Note: Google won't let me upload pictures right now for some reason. I am writing this down here so I can remember Kelsay's birth story. You are welcome to read or not. I promise there are not too many of the gory details, just a few key points about what happened that I want to remember.
Kelsay Tabitha Fletcher joined our family on the cold morning of February 5th, 2014. She was born at Baylor Carrollton Hospital and weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long.
It was a crazy day. I was schedule to go in for an induction at 7a.m. that morning. At about 3:30 that morning Maddy woke up because she had pottied the bed. (A very unusual occurrence these days.) Both Aaron and I got up to change her clothes, strip sheets, etc. Right as I got up I felt a strong contraction, but being 3 a.m. I was thinking that my muscles were hurting from laying in bed in one position too long so I didn't really think much about it. Aaron went to put Maddy back to bed and fell asleep in her room. I went back to bed as well, but I wasn't destined to fall back asleep. After having 3 or 4 more contractions, about 5 min apart at this point, I realized that I was in labor and needed to get up, get Aaron up, and call Tammy to come stay with Maddy. I called Tammy about 4:30 in the morning. We both laughed about it later because I said, "Hey, I think I'm in labor. We're going to the hospital. I need you to come stay with Maddy." Tammy's response was, "Do you need me to leave right now?" LOL! YES!!!!
Tammy got here and we hopped in the car and headed off. At this point I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes but they were still very manageable. We hit the ER, got admitted to L&D and put in a room. I had a doula who was supposed to come help me with a birth but she was at another birth when we got admitted to the hospital so she sent a back up doula to be with us until she could get there. She was able to come about an hour after we got to the hospital and was so glad to see her as contractions had gotten pretty painful by that point. I thought Kelsay would come really fast when she decided to come so I was really wondering why I was still in labor at this point. After I had not progressed past 8 cm for a while, and I want to say that I was at this point forever, but as people who have been in labor know, time is not measured the same when you're the one giving birth,. My water hadn't broken so they broke it at this point and I thought things would start up again, but no such luck. The doctor decided to go ahead and start some Pitocin because my contractions were not strong enough to progress labor. I didn't have to be talked into this at this point as I was desperate to get things progress. I was really dreading the contractions to come, but I guess because labor was stalled or I wasn't having strong contractions, or for whatever reason, the Pitocin actually made the contractions more manageable for me. Very weird as the same drug just about killed me when Maddy was born.
Another weird thing that happened was that I got a horrible hand cramp during a contraction. My had went into this kind of claw shape and I couldn't undo it. Aaron had to massage it out and then my hand was sore for days. It hurt to do simple things like hold a cup. That was probably the weirdest thing that happened in labor.
Once we got past the contraction problem, we had some more hurdles to cross. One problem was that Kelsay had her hand up by her face. The nurse was able to get her hand down. Then when the doctor checked me she said my cervix was not effacing evenly so they tried turning me all different ways an doing all kinds of different things to correct that. Nothing worked. Another problem was that Kelsay was face up. The doctor finally decided to go ahead and have me do some pushing to see if we could get her over the cervix. We did and it worked. Once she got that worked out, I pushed for three contractions and Kelsay came into the world screaming her head off. Aaron got to cut the cord and then they put her up on my tummy right away so I could see her. I did not get to have that experience with Maddy and let me tell you, I have never had a more amazing experience than that, even though she was screaming and screaming and screaming. She did calm down a bit after she'd been on my tummy a couple of minutes but continued screaming after they took her to the warming bed to do her assessment. Aaron got to go over and see that part while they finished everything up with me. I did have some tearing (not surprised with a 8 + pound baby).
This hospital was awesome because they never took Kelsay out of our presence to do anything. They did all of her assessments, bathing, everything right in the room. That was such a wonderful experience after having Maddy whisked away to NICU in 5 minutes after she was born and not getting to see her again for hours.
