After waiting 38 weeks, we finally were blessed with another sweet baby girl! I wanted a girl pretty bad because I just kept remembering all the cute dresses Gracie had as a baby and wanted to get them out again. And I guess we haven't got our fix of princess yet. Both Stuart and I liked the name Kathryn, but it doesn't come from anywhere special, just felt right. We call her Katy too, which confuses the kids a little but I think it is growing on Gracie(mind you she wanted to name her Rapunzel Bubbles). Her middle name is Jean, which is my mother-in-laws middle name as well as my maternal grandfather's name, so didn't that work out great!
For some reason our girls want to keep us on our toes, Kathryn had to have a dramatic entrance into this world. (Here comes the birth story, so if not interested...might want to move on) After not feeling any movement almost all day Stuart and I decided to go to the hospital just to check her out. All I wanted to hear was a heart beat and oh what a beautiful sound it was. As they were monitoring me for a a little bit, the nurses saw I was having contractions but she was not reacting to them as babies are supposed to. So although her heart sounded good they wanted a more active baby, so the Dr. decided it was time for her to come out. So the dreaded pitocin was started (I wanted to go natural again like my other 2) and we were hoping that since this was my third baby this was all I would need to kick start things. After six hours of pitocin I was still at a 1cm and she still wasn't responding like they wanted so the Dr. decided to do a c-section. I was so amazed at how fast everything went from there. It was about 4 in the morning but those nurses are used to moving quick. It was scary and daunting to think that I was going to have my first surgery ever, but I just kept telling myself that I would be able to hold her in 10 minutes. And it was very fast, and the spinal block it pretty crazy and amazing how quickly it works and my sweet baby was born. She had pooped in utero and they think thatthat may be what caused her to slow down, and after they had her out we discovered she had inhaled some of the merconeum. So she got put in the nursery so they could observe her while I went to recovery, which is a very lonely place at 5 in the morning and I couldn't really rest because I was pretty loopy after the surgery and they kept checking on me. Weird feeling being numb and loopy and tired and worried all at once. The pediatrician decided he didn't like how she was breathing and so she got transported to another hospital to be in the NICU. I was very lucky in the fact that I healed quickly and was able to get out of the hospital by the next afternoon, usually you have to stay 2 days after a c-section but my Dr. was very sweet and said that it would be better for me and baby if I got to go be with her. I finally got to go and hold Kathryn on Friday night for just a few minutes for the first time, the nurse that night was not pleasant at all and we decided it was best to rest and come back the next morning. We had a heck of a time convincing the nurses and doctors that we could care for her at home, by this time she was breathing on her own and starting to eat very well from a bottle. We learned a lot about hospital time tables dealing with Gracie's illnesses and it is very frustrating. What a glorious Sunday evening when she finally came home and met the whole family. Gracie was lucky enough to see her and hold her while she was still in the NICU but Zach was too young and Max needed an intro as well. We are so blessed that nothing really serious or with long term effects happened to either me or Kathryn.
Some things I never want to forget from this experience...I had a very specific plan for this birth down to what I wanted to wear during labor and not one of those things came to pass. I have now experienced 3 very different kinds of child birth and I really hope that all my "stories" will be able to help someone someday. And just because I had everything go different then I wanted I would not advocate not having a plan, just be ready for diversion. It was a little heart breaking to me that I was not going to have a beautiful, natural birth like I had with Zach and I really considered paying for a home birth out of pocket so we could have that, but for some reason I always hesitated and now I know that the Lord was watching over us and making sure we were where we needed to be for our safety. Like I said before I think that I was able to stay calm and rational because I have had some practice with uncertainty at hospitals. But the biggest blessing of all thru this was our friends. We had a very sweet friend that spent the night with the kids that first night and then took the dog the rest of the weekend so we didn't have to worry about him. After that night some other friends stepped in to care for the kids and drive them places and care for them so I didn't have to worry and Stuart could stay with me as much as possible. I also had some special visitors at the hospital and lots of phone calls and texts to check up on us. I very much appreciate each one of these thoughts and prayers. While Gracie was at her friend's house she told her "Kathryn really needs to come home, she needs me". It is so easy during times like these to get angry and ask why this is happening, but just as you are getting down and feeling discouraged it is amazing how the Lord steps in and someone will call or come visit and you forget those thoughts. I am so blessed to be reminded of the Lord's tender mercies and to have this beautiful new baby in our lives.
