{There is a lot to read, but several pictures at the end}
Everyone has their own story to tell with their pregnancy. Even though I have kept my blog followers up to date with pictures and certain information on my pregnancy, there is still a lot that I have not shared.
Everyone has their own story to tell with their pregnancy. Even though I have kept my blog followers up to date with pictures and certain information on my pregnancy, there is still a lot that I have not shared.
The first 25 weeks of my pregnancy were great with no complications. Yes I would gag here or there and the garbage always smelt way stronger than it should have, but other than that I had no morning sickness or anything. For all I knew I was as healthy as a horse with a growing belly!
We were living in Bakersfield, California and I had an awesome doctor, Dr. Del Mundo. Every appointment we attended, baby girl had a strong heart beat and was very healthy. When we had our ultra sound at 20 weeks everything was perfect with her growing and development.
It all came down to when I had that enjoyable glucose test that every pregnant woman talks about. On November 20, my birthday, I had that test. Because my mother had gestational diabetes, I was suggested to take the two hour glucose test. The lab techs had told me that I would receive my results at my next appointment unless there was a problem and they would call me sooner. My next appointment wasn't until December 5th. As the weeks went on, I hadn't heard anything until the phone rang on December 4th. My heart sank when I saw my doctor office's phone number show up on the caller ID.
The lady on the other end of the phone call said, "Hello is this Katelyn?" I responded and then she said, "I was just calling to inform you that you have gestational diabetes..." I really don't remember the rest of the conversation since a thousand things were running through my mind. I hung up the phone and began to cry. I was just so mad at my body for it not working properly. I called Brad since he was at work and while on the phone I couldn't even talk, I just cried! Brad was able to quickly calm me down but I still had so many unanswered questions.
The next afternoon we had our appointment and our Doctor had us set up appointments with the nurse/dietitian. The next Monday I received my glucometer and had to start testing my blood sugars. I had a hard time figuring out what I could and couldn't eat because I wasn't able to meet with the dietitian for a couple of weeks. I had a great friend, Elise, help me out and give me tips of what to eat to keep my blood sugars down. Elise was seriously an answer to my prayers and I was so thankful that she was so willing to help me out! The first few days of the new diet was hard. I was able to keep my sugars down and almost thought I didn't have diabetes. I had a rude awakening of that after I ate a soft taco one night and my sugars skyrocketed. I didn't believe it so I tested Brad's blood sugar and his was normal. It hit me hard and I just had to come to the realization that I did in fact have the gestational diabetes and I knew I had to get my diet under control to keep baby girl healthy.
Lots of time went into carb counting, meal planning and recording. I would have to test my blood sugar when I first woke up, and an hour after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast and my 3 snacks I could only have 15-20 carbs. For lunch and dinner I could have about 35-45 carbs without my sugars going over. I never realized how many carbs were in foods. Like 16 carbs are in a TBS of BBQ sauce. It is pretty ridiculous. But with lots of help and motivation from others I was able to keep my blood sugar down and was able to keep my weight down as well which was a plus! The hardest thing about it was that it was the holiday season and so many treats were offered to me. Sadly I could only have a few bites instead of a whole serving. But again the health of my baby was far more important then me being able to splurge for a few weeks.
We had moved from Bakersfield and returned back to Rexburg, ID. We were excited to be back and were anxious to meet with our previous doctor we had seen before we left for our internship. We met with him and updated him with everything. I had showed up so prepared with all of my meal logs and blood sugar numbers. The doctor must of been in a rush because he had no interest in looking at them and just informed us that I was now considered to be a high risk pregnancy. Since I was now high risk he explained that it was national standard for me to now meet twice a week and have an ultrasound each appointment or a Non-Stress Test (NST). They had told us that things could go wrong very quickly and they would rather prevent all that they could instead of something horrible happening to me or the baby. They explained that this is what they recommended but we of course had the choice to do what we wanted. After the doctor left the room I just broke down crying. Again I was just so frustrated that I wasn't normal in my pregnancy. I had done everything right, why did I have to go through all of this. Also I was so concerned about the money situation. I knew from previous bills that an ultrasound was about $200 after insurance, and to have TWO of them each week!!!! I just couldn't see how that was feasible with our budget.
