I've got little baby Kianna here in my lap as I type this (with both hands!!! look, Ma!) She is relatively peaceful after a bit of "conversation" earlier. I don't know how long this will last but so far so good. I think with a little practice this.... oops.... spoke too soon... be back in a bit. I think.

Bugs here! I don't have much time but I was able to come over to Rick's house and get some of these photos uploaded. Wella and I are so thankful for all our friends and family that have been with us during this experience, both bodily and in spirit.

Some of you have been wanting some better stats:
Full name: Kianna Lynne Mitchell
Born: September 27, 2001 @ 4:53 PM
Weight: 7 pounds 11 ounces. (oh thank heaven for 7-11)
Length: 20 inches

Wella got through the labor just beautifully. Her doctor still cannot believe she was able to have the baby naturally (without c-section). There were some complications however after the birth. Poor Wella had some bleeding that the doctors had trouble isolating. As a result, some very painful things had to be done to insure Wella's safety. She if fine now but I must say it was gut wrenching for me to have to witness that after all she had just been through.

I chose 5 of the best pics to put here. I hope you enjoy them. Our little baby girl is just beautiful and we are so happy that we can share these images of her and her mom with you!

Greetings! This is Rick (aka Remus), another cousin, reporting in for the wonderful parents. Today, a few minutes before 5pm PST, Kianna was born. The bug family are doing fine. Kianna is 7 lbs 11 ounces. Ok, ok, ok, here are the pictures.

Rodimus again, I just received word that Wella has started to push. So Kianna will probably arrive sometime in the next hour or so.

Hey all, it's Rodimus (Rodney), Bugs and Wella's cousin again. Bugs just called me and wanted me to let you all know about how they are doing.

Wella had mild contractions all night, but she was able to rest a bit.

At 6am put in the drug to induce labor. 6:30 am to 10 am the contractions have gotten stronger and stronger, she really had to work through the breathing and Bugs helped her out with the breathing, but she handled it like champ.

At 10 am they asked for the epideral and about 10 mins later everything on the lower half of her body went numb. She is feeling sooo good that she is taking a long nap right now. Clean sailing until it is time to push.

Rodimus here, Bugs and Wella's good looking and wonderful cousin, Bugs and Wella wanted to let you all know that the contractions are becoming more frequent and right now Wella is resting. At 12:30 they will be giving another application of medicine and by morning if she hasn't started full labor then they will apply a full inducement of labor.

Across the hall from us were two girls going through labor. One use epideral and one did not. One was in peaceful bliss, while the other was being very vocally religous.

We just got back from the doctor's office. We are going to the hospital at 5:30PM and checking in. We decided it would be better to induce labor and get this show on the road because we want every chance of avoided a c-section. So we spend the night at the hospital and at 6AM tomorrow morning they will begin administering the labor inducing drugs. Labor should begin soon after that. The doctor says that since this is our first baby the labor is usually quite a bit longer. We'll find out soon enough. So after this point all updates to the log will either be done for me by my very capable cousin, Rodney, or myself via laptop. But either way we'll keep this thing as current as we can.

All your best wishes and prayers are greatly appreciated by Wella and me!

I just spoke with the doctor on the phone. Assuming they are still planning on inducing labor, I wanted to know with more certainty when that's going to be done. I'm not real satisified with the treatment we have been receiving from the doctor's office. I'm sure most of it is due to the number of patients they have but it's a bit frustrating when you feel like you're a burden on their busy schedules. So anyway, she said we can discuss it tomorrow when we come in for our weekly visit. She did say that they would not induce it tomorrow so that means Thursday or later.

We made it through the weekend with no signs of the onset of labor. I believe Wella experienced about 5 contractions over the last 3 days. We're still waiting and not a whole lot to report except that it looks as though the baby is sitting lower that a couple of days ago. I'm sure this is a good sign. Later today, I plan to put up some more photos of Wella and how she's looked over the pregnancy. It is absolutely amazing how big that belly can get! Stay tuned...

Ok, here they are. I have one that hasn't been developed yet from around the second or third month but there wasn't much to see at that time so these should do.

Wella Belly June
Wella Belly August
Wella Belly September

The doctor says that the baby's head hasn't really moved down very much since last week. He is concerned that if the baby isn't delivered at least by the 26th then Wella would be at a higher risk of having a Ceasarean section. So basically what we're looking at is that this baby is going to be delivered sometime within the next 7 days. The doctor is going to induce labor if it hasn't started by next Wednesday.

Wella seems to be doing fine but
she is really getting ready
for this baby to be born.

See for yourself.

Ok not so many contractions tonight but they were definitely more intense. Wella was having to start thinking past the pain on a few of them. I found myself instinctively telling her to breath through them. Both of us know this is just a small taste of what is to come but the more we practice the techniques we learned in class the better off we should be.

I bought a stop watch that I keep around my neck now so when Wella calls or if I'm near she grabs my arm I can start timing the contractions. You know what's pretty funny is that all through the lamaze classes I thought it was dumb to call all the mother's partners "coaches". Well, with this hanging around my neck...

Ok, the bags are packed and we are ready to go to the hospital any day now. Wella has been having more frequent contractions with increasing duration.

Tonight she was having 30-40 second contractions at irregular intervals. But the doctor told us on Thursday that she was already dilated by 1 cm. That's only 9 cm more to go.

We are so ready for the birth. Wella looks so big as if she were about to pop. She is getting increasingly uncomfortable too.

We purchased a video camera today so we can capture some of those first moments on film. We just spent the night watching several old videos I made back in college... it was real fun seeing how things were. The funniest thing was that I kept commenting on the video as we were watching and I would say the same things that I said originally back then. I just told Wella I was going to shut up because I had already said everything at the time.

Buntis means pregnant in Tagalog. A few years back, Wella was really having fun pretending to be pregnant. I was lucky enough to get a hold of this photo and "remind" her about it. What a pleasure that was. Either way, it had to be shown to everyone because quite frankly it is charming.

Something tells me Wella isn't laughing now quite as much as she was in this photo. Heh!

We got a few ultrasound pictures from our visits to the hospital. I wanted to get them up here before we get deluged with much better pictures after she's born.

First Pic Ever
Second Pic Ever
Baby Hand
Baby Foot
Baby Face

Wella, Lanie, and Rocena made these extremely cool favors for Wella's baby shower. Lanie drew the picture. They all traced the original image by hand onto a large piece of plastic and colored it. Then they placed it in the toaster oven and it shrunk to this size, about 1.0 x 1.5 inches.

Spiffy Baby Shower Favor

Here are some pics from Wella's baby shower at her place of employment. Wella is opening one of several wonderful presents in front of around 60 people who attended.

Yummy Cake!
Wella Opens Presents