Kearsyn Lynn's Birth Story 10/10/2006

Tuesday, October 10, 2006...here's a short synopsis in pictures of how the day went...
8am --------------------------------- 9:30am ------------------------------ 3:36pm


I have to say, I was a little cranky this morning because I just knew I was going to go see the dr and he was going to tell me there was no change in things and send me home. With that in mind, I'd stuck some cross stitch mailing in the car figuring I could mail the items on the way back home. DH, on the other hand, insisted that we drop of the item he had to deliver before we left for the appt. Hmm, guess he knew something I didn't. We get to the drs office a little before 9 and you know it's bad when all the office staff looks at you with a quizzical look on their faces. Finally the receptionist asks if we had an appt for this morning and I explain that the dr has had me coming in early on Tuesdays (prior to when he normally sees patients in the morning) because of the contractions I'd been having. Turns out the dr was over at the hospital (which means you walk across the street from the office) for a c-section. First bad sign of the morning. They called over to see if he had started yet...turns out he hadn't...so they put me back in a room and he walked over and check me out. Before he actually checked my cervix, he was commenting on how busy things were over at the hospital. Second bad sign of the morning. I'm starting to get a little depressed at this point. He checks my cervix and finds that it's progressed a little...so I'm now at 4 instead of the 3 1/2 that I've been at for the last two weeks. We started talking about when to delivery this little one and he asked if he could get us in today would we want to go for it. Well of course we said yes. LOL So he goes out to make a call to labor & delivery trying to sell that I needed to be induced today. I don't think it took much more than him saying that it was my 7th child and I was 4 cm for the head nurse to agree. We then head across the street to get checked in with the promise from the dr that he would be there shortly to break my water which happened about 9:30. We were taking bets on how long it would be before she'd arrive...dr was hoping she wouldn't arrive between 1-1:30 as he was going to be tied up with another c-section. And then we waited...and waited...and waited and getting pretty bored. I was having contractions but nothing to really speak of so the nurse checks me and finds that I haven't progressed any so at 2pm we get the pitocin going to help things along a bit. Took maybe about 20 minutes to start feeling some more intense contractions but you couldn't really tell because they weren't registering on the monitor very well. The only way you could tell that I was having one, other than me saying so, was that the baby's heartrate was dropping some during them. I then moved to my right side (chose that side because that's were everyone was sitting...inlaws and hubby...so I could still talk to them) but after awhile that wasn't helping with her dropping heartrate so I had to switch to my left side. And at that point, I really didn't care if I was involved in whatever conversation they were having as the contractions were pretty intense at this point...but still weren't registering on the monitor. Very strange. Somewhere around 3:15 the nurse asks if I want any stadol to help with the pain although she does caution that if I'm too far along at that point that I won't be able to get anything because it would affect the baby's breathing taking it that close to delivery. Gets the okay from the dr for the drug, then checks my cervix and I'm at 9 1/2cm. Hmm, guess that's my third bad sign of the day...no drugs for me...and I remember thinking that this delivery is really going to hurt. The nurse pages the dr to come over and asks for another nurse to come into the room to help until the dr gets there. At this point my body decides to take over as this little one has decided that it's time to come out...dr or no dr. I can remember the nurse saying that the baby wouldn't be there yet as I still had a little bit farther to progress. Then she was asking me to breathe and not push...hmm, yeah, like that really works. So from the time they paged the dr at 3:35pm to the time he arrived 3:37pm, little Kearsyn was born at 3:36pm. Now we'd joked throughout this pregnancy of not needing a dr to delivery this one because we'd done it so many times but we weren't actually serious about it...at least I wasn't. LOL The nurse did a wonderful job of helping me with the delivery. And the dr was funny when he did arrive...trying to figure out how that had transpired so quickly. So things didn't go as I thought they would have for this delivery but everything worked out just right in the end with us giving birth to a beautiful baby girl weighing in at 7lbs 10oz and 18 1/2in long.

A Change in Plans

Due to all the rain we've had last night and today everything scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed...no soccer games, no soccer pictures and no softball tournament. So we all get to stay at home and just relax. My inlaws will be coming over since they haven't seen Bekah for her birthday yet. I'm hoping to get some sleep tonight so I won't be quite as grumpy tomorrow...was up pretty much around the clock last night and that makes for a very long night and a long day.

No Baby Today

Nothing had changed from my appt yesterday so we are in a wait and see mode. I go back again on Tuesday and if there is still no change, I'll go back the following Tuesday. We're hoping to have her stay put for 2 more weeks so let's see if she'll cooperate. I got the okay from my boss today that I can work from home so that will relieve some of the stress of getting up early and making the hour drive to work. Hopefully that will help the munchkin stay put awhile longer.

