Well, Katie arrived at 2:08pm Monday July 19, 2010. It has been a busy week. I went into the hospital Sunday night and they induced me on Monday at 7:30 am. The doctor came in and checked on me, and said that things were progressing really slowly. She said there was a 60-70% chance that I would have to have a c-section, but that we wouldn't know for a long time. Originally I hadn't planned on having an epidural, but due to the high risk of a c-section the doctor requested that I have one so that they wouldn't have to put me under for the c-section. They ended up giving me the epidural pretty early on because the contractions were causing me to throw up, making it difficult to monitor the baby. After they gave me the epidural, I actually took a nap. I woke up around 12:15 and noticed that I was feeling a little pain...it turns out that the epidural was wearing off. I let one of the nurses know, and she said that the anesthesiologist was in surgery, but that he would come as soon as he gets out. About 15 minutes later my epidural was completely worn off and I was feeling everything (that's what I get for not wanting an epidural). Things had started to progress rapidly. The contractions started coming more frequently and were a lot more painful. Of course this caused me to get sick again, which was "a good thing" according to the doctor. Apparently throwing up causes the baby to move down and moves the labor on quickly. I went from 3 cm. to 10 cm. in less than an hour and I was having no break between contractions. I ended up having to start pushing before the doctor got there. The doctor showed up and said "okay, it looks like we need one more good push." just about the same time that the anesthesiologist came into the room (great timing...not). All in all, things went quickly. Labor was less than 7 hours and the actual delivery was less than 12 minutes. I cannot begin to describe how I felt when it was over. Instantly I felt relief, and the nausea that I had felt for the last 9 months was completely gone. Then I got to hold Katie...it was the most amazing thing I have ever felt. I was overcome with joy and love. It was as if, in that moment, I felt what it was like for God to feel unconditional love for me, because I knew that there was nothing in the world that she could do to make me not love her. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen, and I wanted to hold her forever. Katie was a whopping 5 lbs. 2 oz. and 18 1/4 inches long. She had a full head of hair and beautiful blue eyes.
We spent the next few days in the hospital and were released on Wednesday. I felt like I had been in the hospital forever and was ready to go home. She had picked up on feeding really quickly and was sleeping through the night. I was having to set my alarm to wake her up and feed her because she was not waking up on her own...little did I know that things were going to change. I got home and felt so overwhelmed. Katie was sleeping all day and did not want to eat, and then she was awake all night and didn't want to be awake alone. She would eat every hour or two and cry the rest of the time (sometimes making me cry too). I decided that we needed to try to keep her awake more often during the day so that she would handle the nights better, and for the most part it has worked.
Thursday night she slept really well and I thought that things were looking up, but then on Friday at Katie's doctor's appointment we found out that she was jaundiced. We had to have this bed set up at the house that had lights shining on Katie. She had to wear a blindfold and she was supposed to be in the bed anytime she wasn't feeding or being changed. She hated it, and it was so hard to see her miserable. Last night was really difficult, and I don't think either of us got any sleep. However, a nurse came to the house today and checked her bilirubin levels, and said she was back to normal. It has been so nice to be able to hold her again and console her when she is crying. Since she was up all night, she has been sleeping pretty much all day. This means that we will have a semi-long night ahead of us, but hopefully we can get her into some sort of routine in the next week or so.
It has been a really long week, but it has also been one of the most wonderful weeks of my life. Katie is so beautiful and so perfect. I wouldn't trade her for the world. I have a lot to learn, but I am ready to do the best I can to care for her. She is my whole world now. I wish time could stop, because I want to keep her little forever. I know that there are joys in every stage of life, but she is so wonderful now and I wish I could keep her this way forever.