Once I gathered myself together I went to the check out desk and we decided to schedule a few appointments. Brad and I went home and prayed and fasted about what we needed to do. We had several family members praying and fasting for us as well. Brad and I decided that we needed to meet twice a week just as our doctor requested. We would never forgive ourselves if something went wrong when we knew of the risks and knew what the doctors recommended. And so it began and I went every Tuesday and Friday for the last few weeks of my pregnancy.
At first I thought it was so silly because baby Aubrey had wonderful ultra sounds. They scored the ultrasounds from 0-8, with 8 being the best. They measured fluid levels (2 pts.), breathing motions (2 pts.), Body Movements (2 pts.), and blood flow through the umbilical chord (2 pts.) There wasn't an appointment where Aubrey didn't score an 8. I was so happy about that!
But that was the only thing that went right in those appointments. Every time I went I had something wrong with me. It started out with a urinary infection, then a sinus infection, another urinary infection that led to a kidney infection (which was horrible because I had to receive a large shot in my bum that made my entire left side sore for the rest of the day), then with being on all of those antibiotics, I had a bad yeast infection. It was finally real to me of why I was going twice a week. I really needed to keep everything in check because these infections could put me in pre-term labor.
It was then January 28th, I was 36 weeks along and I had my first positive appointment. My urine test came back negative of any infection and I had a great appointment. The Nurse practitioner had time to check if I was dilated and I was! I was dilated to be a little bigger than 1 cm and was 50% effaced. I had a NST test that day too and it showed that I had 6 contractions within 25 minutes. I was so excited that I was progressing!
In the mean time my family had made arrangements to all meet in Utah that upcoming weekend for the Superbowl. My family all really wanted Brad and I to come down. I had asked my doctor what he thought and he said since I was going to be 37 weeks (which is considered full term) on the day of the Superbowl, he wouldn't advise me to be 30 minutes away from the hospital. I think a few of my family members thought it was silly since I was still a few weeks from my due date but I was going to definitely do what my doctor requested.
Friday, January 31st, the day we would have drove to Utah if we had permission from my doctor, I had an appointment. Brad had dropped me off and went to class. I had another great ultrasound and Aubrey was measuring 5 lbs 15 oz. As I waited to see Doctor Evans his nurse came and checked my blood pressure. I am not quite sure what reading she received, but the look on her face was like if she was concerned. She told me she wanted me to rest there in the chair and she would be in to check it again. Weird thing was, I had been waiting there in that chair for 20 minutes already. She came in again about 10 minutes later and my blood pressure was 156/100. She took a blood sample to be tested to see if anything serious was going on. After the blood test came back Dr. Evans came in and tested my blood pressure twice and it was just as high if not higher. He put me on the NST machine for about 30 minutes just to see how my contractions were and to check the accelerations of baby girl. He also wanted to see if my blood pressure would go down at all. The nurse came in about every 15 minutes to check my blood pressure. Brad at this point was done with class and came in and sat with me. As I laid down my blood pressure was about 134/84 which they were pretty happy about. Then they had me sit up and rest for a minute and it spiked back up pretty high! I ended up staying on the NST machine for almost 2 hours. My doctor kept poking his head in as well to check what was going on. I was having pretty steady contractions but they were small that I could barely even feel them.
Baby girl was having some decelerations in her heart rate which they weren't too happy about.
Finally Dr. Evans came in with some papers and explained that he wanted to admit me to the hospital to keep me on an observational bed rest. He was very concerned about this blood pressure problem and didn't want it to get too out of hand. We left the doctors office and you know me I began to get very worried and began to cry (story of my life!).
The hospital was waiting for us to arrive! We got settled in our room, filled out paper work, and to the bed I went. I was finally able to call my mom and fill her in on what was going on. Her and my dad were headed down to Utah. I was so grateful that I had chose to go to my doctors appointments like it was requested by my doctors. I was also so grateful I hadn't decided to go down to Utah and miss this blood pressure problem. I had a small case of preeclampsia and they were concerned that I could have a seizure and to find out, having high blood pressure wears out your placenta and could cause stress on the baby.
I was on a 24 hour urine test and when that came back I had high levels of uric acid in it. After several blood tests my protein levels were getting worse as well.