A Baby Tomorrow?

I'm not sure I'm really ready for that. We haven't done anything to prepare for this baby although Andy did grab the bassinette out the attic today after I called and said there was a possibility that we'd be having her tomorrow. Actually, I guess that's not true. We do have her room and clothes pretty well situated. Still need to get the crib in there but since she'll probably spend the first few months in the bassinette in our room there didn't seem to be much hurry to get Bekah out of crib just yet. We do need to wash the stuff that goes with the bassinette and the car seat covers since they've been stored in the attic for almost 2yrs.

This is all coming about because of the contractions I was having last night that sent me to Labor & Delivery around 10:30pm. Between my last drs visit two weeks ago and last night, I'd progressed from completely closed and long to 2-3cm and 40% effaced. At my 36wk drs appt today, I was now a good 3-4cm. So after discussing different options, it was decided that I would go into the office first thing in the morning to get rechecked. If I'm 4-5cm at that point, we'll go ahead and have her tomorrow otherwise I get to come home. We'd rather have her under controlled circumstances rather than chance an emergency situation. Because of where I live, it can be kind of tricky to get the hospital depending on the traffic situation and because this will be my 7th, once my water breaks the baby will probably arrive within 1-2hrs. We didn't want me to be caught at home in that situation and not be able to get the hospital...although I know Andy would have that swiss army knife and basket all ready for us. LOL

This has completely thrown a wrench into my plans for the weekend as I was planning on driving up to Hershey, PA on Friday and spending some time with my stitchy friends from the CrossStitchCrazy board. Those plans are now out the window even if I don't have the munchkin tomorrow. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone too. And it's also completely thrown off my training schedule at work but I'm guessing they'll survive.

So, I guess we just wait and see what happens in the morning and if you don't see any entries from me for a couple of days, you'll know I had the baby otherwise I'll be back tomorrow with an update.

Hospital Update

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I'm fine and back home from the hospital. Got to spend 5 hrs there last night...was a very long night. Other than a lot of contractions not much else was happening...they weren't making any changes to my cervix so that's good...currently at 2-3 cm and 40% effaced. I have a drs appt this afternoon so I'll let everyone know what happens then.

Soccer and Stitching

Not done at the same time this weekend, though. =) All the kids had soccer games this weekend, 2 of which were at 8am which is just too darn early for me on a weekend so I missed those two, but I did make it to the 10 and 11am games. All the kids had great games even though it was a drizzly cool day. Maybe it should rain on them all the time...seemed to really motivate them. Alex also ref'd two games this weekend so he was happy. I did find out that walking back and forth across the fields a number of times is getting harder and harder for me. Doesn't seem to take much effort on my part to make me really tired or my back and legs hurt.

Stitchingwise, I was able to finish up my part on a Finisher's Too piece. I stitched the Inn pictured here although it was touch and go there for a while on whether I would actually get it finished or toss it out the window because the frog would not leave me alone. I can't remember the last time I had this much trouble stitching on a piece. Hmm, maybe I should have feed that froggie to the baby turtle that Kenzie found Saturday. Next up to work on is Quaker Mystery Sampler. Hopefully I'll be able to finish up Part 5 before my next obligation stitching pieces show up. =) Somehow, I seemed to have formed a rotation without really trying to but I'm not going to question it as it seems to be working. I rotate between Mother's Bliss and Quaker Mystery Sampler and then throw in the Mini rr and Finisher's Too pieces when they arrive. I have other WIP's but I'm only concentrating on two right now with the hopes that I can actually get them finished here soon. When one gets done, I'll add another WIP in it's place.

Whew, it's going to be a long 5 wks. That's how much time is left before the little arrives and I'm starting to get very cranky and I have absolutely no patience. Baby is poking under my ribs and my hips really hurt so it's hard to get up and down which makes it near impossible to keep up with Bekah as she won't stay in any one place for more than a few seconds. Soon enough it'll all be over and we'll have little Kearsyn home with us...let's just hope my family survives me til that time. ;) I added a pic of what I look like now to my last appt post.

On a humorous note, Andy was laughing at me today and saying that I was really getting into being a pioneer woman. He was referring to the hanging of clothes outside on the clothes line. This morning when I did it, I hung them on the end of the line where the sun was hitting...by the afternoon when I went out to hang some more, the sun was on the opposite end of the line, so that's where I hung the clothes. Made sense to me...if they are in the sun, they'll dry quicker, right? He seemed to find it quite funny, though.