The Sweet Life: Introducing Kai Joseph Campbell!

Just four weeks ago, our sweet little baby Kai Joseph Campbell was born - on Monday, March 30, 2015. We were scheduled for an induction that day. Rinez and Doug came the Saturday beforehand to help watch little Grace and Connor, and all was well in the world! The hospital called me Sunday evening and said I was second in line, so my guess was we'd be at the hospital early. But um...no. That wasn't the case. They didn't call me in until 1 o'clock that afternoon! (I called the hospital at 10 am because I couldn't take it anymore)

So Boyce and I got there promptly at 1 o'clock, and it was actually nice because my nerves had had the morning to wear off and I actually was pretty calm driving to the hospital. :) They got us back to a room quickly and my labor and delivery nurse was absolutely awesome - I LOVED her! She got me hooked up on pitocin and then maybe a half hour later I got my epidural (I was so nervous because with Connor after the epidural my blood pressure dropped and I passed out). But this time around, everyone knew about my blood pressure issue and so that didn't happen (yay!).

But what did happen this time is that not very long after my epidural I started feeling some serious contractions, so of course, what any sensible epidural-receiving woman would do, I pushed the button to release more of my epidural medicine. But that did not happen. Or at least, it didn't seem to happen. Minutes later, I was crying...hard...because I was having some serious back labor. Wow. It was painful. At that point, we realized my darn labor had already moved to an 8 and things were moving fast. My nurse (did I mention I loved her?) really helped me get control of myself since my epidural wasn't really working, and focus on what I was supposed to do. And Boyce was the absolute best coach any wife could ask for. He helped me focus as well, because holy cow, I was in a lot of pain, and all of a sudden there were about 10 people in my room.

At 4:08 pm, my beautiful Kai entered the world, and boy were we surprised to see a head full of dark hair! He was beautiful and healthy, weighing in at 7 lbs. 15 oz. and 20" in length.

I'm in love with his little half-smile!

Melt my heart!

Love his little hands and feet. I'm pretty sure Kai's fingers and toes are the longest of any of our newborns!

A very proud mommy and daddy.

We hadn't decided on any name before Kai's birth. Kai was on our list, but so were a handful of other names. For some reason, I could not really settle on a name beforehand. But after our little guy was born, I prayed that the right name would come to me. And so did Boyce. And the next morning, we both felt very much that this little guy was supposed to be Kai. His middle name comes from my maternal grandfather Joseph Curtis Coppage whom I had a very close relationship with. Boyce and I learned later that his family tree has several Josephs as well, so little Kai comes by his middle name quite naturally.

The day after delivery, Rinez and Doug brought Grace and Connor to the hospital to meet their little brother. They were actually really excited to meet him and to give him a gift that they had each picked out. Connor is holding the little toy animal that Grace picked out for Kai.