Part 2

Tuesday, February 16
After laboring all night, I just knew I was fully dialated.  Just knew it.  They checked me in the morning and  wouldn't you know it, 1cm.  That sucked.   But then, my mom walked in!  Bright spot in the morning! Now here's where my memory gets fuzzy.  Towards noon, I'm checked again.  1cm.  Good lord!  Why am I not dialating?!  Then my midwife comes in with the bad news.  She wants to give me Pitocin to speed up my labor, in the hopes that I'll dialate more.  Pitocin, you guys, is the devil!  But I handled that bad boy as long as I could!  Then after hours of ridiculous pain and no break in between, I said the dreaded words.. " Give me the epidural".  I hated it, but it had to be done.  I know I could have handled contractions without it, I was doing it!  But that Pitocin?!  Yikes!  So I think I fall asleep then.  During this time apparently the nurse is coming in and checking monitors, checking the baby's heart rate.  Which, apparently, had been going down.  No one thought to clue us in!  Then this random person comes in to take my blood, saying it's routine with C-sections.  Hold on a doggone minute!  No one said anything about a C-section!!  But at this point, my water had been broken for over 40 hours, which isn't good.  So I'm wheeled in, given more drugs and cut open!  When Harper came out, she didn't cry at first.  But I wasn't worried.  Then I heard the faintest cry and my heart melted.  My baby was here!  All 4lbs and 15oz of her!

Harper had a few things to deal with at first.  They felt she'd swallowed her own #2, so they placed her on antibiotics and had an IV going into her little arm.  Then her sugar was low.  She was born at 5:21pm.  After they took her away, I didn't see her again until 9:45.

She stayed in the hospital for a week.  So did I!  So many emotional ups and downs that week, just trying to make sure our daughter was ok.  We learned about blood platelet counts, white blood cell counts, jaundice, and other infections.  But God is good!  Our tiny one came home WITH us that Saturday. 

And wouldn't you know she's been making her presence known ever since?!  And we are soooo in love!

Harper's Birth Story Part 1

February 11



We go in for our 38 week appointment. Like always, every appointment begins with the customary urine sample, weigh in and blood pressure check. At the weigh in I notice a few extra pounds on the scale. The physician assistant didn't say anything and neither did I. She takes my blood pressure and doesn't say a word. ( I now know my pressure was sky high at this point) Now the silence is getting on my nerves. She gets another technician to take my pressure. Which I'm totally ok with, because I didn't like her energy anyway! The new tech tells me to think of calming things. Bam, still high. She sends me into the exam room to lie down. After 20 minutes they come to take it again. It went down like 20 points. My midwife then tells me I'm not to go back to work and I'm on bed rest until baby comes. Not only that, they want me to come back on Monday. What? I don't have blood pressure issues! Sure my pressure has been rising over the past two weeks, but I just thought that meant my body was tired of being pregnant. Little do they know, I have a 4 day weekend, so sure, bed rest! I'd planned on going in to work on the 16th to settle things at work.





February 14th


Around 9 or 10 o'clock Johnny and I go to dinner, just a block from the house. We order, I go to the restroom. I come back, take a seat and GOOSH!! Ok, so what was that? I tell Johnny it’s time to go home. About midnight I start feeling this weird pressure in my lower belly. We called the midwife about 1:45. I describe my symptoms, including the contractions I was starting to feel. She says, “Get some sleep and I’ll see you tomorrow @ 3:30.” Okkkkk…But at 4:45 I woke up with the world’s worst contraction. It just would not stop! I tried to get some rest that day, but the contractions went from 15 minutes apart to 7 minutes apart. At our 3:30 appointment, it was determined that my water had actually broke the night before and was stained with muconium. We were told to go right to the hospital. At the hospital we were told we were no longer candidates for water birth, because Harper had gone #2 inside me. So of course I had a moment (tears), but we had to get ourselves together quickly to birth our baby.

Contractions were coming pretty regularly.  I was checked and surprisingly just at 1cm dilated.  With a little help, I slept that night.

Forever and a day

Er, uh, we have a daughter now.  I don't know if you knew, but yeah.  I got super busy after my last post and then well, you know, two weeks before her due date, Harper decided she wanted to join the party.  So here's what you'll see in the next few days:

• Harper's birth story
• pictures of Harper
• Our new reality

I promise! 

Here's a picture to tide you over...