I realize this post is long overdue, but it is so hard to find a moment to blog with everything going on these days! This post may bore you, it is very very long so you probably won't be interested in reading the whole story, but I want to write down how everything happened so we could remember everything in the future before we forget the details!
When we went to the childbirth preparation class, they talk about everything you need to know for when to go into the hospital so they don't send you home. Well we listened and have read about everything you should know, and I talked to my doctor, and we
still ended up having our little miracle on our THIRD trip to the hospital! It all started on Tuesday night, the night before my due date. My parents brought over eg
gplant parmesan from Olive Garden, and as we were eating I started getting contractions. I had downloaded a timer and as they started getting stronger, we timed them and they were at 2-5 minutes apart for about 3 hours! At this point, I tried showering to see if they would stop (in case of false labor) and they kept going, so on to the hospital we went! Well... needless to say, my body didn't make the progress it needed to make, so they sent me home with all sorts of advice. We got home around 2am so I decided to skip work the next day because I knew that a full-term pregnant lady + contractions + no sleep = a not very pleasant teacher!
I spent that day walking around different stores and the mall, trying to get my contractions to go closer together to send my body into real labor. The contractions never stopped, but had gotten more intermittent, yet gradually were getting even stronger. On Thursday, I decided I needed a good distraction and went to work. The kids were very helpful in keeping me distracted from the contraction pains, and I got to deal with all of my well-intentioned co-workers comments. i.e. You still haven't had that baby? What are you doing here? What happened yesterday? Do you feel miserable, I can tell by just looking at you!
Friday morning we had a faculty meeting at 7:30 and being 2 days overdue, I knew it would be an exhausting day so I decided to sleep in and stay home to rest. I am so glad that I did because that was the last time I slept before Amelia was born! On Friday night, Brent and I met up with Clayton and Amy at the mall to try and walk her out again. I ran up and down the stairs trying to coax her out also... I can only imagine what people were thinking haha! Well when we were talking, Amy told us that for her mom, castor oil worked for every one of her babies. I had been going back and forth about this, and had decided not to even think about it, but after this conversation, Brent and I thought... well, why not?! So we went to Walmart on our way home and got some. I mustered up the courage to drink it (taste not too terrible, consistency AWFUL!!), and wish I would have waited because my contractions started getting worse about 2 minutes after I drank it!
Just in case I forget in future pregnancies - castor oil = a lot of trips to the restroom when you are already feeling crappy (excuse the pun haha) and therefore; not worth it!! Well... the contractions started getting stronger and closer around 9:00 and Brent and I waited until midnight before we knew - this was very different from last time. The contractions were close together, stronger, and taking my breath away! After 3 hours, we knew this was it! We put all our stuff back in the car, gave the boys next door our key so they could watch Lole, and headed to McKay Dee! When we walked in at about 12:05, I said, "I know I am in labor, and I am NOT going home this time!" The nurses made a few jokes and off we went to triage to get me checked. I had made a little progress since Tuesday, but not enough to make the on call doc want to come in the middle of the night. We walked around for an hour and made no progress. :(
At this point I was pretty frustrated. I could see on the monitor that my contractions were crazy strong and close together, yet I wasn't dilating. Basically, the nurse told us that contractions are not a true sign of when you are in labor. WHAT?!?! The true sign is when your body dilates. So if this continues to go on, eventually they will just induce you. My induction was set for the following Monday at 8:00am, so that meant if I didn't dilate, I would be having full blown contractions for 2 1/2 more days! Reluctantly, I took the pain meds and cried my way home in the car.
As we drove, my contractions just kept getting stronger and stronger. This went on all night long. After a night of no sleep, I called the doctor at 7:15am to plead with him what to do. At this point my contractions had been labor strength for 10 hours. He told me that first time moms can be in labor for 20+ hours and that is why they sent me home. He advised me to wait it out a couple more hours and then go back in. After a couple hours, I had a little bit of a melt down, because I feared that if I went back in they would just send me home again. My amazing husband laid down in bed with me, breathed with me, and held me while I was able to get a couple little naps in because my body was so exhausted.
Eventually we decided to go to his parents and sit in the jacuzzi hoping that it would help with the pain a little and relax me. After doing this and showering, I knew that we needed to go to the hospital. Even if they sent me home again, I needed to know what was going on with my body after 24 hours of labor at home.
When we got there the nurse checked me and said, "Good news, you are having this baby tonight!" I was finally dilated to a 6!!! We were so so so excited and so were all the nurses that had been there the previous nights who all came in to congratulate us on not having to go home haha! The doc told them to go ahead and give me my epidural and get things started! After the epidural (not near as bad as I was anticipating, holding still was the worst part), my body progressed pretty quickly! At around 8cm the doc broke my water, which gushed a lot more than he was anticipating haha! We were able to turn out the lights and rest our eyes for a little bit while we waited for my body to progress that last little bit!
Our nurse's shift ended at 5am, and at 4:35 when she said we could start getting ready to push, I was so sad that she wasn't going to be able to be there when our little girl was born! Well, pushing did not take as long as I (or the doc and nurse) had anticipated! At about 4:45 the nurse was calling the nursery to hurry and get a nurse in there for when Amelia was born. My mom, Katchie, Ann, and Addie were in there with Brent and I, and I had them turn on some upbeat music to try and wake me up to push because I was exhausted and delirious at this point (after 2 nights of not sleeping at all).
With the epidural, I wasn't sure if my pushing was doing any good, so reluctantly I finally gave in to having the mirror so I could see what was going on, and it actually helped a ton! It really gave me a lot of focus! At one point in time, when she was crowning, the nurse touched either her head or body and her head popped right back in! It was the craziest thing and totally shocked the doctor and the nurse who said they had never seen that happen before! Brent was amazing though everything and it was incredible how I could tune out everything going on and just listen to him coach me through pushing and giving me words of encouragement. At 5:04 our little Amelia Rose made her debut! Her umbilical cord was really short and so they had to keep her down there while Brent cut it before they put her right on my chest while they cleaned her off. She was absolutely perfect. The next hour or so was quite a blur while the doc finished everything up and everyone was taking pictures, and we were just soaking up seeing our beautiful healthy baby girl!
Amelia Rose Keller was born at 5:04am on Sunday, December 11, 2011. She weighed 7 lb 3 oz and was 20 inches long.
The next few days were filled with lot of friends and family visiting! We were those neurotic parents that didn't let her out of our sight, and we enjoyed every minute of it! Life has been quite crazy every since with the holidays! Hopefully I can keep up with updating the blog on all that has been going on! Being a mom is quite the full time job and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity! She brings so much happiness into our lives, and we cannot remember what life was like without her!
Since we have family that lives out of the state and don't get to see her, we started a blog where we try and update pictures of her everyday! I am trying to be better at the every day part, but it is fun to be able to look at it and see how fast she is growing and changing! If you want to keep updated on pictures of our beautiful girl, the new blog is kellerfampics.blogspot.com
