week. 39. part. 02. kate.

Hello everyone this is late once again… my bad.

Kate was very nervous about writing her story for everyone to see.  She is quite shy.  So leave her some love!  More pictures after story time.

Kate’s Story:

It all began with a bright and shiny Saturday morning.  Dan was about to head out for wedding and I had gotten myself all dolled up for Apple Harvest Day in Dover.  I was so excited because we’ve always had weddings to shoot on apple harvest day and this was the first year that I was going to be able to walk downtown and look around.  And boy did I want some apple pie/crisp!!

After putting on the finishing touches, I walked into the living room to tell Dan that I put tons of extra makeup on.  I wanted to ask him if I looked good.

“Yeah, you look great!” he said.

“Good, because I wanted to look pretty in case I go into labor while you’re gone and the nurses have to take pictures of me.”

We both laughed as he told me I would be fine.  I mostly believed him because I still felt great.  I hadn’t had that uncomfortable I’m about to give birth feeling yet.  We hugged and kissed and I scooted him out the door.  I got ready and as soon as my friends Trish and Lindsay showed up we walked downtown.  Apple harvest day was awesome. We walked around for a couple hours. I ate like a pig, and then went home to relax.

After watching a bunch of desperate housewives, at 4:30pm I decided to get my butt off the couch and clean the bathroom.  I bent over to wipe the floor, and immediately stood back up.  I really hope that isn’t my water breaking, I thought to myself.  I changed and decided that I just needed to relax.  But before relaxing I decided to pack all of the last minute hospital bag items, just in case.   If this really was nothing Dan was really going to make fun of me when he got home for packing everything on a whim.  But deep down I knew something was definitely happening.  It happened again twice while getting off the couch.  I was slowly beginning to realize that this was most likely happening.  I was going into labor.  I hadn’t heard from Dan yet about how the wedding was going, so I casually texted him to ask how things were going.  I didn’t want to unnecessarily startle him!  It was 5:42pm.

I called Lish, my sister, at 6:00pm in a minor panic, but knowing everything would be ok.

Through tears, I said, “I’m fine, but I think my water broke. I’m not in any pain though.  Is that normal?”

She said,  “I’ll be right over” and hung up the phone.

Luckily she was only 2 minutes down the street at my grams house.  So she left her almost 2 year old daughter with my gram and her 2 ½ week old son with her husband and sent him home to feed him with a bottle that she thankfully had pumped and saved by chance.  When she showed up she asked how many times I had changed.

“Three,” I answered.

She said you need to call the hospital.  I started crying again and said that our worst nightmare was coming true.  I just kept telling myself…It’s really ok.  We knew this might happen.  Everything would be fine and we were all going to make it through this.  We reassured ourselves that we didn’t really know what was going on yet and there might be plenty of time for Dan to make it home.  He was 2 hours away and wasn’t going to be home until midnight at the earliest.  It was 6:17pm and he still didn’t know.

I held on to the little hope I had left though and gathered enough courage to call the hospital.

I was called back by a nurse at 6:25 and told to come to the hospital to be checked.  I texted Dan again (after still not hearing from him) and told him to call if he had a sec.  He called and I updated him through tears while unconvincingly reassuring him that I was totally fine and just surprised.  I handed the phone to Lish so that she could reassure him that everything was ok including me and that we would call him with anything new.  We got to the hospital at 6:35 and I was immediately hooked up to monitors to watch my contractions and the baby’s heart rate.  I was still not having any painful contractions and they had to check to see if it was indeed my water that had broken.  The nurse couldn’t be sure because the line on the test was so faint, and thought I might be pissing myself.  She left us in the room and my sister and I just laughed.  I had soaked through three pairs of clothes and was now laying in bed soaking through layers of towels.  If I was just peeing my pants, the rest of the night was sure to be interesting.  At 7:23 another nurse came in and was going on about how we would have to do the c section, and was asking me how long until my husband could be there.

When she noticed my sister and I’s confused faces, she said “It was your water that broke.  Did anyone tell you?”

…No, no one told me.  “The last thing that I was informed of was that it’s common for women, this late in pregnancy, to pee their pants and not know…” I answered trying to hold back the sarcasm.

She asked again about my husband, and I told her what I told everyone else to this point,  “Even if he could leave right now he won’t be here for 2 hours.  It’s really ok.  We kind of planned for this, we just never really expected it to happen.”

