The day we became 4

So I dropped Sadie off at my friend Cami’s house (she has a daughter Sadie’s age named Kelsey) and Mom and I headed over to the hospital for my last NST and AFI. Before we left Cami said, “So you could have your baby today?!” I didn’t know how right she was
We got there and I was a little bummed that my usual nurse wasn’t there. But this other nurse was good and very meticulous. After being on the monitor for a while she talked to the doctor and came back and asked what I would think about being induced today. I said “Wahoo!” haha. She then told me that she talked to the doctor and since I had some factors that were not alarming but things to watch they figure it was better to just go ahead rather than to wait two days and have something bad happen. Some of the things she mentioned—my fluid levels were a bit high, the baby’s resting heart rate dropped about ten minutes in and stayed down, the cord was around her neck in the last ultrasound, I have group B strep, and my sugars have been low. They called my doctor who was at the hospital anyway and got me ready to go. I was a little upset that they wouldn’t even let me run home and say goodbye to Sadie and get a couple things. They told me I had to go straight up.
So we went up and they got the Iv in me to start the antibiotics for Group B and then they let me order lunch. That was kind of fun since they don’t usually let you eat once you go in. They told me when I was done eating that they would start pitocin. I told the family and then got busy eating. Dr. Dabling came in and said that they were letting me eat because I had to get two doses of antibiotics before they would really try to get me into labor. You have to wait four hours in between so she said if it looked like they were dilly-dallying—they were.
Kristin and Andrea came to visit and Kristin brought games. My mom went home at one point to get Sadie and grab a couple things for me. Matt came over after studying for a bit and stayed for the rest of the day. It was good to hang out but I had a headache so that stunk. I always got a headache from the NSTs.
To skip all the details that don’t matter THAT much…They started the second dose of penicillin at like 3:40 and then broke my water around 4:05ish. I got an epidural a little while after and then just waited. The epidural didn’t seem to take the first time so he came in and gave me another. The doctor kept saying that I was “shallow and superficial.” haha. He was talking about where the needle needed to go and told me that just meant I was skinny and petite…but he sure really enjoyed his joke. haha. The second he put the second epidural in I went numb from the first one. He said that he probably didn’t wait long enough.
They asked if we wanted to do a study on the baby. They told us it was nearing the end of the study and the only risk for the baby was an infection from germs in my body. I figured that since the antibiotics were killing all the bacteria in there anyway that she would be safe. They stuck a screw in her head and it connected to a computer that they called Walle. haha. They had to get permission from Matt too to do it but as soon as they told him it we would get a free case of diapers he was in The study was to test how having more information during labor would affect doctors decisions if something went wrong. She the screw was actually an EKG. It was kind of interesting to learn about.
My mom went to get some food at about 6pm since they thought it might be a little bit. After she left they told me that Dr. Dabling was heading to a C-section and wouldn’t be delivering me. I was pretty bummed about that. But, she came in a few minutes later to check me and I was at a ten and ready to go. They bustled around to get ready. I asked Kristin (who had Sadie) to go get my mom and tell her to hurry. Mom said it probably was a funny image to see her hobbling’/running with her broken leg.
I started pushing at 6:15 but I didn’t want to push too hard because I knew it meant a lot for my mom to be there. Luckily she walked in at 6:18 to see it. I kept getting distracted because I was watching through a mirror and it was fun to see the baby’s head and whatnot. Dr. Dabling and the nurses were laughing because they saw her head and it was wiggling around as if she was trying to look around. She said, “Jamie! She is so wiggly! That is so funny!” haha.
She was born at 6:22 after a whole whopping 7 minutes of pushing. Good thing my mom hurried! I wanted to hold her right away but they took her and she didn’t seem to be sick so I figured it was okay. Another thing that Dr. Dabling said as she was coming out was “This is not a 7 pound baby…” (They had projected her—at my December 30th ultrasound—to be between 7.5 and 8 pounds.) Turns out she was right about that. She was 9.8lbs! Holy moly!

Right after the birth they told me that I was bleeding too much and they gave me a shot in my leg to stop the bleeding. I guess I had hemorrhaged a little bit. They stopped it fast though so I only lost 800units of blood. I guess normal is 200-300. Seth Bruneel came in after and was a bit perturbed by the blood all over the floor. haha. Poor guy.
Baby was beautiful though. I got to hold her for a moment and it was precious. I gave her back fast though because I was shaking so bad that I was afraid for the baby. It was super uncomfortable. And when I say she was beautiful she looked like an alien because she was so slimy and “cheesy.” But I loved her. She is precious. They took her to clean her and everyone went and left me to get cleaned up. Nasty stuff blood and guts
Here you can see the screw in her head.

Aunt Kristin and Uncle Seth holding her for the first time.

Here is what she looked like on night number 1. Matt lovingly called her Jabba the Hut all night.

It was so strange to have her with us the first few nights. I didn’t get to experience that with Sadie so it was definitely new and definitely a blessing. I had a strange headache that lasted about 5 days—they told me it was probably a spinal headache and that it would go away. No medicine helped and I couldn’t stand or sit up without a lot of pain.
We had some visitors and that was fun. Kristina Bills came over and held her and hung out for a while (they share the same birthday so that’s cool). Jenny Buck and her kids came too. Henry and Amy loved the balloons we got. Matt had to volunteer at the hospital as he does on all friday nights and so he stopped up and visited before going downstairs.

Matt loved that the nurse wrote this on the board.


She is so cute. She was down to 8.13 friday morning and the swelling in her face had gone WAY down! Sadie loves her. She wanted to hold her and “help” her with her binky.

We didn’t name her until we were leaving the hospital and after much debate…we both were frustrated and gave the responsibility to each other. I had like five names I really like (Lucy—we called her that all morning but it just didn’t feel right—Scout, Kimberly Scout, Julia, and I can’t remember my other one) and Matt had two—Ester and Ruth. I didn’t like either of those and he didn’t love mine. Finally he said that I could name her Kimberly Scout—but only because my mom didn’t say she had a “special bond” with this baby. As soon as we wrote the name on the paper I teared up because I KNEW that was the right name. I am sure my mom felt awkward but it was right



We love having her home and Sadie absolutely adores her.