Marybeth
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Katie is coming soon
We had our doctor's appointment yesterday, and didn't quite know what to expect. I hate waiting, so this past week has been stressful. Finally Wednesday was here and we were going to get the chance to meet with our doctor to see what the situation was with Katie and discuss our options...except that when we got there, our doctor was out delivering a baby. We had to wait in the waiting room until she got back, so the anticipation kept building. Finally we got to meet with our doctor and for the first time, Matt and I had a lot of questions. After a long discussion, we decided to schedule a time for me to be induced. My mom isn't going to be back from Europe until the 15th, and the doctor said that she felt comfortable waiting, so we are scheduled to be induced on July 19th. I have a doctor's appointment and a sonogram on Monday, and assuming there aren't any dramatic changes, that date will stick. If they find that my lack of growth is seriously hindering her growth, they will induce earlier, but the plan is to wait until the 19th. The 19th is 2 weeks prior to my due date, so I will be 38 weeks along according to my due date, and 35 1/2 weeks along size wise (according to last week's sonogram). She will be tiny, but as long as she is healthy we are okay with that. My doctor was looking at the sonogram results from last week and said "Well, she will NOT be a fat baby."
I can't believe that we are having Katie in 11 days. I feel like I have so much to do that I haven't done yet. I know that most of it is silly and doesn't even matter, but I feel like I need to do it. For example, I was cleaning the edges of the microwave with a toothpick...really? How often is Katie going to be crawling inside the microwave licking the corners? It's amazing how I can feel so ready to not be pregnant anymore and at the same time feel so unready to actually have Katie here. I have accepted the fact that I will never feel ready, but it hasn't stopped me from trying my hardest. At least I have some sort of "deadline." At our appointment yesterday, Matt had asked the doctor what the plan would be if in 3 1/2 or 4 weeks Katie still wasn't growing the way she should, and the doctor said "oh, we won't be able to wait that long." This prompted the question "well, when should we expect to get to that point." It was a question that we had been wondering for a while, but I think we weren't exactly prepared to ask. Sitting in that room and hearing that she didn't think we could wait 2 weeks was kind of an eye opener. I had many feelings rushing through my body. I think the first thing that I felt was panic, but almost instantly I felt relief. I had been on pins and needles all week, not knowing if we were going to have to induce this week. I have been worried for the past 3 or 4 weeks that when I went to my doctor's appointment we were going to have to induce immediately. This took so much stress off of me. I think I will still be a little concerned on Monday when I go in for my sonogram, but overall, I am more at ease than I have been in the last month. Now when people ask me how much longer I have, I don't have to say "anywhere from a week to 6 weeks." I assume that I won't get any sleep the night before I go into labor, but it's a good trade-off. So, it looks like Katie will be here in 11 days!!
I can't believe that we are having Katie in 11 days. I feel like I have so much to do that I haven't done yet. I know that most of it is silly and doesn't even matter, but I feel like I need to do it. For example, I was cleaning the edges of the microwave with a toothpick...really? How often is Katie going to be crawling inside the microwave licking the corners? It's amazing how I can feel so ready to not be pregnant anymore and at the same time feel so unready to actually have Katie here. I have accepted the fact that I will never feel ready, but it hasn't stopped me from trying my hardest. At least I have some sort of "deadline." At our appointment yesterday, Matt had asked the doctor what the plan would be if in 3 1/2 or 4 weeks Katie still wasn't growing the way she should, and the doctor said "oh, we won't be able to wait that long." This prompted the question "well, when should we expect to get to that point." It was a question that we had been wondering for a while, but I think we weren't exactly prepared to ask. Sitting in that room and hearing that she didn't think we could wait 2 weeks was kind of an eye opener. I had many feelings rushing through my body. I think the first thing that I felt was panic, but almost instantly I felt relief. I had been on pins and needles all week, not knowing if we were going to have to induce this week. I have been worried for the past 3 or 4 weeks that when I went to my doctor's appointment we were going to have to induce immediately. This took so much stress off of me. I think I will still be a little concerned on Monday when I go in for my sonogram, but overall, I am more at ease than I have been in the last month. Now when people ask me how much longer I have, I don't have to say "anywhere from a week to 6 weeks." I assume that I won't get any sleep the night before I go into labor, but it's a good trade-off. So, it looks like Katie will be here in 11 days!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)