Saturday, Doctor Evans came in. He checked and I hadn't progressed in being dilated more. He decided he wanted to keep an eye on me still. He had ordered another 24 hour urine test and basically said if test results didn't improve then they would be inducing and if worse came to worse they would do an emergency C-section. It was an emotional roller coaster. Every hour or so they would check my blood pressure and alarms would go off because it was so high. The nurses would come in and check on me and turn off the alarm. I just didn't understand how it could be so high when all I was doing was laying there in bed.
Brad was such a good sport. He was there by my bedside all day long. I was so glad I wasn't alone. We had lots of bonding time together. He was such a great support to me and I couldn't have been more grateful for him being there. The rest of Saturday was just a lot of resting and Brad and I both worked on homework.
The hardest part of being at the hospital was just the unknown and hoping that baby Aubrey was doing alright. Monitors showed that baby was doing just fine but it was still pretty scary being in the hospital 3 weeks before my due date. Knowing that we would meet our baby girl within the next few days was exciting but then I also worried if she would be fully developed, if she would have to go to the NICU, etc.
The lady on the other end of the phone call said, "Hello is this Katelyn?" I responded and then she said, "I was just calling to inform you that you have gestational diabetes..." I really don't remember the rest of the conversation since a thousand things were running through my mind. I hung up the phone and began to cry. I was just so mad at my body for it not working properly. I called Brad since he was at work and while on the phone I couldn't even talk, I just cried! Brad was able to quickly calm me down but I still had so many unanswered questions.
The next afternoon we had our appointment and our Doctor had us set up appointments with the nurse/dietitian. The next Monday I received my glucometer and had to start testing my blood sugars. I had a hard time figuring out what I could and couldn't eat because I wasn't able to meet with the dietitian for a couple of weeks. I had a great friend, Elise, help me out and give me tips of what to eat to keep my blood sugars down. Elise was seriously an answer to my prayers and I was so thankful that she was so willing to help me out! The first few days of the new diet was hard. I was able to keep my sugars down and almost thought I didn't have diabetes. I had a rude awakening of that after I ate a soft taco one night and my sugars skyrocketed. I didn't believe it so I tested Brad's blood sugar and his was normal. It hit me hard and I just had to come to the realization that I did in fact have the gestational diabetes and I knew I had to get my diet under control to keep baby girl healthy.
Lots of time went into carb counting, meal planning and recording. I would have to test my blood sugar when I first woke up, and an hour after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast and my 3 snacks I could only have 15-20 carbs. For lunch and dinner I could have about 35-45 carbs without my sugars going over. I never realized how many carbs were in foods. Like 16 carbs are in a TBS of BBQ sauce. It is pretty ridiculous. But with lots of help and motivation from others I was able to keep my blood sugar down and was able to keep my weight down as well which was a plus! The hardest thing about it was that it was the holiday season and so many treats were offered to me. Sadly I could only have a few bites instead of a whole serving. But again the health of my baby was far more important then me being able to splurge for a few weeks.
We had moved from Bakersfield and returned back to Rexburg, ID. We were excited to be back and were anxious to meet with our previous doctor we had seen before we left for our internship. We met with him and updated him with everything. I had showed up so prepared with all of my meal logs and blood sugar numbers. The doctor must of been in a rush because he had no interest in looking at them and just informed us that I was now considered to be a high risk pregnancy. Since I was now high risk he explained that it was national standard for me to now meet twice a week and have an ultrasound each appointment or a Non-Stress Test (NST). They had told us that things could go wrong very quickly and they would rather prevent all that they could instead of something horrible happening to me or the baby. They explained that this is what they recommended but we of course had the choice to do what we wanted. After the doctor left the room I just broke down crying. Again I was just so frustrated that I wasn't normal in my pregnancy. I had done everything right, why did I have to go through all of this. Also I was so concerned about the money situation. I knew from previous bills that an ultrasound was about $200 after insurance, and to have TWO of them each week!!!! I just couldn't see how that was feasible with our budget.
Once I gathered myself together I went to the check out desk and we decided to schedule a few appointments. Brad and I went home and prayed and fasted about what we needed to do. We had several family members praying and fasting for us as well. Brad and I decided that we needed to meet twice a week just as our doctor requested. We would never forgive ourselves if something went wrong when we knew of the risks and knew what the doctors recommended. And so it began and I went every Tuesday and Friday for the last few weeks of my pregnancy.
