My Greatest Addition

I am welcoming myself back to the blogging world! I have a lot of excuses for not keeping it up to date but none are worth mentioning. Hopefully, I can do a better job now, especially since I have a better reason to write! Chad and I welcomed our greatest addition, Jude McKirgan Kemp (9 lb. 2 oz., 21 inches), at 4:47 a.m. on Halloween of this year.

After trying for 9 months, we found out we were pregnant on Valentines day. It turned out to be the best Valentines day ever. I was in shock but thrilled. Our due date was October 25th and we decided not to find out the gender. I really enjoyed listening to everyone guess. By the time my due date was approaching, about 90 percent of everyone I talked to guessed a boy. They were right!

I had the best pregnancy ever. No nausea, no sleepiness, no mood swings, no cravings, no swelling. Really, the only reason I even knew I was pregnant was because I had an expanding waistline! :)

I went into labor on October 30th at 10:00 a.m. My labor wasn't as smooth as my pregnancy. I wanted to do everything naturally. However, at 9:00 p.m. I gave in because I was still only 4.5 cm dilated and was not making much progress. After receiving the epidural, we realized quickly that my body doesn't respond well to anesthetic. I will spare you the details. Overall, after a few scares throughout the night and after 3 hours of pushing, Jude arrived - as perfect as could be!

My 6 weeks of maternity leave officially ends this week but I am taking vacation until the new year. I love being a mother and absolutely love spending all of my time with Jude. He is a great baby and doesn't fuss much. Rhyme and Tempest have adjusted well and Chad is an amazing Daddy. I am extremely lucky!


Latest update: Jude took his first bottle! As the new year gets closer and I prepare to go back to work (tear, sniff sniff), we want to make sure he will take a bottle while there. He took it like a champ and didn't think anything of it. Daddy did a great job feeding him as well!