Our little sweetheart was welcomed into this world at 4:58pm on Tuesday, April 11th, weighing in at a very healthy 8 pounds 1 ounce and measuring 19 inches long.  She is absolutely beautiful with big dark blue eyes (we wonder what color they will change to?) and a TON of long dark brown hair that has little blonde tips/highlights.  Too cute.  She is absolutely perfect in every way and we couldn't be more thrilled and proud. 

The labor and delivery went very well.  Kim and Kurt arrived at the hospital a little after 6:00am on Tuesday and got settled into the labor/delivery room, joined by their doula Catie.  After a bunch of paperwork, the nurse started Kim on a Pitocin drip to induce labor.  This got the contractions going stronger and began dilating at a much faster pace.  Kim was already 3 cm's dilated and 80% effaced upon arrival, but with the Pitocin she progressed rather quickly to 6 cm's.  The contractions were strong, but nothing that couldn't be handled by breathing and positioning.  At that point, the doctor came in and broke Kim's bag of water.  That really got labor kicked into high-gear.  The contractions became extremely strong (due to the Pitocin) and extremely close together, and Kim had finally had enough.  Time for the drugs!  So she had an epidural which helped a lot.  During the transition stage of labor (progressing from 7-10 cm's, also known as the worst/most intense part of labor) Kim got the shakes, which the nurses explained was fairly common.  But before we knew it, it was time to start pushing.  An hour and 15 minutes of pushing and out came the most beautiful, big baby girl!! 

There was a bit of name confusion at first.  Going into the day, Kurt and Kim had decided they were just going to name her Kate if it was a girl, so that's what they did at first.  However, after holding her for a few minutes they both just felt that Catherine was a better fit for the beautiful little creature they were holding.  Plus, she can have any number of nicknames - some that Kurt and Kim prefer are Kate, CJ, Katie, and Kurt has taken to calling her Little C from time to time as well. 

So mom, dad and baby are all doing wonderfully!  Tune into the Baby Journal for updates as to the development of little Catherine.  Also, be sure to check back to the Photo Album frequently as we try to update pictures as much as possible so you can all watch little CJ grow!! 

And please sign our Guestbook - we love hearing from all of you! 

Love, Kim, Kurt & CJ

Welcome everyone!  This is baby Stuckenbrock's new and improved website.  We'd been using a free website called babycrowd.com which was great, but it was a bit frustrating because it didn't have some key features I wished it did.  So I discovered this site, which is not free but not too pricey either, so we decided to make the switch. 

We just thought this would be a great way to keep friends and family updated on the status of the pregnancy via journal entries, ultrasound photos, Kim's expanding belly size, shower photos, and eventually of the baby itself in it's first months of life.  Plus the really nice feature about this site is that I can organize the photos into different categories, whereas on the other website you did not have the ability to do that.  So if you want to check out the latest on the nursery, you can go to the Nursery Photos page, or if you want to line up Kim's belly shots week-by-week to see the progress, you can go to the Belly Pics page. 

We hope you all enjoy, and feel free to post any questions, messages, wishes for the baby, whatever makes you happy!  And before we know it, little baby Stuckenbrock will be here!