At first I thought it was so silly because baby Aubrey had wonderful ultra sounds. They scored the ultrasounds from 0-8, with 8 being the best. They measured fluid levels (2 pts.), breathing motions (2 pts.), Body Movements (2 pts.), and blood flow through the umbilical chord (2 pts.) There wasn't an appointment where Aubrey didn't score an 8. I was so happy about that!
But that was the only thing that went right in those appointments. Every time I went I had something wrong with me. It started out with a urinary infection, then a sinus infection, another urinary infection that led to a kidney infection (which was horrible because I had to receive a large shot in my bum that made my entire left side sore for the rest of the day), then with being on all of those antibiotics, I had a bad yeast infection. It was finally real to me of why I was going twice a week. I really needed to keep everything in check because these infections could put me in pre-term labor.
It was then January 28th, I was 36 weeks along and I had my first positive appointment. My urine test came back negative of any infection and I had a great appointment. The Nurse practitioner had time to check if I was dilated and I was! I was dilated to be a little bigger than 1 cm and was 50% effaced. I had a NST test that day too and it showed that I had 6 contractions within 25 minutes. I was so excited that I was progressing!
In the mean time my family had made arrangements to all meet in Utah that upcoming weekend for the Superbowl. My family all really wanted Brad and I to come down. I had asked my doctor what he thought and he said since I was going to be 37 weeks (which is considered full term) on the day of the Superbowl, he wouldn't advise me to be 30 minutes away from the hospital. I think a few of my family members thought it was silly since I was still a few weeks from my due date but I was going to definitely do what my doctor requested.
Friday, January 31st, the day we would have drove to Utah if we had permission from my doctor, I had an appointment. Brad had dropped me off and went to class. I had another great ultrasound and Aubrey was measuring 5 lbs 15 oz. As I waited to see Doctor Evans his nurse came and checked my blood pressure. I am not quite sure what reading she received, but the look on her face was like if she was concerned. She told me she wanted me to rest there in the chair and she would be in to check it again. Weird thing was, I had been waiting there in that chair for 20 minutes already. She came in again about 10 minutes later and my blood pressure was 156/100. She took a blood sample to be tested to see if anything serious was going on. After the blood test came back Dr. Evans came in and tested my blood pressure twice and it was just as high if not higher. He put me on the NST machine for about 30 minutes just to see how my contractions were and to check the accelerations of baby girl. He also wanted to see if my blood pressure would go down at all. The nurse came in about every 15 minutes to check my blood pressure. Brad at this point was done with class and came in and sat with me. As I laid down my blood pressure was about 134/84 which they were pretty happy about. Then they had me sit up and rest for a minute and it spiked back up pretty high! I ended up staying on the NST machine for almost 2 hours. My doctor kept poking his head in as well to check what was going on. I was having pretty steady contractions but they were small that I could barely even feel them.
Baby girl was having some decelerations in her heart rate which they weren't too happy about.
Finally Dr. Evans came in with some papers and explained that he wanted to admit me to the hospital to keep me on an observational bed rest. He was very concerned about this blood pressure problem and didn't want it to get too out of hand. We left the doctors office and you know me I began to get very worried and began to cry (story of my life!).
The hospital was waiting for us to arrive! We got settled in our room, filled out paper work, and to the bed I went. I was finally able to call my mom and fill her in on what was going on. Her and my dad were headed down to Utah. I was so grateful that I had chose to go to my doctors appointments like it was requested by my doctors. I was also so grateful I hadn't decided to go down to Utah and miss this blood pressure problem. I had a small case of preeclampsia and they were concerned that I could have a seizure and to find out, having high blood pressure wears out your placenta and could cause stress on the baby.
I was on a 24 hour urine test and when that came back I had high levels of uric acid in it. After several blood tests my protein levels were getting worse as well.
Saturday, Doctor Evans came in. He checked and I hadn't progressed in being dilated more. He decided he wanted to keep an eye on me still. He had ordered another 24 hour urine test and basically said if test results didn't improve then they would be inducing and if worse came to worse they would do an emergency C-section. It was an emotional roller coaster. Every hour or so they would check my blood pressure and alarms would go off because it was so high. The nurses would come in and check on me and turn off the alarm. I just didn't understand how it could be so high when all I was doing was laying there in bed.
Brad was such a good sport. He was there by my bedside all day long. I was so glad I wasn't alone. We had lots of bonding time together. He was such a great support to me and I couldn't have been more grateful for him being there. The rest of Saturday was just a lot of resting and Brad and I both worked on homework.