After we'd been in recovery a while they got us into our room and the rest was just getting to enjoy our sweet baby as much as we wanted too. They had changed several things since Maddy was born. One thing is that they don't give the babies a bath for 24 hours after they are born because it helps with breastfeeding somehow.
Tammy picked up Maddy after school and brought her to the hospital. We didn't know how she would respond but she acted kind of scared of Kelsay. She didn't really want to be too close to her or hold her. (This turned out to be a good thing since the next day we found out that Maddy had RSV). She did get excited about taking a family picture and saying, "Happy Birthday, Baby Kelsay!"
Other friends came to visit Kelsay as well. "Cousin Rachel" came by and our friends, the Barkers, and Kathy Knight from DBU brought Kelsay a card and a stuffed lamb. DBU and one of Aaron's clients sent her flowers.
Later that evening, we heard from Cindy and Maddy had a fever of 101. Uh oh! Had to go ahead and leave her at Cindy's for the night since we had nothing else to do with her but I felt really bad that she was sick. The next day we decided to have Cindy bring her back so that we could take Maddy to the doctor just to check on her and see what she had since we had a new baby. Well thank goodness we did! Aaron took Maddy home and stayed with her until Tammy got off work and came to stay. Then he got up the next morning and went back so Tammy could go to work. I was a little nervous about being at the hospital by myself that much since I was still having a pretty hard time moving around but it went really well and the nurses were super helpful.
On Friday we got discharged by 11. That made it kind of crazy because Mom and Dad's plane came in at 10:30, but we got it all worked out. It has been great to have them here to help keep Maddy and Kelsay apart as much as possible. I do feel very sad that Maddy is missing most of Kelsay's first days. Those days are so special and Maddy wants to see EVERYTHING she does, including check out her poopy diapers. She still has a pretty congested cough. It is not going away as fast as I hoped.. Hopefully she'll be well soon and get to hold the baby and do all the things for the baby she has looked forward to doing for so long.
We are all in love with this new baby. She is a blessing from God to our family.
Kelsay Tabitha Fletcher joined our family on the cold morning of February 5th, 2014. She was born at Baylor Carrollton Hospital and weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long.
It was a crazy day. I was schedule to go in for an induction at 7a.m. that morning. At about 3:30 that morning Maddy woke up because she had pottied the bed. (A very unusual occurrence these days.) Both Aaron and I got up to change her clothes, strip sheets, etc. Right as I got up I felt a strong contraction, but being 3 a.m. I was thinking that my muscles were hurting from laying in bed in one position too long so I didn't really think much about it. Aaron went to put Maddy back to bed and fell asleep in her room. I went back to bed as well, but I wasn't destined to fall back asleep. After having 3 or 4 more contractions, about 5 min apart at this point, I realized that I was in labor and needed to get up, get Aaron up, and call Tammy to come stay with Maddy. I called Tammy about 4:30 in the morning. We both laughed about it later because I said, "Hey, I think I'm in labor. We're going to the hospital. I need you to come stay with Maddy." Tammy's response was, "Do you need me to leave right now?" LOL! YES!!!!
Tammy got here and we hopped in the car and headed off. At this point I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes but they were still very manageable. We hit the ER, got admitted to L&D and put in a room. I had a doula who was supposed to come help me with a birth but she was at another birth when we got admitted to the hospital so she sent a back up doula to be with us until she could get there. She was able to come about an hour after we got to the hospital and was so glad to see her as contractions had gotten pretty painful by that point. I thought Kelsay would come really fast when she decided to come so I was really wondering why I was still in labor at this point. After I had not progressed past 8 cm for a while, and I want to say that I was at this point forever, but as people who have been in labor know, time is not measured the same when you're the one giving birth,. My water hadn't broken so they broke it at this point and I thought things would start up again, but no such luck. The doctor decided to go ahead and start some Pitocin because my contractions were not strong enough to progress labor. I didn't have to be talked into this at this point as I was desperate to get things progress. I was really dreading the contractions to come, but I guess because labor was stalled or I wasn't having strong contractions, or for whatever reason, the Pitocin actually made the contractions more manageable for me. Very weird as the same drug just about killed me when Maddy was born.
