April 30, 2010

... was the day that our sweet second daughter stole our hearts.

Katie Ann was born at 12:35 pm, was 7 lbs, .06 ozs, and is 20.25 inches long.  Her birth was so different from her sister's, and after some precautions that necessated a trip to the nursery, she is nursing well and wiggling into her very own spot in our family.

Since it's a tradition, here's the outline of our day:

2:00 am - After tossing and turning and sweattung for the first half of the night, I give up on the hope of catching any sort of cool breezes through the open windows, get up, close the windows, and crank the a/c.

5:55 am - Apparently, we slept well.  I still need to wash my hair, Wes needs to shower, too, we need breakfast, and we're supposed to be at the hospital at 7:00...

6:56 am - I stuff the last of my Braum's bacon, egg, and cheese bagel into my mouth and get out of the truck.  We're ready to have a BABY!

7:15 am - We're checked in, walking the long way to our room.  This time, there's not a soul to be seen, and we've got a lot of time to get all settled in and hooked up.  I'm a little bit nervous about his induction.  With Callie's, I thought I had won the induction lottery, but our conditions then were at least "favorable" (she was engaged, I was dialating and my cervix was effacing, plus, I'd already started leaking water the night before she was born).  This time, when Dr K had checked on Tuesday, I was only dialated to a 1, not effacing, and Katie was still "floating".  At this point, I'm pretty convinced that I'm in for a long, hard labor.

7:45 am - Dr K comes in to check on me and convinces me to let him break my water.  He says it will help to speed things along.  I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing or not.  I'm 2-3 cm dialated, 50% effaced, and Katie's head is engaged!  Dr K breaks my water, says "Oh, good, it's clear... oh, wait, no it's not."  About that time, the nurse tells him that I also had protien in my urine.  He looked at me and said "It's a damn good day to have a baby, Jess!"  He's got some patients to see this morning, but will be back in a few hours.

9:00 am - contractions are about 2 minutes apart, and Katie's heartrate is dropping (and coming back up) with each one.  We have to readjust the moniters because she's moving down.  I'm 4 cm, 75% effaced.

9:30 am - concractions are starting to get more ... intense.  I'm playing a game with myself.  It's called "Let's re-evaluate the pain in 15 minutes".   Because I'm going to get charged for the epidural by the time that it's in and I'm all about being thrifty.  And because I didn't love not being able to feel my legs.  And because I didn't love the catheder, either.  And because I'm still convinced that it's going to be a very long day, remember?

10:30 am - asked for the epidural.  It's going to take 30+ minutes for him to get here and by then, I'm pretty sure that I'll be glad to see him.

11:18 am - Asked the nurse if I can get up and go to the bathroom.  (tricky, huh?  This way, I can get out of bed, walk, and not worry about the moniters - because they're all unhooked!)  In the bathroom, I asked if it would be okay if I poop.  She says only if I promise not to push out a baby... It feels ... different, so I didn't push any more and apologized in advance for any messes I might make later.  :)  Oh, look!  The epidural guy is here! 
(at this point, I should have had the nurse check me BEFORE the epidural guy starts his thing.  Remind me next time.)

11:56 am - The epidural is in.  I might have not been able to not push 4 or 5 times in that 38 minutes.  I'm also pretty sure that Wes was completely unprepared for how to help me through those contractions, but he did a great job and was only a little bit freaked out.

11:58 am - I'm complete, under orders to "not push", and the nurse is on the phone with Dr K.  He'll be here in 5 minutes.  The epidural will take about 15 minutes to kick in...

12:05 pm - It's okay if I push now.  Pushing is a lot more effective and a lot easier if you can feel what you're doing.

12:15 pm - Dr K is there, putting on his own party dress, and they can see Katie's head.  She's face up, like Callie was, but her hand is not above her head, or maybe it was and the nurse was able to put it down.  The nurse did some other manuvering of my daughter, which felt about like it sounds like it would.  Very very wierd.  The epidural is starting to kick in, but at this point, I can still feel - it's just maybe taking the edge off.

12:25 pm - "her head is out that much" says Dr K, holding his fingers about an inch apart.  I can feel it, and push it out more.  He tells me to stop, because they need to suction her before I push her the rest of the way.

12:33 pm - (the nurse said 12:35, but I was looking at the stupid clock.  It was 12:33)  I felt my daughter's shoulders, then the rest of her, slide out.  She cried a beautiful little bleat, and I could look down to see her.  This time, they put her on my chest while they cleaned her off a little and I delivered the placenta, then Wes cut her cord and we stared at her, memorizing her face.

Praise God!