Birth Story

3 Months late but something I want to remember.

My due date was Monday April 20th, and my last day watching Timmy was going to be Thursday April 23rd.

We met with the Dr on Monday and she asked what we wanted our game plan to be. I told her that I was having a hard time deciding, because on one hand I was totally fine with waiting and letting Allie come when she did, on the other hand I only had a limited amount of time off and wanted to maximize it and not waste a week or two still pregnant. We decided to schedule my induction for one week from that day and go from there.

I made it through Thursday and said good bye to Timmy for a couple weeks and went to bed that night praying Allie would come the next day.

I woke up at 4am with my first painful contraction. I laid awake and monitored them. The contractions were definitely growing in intensity and becoming more frequent. Andrew woke up and started getting ready for work and by 8:00 when he needed to leave I was ready to go into the hospital. We decided that he should go in just for an hour to wrap some stuff up and then he would come back to get me.

Literally as soon as he drove off, my contractions stopped. Nothing. I was so frustrated because everything pointed to this not being a false alarm. I texted Andrew and told him I was pissed, but there was no need for him to come back home. Then I laid down on the couch and fell asleep while Dani watched a movie. I woke up feeling less exhausted and feeling some light contractions again. I figured I might as well straighten my hair to keep my mind off whether this was the real deal or not.

The contractions started to get really painful and having a 2 year old climb all over me was not helping. I knew that Andrew had an appointment that would be over around noon, and I figured I would make it until then. I sent him a text saying when he was done with his appointment I would like him to come home and take me to the hospital.

12:00 rolled around and my patience with the contractions and the 2 year old was wearing thin. Andrew called and said that his appointment was over, but the homeowners wanted to stay and look around the house for a little while longer, so he was just doing some paper work in the car. My response? went something like this, "No. Go in there and tell them that your wife is in labor and they need to leave, then get your butt home and take me to the hospital." In a moment of perfect clarity Andrew simply said "OK" and hung up.

He got home and we told Dani we were going to the hospital to get her baby sister and left. We got checked in and they monitored me for a little while and then I labored on my own for a little bit. Said, enough of this, and called for the epidural around 5:00.

After that it was just a relaxing evening of waiting until it was time to push. At about 9:00 the Dr came in to see how I was progressing and decided that Allie was going to be there soon. and about 4 pushes later at 9:11pm she was here in all her 9lb 5oz 20in glory. She was absolutely perfect and it was love at first sight.

Pictures:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101594840653538.1073741836.19718118&type=1&l=c668b9396d

First ER Visit

Last night was in the bedroom with Allie when I heard Dani start crying int he front of the house. I didn't really think anything of it since 1) She can be kind of a drama Queen 2) Andrew was out there with her.

Then, suddenly, I heard Andrew scream out my name. I came running out to the kitchen as Andrew came carrying Dani inside literally covered in blood and dripping all over the floor. We got her to the sink and started running water over her hands in an effort to figure out where the bleeding was coming from and how bad it was. She was holding her hand closed and it took a little bit before I was able to get her to relax her hand. As the water ran over it I saw a large chunk of skin flap open and immediately said "We need to go to the ER, grab a towel"

Now I am going to pause the story here to set the scene so you can understand the chaos that was happening.

Ben and Nakalan were home and the 2 dogs were inside, they had to stay inside because the chickens were out roaming the backyard.

Allie, in my haste, was abandoned on my bed in the back of the house, and Timmy  (the little boy I watch was sitting in his high chair enjoying a snack, he was getting picked up shortly).

OK back to the chaos.

By this time Ben and Nakalan had come upstairs to see what was going on. While Andrew was running around trying to find a towel, Nakalan said "Go, I'll watch the kids"

Andrew grabbed a towel, wrapped Dani's hand and scooped her up to take her out to the car. I barely remembered to yell out where Allie was as we ran out the door.

He sat in the back with her on his lap so that he could hold her in his lap, and keep pressure on her finger.

As I was climbing into the van, Uncle Ben ran up to the door and chucked some Otter pops into the car saying "These will make her feel better!" Which later totally made me laugh, that in the chaos he thought to run to the freezer, grab popsicles, and get them to Dani before we pulled out.

I go tearing out of our neighborhood and naturally there is a cop parked a block away, (probably God's way of keeping us from all ending up in the ER due to my driving) I slowed way down and apologized as I passed him and prayed he would have mercy on us and stay put. He did. We passed another cop on the way further driving home the point that I needed to drive careful. Thanks God, message received.

We got the ER and Andrew carried Dani who was still screaming and covered in blood. As soon as we stepped in the doors the ladies at the desk said "Dad, room 1. Mom over here." So Andrew took Dani into triage while I answered all the questions and got insurance figured out. Then we were taken to a room where they looked at her finger and started figuring out what they needed to do.

At this point I realized that I had forgot my phone, but apparently things didn't calm down after we left. Andrew's Aunt Showed up to drop off some stuff around the same time that Timmy's mom came to pick hime up. The chickens were still out and refusing to go back into the coop and by this time one of them had escaped through a whole in the fence into the neighbors backyard. It was like everything that could have gone wrong did, all at once.

Back at the ER, the Dr came in and checked out Dani's finger and decided she needed stitches. The nurse got Dani cleaned up and put in the orders of everything they would need. Dani started shivering and shaking pretty badly, so the Dr brought in one of those awesome warm blankets and wrapped her up and she soon fell asleep in my lap waiting from the medication.

After a little wait they come in with the first narcotic and gave it to her up her nose. Some more cuddling while they waited to see if it was working. The Dr came in and looked in her eyes and decided that she was still too aware and decided to give her a dose of another pain medication.

Once he was sure she was feeling good they came in and gave her the wonderful and awful shot. You know, the one that makes her whole finger numb so she doesn't feel the stitches, but has to be administered by sticking the needle directly into her wound? Yeah.

They cleaned it all up and it was pretty gnarly looking, and I wish i had my phone so I could have taken some pictures. The Dr started stitching her up and about halfway through, the happy medication REALLY took effect. She started giggling and sticking her tongue out and making weird noises and swing her feet up in the air. It was pretty funny. Everyone in the room was laughing along with her.

In the end she got 8 stitches and the nurse let her pick out a stuffed animal from the treasure chest (she picked a puppy covered in hearts, naturally). As we scooped her up to carry her out she said "That fun, I do dat again." Yes, we probably will, but hopefully not for a little while.

Here is her finger the next morning as I was changing the Band Aid