Birthday story!

Miss Kylie has a lengthy and exciting birth story!  

Around 35 weeks, my doctors noticed she wasn't keeping up with traditional benchmarks of growth.  We began to monitor her growth more closely as she was considered 'IUGR' - intrauterine growth restriction - and they were curious whether she was challenged in growing.  Or if she was simply a smaller baby.  We monitored her movement with kick counts each day and eventually twice a week ultrasounds. 

With her due date of March 10th, they decided to induce a week early - March 3rd.  We were scheduled to go into the hospital March 2nd, and got there around dinner time! 

Overnight bag!
Notice both the small bag I selected -
and the prominence of DVD's.
It's all about priorities!

A two-part induction process began the night before to assist with dilating.  They gave me an Ambien to help with sleep - which brought about a crazy hallucination of my being a (very confused) circus worker!  Around 7am they started pitocin to help with contractions.  That continued until around 1PM when I gladly received an epidural.  It immediately relieved the pain of contractions and smoothed them out. Around 8PM it, unfortunately, began to wear off.  I was still only about 3 cm dilated. We watched the Republican debate, Jimmy Kimmel, and the news - waiting and waiting.  Around 1AM I got a pretty intense contraction just on my right back side.  Very tired and still just shy of 5 cm dilated - the doctor decided we'd go ahead with a C-section. He was a doctor from a different practice, and a big and boisterous man - certainly had more energy than I did!

I was thankful that through our Preparing for Childbirth class, they shared what it'd be like to go into the operating room for a C-section.  I knew just what to expect. It was still a pretty intense and powerful experience.  After receiving the anesthesia - my feet went numb and I couldn't feel much!  The radio was going and everyone in there worked quickly.  Shortly after 2:40am our little girl came out crying loudly.  They took her off into a separate room to clean off and weigh - and then Mike brought her out to meet me!  I didn't recognize him at first with his mask and scrubs.

Though labor was not the most enjoyable experience - I do feel as though we are stronger because of it!  A blessed adventure we'll always share as a family. 

10 fingers and 10 toes - we were thankful she is such a healthy baby!  March 4th will always be a memorable day :)