The hardest part of being at the hospital was just the unknown and hoping that baby Aubrey was doing alright. Monitors showed that baby was doing just fine but it was still pretty scary being in the hospital 3 weeks before my due date. Knowing that we would meet our baby girl within the next few days was exciting but then I also worried if she would be fully developed, if she would have to go to the NICU, etc.
February 2nd was the SUPERBOWL and I was now 37 weeks!!! Earlier the doctors had explained that they were going to try and wait to induce me until I was 37 weeks along. They said that research has shown that one more day the baby could be in the womb would save about 4 days of the baby from having to be in the NICU. I was very for that plan of waiting til 37 weeks.
Dr. Allred, the other doctor at my clinic came in to check on me that morning. I was in the process of the 2nd 24 hour urine test and by requests of the doctor I was told to just relax and enjoy the Superbowl. Dr. Allred also requested that no blood pressure tests were to be taken during the game LOL! It was nice to kind of just relax the rest of the day and not to worry too much about my complications. Dr. Allred informed me that Dr. Evans would be in Monday morning and would make decisions about inducing.
So Brad and I enjoyed the Superbowl and our SEAHAWKS made us proud that night! We had a couple of nurses on our floor who were Seahawk fans too, so they would come in and celebrate the touchdowns with us! We had a great time!
Before I knew it I was woken up by the lab techs to get another blood sample at 6:00 am. About 7:30 Dr. Evans came in with the results and saw that my protein levels continued to increase. He checked and I was dilated to a 2.5 and 75% effaced. He made the decision to induce me. At 8:00 am he broke my water and placed monitors on Aubrey's head and on the inside of my uterus to monitor her heart rate and my contractions. I then received my IVs and the pitocin was started.
Then the real labor was beginning. I was starting to feel the contractions very strongly in my back. It was like menstrual cramps X100! They wanted me to progress far enough along before starting my epidural. Blood tests were taken to be sure I was a good candidate for the epidural. About 11:30 the anesthesiologist came in, consent forms were signed, and the epidural began. The epidural was the greatest thing of my life! I was able to relax and everything was numb from my ribs down! The pitocin levels had to quickly be lowered because baby girl wasn't reacting well to them. As time went on the nurses had to take me off of pitocin to get baby to level out on her heart rate. I was also off and on oxygen to help with her stress.
Still the epidural was doing great and I was ready for whatever was to come. My parents got there at about 4:30 pm and I was so happy to see them! By this time I was dilated to 4 cm. Since I had to go on and off of pitocin I didn't progress as fast as they were hoping. Luckily I was still having contractions and baby girl was slowly moving down into the birthing canal.
Around 6:30-7:00 pm I could tell that the epidural was wearing off. My contractions began to really hurt but no changes were showing on the monitor of them getting more intense. So much more pressure was felt in my back and I could almost completely feel my legs. At this point I believe I was dilated to about a 6. When they had checked me it was far more uncomfortable. Soon I told the nurse that I was feeling almost everything. She checked my epidural site and said everything looked fine and then I said, "If the epidural was working would I be able to do this?" (as I kicked my leg high in the air!) The look on their faces were priceless. I was a little frustrated at that point because I knew what I was feeling and they probably thought I was just being a wimp. They had the anesthesiologist back in there to give me a higher dose. It helped for about an hour and back again I was in pain feeling everything. So much pressure was in my back that I thought my tail bone was going to break!
Soon the Contractions were so bad I was basically screaming through them. On the monitor the contractions were still small. Dr. Evans came in to check my progression... I was at about an 8. It was probably 9:30 pm or so and he was concerned that I had been going so long with with my water broken. He was pushing towards doing a c-section. Then this awesome nurse named Robyn stepped in and told my doctor, "We are not doing a c-section, she has progressed so much and has come so far that we can get this baby out vaginally." Robyn was my hero at that moment, even though I was in so much pain that I just wanted that labor to be over with. For some reason at that moment they adjusted the monitors inside of me and all of a sudden the readings on the contraction scale jumped up so high! Turns out I was really having bad contractions, but the monitors weren't reading them properly!
