It's amazing how God prepares you for what you need exactly when you need it. For the past few months, Ty and I were really hoping that Katelyn came late so I could get to a certain date with teaching and so that we could take a little get-away to Pierre for a minister/spouses retreat. Up until the due date, I kept thinking "please Lord, let it not be today" yet when the due date came? We were raring to go! Ready for our little one to make an appearance.
We had an awesome weekend celebrating Krystle's birthday and mine. We had made no real plans as we were hoping baby would come during the weekend so we just were able to relax and enjoy being a family of two for one last bit.
Monday night, I woke up at midnight feeling a little crampy but not thinking much of it. I then woke up at 3am and my immediate thought was, "Well this is different. We're going to have a baby today!!" I had had a contraction and it was pretty painful from the get-go. I assumed it was way early labor and I would have lots of time before the next one hit and assuming we wouldn't go to the hospital until daytime. Well, as I closed my eyes to fall back asleep, 3 minutes later, another one hit. I realized I should probably time them just to be sure how close they are together and sure enough, they kept coming back to back with 3-4 minutes in between and lasting longer than a minute. They tell you to go to the hospital when your contractions hit 5 minutes apart and lasting a minute long... well we were past that! So I woke up the hubby and shared with him that I'm pretty sure I'm in labor and that I was going to take a shower and put the last minute things in my bag. I didn't realize how difficult these little tasks were going to be when contractions were hitting so close together but eventually we were both ready for the hospital. We headed to the gas station for a little caffeine for the hubby and got to the hospital around 6am. By this time, contractions were about 2 minutes apart. We were admitted and found that I was at a 3.5-4. And let me tell you... Tyler was an absolute rockstar! He was incredibly helpful and an amazing coach. At some point, I was at the peak of the pain and very frustrated as I felt like I was fighting my body and Ty was right there helping me and was constantly encouraging me in what I was doing. I really have no sense of time as I would look at the clock but not really think about what it means or how long it had been. It's amazing how focused you get on what's at hand and nothing else matters. Toward the end, I was ready to push but the dr. wasn't there. Evidently I was not listening to the doctors because I learned later that they had told me I could stop fighting it and go with my body but I was under the impression that since we were waiting on the doctor to get there that I was still supposed to fight it- so I did (as much as I possibly could anyway). Finally the doctor got there. After about an hour and a vacuum later, Katelyn Grace was born into the world! The picture below is Ty and my reactions. What Tyler was thinking/saying? "That's our baby girl!!" What came out of my mouth? "Holy COW she's HUGE!"
Labor was by far the hardest thing I've done in my life but it was so well worth it! Tyler's been making a point to brag on me by sharing that I went natural with no drugs, and although I am proud that we did it, the reason I did it was that I had heard that it helps nursing go a lot easier and that recovery for mom is a lot shorter and easier. Both proved to be completely true for us so I'm glad it worked. (We are totally not against epidurals and know that that's certainly a great option for many!) And because we had mentioned natural when we first went in, the nurses never brought up pain meds and were incredibly encouraging to us to help us acheive our goal. And truth be told? I was so focused on each contraction that pain meds never even came across my mind. Although I'm not looking forward to doing it all over again someday, I know that I would for the joy that comes with our baby girl.
Katelyn Grace born on October 2nd at 11:11am. 7 lbs 15 oz, 20.5inches long, and as sweet as a bug! We fall in love with her more every day and just love her little quirks and personality already!
Thank you, Jesus for an efficient and quick labor and even more for a healthy baby girl! Now we're just settling in as a family at home!
