She's Here!!!

Sorry for the delayed response, but it has been a little hectic around here lately!

I am sure most of you have heard the story by now, but it all started on Friday, May 22nd. After a full day of chores, including using the vacuum crevice tool around the entire house, I decided to go to the gym for a little swim. I use the term "swim" loosely, however, because it really was more of floating around with a fun-noodle under my behind.

At the gym, I started to feel a little cramping, so I went home, took a shower, and took it easy on the couch until Charley got home about an hour later. It wasn't until I went upstairs and Google searched "how to tell if you are really in labor" that I started to question whether the pains I was feeling were really labor or not, because to be quite honest, they were not all that bad.

I put up a fight for awhile about not wanting to go to the hospital, because I was mortified by the thought of having to do the walk of shame out of the maternity ward. However, when Charley started to time these "pains" I was having, we noticed that they were only about 5 minutes apart, so I reluctantly packed a few things and headed for the hospital.

After we arrived and checked in, the nurse quickly hooked me up to a monitor, and said that yes I was having contractions, and I was 3 cm dilated, and I would definitely be having this baby soon! At which point the shock started to set in.

The next few hours went by relatively uneventfully. They were waiting for my water to break, but after 3 hours, they called the Dr. in and had her break my water. That's when things started to get a little crazy. They called up the anesthesiologist to give me an epidural, but just as he came in the room, so did my nurse and a "supervisor." They started the routine "everything's fine, we just need to put you on oxygen." Followed by "everything's fine, we just need to put your baby on an internal monitor." Followed by the anesthesiologist saying "I am not going to give her an epidural if she is just going to end up in the OR." Now I have watched enough ER to know that OR is short for Operating Room, and also that no Dr. should use the words operation and relax in the same sentence. And when they hand your husband a scrub kit, chances are something is not going right.

They finally let me know that the baby's cord was losely wrapped around her neck, and once they broke my water, and the contractions got stronger, the pressure was forcing the cord to tighten and causing her heart rate to drop drastically. Not wanting to take any chances, they rushed me in for an emergency c-section.

I will try not to gross people out at this point, but the c-section was a psychological mind trip. I felt everything, I just didn't feel the pain associated with it. i.e. I felt the scalpel cut across my stomach, there just wasn't any pain. Followed by everything else that needed to happen to get her out safely.

After just a few minutes, however, we heard a cry (at 1:29 a.m.) and knew she was fine. While the Dr.'s gave me a little something extra through my i.v., Charley and the baby rushed off to the NICU because she had "respiratory problems and hypoglycemia." She was put on an i.v. and oxygen, but everything seemed to be more precautionary than anything to worry about.

We got to stay in the hospital for 5 days while Kaelyn was in the NICU trying to figure out that she wasn't going to be getting food via the umbilical cord anymore.

Two weeks later, we are all doing great. She is eating well, and gaining weight well. We are sleeping...sometimes. Her newest thing is wanting to get up at 2 am and stay up the rest of the night. That's been fun, but everything is definitely worth it.

Thank you to everyone who kept us in their thoughts and prayers, here are some pictures!