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(07/09/2006) Labor and Delivery

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It was 3:00 in the morning when I awoke to the first contraction. I didn’t think anything of it since I had been having those on and off for about a month. So I got up had a drink of water, went to the bathroom, and back to bed. Around 3:15 I woke up to the feeling of another contraction, but this one felt different. My water had broken on this contraction. I flew out of bed in that instant and ran to the bathroom. I was glad I had made it out of bed, since just yesterday my brother had been here helping us set up the king size bed my parents had given us during the remodel of their house.

I went back into the room and woke up Hank to tell him it was time. I then called the hospital to see if I should wait at the house until the contractions got a little stronger, but they said we should go in now. So I called Sarah and in a flash she was over at our house. The plan was for her to stay the night so we didn’t have to wake up Cade. Earlier I had gone over ever scenario that could happen. And one of them happened to be if the baby decided to come in the middle of the night, I wouldn’t wake him up to say goodbye, but instead when he woke up the next morning and saw Sarah he would know right away that we had gone to the hospital.

So I packed Cades bag for the next day. Hank went downstairs and sent out emails to Graff, and Shane that we were going to the hospital and to watch the server. We put some food out side for Ty for the next day. It was strange walking around the house not really having any contractions and getting ready to go the hospital in the calmness of the night.

We left around 4:00 to the hospital; we had to enter through the emergency room side of the hospital since the other door was locked. We were shown which direction to go to the delivery room. They offered me a wheel chair, at first I was going to decline, but was glad I didn’t. By now I was starting to feel the contractions pretty good. Since I had called before we left the house when we arrived they had a room already for us. We were at 4 cm when we arrived in the room. Hank and I were both excited when we saw the nurse because she is the same one who delivered Cade, but her shift was about to end so she wouldn’t be there for the whole experience.

The first thing I asked for was and epidural since I asked to late on Cade I didn’t want to miss out on it. So Hank and I worked through the contractions while they gave the anesthesiologist a call. It seemed like it took a long time for him to get there. They hocked me up to an IV with a saline solution of some kind. By now the contractions were coming pretty quick. When the anesthesiologist arrived I was explained the implications of taking such a drug, and signed the waiver. I was asked to sit up on the side of the bed bent over for about 5 minutes. It was hard to do that while having the contractions, but I closed my eyes and thought of my grandpa and for but a moment I was peaceful and didn’t move while he inserted the needle. When I opened my eyes it was like coming out of a dream, everything was a little foggy. It took a while for the drug to take effect, it never completely numbed the pain on the left side, and I could feel each contraction as they came and went. But it was nothing like it was! They had slowed down so much that Hank and I pulled out the baby book and looked at some names. We both liked the name Evie because we could call her V. After looking over all the names we decided on Kathryn. We both liked the sound of it, and I liked how it was spelled, very elegant. We still didn’t know if we were going to have a boy or a girl at this point.

Doctor Ferguson was coming and going during this time. It was very surreal when he said at 6:45 you can start pushing. What! I am 10 cm already I couldn’t believe it. It was good that I could feel a little pain on my left side so I knew when to push. We pushed for 45 minutes. It was strange actually talking between contractions, asking the doctor if I should start pushing now, or wait. But once her head was in the birth canal I could really feel it, there was no talking during that part which was the hardest part of the whole experience. But it didn’t take long before her head was out, and then the rest of her. At 7:32 AM the doctor put her right on my stomach. She was beautiful! They left her there for a very long time. They gave her a vitamin k shot and put some stuff in her eyes. We ended up having 4 different nurses through out the labor, all of which were wonderful.

Hank and I sat in the room together holding our newest member of the family. I felt so blessed and happy. My parents arrived shortly after the delivery around 8:00. They came into the delivery room and we all talked and passed around Kathryn while I ate breakfast with a very ravenous appetite.

By 10:00 we were in our own room, so we gave Sarah a call and she brought Cade to the hospital. He didn’t want to hold Kathryn or sit on the bed while I was holding her. He just looked at her, and when I handed her to someone else he climbed on the bed with me. I had bought him a disposable camera to take pictures of the day he became a big brother. He did take some pictures of the baby as well as the bed, and the bathroom. It was fun getting them developed later since they had his trip back to Sarah’s with Simon and Charlie on it. But he stayed for about 30 minutes while we all talked. When it was time to go he didn’t want to leave, he wanted to stay with us, but Sarah said they would stop at McDonalds and pick up lunch as well as a movie. With that he said he wanted Shark boy and lava girl and said his goodbyes as quick as possible. He said bye to Kathryn and when she didn’t respond he kept yelling a little louder each time. Until I said she doesn’t know how to say good bye, and with that he said oh and left very excited to go to McDonalds.

After that my parents left and it was just the three of us.