Birth Story

If you read the blog post I made back on November 16th, you'll know that I had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little girl.  I'm not sure what it was about this pregnancy, but by the time I was 6 or 7 months along, I was ready to be done.  It was much more difficult than either of the pregnancies with my boys.  Scott's says it's a mother-daughter thing.  Who knows.  Regardless, I was ready to be done long before my due date.  But, November 15th came and went, with no baby.  I was scheduled for induction on November 23rd, and then it got moved up to November 21st.  I went to see the acupuncturist twice - on Tuesday and Thursday.  At my appointment on Thursday, she said she thought it would be soon - but if I didn't go into labor, to call her on Saturday and she would do a stronger treatment.  I was ready to do anything! 

Friday, Scott stayed home from work.  He, Jackson and I ran several errands, did lots of walking around the mall, and basically kept ourselves busy.  I was noticing that Kate wasn't moving around as much as she had the previous couple of days, and after laying down for a nap was feeling a little concerned.  A nurse from the Maternity ward at the hospital called to do a pre-induction interview and so I asked her advise once we finished with her questions.  She suggested I call my doctors office, which I did.  It was close to 4:00, so they couldn't get me in for a non-stress test, but they called the hospital and told me to head in for the test.  I went upstairs and while I was getting some clothes out of the dresser I started to notice that I was leaking fluid - a lot of fluid so I ran to the bathroom and realized that my water had broken.  Scott and I quickly packed some clothes for the boys so we could drop them off at Grandma and Grandpa's and headed for Kirkland.  By the time we dropped the boys off and got to the hospital, I was wet down to my knees.  Everytime I moved I would leak more fluid.  It was quite uncomfortable! 

We checked in at the maternity desk, and they called the triage nurse, who took one look at me and called for a room.  She said there was no reason for me to go to triage - it was pretty obvious that my water was broken!  So, we headed back to a room to get settled. 

By the time they had us settled in our room, it was about 6:30 or so.  My water had broken around 4:15.  By this point, I hadn't started having any contractions or anything, so the doctor suggested they start some pitocen to get my labor started.  So, they hooked me up and started a slow pitocen drip, and nothing happened.  They increased the pitocen every 15 minutes or so - Scott and I did laps around the hospital, but nothing happened until about 8:30 when I started feeling some cramping.  They increased the pitocen again, and soon I was having stronger and stronger contractions.  Scott and I continued doing laps and haeaded back to our room around 9:45.  They hadn't check to see how dialated I was before this point because of the risk of infection since my water had broken on it's own.  I was feeling like things were progressing, so the nurse checked and I was between 7 and 8 cm.  Everything happened kind of fast from that point.  My contractions quickly got stronger and stronger.  The nurse checked again about 10:00 and I was almost 10 cm, so she called the doctor.  By 10:15, I was feeling ready to push.  Scott had mentioned to the nurse that my previous labors had gone very quickly, but I don't think she was too concerned about that.  The doctor came in and  I heard him tell the nurse to get everything ready, and we would try some practice pushes.  My thought was that I didn't need any practice.  Once he gave me the go ahead to push, I pushed and Kate was born.  Scott said that the doctor only had one glove on.  No one was quite ready - except for me and Kate.  She was born at 10:23 pm

Here is one of the first pictures of our little girl.  The minute I looked at her, I thought - she looks just like Jackson did!  It was really amazing!

 Being weighed!

 Official birth weight

 With mom and dad!

First visitor - Grandma!

First bath

 The next day, Grandma brought.   Adam and Jackons to visit

 Aunt Tiffy's plane landed Saturday morning, and she came right from the airport to visit Kate and see the boys. 

 Cousin Robyn even held her for a few minutes.

 It was an eventful couple of days, but we were ready to head home from the hospital by Saturday evening.  They checked us out and we headed for home - so greatful to be bringing home a healthy little girl. 

We are so blessed!