A look Back

I cannot believe my beautiful little girl is gonna be 3 on Saturday. It sometimes seems like yesteday we were bringing her home from the hospital. I was able to remember my labor story with my sister this weekend and I am amazed at how quickly it makes me cry with happy tears everytime I remember. I am also amazed at how quickly I am taken back to all the rush and emotions of fear and excitement that the day of her birth held for us.

I remember waking up in the middle of the night and my water had broken, I went tell James and he said i was probably just freaking out and I needed to go back to sleep. So after some convincing (a huge wet spot on our bed) we decided to call the nurse at the hospital to see what we should do. She said wait an hour and then come in. Since i wasnt having contractions, James proceeded to go back to bed and I started cleaning and freaking out. After the slowest hour of my life, I woke my husband up and we packed our bags and went to the hospital. They checked and my water had broken and they admitted me. Since I wasnt having any contractions and my water had broken, they decided to put me on pitocin (a hormone that starts contractions and speeds up labor). I didnt feel anything until about 6 that morning. When I did start feeling contractions I felt them hard and fast. And after about 6 hours of that and only being at 3 centimeters, I decided I needed an epidural NOW. Once I got the epidural I was starting to enjoy the whole labor and birth process, when all the sudden about 3 that afternoon the baby's heart rate dropped. I say baby because at the time we had not yet found out what we were having. All the sudden a rush of 5 or 6 doctors and nurses came running into the room and unplugging everything and started running me down the O.R. I had no clue what was going on and all I wanted was to see James. They finally told me that the baby's heart rate was dropping so quickly that they needed to do an emergency c-section. All of the sudden the anastesiologist came in a gave me the numbing medicine for a c-section and It came up so high in my chest I couldnt breath, so they did something. Well as they transfered me to the operating table, somehow the baby shifted and the heart rate shot right back up to normal. So my Doctor decided she didnt want to do a c-section if she didnt have to. They checked me and I was 10 centimeters but I coulnt push because of all the numbing medicine. So they gave me medicine to stop contractions, medicine to make the numbing ware off, medicing to lower my blood pressure and because I was vomiting, medicine for that as well. Well because of all the medicine, I started having little seizures. We are at about 4 pm at this time. After about 5 hours my medicines wore off and I felt contractions strong and hard, I told my new nurse I had to push and she told me I need to "hold on". I told her, "if you dont hurry up my husband will deliver this baby weather the doctor is here or not." I think she took me seriously because the doctor was in the room within 2 minutes. The baby's heart rate started dropping again and so they used the forceps and pulled my beautiful baby girl out. She had the umbilical cord wrapped around her little neck 3 times. All of that and she was a healthy 7lb 4oz little girl who was 19 inches long. She was just showing me a miniscule part of the stubborness that we are now working on. She has ever since that day only made my life happier and more beautiful. I love this little girl with all of my heart. She is a beautiful gift and miricle!!! It is so bittersweet celebrating her 3rd birthday. I so often wish I could go back to that day and feel the feeling of her brand new life in my arms, yet I am so happy and joyful to see my beautiful little angel and how she has grown and the precious heart she has. She is a leader and she is strong. She loves Jesus and she loves people so much. She is my beautiful Catherine Jane.