Birth Story

The following takes place between 2:30 am and 2:30 pm the day of Hannah Kate, Rachel, and Leah's birth. (yeah, that sounded way better in my head, but it doesn't flow....maybe that's why 24 has each episode as one hour? But, you all would like to read the story a little faster and I would like to write it a little faster than one hour at a time. Not to mention, I cannot remember enough details for that!)

I have wanted to do this blog post for a few days, but I haven't had the chance and thought it would give me something to do today. I am pretty foggy on details after about 4pm Wednesday, February 2nd, so I will do the best I can. Here are the highlights......

-We went to bed at about 10:30 on Tuesday night, everything was normal-I had been having contractions, but I had had them for weeks, so what else was new?!

-At sometime around 2:30 am (I think), I was suddenly wide awake, completely alert, and felt a pop. I knew it had to be my water breaking, I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom while yelling for Wesley. I don't know how I managed to not fall on my face because I felt my feet tangled up in the covers but kept running!

-Wesley ran into the bathroom telling me not to panic, reminding me I had made it to 28 weeks which was our first goal (um, yeah, the day before!), grabbing things to throw into our bag, stopping to lead us in prayer while I sat there shaking and trying not to completely panic. At some point, he managed to make it downstairs to wake up his parents and come back without me even knowing because suddenly I heard Martha at the door.

-I called Dr. C (Vanderbilt)'s answering service and left my number. We decided to go to Erlanger unless we were able to talk to someone before we got there who told us we could go to Vanderbilt.

-I already had our bags packed and had a list of things that needed to be added, so Wesley ran around grabbing items and throwing them in the bag while I got ready for the hospital and texted some friends asking them to pray.

-Wesley drove SUPER fast to the hospital. Thankfully, it was about 3 am and there was no one on the roads. On the way there, I remembered that I had Dr. C's beeper number, so I paged her-she called back and talked to Wesley. She said to go to Erlanger and tell them to get ready to transport me to Vanderbilt as soon as we arrived.

-On the way, my contractions got MUCH stronger than they had been before and I remember thinking it was not a good idea to drive to Vanderbilt.

-Wesley parked the car and an ER lady wheeled me up to Labor and Delivery. I heard the L&D nurse telling someone to go to a waiting room and wondered if it was Wesley. He sent a text and said she had sent him away (he was not happy). She asked me a few questions, got me on the monitor, and let Wesley come back to the triage room.

-A very calm, nice resident came in and checked me out, and informed us he wasn't going to transport me to Vanderbilt (Wesley and I panicked!). My contractions were about 2 minutes apart at this point. Wesley called Dr. C while this resident was in the room and ended up giving him the phone so they could talk. As it turns out, he just meant that they couldn't transport me until my contractions slowed down and they knew I wouldn't deliver in the middle of being moved.

-They did an ultrasound and saw that Rachel and Leah's fluid was what had ruptured, Hannah Kate's looked good, and said we might could even wait a couple of weeks before delivering since her's was still good.

-They decided to start me on magnesium to stop the contractions. Magnesium is not a lot of fun......I had to get a catheter because I was not allowed to get out of bed (catheters are not my favorite), the mag can make you VERY hot and flushed, they have to keep a close watch on your blood pressure while on this medication. One positive note is that the catheter bothered me so much I didn't notice being hot (for awhile)!

-I was moved to a room and Dean and Martha arrived. I was in a pretty decent amount of pain and really didn't want anyone else in the room other than Wesley, so they graciously hung out in the waiting room. I remember looking at the clock and it being around 5 am at this point and thinking how fast time had gone.

-The mag slowed my contractions a bit but not much. They wanted to give me morphine and phenergan, but I had such a bad reaction to it there last time, that I really didn't want it.

They finally decided to give me morphine and zofran.........once they were giving it to me, I decided that morphine was the problem! Oh well!

(This story is getting much longer and more detailed than I anticipated, but I wanted to have all the details down for Hannah Kate.............feel free to skim for quicker reading!)

-I texted my friend Holly from elementary/high school who is a resident at Erlanger in case she was going to be close by and she ended up coming to see us around 8 am. I hadn't seen her since our wedding in 2005! She stayed for about 45 minutes and it was a great time of catching up, keeping my mind off of contractions, etc. and hearing about her experience delivering her little

girl at 32 weeks. She gave us names for pediatricians in Chattanooga too, so that was handy. Before she left, she asked if we could take a picture.....even though I looked super awful, we took one. And I was super glad! :)

-More doctors came in and I don't remember much of what was decided (it was a lot of back and forth).

-Dr. S (my Chattanooga doctor) finally came in and said she felt comfortable sending me on to Vanderbilt because my contractions had slowed down. She wanted to send me on a helicopter......I said that was fine, I just wanted my picture taken!

-After texting people and telling people I was going to Vanderbilt on a helicopter (and lots of Wesley asking if he could ride on the helicopter......"I'm a pharmacist.".......), the helicopter lady and Dr. S returned saying there would be high winds, the ride would be very gusty, and if I thought I would be nervous at all, I needed to go by ambulance. We decided that would be the best decision, Dr. S thought I could make it there before delivering, and Wesley could ride with me.

