And here is her BIRTH STORY....
The Long Version, because I want to be able to Blakely every little detail someday :)
Well I must start by saying that although she might have made the past 39 weeks and 5 days difficult on her mama...she made her BIRTH-day amazingly wonderful!
The story actually started Thursday April 18th at 4:00 when I officially finished my master's degree by defending my master's project in front a board of my professors. Through out the entire pregnancy I had been praying that she would wait until after this day to arrive because I knew that once she was here that I would have ZERO motivation to finish my degree. Looking back on it, and how I was dilated to 3 for the 2 whole weeks prior and had her in my arms just a mere 37 hours after finishing, I know that it was only because of those prayers that my master's was finished!
After completing my master's degree, my mind was on one thing, and one thing only...getting little Miss Blakely into my arms! At my 38 week appointment the previous Friday we scheduled an induction for Monday April 22nd, which was her actual due date. However, with the master's being done and everything else on the To-Do List done I did not want to wait the whole weekend to meet her. I mean, what was I suppose to do, just relax...what is that?
I was really hoping I would just instantly go into labor on Thursday and go straight to the hospital after finishing my presentation. No Such Luck. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper about going to school the next day, but I did anyways. To make the day better I decided I was going to go to McDonald's for breakfast because I was craving orange juice and McDonald's has the largest large orange juice of all fast food restaurants. So, I called my fellow pregnant friend, Amber (because we always made sure to call each other if we were on a food run during the school hours) and got us both breakfast. However, when I ordered my orange juice they told me they were out of orange juice. Say What? That was the one thing I wanted, hoping it would turn my bitter attitude around. I took a deep breath, paid for the food and headed over to Burger King where I got a much smaller large orange juice. Yes, I went to both McDonald's and Burger King within minutes of each other, but I had an excuse...39 weeks pregnant, enough said. I made it to work and managed to be unproductive all morning, just hanging out in Amber's room, complaining about how much I hate being pregnant. Deciding I needed motivation to be more productive that afternoon, I went to Blazer burger for lunch and got a big pork tenderloin sandwich and milkshake (I definitely wouldn't have eaten all that greasy food if I knew I would be going into labor that night). It worked, and I managed to get the rest of my school To-Do List done before heading to our sonogram.
At our 39 week appointment on the prior Wednesday, Dr. Hilary set us up to get a sonogram on Friday afternoon just to make sure the baby was doing well and all my fluid levels were appropriate and good to wait until Monday to induce.
As I was leaving school at the end of the day to head to the sonogram I thought I was leaking fluid, which I knew was something I needed to immediately call the doctor about. On the way to the sonogram I called Dr. Hilary's office and told them I was on the way to the sonogram but I thought I was leaking fluid. They told me to go to the sonogram and then to head right over to the hospital so they could check and see if my water had broke and was slowly leaking.
I called Noah and told him the plan and he was really calm. Way calmer than me :) At the sonogram the sonographer said the baby looked great and so did my fluid levels. Afterwards we drove to the hospital. We called our parents to let them know and tell them not to freak out yet. I was pretty sure my water wasn't broken and had a feeling we would be going home. Once we got there they hooked me up to the monitor, which showed I was not having any contractions, and checked me out...still dilated to a 3 and my water was in-tack. They sent us on our way and at that point I set my mind on Monday, not thinking I would be back there any earlier.
You see, this really wasn't the best weekend for little girl to come anyways. Aunt Jillian was out of town til Monday night, visiting her mom in Forida and Aunt Karissa was in St. Louis for a bachelorette party. Not to mention, Dr. Hilary was technically out of town, seeing how she took the weekend off to attend our church's women's retreat.
We went home from the hospital that evening and my mom came over and we went on a long walk. Noah and I just hung out, deciding to make the best of our last weekend as just the two of us. We went to bed at normal time, to which Noah said "I really hope she doesn't come in the middle of the night."
Famous last words.
I had barely fallen asleep when I was literally knocked out of bed at 11:30 with a crazy intense pain in my back and lower stomach area. I began to time the contractions, and they were happening every 2 minutes. I dealt with the pain by telling Noah to stay away from me ( I don't do well with touching or talking when in pain) and walking up down the hallway. Finally at midnight I told Noah that if he wanted to shower before we left for the hospital that now was the time because I was calling the doctor at 12:30. At this point I was out of my mind in pain and had decided that a natural birth was for the birds and all I wanted was an epidural. Noah showered, loaded stuff in the car and at 12:30 on the dot I had shoes on and I called the doctor. I talked to to the on-call doctor, who told me that typically they have first time moms wait until they have had consistent contractions at home for two hours before heading to the hospital (side note...my doctor told me an hour). I think he could tell by my voice that I was going to the hospital whether he told me to or not.
The car ride to the hospital was miserable, sitting made the contractions worse. As we came up to I-435 we realized the ramp from I-35 to I-435 was closed, meaning we had to go to 95th street and then head back toward to the hospital, I nearly lost it. Mind you, it didn't really add that much time to the trip but by this point mentally I was done.
