We were scheduled to induce baby girl Thursday morning at 7am, two days before her due date. All the family had arrived so it was the perfect time. My mom came to the house around 630 to be with Denver, I got some good morning snuggles before we left for the hospital. We loaded up the car, with what felt like, 1,000 bags and headed out. We went straight up to Labor & Delivery, they were excepting us and we went into the delivery suite.

On St. Thomas it’s a little different, most the delivery rooms are quite small, there only one suite and it’s never guaranteed, so we were lucky (again) to get the bigger room. More space for the family and Denver to wait, and once the baby was born there’s plenty of room for her to stay for her first couple of hours.

Dr. Lloyd came in to examine me around 8am. This was the most painful exam yet. I was at about 3.5 cm and we wanted to start the epidural before the pitocin because my body typically moved a long pretty quickly. They took my blood work to the lab to make sure I was good to go for the epidural. This took FOREVER, the lab was really backed up. In the mean time, the family arrived and I did a little Klos & Co work in bed. Around 1030am the lady came in to start the epidural. It was much more painful then I remember. I think she may have scrapped the top of a vertebrae, because I just didn’t feel quite right. Regardless, the drugs were in and we were ready to get started.

At around 11am Dr. Lloyd came back and popped my water. The family came back in and the ‘waiting’ game began. Denver was running around the room playing with a rainbow unicorn from baba, pops was blowing up hospital gloves and danny was bouncing the birthing ball, needless to say, it’s always a party when a Klos baby is born.

I was having contractions but nothing really strong or painful. I shifted my weight and that’s when things changed. Denver was getting anxious so everyone had left to take her outside to play. I told Danny to grab a nurse on the way out because my contractions were getting really painful and I was ready to make the epidural a little stronger. The nurse came in to check me- sure enough I was already 9cm and could start pushing if I wanted to. My body was definitely ready to push, but no one was there, so I started calling Danny to come back and the nurse called Dr. Lloyd who was at her office across the street. Danny got to the room and I was in A LOT of pain. I don’t think the epidural had enough time to kick in, or the babe was just so ready to come out. Dr. Lloyd arrived and it was baby time, I didn’t even have a chance to put my legs in the stirrups. Four pushes later and baby girl arrived at 12:42 pm almost 8lbs and 20.5 in long.

She came right up to my chest, Danny cut the cord and they took her to the warmer to clear out her throat. The doc finished up with me and baby girl came back over. I finally got a closer look at our newest addition, Ray Summers Klos.

Ray is named after her Grandfather, Timothy Raymond Klos. We also chose Ray because it is my paternal Grandfather’s middle name and goes pretty far back on my both sides. Summers came from my maternal Grandmother, Summers was her maiden name, and the ‘Summers Girls’ are a strong tradition on my Mom’s side.

She is so beautiful, dark hair and dark skin, just like her daddy. She is a spitting image of Danny. We soaked her up and introduced her to everyone. Denver was infatuated right away and is already the BEST big sister. We celebrated with champagne and pink velvet cupcakes!

Postpartum has been a breeze, compared to what I went through with D. Our hospital stay was short and sweet, we both were released at 4pm on Friday to come home as a family of four. I feel so blessed to have two beautiful little girls and we are quickly learning the craziness of two under two, but loving every minute.

The bunny onesie Ray is wearing is the same onesie Denver & I came home from the hospital in.

Xo, Kelsey