I just feel like the luckiest person in the whole entire world! I can't believe I have two healthy girls! I'm already having so much fun dressing Kinleigh and picking out which bow she'll wear that day :)

Even though I didn't want to have a c-section, and I'm still sad that I have to take it slow these next couple weeks (that is just not me) I feel like it went good. All the nurses here were very nice. I felt so taken care of the entire time we were at the hospital.
Jackie came and saw me yesterday, her little boy Keaton had his 2 week check up. He is already getting big. It makes me so sad that they get big so fast. I want Kinleigh to stay little for as long as possible.
Well we've been home for probably 4 hours now. It is definitely different having 2 kids. Alexis is very hyper and wants us to still pay attention to her. But she has also been great about understanding that I need to sit and relax. She is already being a big help with the baby. She'll get us stuff that we need, and she gets excited to help.

Anyways.. I wanted to just hurry and post this for Journal purposes. I will post pics sometime soon :)