Karissa Jane Coons

I was SO done being pregnant...

But Krystle convinced me to take just one more picture the night before I was being induced!

It has been over 2 months since our sweet little Karissa was born, so I figured it is past time to tell her story!

The story of her arrival is pretty short, sweet, and to the point--the pregnancy, however, was not! I went through a lot to get this little beauty here! I had the usual HG like I did with all my other babies, but on top of that I had n ER visit, a 6 day period of time when I could not hold a single thing down and was throwing up blood, bags and bags of fluids to keep me alive, a kidney full of stones (including one the size of the doctor's thumb), a risky kidney stone surgery at 28 weeks, a 4 day stay in the hospital, and ANOTHER kidney stone surgery after her birth! Oh yeah....and a hernia. Cool, right?! Nope. Not cool.

Anyways, the same doctor who delivered Kate also delivered Karissa. She opted to induce me at 39 weeks again so that the baby would not get any bigger and the risk of a uterine rupture would be less. She likes to monitor things extra close with VBACs, and I don't have a problem with that at all!

We arrived at the hospital on February 10th at 5:30 AM, and got everything set. I got all checked in, they monitored me for a while, then when we were all set up I got the epidural. Smooth sailing! They didn't give me the pitocin as fast as they did with Kate, so it seemed like it was taking me forever to make any progress. We just visited and joked around with the nurses. My mom and dad were both there, and Krystle, and of course Russell. It was pretty much a party! :)

It seemed like such a long time, but before I knew it, the doctor was there and I was ready to push! Dad went to the waiting room, but not for long! I pushed 2 times, Robin made a joke about being done in time to eat lunch....then I pushed again.

Robin laughed and said, "What do we have here?!" The baby was literally sucking on her hand when she came out. Robin pulled her little hand out of her mouth, I gave another half of a push, and she was here! I was shocked to be done....I was prepared for it to take WAY more than 3.5 pushes!!! Just over 6 hours from the time we arrived and the hospital to the time she was born at 11:36 AM.

The first thing I saw was her cheeks and her chins. Yep, chinS...she definitely had more than one and it was SO adorable!

She was EXACTLY the same size as Kirsli-- 8 pounds, 11.5 ounces (although they put 8 pound 12 ounces officially) and 20.5 inches long. She is so precious and we love her so much!!!

Russell (of course), mom, Krystle, and dad were the first to meet her. Oh my goodness, it was love at first sight!

 Later, Kirsli, Ryan, and Kate got to come meet her too. They (of course) instantly loved her too! I thought Kate would be super jealous, but she really wasn't! She wants to hold her and kiss her all the time!

Seriously, how am I so lucky? I have FOUR adorable children!

I stayed for a couple days in the hospital for a couple days. After Russell and the kids left the first night I went to get the baby out of her bed and this is what I found. Kirsli left a note for the baby. LOVE!

When I came home my mom was nice enough to come back and help me for several days. We took pictures again! We have improved a lot since Kirsli was born!

 

 And now, here we are! A family of 6!

And one more thing.........based on their baby pictures and the fact that Karissa was nearly a full pound bigger than Kate, these 2 girls could be twins!