Another couple of hours I had super intense contractions, feeling everything. Robyn was so awesome staying there in the room helping me breathe through them and holding my hand when needed. It seemed like a life time but then I was fully dilated. Robyn explained to Brad and my other nurse Ester of how they were to hold my legs for me to prepare to push. Before the pushing began the anesthesiologist was able to give me one more dose in the epidural. Some of the pain subsided and the pushing began. The pushing started around 12:00 am.
When I went to push, Brad was the best coach I could ever ask for! He had so many words of encouragement and was so good at keeping me motivated when I was just completely exhausted. I remember falling asleep in between contractions and then hearing Brad say, "Here we go!!... 1,2,3,4..." They would push my legs and I would push until Brad got to the number 10 and do that one or two more times depending how much strength I had during that particular contraction. That went on for about two hours until Baby Aubrey was born at 2:07 am!!
After the first pictures were taken, my parents went home to our apartment to get some rest!
Dr. Allred, the other doctor at my clinic came in to check on me that morning. I was in the process of the 2nd 24 hour urine test and by requests of the doctor I was told to just relax and enjoy the Superbowl. Dr. Allred also requested that no blood pressure tests were to be taken during the game LOL! It was nice to kind of just relax the rest of the day and not to worry too much about my complications. Dr. Allred informed me that Dr. Evans would be in Monday morning and would make decisions about inducing.
So Brad and I enjoyed the Superbowl and our SEAHAWKS made us proud that night! We had a couple of nurses on our floor who were Seahawk fans too, so they would come in and celebrate the touchdowns with us! We had a great time!
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| Brad was so fun to watch! Cheering on his Team! 12th Man! |
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| Seahawk fans! :) |
My Relief Society President Morgan Harper and her husband came in for a visit as well. It was so nice of her to come and see how I was doing.
Through the night my nurse, Faye, who was awesome, kept checking on me. I was getting these massive headaches right behind my left eye. Also I was beginning to feel contractions! Faye put me on the NST monitor and sure enough my contractions were getting more intense. She taught me how to breathe through them.Before I knew it I was woken up by the lab techs to get another blood sample at 6:00 am. About 7:30 Dr. Evans came in with the results and saw that my protein levels continued to increase. He checked and I was dilated to a 2.5 and 75% effaced. He made the decision to induce me. At 8:00 am he broke my water and placed monitors on Aubrey's head and on the inside of my uterus to monitor her heart rate and my contractions. I then received my IVs and the pitocin was started.
Then the real labor was beginning. I was starting to feel the contractions very strongly in my back. It was like menstrual cramps X100! They wanted me to progress far enough along before starting my epidural. Blood tests were taken to be sure I was a good candidate for the epidural. About 11:30 the anesthesiologist came in, consent forms were signed, and the epidural began. The epidural was the greatest thing of my life! I was able to relax and everything was numb from my ribs down! The pitocin levels had to quickly be lowered because baby girl wasn't reacting well to them. As time went on the nurses had to take me off of pitocin to get baby to level out on her heart rate. I was also off and on oxygen to help with her stress.
Still the epidural was doing great and I was ready for whatever was to come. My parents got there at about 4:30 pm and I was so happy to see them! By this time I was dilated to 4 cm. Since I had to go on and off of pitocin I didn't progress as fast as they were hoping. Luckily I was still having contractions and baby girl was slowly moving down into the birthing canal.
Around 6:30-7:00 pm I could tell that the epidural was wearing off. My contractions began to really hurt but no changes were showing on the monitor of them getting more intense. So much more pressure was felt in my back and I could almost completely feel my legs. At this point I believe I was dilated to about a 6. When they had checked me it was far more uncomfortable. Soon I told the nurse that I was feeling almost everything. She checked my epidural site and said everything looked fine and then I said, "If the epidural was working would I be able to do this?" (as I kicked my leg high in the air!) The look on their faces were priceless. I was a little frustrated at that point because I knew what I was feeling and they probably thought I was just being a wimp. They had the anesthesiologist back in there to give me a higher dose. It helped for about an hour and back again I was in pain feeling everything. So much pressure was in my back that I thought my tail bone was going to break!
