Since I was on a blogging hiatus when Kylee was born, I want to note down her birth story now - since my memory will get even fuzzier with time...
Kylee was due 10/15/12. We were hoping that, like her sister, she would arrive a week or so early. Since we live in AZ and all of our family lives in NE, we were a little concerned about child care arrangements for Morgan when mommy and daddy go to the hospital. We have a great group of friends that could watch Morgan - but even within that group - there were several vacations and business trips planned during the month of October. My parents made travel plans to be in AZ from 10/13/12-10/20/12. We were ready for Kylee! But despite my best efforts (long walks, a trip to the zoo, dancing around the house, lots of spicy foods), Kylee didn't arrive 9 days early like her sister! 10/15/12 arrived and no signs of pre-labor...wasnt even dilated at all. And in fact, the internal exam was very uncomfortable...even painful. The hospital we delivered Morgan at had a policy against inducing until the mother was at least one week past due. Because we had a limited window of when my parents would be in town to care for Morgan, my doctor reached out to another local hospital (equal distance from our home but in the other direction) to determine if there was availability for a planned induction. We learned that planned inductions were full for the next two weeks. Cue the hysterical, full-term pregnant mother! I went home from my appt disappointed and anxious about child care options if Kylee decided to take her sweet time... Two hours later, I received a call from my OB stating she pulled some strings and we were scheduled for an induction at 8 AM on 10/17/12! *Happy Dance!*
Southern Boy went to work on 10/16/12 and Grandma, Grandpa, mommy and Morgan spent the day celebrating Momo's last day as an only child. We went to the mall and did build a bear (Morgan built a bear for herself and bought a matching mini bear for her sister).
The next day - 10/17/12 - we woke up and ate a hearty breakfast since it was going to be my last meal for a while, took one last pic as a family of three, and then Southern Boy and I took off for the hospital!
The process of getting registered for a planned induction was the most relaxing and pleasant process. We signed our paperwork and releases and followed our liaison to the delivery wing. I changed into the ever attractive hospital gown and got hooked up to the monitors. The nurse was shocked once we got the monitors on: I was having long and fairly strong contractions. During this process I had a contraction that lasted over 5 minutes and was registering as a strong contraction. We started the Pitocin and gave two thumbs up to the nurse. After an hour on the Pitocin, the nurse wanted to check my progress. The internal exam was so painful - it made me cry! This was so unexpected because I remembered my internal exams with Morgan and they were not painful at all. (Forshadowing #1). Little progress - but not much. Pitocin was increased. A little while later, my OB came in to check on how I was doing. At this point, I'm fairly certain the nurse gave my OB a heads up that my last internal exam was painful. The Dr decided to do a quick internal exam. I was in so much pain during this exam, the nurse had to help pin me down as I had almost pushed myself off the top of the bed. This is when I learned that the opening to my uterus was "off-center" and the Dr tried to manually adjust the opening to line up front and center. (Forshadowing #2). During tis time, she also broke my water. Luckily the water did not have meconium like Morgan's! Yay! With the water broken, contractions started to get really intense and it was time for that blessed epidural. The anesthesiologist had a few struggles lining everything up - but the final result was splendid! I can't really say how much time went by, but the nurse came in and was very intent on reviewing my monitors. Kylee's heart rate started dropping. I wasn't too worried as this occurred with Morgan as well and wearing an oxygen mask fixed that concern for Morgan! So, we added the oxygen mask and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, there wasn't improvement. At this time the nurse and the OB were present and watching the monitors. We tried different positions and discussed that if we didn't see improvement in the next 10-15 minutes, we may need to discuss Caesarian. Shortly after those words came out of her mouth my vision went blurry and I had a hard time focusing...I couldn't clearly see the clock on the wall or Southern Boy who was standing next to me. Everything started beeping around me. I later found out that my blood pressure had suddenly dropped to a severely low level as did Kylee's heart rate at the same time. I remembered hearing the Dr saying, "no time to wait" and started speaking in code into her pager. The nurse basically threw scrubs at Southern Boy and my room was swarmed with nurses and aides who were trying to unplug chords and move my bed out of the room into the O.R. At this point, I lost sight of Southern Boy and was being prepped for the emergency C-Section. He walked into the O.R. as the screen was being pulled up to block site of the surgery. They told him to get his camera ready. Just in time, he unlocked his phone and pulled up the camera app - Kylee entered the world!
Southern Boy followed Kylee to recovery where she received some oxygen as her little toes were blue. We had decided early in our pregnancy that our family would be complete after Kylee. We had signed all release forms that if a C-Section was needed, that we request a tubal ligation. So - they tied my tubes and sewed me up!
Kylee was an absolute angel in the hospital and showed us she was really going to be our "mellow" baby! She met her big sissy and Grandma and Grandpa!
I elected for an early dismissal from the hospital and went home after two nights. I was ready to get back to my own bed and my parents were scheduled to leave the next morning.
Recovery from the C-Section was easier for me than recovery from a vaginal birth. Although all new parents will struggle with sleep deprivation, we were thrilled with our most recent blessing!
Welcome to the world, Kylee Ann! You gave us quite a scare before you arrived, but you were we'll worth it!
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