Kate's Story

Monday was a very crazy day. We woke up to another 2 to 3 inchesof snow on the ground and it was still snowing. I called the doctors office to see if we could get our appointment moved to earlier in the day. I was so happy that they could because I didn't want them to cancel our appointment because of all the snow. We had an ultrasound first. I really wasn't very excited about it, I didn't want to see my baby on a screen I wanted to see her in person. Everything looked fine. We even found out she had lots of hair, as you can see from the pictures. We then had our routine appointment and there was still no progress so we started talking about being induced. I figured that the doctor would set up a date later in the week but to my surprise she talked about us coming back that night. When she left the room I broke down in tears. I was feeling so many emotions all at once and all of a sudden I wasnt ready for her to come out. We left and went straight home to eat lunch and take a nap. I didn't sleep very long, I had so many things running through my mind. We left to go to the hospital about 7:30 that night and was in our room by 8:00. I was very scared as you could imagine. For the first time in my life I had high blood pressure. I didnt even have high blood pressure during her delivery. By 9:00 they started the Pitocin and increasing the dose every hour. Jeff's brother Jay came to see us and stayed for several hours. It was nice to have people in the room to pass the time. At about 1 am I started to feel the contractions. At first they were managable but after an hour or so they started to get very strong and close together. At one point I told Jeff I just wanted to go home! The nurse came in and offered me something for the pain because it wasnt time for the epidural. I declined and told the nurse I didnt want the medicine and I wanted to see if I could go another half an hour. Thankfully, after that half an hour it was time for the epidural. At that point the contractions we so strong that my whole body shook and all I could do was just hold onto the bed rail. The epidural was instant relief, I was even smiling afterwards. At this point it was about 4 am, I was about 4 cm dilated and 100% effaced but Kate was only at station -1 which means she wasnt even in the pelvic bone. At this point Jeff, Mom, and I decided it would be best to try and sleep a little. I slept for about an hour or so. At about 6 am the nurse came in to check me and I was 6 cm and Kate was at 0 station, so she was just in the pelvic bone. The nurse left so I could continue to sleep but I wasnt able to because Kate was moving so much, then all of a sudden I felt her roll over. The nurse came running back in which kind of scared me because I was worried there was something wrong with Kate. In the beginning of labor her heart rate would drop with each contraction so I was worried that her heart rate had dropped again. The nurse checked me and I was at 8 cm, I had progressed 2 cm in about 10 minutes! At this point it was about 6:30 am, Mom and I decided it was time to wake Jeff up before I was fully dilated. Jeff was of course a little dazed and panicked a little because Kate was coming soon. At 7 am my night nurse left and was replaced with a new nurse. At first I didn't like that because I was getting towards the end and had to get used to a new nurse but she was amazing and very supportive. Around 8 am I started to feel a urge to push with every contraction. I was at 10 cm so the doctor came in and broke my water and told the nurse to let me push for a while to see what kind of progress I could make. I don't think the doctor really thought I was going to be able to delivery Kate because the ultrasound said she was so big, 8 lb 13 oz. After pushing for about an hour and a half Kate's head was right there, I was even able to reach down and feel the hair on her head. It was a very weird feeling, but it motivated me because I knew my pushes were working. I pushed for another half an hour and Kate was finally crowning, this was the only time after the epidural that I felt any pain. Thankfully, there was a magic button for the epidural that would give my more medicine when I needed it. After about 5 minutes Kate just came out I didn't even have to push. I was just in awe over the whole thing, my baby girl was finally out in the world. She was born at 10:13 am on February 16th. She weighed 8 lb 3 oz and 20 3/4 inches long. That explains why my ribs always hurt!
Kate and I are both doing fine. I have very little pain and I am feeling like my old self. Kate is a happy baby. We did have to go to the doctors tonight because she hadn't had a wet diaper in over 15 hours. We are supplementing formula in with breastfeeding every 2-3 hours and about two hours after going to the doctors she had a wet diaper so she must not have been getting enough from me breastfeeding. I'm hoping that once my milk comes in that I can continue to breastfeed even if we have to supplement formula into her diet.