Soon the Contractions were so bad I was basically screaming through them. On the monitor the contractions were still small. Dr. Evans came in to check my progression... I was at about an 8. It was probably 9:30 pm or so and he was concerned that I had been going so long with with my water broken. He was pushing towards doing a c-section. Then this awesome nurse named Robyn stepped in and told my doctor, "We are not doing a c-section, she has progressed so much and has come so far that we can get this baby out vaginally." Robyn was my hero at that moment, even though I was in so much pain that I just wanted that labor to be over with. For some reason at that moment they adjusted the monitors inside of me and all of a sudden the readings on the contraction scale jumped up so high! Turns out I was really having bad contractions, but the monitors weren't reading them properly!
Another couple of hours I had super intense contractions, feeling everything. Robyn was so awesome staying there in the room helping me breathe through them and holding my hand when needed. It seemed like a life time but then I was fully dilated. Robyn explained to Brad and my other nurse Ester of how they were to hold my legs for me to prepare to push. Before the pushing began the anesthesiologist was able to give me one more dose in the epidural. Some of the pain subsided and the pushing began. The pushing started around 12:00 am.
When I went to push, Brad was the best coach I could ever ask for! He had so many words of encouragement and was so good at keeping me motivated when I was just completely exhausted. I remember falling asleep in between contractions and then hearing Brad say, "Here we go!!... 1,2,3,4..." They would push my legs and I would push until Brad got to the number 10 and do that one or two more times depending how much strength I had during that particular contraction. That went on for about two hours until Baby Aubrey was born at 2:07 am!!
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| A Proud Daddy and our Awesome Nurse Robyn |
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| Mimi meets Aubrey! |
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| Holding her after being cleaned up! |
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| First Family Picture! After 3 full days of bed rest and an 18 hour labor! |
I was able to have my first meal in over 24 hours!! Also I didn't have to follow my gestational diabetes diet anymore! I had a turkey sandwich, chips, pudding and JUICE!
In the mean time Brad and Robyn gave Aubrey a bath...
In the mean time Brad and Robyn gave Aubrey a bath...
and changed her first diaper!
My Sweet Little Girl!
After I was finished eating it was time to start feeding Aubrey. The nurses were great and she slowly learned to latch on. Soon after I was finally able to take a shower and we moved to the labor recovery rooms. It was about 5:30 am and we were exhausted!! Brad and I were able to sleep a few hours.
Later that night we had some visitors!!
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| After a good nights rest |
With nurses checking my vitals, taking blood, and delivering food I wasn't able to sleep much longer.
So I just admired this sweet little one!
Aubrey Marie Duffy
Born February 4, 2014 @ 2:07 am
5 lbs 10 oz, 19 inches long
My parents came back over around 11 am and enjoyed some cuddling!
Her first time really awake! Looking at Papa!
Later that night, Brad and I had our celebratory dinner! Loved having the sparkling cider!!
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| Mommy and Aubrey |
Our upstairs neighbors came to visit Joe and Aubrey Apple!
And then Don "Grandpa" came into town for the evening! He was on a business trip in Boise so it worked out perfectly for him to come visit! Brian and Tess were able to stop by too and we FaceTimed Heather!
We stayed another day in the hospital and were released Wednesday at about 5:30 pm.
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| It was a long day! |
My Dad had taken this photo right before we packed up the car to go home!
From all the trials that came with this pregnancy, we have been so blessed with this beautiful little girl! We love her so much! Thank you for all your love and prayers during my pregnancy and labor. I am recovering well and am back to classes! We are so happy and love watching Aubrey grow everyday! She is actually a month old today! So many more pictures will be posted soon!
Love,
The Duffy's
I loved reading this katelyn! You and brad are so strong and make such a great team. After all of those trials, I'm so glad you have a beautiful baby girl to help you forget all about it:) We love and miss you guys! Can't wait for or little girls to meet each other!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading this katelyn! You and brad are so strong and make such a great team. After all of those trials, I'm so glad you have a beautiful baby girl to help you forget all about it:) We love and miss you guys! Can't wait for or little girls to meet each other!
ReplyDeleteAw! I love hearing birth stories! I'm sorry you had so many complications Katelyn during your pregnancy. It's so rough to have to watch your diet when you're supposed to be able to eat whatever you want! I'm so happy Aubrey is a healthy little baby and happy to hear you're doing well! Congrats to you and Brad!
ReplyDeleteAwww... you have so many details! This is awesomeI loved reading it! It make me jealous because I don't remember a thing about Rykers birth. Never had one contraction. Your story makes me glad I didn't :) Isn't crazy how we were roommates in the beginning now we are having families? :)
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