Contractions began and they were starting to feel slightly crampier than they had during the pregnancy so far.

I texted Dan, “So we are having a baby today maybe tomorrow if they let me wait for you.  I said this in the morning, if you remember.”

“Yup. I brushed you off. You weren’t supposed to actually do it!” Dan replied.

The surgeon came in and informed me that we really needed to do this now for a multitude of reasons which I understood.  She, along with every other nurse, continued to ask when Dan could be here by.  I continued to tell them that it was ok, and that we had planned for this possibility for nine months.  Although, every time I answered this question, I would begin to cry.  So of course no one believed that I thought it was ok.  But it really was.  Everything really was going to be fine.  I was completely confident in the fact that Dan was so in love with me and that I could do this.  He would get there shortly after Babyjedi was born and we would have our moment then.

After texting updates back and forth and trying to get skype to work I told him that it was almost time to go.

Me – “Just stay. They have to move it along so this is it.  Call me if you have a sec.”

Dan – “Wait… right now now?!”

Me- “Really soon.”

It was 8:45pm.

At 9:23pm it was time.

Me – “About to head in. Can’t take the phone. Call you after.  I miss you I love you take good pics and then drive safe.”

Getting excited about meeting babyjedi I excitedly texted, “see you in a few hours!!”  I got a simple “Love you!” back which was exactly what I needed.

At 9:38pm they began to wheel me down to the OR.

Anyone who has had a C-section knows that they make your partner wait outside while they prep you.  This of course made me even more nervous than I already was.  I don’t like needles and I was about to get one shoved in my spine and I had to go it alone.  Deep breaths and off to the OR we went.  At 9:45 the spinal went in.  They laid me down and started to prep me and check to see if I was numbing.  I began to get high spinal effects really quickly and the surgeon said we need to begin now.  High Spinal effects basically feels like you cannot breath even though you can breath fine.  It has to do with being completely numb.  They said that they could give me anti-anxiety and anti-nausea medication, but I was adamant about having  the least amount of medicine possible, because I wanted to breastfeed right away.  I once again told them I was fine, all the while trying to reassure myself that it was true.  They put an oxygen mask over my mouth as I asked “is my sister coming?”  Just then she walked in.  It was 10:01.  She grabbed my hand because I was shaking so much and I just kept saying that I was fine and told her to just take pictures.  All I wanted was for Dan to see as much of this as he could.

By now they were already inside and soon I heard the surgeon say, “I’ve got a butt…  it’s a girl butt!”  It was 10:02pm and Addison Marie Sprague aka Babyjedi was born.  I started crying again.  The anesthesiologist lifted my head and pulled down the curtain so that I could get a good look at my baby girl.  They took  Addison to check her out and clean her up, so I sent my sister over to photograph everything.  Then the nurse brought Addison over to me and held her to my face.  I remember talking about how long her nails were and about the dimple in her chin.  I kept saying “we miss daddy don’t we?” My sister just kept snapping photos.  We called Dan quickly to tell him he was a dad and had a daughter and once the surgeon finished they brought me back to the room around 10:45.

At 11:15pm Dan walked in!  He came directly to me to make sure I was alright.  “Yes,” I told him. “But we really missed you.”

I was crying again but this time they were tears of joy.  I happily watched as my husband held his daughter for the first time looking more proud then I had ever seen.

And now for some pictures.  All of the black and white images were taken by Lish using her own Nikon camera.  Thank you so much sis, these pictures mean so much to us!

Week 39 was Addison’s first week of life.  Here is a list of a few things she did for the first time ever.

Breath.
Eat.
Watch the patriots with dad.
First trip out of the hospital.
First trip out of the house… doctors visit… being awesome parents, we forgot the diaper bag.
Star Wars a New Hope with dad.
Desperate Housewives with Mom.
Target.
Riding on Highway.
Moving through space and time over the speed limit.

We still cannot get over how unbelievably lucky we are.  She is so perfect/wonderful/awesome/gorgeous/amazing.  I am over the moon… no over the milky way galaxy with excitement!  I cannot wait to see what the future holds.

You will soon be sick of how much you see this child.  Deal.

thanks for looking,

daniel. kate. ADDISON!

TopBabyBlogs.com reset their stats recently.  So click here to vote and help us stay on the top!
Voting only takes 2 clicks and can be done every 24 hours.  You don’t need to sign up for anything.