Another weird thing that happened was that I got a horrible hand cramp during a contraction. My had went into this kind of claw shape and I couldn't undo it. Aaron had to massage it out and then my hand was sore for days. It hurt to do simple things like hold a cup. That was probably the weirdest thing that happened in labor.
Once we got past the contraction problem, we had some more hurdles to cross. One problem was that Kelsay had her hand up by her face. The nurse was able to get her hand down. Then when the doctor checked me she said my cervix was not effacing evenly so they tried turning me all different ways an doing all kinds of different things to correct that. Nothing worked. Another problem was that Kelsay was face up. The doctor finally decided to go ahead and have me do some pushing to see if we could get her over the cervix. We did and it worked. Once she got that worked out, I pushed for three contractions and Kelsay came into the world screaming her head off. Aaron got to cut the cord and then they put her up on my tummy right away so I could see her. I did not get to have that experience with Maddy and let me tell you, I have never had a more amazing experience than that, even though she was screaming and screaming and screaming. She did calm down a bit after she'd been on my tummy a couple of minutes but continued screaming after they took her to the warming bed to do her assessment. Aaron got to go over and see that part while they finished everything up with me. I did have some tearing (not surprised with a 8 + pound baby).
This hospital was awesome because they never took Kelsay out of our presence to do anything. They did all of her assessments, bathing, everything right in the room. That was such a wonderful experience after having Maddy whisked away to NICU in 5 minutes after she was born and not getting to see her again for hours.
After we'd been in recovery a while they got us into our room and the rest was just getting to enjoy our sweet baby as much as we wanted too. They had changed several things since Maddy was born. One thing is that they don't give the babies a bath for 24 hours after they are born because it helps with breastfeeding somehow.
Tammy picked up Maddy after school and brought her to the hospital. We didn't know how she would respond but she acted kind of scared of Kelsay. She didn't really want to be too close to her or hold her. (This turned out to be a good thing since the next day we found out that Maddy had RSV). She did get excited about taking a family picture and saying, "Happy Birthday, Baby Kelsay!"
Other friends came to visit Kelsay as well. "Cousin Rachel" came by and our friends, the Barkers, and Kathy Knight from DBU brought Kelsay a card and a stuffed lamb. DBU and one of Aaron's clients sent her flowers.
Later that evening, we heard from Cindy and Maddy had a fever of 101. Uh oh! Had to go ahead and leave her at Cindy's for the night since we had nothing else to do with her but I felt really bad that she was sick. The next day we decided to have Cindy bring her back so that we could take Maddy to the doctor just to check on her and see what she had since we had a new baby. Well thank goodness we did! Aaron took Maddy home and stayed with her until Tammy got off work and came to stay. Then he got up the next morning and went back so Tammy could go to work. I was a little nervous about being at the hospital by myself that much since I was still having a pretty hard time moving around but it went really well and the nurses were super helpful.
On Friday we got discharged by 11. That made it kind of crazy because Mom and Dad's plane came in at 10:30, but we got it all worked out. It has been great to have them here to help keep Maddy and Kelsay apart as much as possible. I do feel very sad that Maddy is missing most of Kelsay's first days. Those days are so special and Maddy wants to see EVERYTHING she does, including check out her poopy diapers. She still has a pretty congested cough. It is not going away as fast as I hoped.. Hopefully she'll be well soon and get to hold the baby and do all the things for the baby she has looked forward to doing for so long.
We are all in love with this new baby. She is a blessing from God to our family.
Comments
I'll be glad when all these kiddos get over their coughs. We've been sharing it around too all winter.
Maddy will be wanting to change the diapers pretty soon.