-The ambulance guys came in and were super nice. They asked me who I wanted to drive, reassured us that they knew what they were doing because they stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night!!, and expertly moved me from the bed to the stretcher with a sheet. Once I was all strapped in, Wesley took a picture. (I also need to add that several ladies came in during this time to make sure everything was going smoothly with transport, letting us know that Vanderbilt knew we were coming, one of them gave Wesley her card, they were super nice. One of them even called to check on me the next day.)

-I was BURNING up and Wesley had gotten me cold washcloths for the past little bit. The ambulance guys (Bo, Jeff, and a guy whose name started with M but I can't remember what his name was!) said I needed a blanket because it was so cold outside. I wasn't crazy about the blanket, but I was strapped down-what could I do?

When they rolled me outside, that was the coolest and best I had felt all morning! (It was REALLY cold outside!)

-Wesley rode up front with Bo (I was told he drives the babies to transport, so that is who I said needed to drive us!) and Jeff and "M man" were in the back with me. Once we got going, Jeff asked details of our situation, etc. Apparently, since the babies were so ready to get out, someone had told him he may be delivering babies on the way to Nashville, etc. I think he felt a little better once I explained what all had happened. I did fine-the guys talked to me, kept me occupied, etc.-until about Monteagle. I started feeling sick on the way back down the mountain (and I remember thinking how fast the ride had gone). They gave me more Zofran, opened the window for fresh air, etc. Somewhere between Monteagle and Murfreesboro, my contractions started up again and were MUCH, MUCH stronger. I asked them to ask Wesley if Kristy was on her way (we had talked before I left Chattanooga and were debating on if she and Brittany should leave or wait to see what was going to happen). Wesley sent word back that she was on her way and I felt a little better (emotionally...physically, I was still feeling very sick).......later Wesley said he thought something was going wrong for me to have asked that, but he had no idea what was happening with me (and he really didn't need to know because there was nothing he could do).

-Around Murfreesboro, Jeff asked if I wanted to watch a movie. He pulled out a portable dvd player (his own personal one) and a case of about 50-100 dvds! I decided on National Treasure and we watched from the beginning until the part where they are about to steal the Declaration of Independence.

-One of the guys asked where they should eat lunch and I told them Demos'!! I also informed them that when they drank the sweet tea, they should think of me. :) Later, as they were leaving me in the hospital room, Jeff asked the name of the place again, I told him and then Wesley said he and Bo the driver had had the same conversation!

-Sometime in Nashville, my blood pressure started dropping. I don't remember what it was, but 80 was the top number.......not so good.

-I felt pretty awful by the time they took me off of the ambulance. I think I looked pretty awful too just from the way Wesley looked at me!

-They took me up to a room on the L&D floor and a very sweet nurse starting taking care of me. I really liked her because she had washcloths sitting in ICE water ready for me! Um, THANK YOU! And, I asked her about ice chips (I knew it was a long shot), she told me I could put the washcloth in my mouth.....so I did. That was helpful.

-A resident (I think) came in and checked/talked to me. He had me sign a paper again saying I would have a C-section. I asked if he had to go over all the things that could go wrong and he said yes. I remember saying, "Even if I say I have already heard it and I'll still have a C-section anyway?" He graciously went VERY quickly through the list (it reminded me of the Micro Mini-Machine guy from when I was a kid! Remember that guy?). I appreciated that!

-Sometime later my parents and Kristy arrived. Kristy said Brittany was on her way and somehow we found out she had just left Chattanooga.

-Dr. C came in and said we were having babies today. My parents asked how soon and she said "within the hour." One of us said something about whether or not Wesley's parents and Brittany would be here yet. Dr. C said we could try to wait for them and she delayed the surgery for at least an hour or two I think.

-Ma Coley and Carol arrived and Wesley's parents arrived. Brittany was still on the way and we were doubting whether or not she would be there in time. Wesley had the good idea to have Carol go in surgery with us to take pictures and if Britt arrived before they started, she could come and they would switch. Dr. C said it would be fine to have someone come in to take pictures for us (have I mentioned before that I LOVE this doctor?!) and that we would be in the big operating room. I told Wesley to just keep Carol in with us and if Britt arrived, it would give her time to get situated, not feel rushed, etc.

-When the anesthesiologist team came in, I heard Wesley asking if he could be with me when they did the spinal......pretty sure I heard "I'm a pharmacist" again.....(Morgan, weren't you going to get him a "Don't worry, I'm a pharmacist" t-shirt?!??) They still said no....

.............................

I am going to stop here for now.......it's a little past 2:30 pm the day of the birth of Hannah Kate, Rachel, and Leah...I had false advertising at the top! This was SUPER DUPER LONG, but this is like my journal and these are details I wanted to remember, maybe "highlights" wasn't a good title for this post?

If you have lasted this long, I have a yummy "It's a Girl!" mint waiting for you when you come visit us in the hospital! :)

More of Our Birth Story coming soon.........

Next time on The Birth of Hannah Kate, Rachel and Leah.......

-operating room/c-section/afterwards..........