We welcomed our third daughter into the world on Monday December 29th at 9:57pm. She weighs in at 7lbs. 3oz. and is 19 inches long. She didn't get to come home with us today, she's taken a small vacation in the NKCH NICU to sunbathe her cares away. She has a bit of jaundice, so it is light therapy all the way for her. For those of you that are curious...here's our birth story.
I'd been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for several weeks. It was no different when we took Bill & Lynn (aka Papa & Granny) to the airport on Saturday night (Dec. 27th). However, that night I wasn't able to get a good night's sleep because I was up every 13 minutes with a contraction. Sunday morning I was EXHAUSTED but still couldn't rest because the contractions started coming 8 minutes apart. At that point in time I called the doctor's office and they advised me to come to the hospital to get it checked out. They watched me for a couple of hours and told me that I was having contractions 3 to 5 minutes apart, however there was no change in my cervix. They told me that I likely had a urinary tract infection and sent me home with an antibiotic and a prescription for vicodin to help me get some rest.
That night I took my antibiotic and vicodin and was able to get 2 hours of sleep before I was up having contractions for the next 2 hours before I could take any more vicodin. We did this for two rounds before I became nauseous and bowed my head to the porcelain throne. I called Labor & Delivery to let them know that I was having a new issue and they assured me that it was because I'd taken the vicodin on an empty stomach. I ate half of a bagel and tried again. I was still sick. I decided I would just lay around and "get over it".
Jay went to work and the kids and I had a pajama day on Monday Dec. 29th. I was very nauseated all day long and couldn't eat or drink. I called Jay for help at 3:00 because I was so tired and so sick. He came home at 4:00 and I told him that I was going to go lay down upstairs to try to get some rest. When I stood up I felt a trickle. I thought "that might be my water breaking" and I told Jay that I thought my water had broken. I went to the bathroom to tinkle to make sure I hadn't just had some bladder leakage. I was still conflicted...until I stood up and the fluid began to flow down my legs.
We began the protocol that had been designed weeks before. We couldn't get in touch with Jeanne to watch the kids so we took them to Kim-Marie. I called Kelli Craft (a dear sweet friend that agreed to help me scream my way through contractions) to meet us at the hospital. We finally got in touch with Jeanne and she picked up the kids from Kim-Marie and brought them home so that they could get a good night's rest. We were all set.
I went into the hospital at 4:30pm. I had dialated from 1.5cm & 50% effaced to 2cm. and 70% effaced. While we were waiting for pitocin I began to have contractions and I dialated from 2cm to 4cm. Once the pitocin kicked in I lost it and started yelling at the nurse to "please get me my friggin' epidural". They finally agreed to give it to me when I was so hysterical that it took everything in Jay and Kelli to get me to breathe. I got my epidural at 9:05pm (none too soon in my opinion) and was immediately checked and had advanced to 6cm. In the 15 minutes it takes for the epidural to be effective I went from 6cm to 9cm. They decided to get me up in the stirrups by then. After they'd gotten me situated I told them that I felt a ton of pressure and they checked again and I was already a 10 and was totally ready to push.
I pushed 4 times (10 seconds each) during 1 contraction for Kinsey to make her grand entrance. She was BEAUTIFUL! She had a little trouble with breathing smoothly and had to be observed for 2 hours in the nursery befor we were able to love her up.
We got to spend a day with her before she developed jaundice and had to be moved to the NICU. Her bilirubin count dropped from 9 to 8.5 over a 8 hour period so we are hopeful that we'll get to bring her home tomorrow.
WE ARE BLESSED!
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