Kearington Sarah

I apologize in advance as this post is going to be a little bit long.  I wanted to write all of this down before it becomes a distant memory, and I forget the details of my little girl’s birth day.

Not many people knew this, but I had gestational diabetes during my pregnancy.  I remember when the doctor called to tell me that I had it how upset and mad I was.  I felt like yet again I was drawing the short straw and having to deal with another issue.  Why couldn’t pregnancy be easy?  I had already gone through so much to get pregnant, so couldn’t I catch a break.  The main thing I was worried about was how this was going to affect my baby.  Not only did I have to check my blood sugar four times a day, but I ended up being put on medication twice a day.  Because of the medication and the stress it was putting on my placenta, the doctor was going to induce me before my due date.  I was scheduled to be induced on May 8^th unless I went into labor beforehand.

I had started making some progress a week or so in advance, but nothing was moving quickly.  I went to the doctor on Tuesday, May 7^th to check my progress and see if I needed to go to the hospital that night to start medication to help thin out my cervix.  Because I had made more progress, they sent us home and told us to be at the hospital at 6 am the next morning.  The hubs and I spent the day hanging out together, eating what I hadn’t been able to eat throughout pregnancy and getting ready to leave bright and early the next morning.  I was getting very nervous and anxious about the extra medication/device they talked about using to thin out my cervix.  I was also getting so excited knowing there was light at the end of the tunnel and that I would get to meet our little girl very soon.  I went to bed that night knowing I wouldn’t be sleeping that much.

Around 1:30 am, I thought the baby had kicked the crap out of me, because I literally was thrown out of bed.  Being pregnant, you don’t do anything quickly so when the “kick” happened I was shocked at how fast I got up.  HA!  I thought maybe I just needed to pee, so I went to the bathroom and then got back into bed.  About 5 minutes later, it happened again!  I jumped out of bed only to find a nice flow of fluid running down my leg.  I thought “really, I just peed” and then realized that I couldn’t stop it.  I immediately woke the hubs up and told him I think my water had broken.  My contractions and spotting started almost instantly.  The contractions that I thought I had been having weeks prior were NOTHING compared to what I was feeling now.  I told my husband it was time to call the doctor and find out what we should do.  Being a first time mom, I had no idea how long things were going to take.  As we waited almost 2 hours for the doctor to call back, all I kept thinking was “am I going to have this baby at home because these people can’t call us back?!”  Finally around 3:30 am the doctor called and told us to go ahead and head to the hospital. 

The ride to the hospital was the longest ride of my life.  I was so uncomfortable and the contractions seemed to be getting worse.  Finally we got to the hospital, checked in and got settled in our room.  Why do they ask all of their questions and do everything when you are in the middle of a contraction??  I just wanted to ask if they could please wait and do what they needed to do in the 4-5 minutes between contractions.  The doctor came in around 8 am to check my progress.  I still was only about 2 cm dilated, so they started the Pitocin to try to speed things up a bit.  Once I got my epidural, the pain was much more bearable.  For all of you out there that do this thing natural – God bless you!  Other than not being able to get up and walk around and having to lay on my side, the epidural was great! 

The grandparents arrived late morning.  I was a little skeptical about them being in the room as I didn’t want everyone to be staring at me for hours.  I could tell the grandmothers were very excited and my dad was nervous and didn’t like seeing his baby girl in pain.  It was nice having them in the room to at least keep the hubs entertained while we waited.  Around noon the doctor came back and checked me again.  I had only progressed to 4 cm, so I knew I was going to be there all day!  This baby was taking her sweet time and was in no rush to come out and play with us.  The doctor told me she would be back after 5 pm to check me again.  Apparently someone else went into labor, so she never left and checked me again around 3 pm.  I had progressed to 6 cm, so at least we were starting to make more progress.

About an hour later, I started feeling strong pain in my abdominal/uterine area.  The extra pain medication that I had control over in my IV didn’t seem to be working.  It was as if the epidural was starting to wear off.  Around 4:15 pm I paged the nurse to tell her about the pain and that I was feeling a lot of pressure down south.  She asked if I wanted her to check me again so I agreed thinking that I should only be around 7 cm based on how I had been dilating all day.  She checked and looked up at me letting me know it was time to push.  I was like “are you serious?!”  I remember looking at my husband scared to death with tears rolling down my cheeks and thinking I can’t do this – my body isn’t prepared to do this!  I also knew that my doctor was at her office and was afraid that she wasn’t going to make it in time.  I mean – does my nurse know how to deliver a baby?!  What if the doctor doesn’t make it in time?  Little did I know that it would take a while pushing anyway, so we had plenty of time. 

*On a side note – I really believe God puts people in our lives for a reason.  The nurse that I had most of the day was a fellow IVF-er.  She had 6 year old twins that she had via IVF using the same doctor in Asheville that helped us.  It was a relief knowing that she knew exactly what it was like to want a child so bad and struggle to get pregnant.  All day I knew she would be going off duty at 7 pm and most likely I wouldn’t have the baby before then.  Knowing that I was about to have our miracle baby before she left was a comforting feeling.

Because I progressed so quickly at the end, the strength of the epidural was starting to wear off.  They came back to give me a quick dose in hopes that would help, but sadly it didn't.  I had so much pain in my abdominal area during delivery, but it did help to be able to feel what was going on as I was pushing.  I started pushing around 4:30 pm and my doctor arrived about 5:15 pm.  I was so glad when she walked in the door knowing that she would be there for the delivery.  The time actually went by fairly quickly.  I just remember watching the clock and hearing my husband, the nurse and doctor talk the whole time.  The moment that my little girl was born (6:01 pm) and put on my chest was hands down the BEST moment of my life.  All of my fears, sadness and frustration trying to conceive her vanished in an instant!  The sweetest sound was hearing her cry for the first time.  I have never loved someone so much in my entire life.  Kearington is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on.  Watching my husband hold her for the first time was amazing.  I never thought I could love him more than I already do, but seeing him with her makes me love him more and more every day.  Our lives are forever changed because of her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My sweet nurse, Beth

 

First family picture - Party of 3!