Holy Cow - Katie is 4!

Happy Birthday to Katie! She woke up this morning wanting to hear the story of her birth again - which we tell at least one a week since Will has been born. Humor me as I re-tell it in blog form. :)
It was Wednesday, June 16th. I had just come home after working a full day at the investment office. John and I were set to go grocery shopping. I had an appointment on Thursday, June 17th and the midwives were thinking about trying some things to move labor along. I had been 3 cm dilated for about a week. I wanted to stock up on groceries so that we would have plenty to eat in the house for the next couple of weeks, and I didn't think I could do it myself. We got home late so we cooked a frozen pizza, watched some tv, and went to bed.

I woke up around 1:45 am with some odd pains in my side. I rolled over and went back to sleep. 10 minutes later, it happened again. I got up, went to the bathroom, and proceeded to drink 2 big glasses of water and lay on my left side. (This is what they always tell you to do if you are having pains. It could be a result of dehydration.) They continued to come every 8-10 minutes. At about 2:30 am I woke up John on the couch and told him I was having some weird pains. "You don't have to get up, I just wanted to let you know." He was going to just go back to sleep, but then he heard me breathing through a contraction and got up. Around 3:30 am I decided to call the hospital. My contractions had started coming every 5 minutes and I was getting anxious. My fear was that we would go to the hospital and they would send us home because this wasn't the real thing. The nurse that I spoke to told me to take a warm shower which may help the pain. If I wanted to come get checked out later in the morning, I could. So I went ahead and got in the shower around 3:45. The water did help, but the contractions were coming so hard now it was difficult to move. I dreaded getting out and getting dressed, but somehow managed to do it. By now it was around 4:30 or so and after pacing around a bit, I remember making the announcement "I have to get to the hospital." John grabbed the bag, some odds and ends, and I made my way to the car. We didn't have a far drive and got to hospital around 4:50 am or so. In the car ride, something had changed. Ohhh boy, it hurt now. I held John's hand and in my head I was chanting "It'll be over soon, It'll be over soon..." over and over again. Later, John told me that he finally realized that this was it - we were having a baby right now. This was the real thing. On the radio played the song "Come to Papa" by Bob Seger.

When we got to the hospital, the doors were locked because it was so early. We had to buzz someone to let us in. I was screaming "Let me the #%@! in!" John calmly said "My wife is in labor." The doors opened and we went to the admissions desk. Now I had already pre-registered 2 weeks before, but for some ungodly reason they still make you check in. This poor little Asian woman was trying her best to get my info up as I yelled at her to HURRY THE HELL UP!
"Do you want a wheelchair honey?"
"NO-I"LL JUST WALK! LET'S GO!"
"Oh, well it's quite a ways to walk...."
"THEN GET ME A DAMN WHEELCHAIR!"
After standing there about 10 minutes or so she wheeled me up to labor and delivery, and John went to park the car. I'd had 2 contractions on the ride up to the L&D floor, so when we got there all she could say was "She needs a labor room right away - no monitoring." I tried to explain to the nurses I had called earlier, but didn't need to. The nurse I talked to said "I'm SO sorry I told you to take a shower! Look, your hair is still wet!" I got into the gown (after I asked if I had to take off my underwear. "Gee, no hon, we're gonna pull this baby out of your nose." I was a little out of it) and they told me I was 8 cm dilated. I got out of bed and yelled for some painkillers. They were able to get an IV in, but before they could get it hooked up, I was complete. We'd been at the hospital just about 30 minutes and out came the baby. John said "It's a girl," and the rest is 4 years of wonderful memories. I'm so glad we were able to stay at home for so long during the labor because it helped me get through labor naturally and drug free - there's no other way I would have been able to do it.
Thank you Katie for being our first child, and for putting up with us for 4 years.

Katie and Pop

Baby Katie with cousin Sarah.

Either Katie was little or we had a huge remote. I think it was a little of both.