We got to the hospital and entered through ER, which took us awhile to find because there was a ton of construction and we had entered through a different area when we had our hospital tour. The security guard could tell that I was obviously in labor and asked if I needed a wheel chair. I said "nope, I can walk faster." When we got to the maternity floor I frantically looked at the nurses in the nurse station and said, "I think my doctor called me in, my name is Katy Wells and I am in serious labor." One of the nurses walked me (rather slowly I might add) back to triage, where they check you in before getting you in a delivery room. On the way I told the nurse, "All my pre-registration paper work will say I don't want an epidural, but it lies. I want one...now...please."
Once in triage the nurse hooked me up to the monitors and confirmed that I was indeed having steady contractions (my thoughts...well thank you captain obvious) and said I was dilated to a 5. At this point we called our parents to tell them we were officially being omitted to the hospital and little girl was on her way!
Once I was changed into my gown, it was time for my IV. I told the nurse that I had never had an IV an that I do well with IVs. Whenever I would visit people in the hospital I would have to make sure not to look at their IVs or I would pass out. She calmly told me not to look and it would all be ok. I told her I thought I was going to throw up so she gave me a throw up bag. She put the IV in and left to call the doctor and inform her of my progress. She left the room and I looked straight at Noah and said "here it comes" and I lost it. My biggest fear, throwing up during labor. I told everyone that the one thing I didn't want to do during labor and delivery was throw up, I spent too much time doing that the first 27 weeks. But honestly, it wasn't that bad...I got it all out of my system at the beginning. However, I won't be eating canned fruit cocktail ever again, it was the last thing I ate.
We were settled into the delivery room by 2 am. The nurse checked me again and said I was now dilated to a 7. Side Note: if we would have listened to the on call doctor and waited another hour at home before coming in, we would have just been arriving to the hospital and I would not have been able to get an epidural because there wouldn't have been enough time to get adequate amount of IV fluid in me that getting an epidural requires. We only had to wait about 30 minutes for the anesthesiologist to come give me my epidural and boy, it was a long 30 minutes. My contractions were still 2 minutes apart and very intense. I would just lean over the bed while Noah would apply pressure with his hand to my lower back, it was the only thing that would help.
Right before the anesthesiologist got there my parents arrived. When the walked in my first response was "Dad, you can't be in here, leave. NOW!" They both kind of looked at me shocked, like they didn't know what I was saying. So I repeated it again, more forceful. I love my dad dearly, but this was not an event I wanted him at. My mom said that she was going to take help him get situated in the waiting room and asked if I wanted her to come back. To which I apparently responded "Yes. You stay, but he goes."
When my mom came back the anesthesiologist had just gotten there and was getting ready to give me my epidural. I said a prayer that I would not have a contraction during the process and death gripped Noah's arm. Thanks be to God....once he started, I never had another contraction. I told the guy he was my hero and when he left I told Noah we needed to send him a thank you card. However, after getting his 935.00 bill this week, I am not so sure about thank you card :)
After getting the epidural I felt 100% better. In fact I was kind of loopy. I told Noah that if this is what it feels like to be stoned, I could totally understand why people do drugs. However, the epidural made my blood pressure drop, which in turn made the baby's heart rate increase.
Luckily by this time our amazing Dr. Hilary Nash was had arrived. We love Dr. Nash and are so thankful that she is our doctor. She left our church's women's retreat, which she was partially in-charge of, to come and deliver Miss Blakely. Dr. Nash spent the next hour watching Blakely's heart rate on the monitor. Over the next hour I progressed from a 7 to a 10 and at 3:30 am it was time to start pushing. Dr. Nash said Blakely was doing OK but if I hadn't progressed as fast as I did that we would have more than likely ended up with a c-section because of her increased heart rate.
I spent the next hour and a half pushing that girl's head out....which all makes sense now that we know her heard is in the 99th percentile. I am so glad that I had both Noah and my mom there as support. At one point I complained that I was really hot and I felt like I was going to pass out. They immediately put the oxygen mask on me and checked my temperature. Dr. Nash told me us that I had a temperature and that both me having a temperature and Blakely's heart rate being so jumpy were signs of an infection. They immediately began to give me an antibiotic, hoping it would be transferred to her as well. A few minutes later Dr. Hilary told us that after delivery that she would be sending the baby to the NICU so she could continue to get antibiotics just in case I had an infection and had passed it on to her. She said that this was all very precautionary and that more than likely the baby doesn't have an infection, but it is better to be safe than sorry. As it turns out, we later found out that my placenta tested positive for a serious infection, and it is such a blessing that all of Blakely's blood test came back negative.
Blakely was born at 4:58 am. It was the most amazing moment, having her placed on my chest, hearing her cry, seeing the emotion on Noah's face and realizing we were now a family.
We were able to spend a good hour with our little girl before the whisked her away to the NICU to begin receiving her precautionary antibiotics.
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalms 139:14
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| First Picture. Love her. |
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| Sweet Baby Girl |
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| I know I don't look happy but I really am :) |
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| She already has him wrapped around her finger. |
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