Kylen Wiley

I am pleased to announce that I am an Aunt again for the 3rd time in 3 years. Kylen Wiley Johnson was born to my sister Melissa and her husband Kris on Feb. 5th at 5:21pm. He weighed 6 lbs and 9 oz and was 21 inches long.

Early in my sister's pregnancy she had asked me to be in the room with her. I, of course, said yes! I have never been with somebody through the whole process and after my first experience with it I decided I should have many taken a class beforehand.

Melissa called me Thursday night about 9pm to let me know she was having contractions 1-2 minutes apart. So I told her I would pack my bags and wait for her to call me once she got to the hospital. I started packing my bags and getting everything together, brewed a pot of coffee, went and got gas in my car and I was ready to go. She called me again around 10:30pm to tell me that they were keeping her but she was only dilated to a 1. I thought to myself, this could be a very long night. She finally called me again around 12:30 am and said she was dilated to a 2. I decided it was probably time to get on the road.

Half asleep, I began my journey to Emporia. I ran into a slight snow storm just outside of Emporia that slowed down the drive a little bit. I got there about 2:30 am. She was having pretty severe contractions but had been given some pain meds to ease the pain a bit. My parents got there about 3:30 and decided they were going to go to Melissa's and get some sleep. I stay with her and Kris until 5 am and then decided that Kylen probably wasn't going to be making his appearance anytime soon, so I should probably go and get some sleep.

After getting a very short 2 1/2 hrs of sleep I was called back up to the hospital so Kris could go home and get some rest. While I was gone they had broke Melissa's water and gave her an Epidural. It was a very long day of holding the puke pan, giving her ice chips and helping the nurse change her bedding. At 2pm they finally decided to give her Pitosin (sp) and something to stop her from throwing up. At that time they told her they would give her until 4pm to dilate more or they were going to have to take Kylen by C- section.

4 O'clock came around and Melissa wasn't dilated anymore so they began to prep her for surgery. She was very nervous and scared but we knew that Kylen was going to be here soon and everything would be okay. Kris went in with Melissa for the C- section, while everyone else not so patiently waited in the lobby. He finally came into the world Feb. 5th at 5:21pm weighing 6 lbs and 12 oz. and was 21 inches long. He has tons of dark hair and is absolutely perfect.

I was thrilled I could be there for my sister but not so thrilled I had to work back in Lawrence the next morning so I wasn't able to spend much time with my new nephew.