The Story

Here's the story of how we ended up with an amazing little girl named Kate.

I started having light contractions pretty consistently on Wednesday afternoon while I was at a friend's house. Christian came home that evening and we walked around and around the block. The contractions started getting more regular and stronger. We slept very little Wednesday night, sure that something was going to happen. By Thursday morning the contractions were slowing down, so we started walking again (Christian called into work saying the baby was probably on her way so he was with me all day). About 1:30 p.m. we decided to go to the hospital.

They checked me--only 3 cm and monitored me--contractions had slowed down and I was pretty sure they were going to send me back home. Instead the nurse came in and said my blood pressure was really high and there was protein in my urine and because those are signs of preeclampsia the doctor wanted the baby out ASAP to prevent any serious complications. At about 2 p.m. I was admitted and put on Pitocin.

While we were waiting for things to pick up, we watched the three part Friends episode about Rachel having her baby. We kept laughing that that's what was on TV. Every time women were screaming Christian would ask, "Are you sure you want to watch this?" But seeing all those little babies kept my eye on the prize.

At about 6:30 p.m., they broke my water. That's when things REALLY picked up. Up until that point I had been really unsure about an epidural, but when Dr. Wong came at about 10 p.m. to put it in, I could have hugged him.

Because of preeclampsia, they had to do all sorts of extra things. I had a blood pressure cuff on the whole time. It would check my blood pressure every 15 minutes. If it was too high it would sound an alarm that the nurse would have to turn off. To prevent seizures, I had one IV line with Magnesium. That was my least favorite! It made me feel really crummy-my skin felt really hot and I felt really dizzy. Because the magnesium was making me so dizzy that they hooked me up to an oxygen mask. I also had an IV line with penicillin because I have tested positive for Strep B and another with just regular fluids to keep me hydrated. I remember one point looking up at all those lines and thinking, well, if it gets me a baby, then it's not so bad.

Time seemed to go by really fast. I tried to keep telling myself, don't get your hopes up, it'll probably be another 12 hours. A little after midnight the nurse checked me and said I was 8 cm and that pretty soon I'd be ready for a baby. I didn't quite believe her. Soon after I started feeling the contractions again. At about 2 a.m. she said I was almost ready to push. I still didn't believe her. I thought it would still be hours and hours from that point. Pushing didn't last very long and by 2:46, there she was. That was one of the most amazing moments of my life!!!!! I looked and saw a head, then a body, then there was a baby on my chest. It was so surreal. The Doctor and nurses left the room, and there were were, Dagny, Christian, and Kate, the Kelsey trio. It was pure magic.

I think they stopped the magnesium about an hour before Kate came, and didn't start it again until about a half hour after, so I had that magical half hour, but once it started I started feeling really sick. Thank goodness Christian was there. He had to take care of the baby for the next couple hours because I couldn't really do anything. I was pretty much in and out of consciousness. At 7 a.m. they were ready to move us to the recovery room. I still wasn't feeling great, but I was feeling better. Christian went with Kate to give her the first bath and I took it easy. I asked the nurse if I could go to the bathroom. She said sure. I started getting really dizzy at that point, and I'm not sure what happened, but Christian said that when he walked in there were two nurses trying to get me to stand up and I was on almost on the floor. He walked in just in time to help me get back to bed. They had to keep me on magnesium for 24 hours after delivery and those 24 hours were pretty rough. Fortunately I had Christian right by my side and he took care of both me and the baby. I couldn't have made it through without him. I started counting down the hours to when they would take the IV out. At 3 a.m. on the 29th, when they finally took it out, life was suddenly 300% better! I felt GREAT!

Our hospital stay seemed to go by so fast. We had wonderful Dr.'s and nurses. Everyone was so nice. I'm so grateful for Christian and the way he stayed by my side. He is such a good daddy and has already really bonded with Kate. She is a very lucky little girl because he would do just about anything for her. I'm also so grateful to friends and family being so excited that our little girl is here. All your love and support means so much to me!!!!! Thank you for everything!