Karlee's Birth Story

On June 22, I went to the doctor for an ultrasound. I was measuring a week behind so this was a chance to have an ultrasound to check and make sure everything was still going well with Karlee. My doctor told me she wasn't worried, but this gave me a reason for an additional ultrasound. I, of course, said yes! I hadn't had an ultrasound since the anatomy scan around 19 weeks. When we got into the ultrasound room the ultrasound tech checked all Karlee's measurements and then surprised us and switched it over to 4D for a little while! I had never gotten anything but 2D before so this was exciting! We got to see her moving her mouth and sticking out her tongue. She tried to get a good face picture for us. Here are the pictures from that ultrasound. 

After the ultrasound we saw my doctor and she said everything looked good. They estimated that she weighed 6 lbs 5oz - 6 lbs 15 oz. 

My doctor checked me a few times before I was induced and I never got more than 1 cm dilated. She also kept saying how high Karlee still was. 

I went back to the doctor on July 9th with Kim and Haley who were staying with me in case I went into labor so they could watch Brody for us. My due date was July 6th so they had me do a non-stress test where they hooked me up to a machine that monitored my contractions and Karlee's heart rate. They wanted her heart rate to increase and have three "peaks" within 15 minutes. She wasn't cooperating at first so they brought me crackers and a coke to see if that got her more awake. That apparently worked and after another 15 minutes they said they were happy with what they saw and took me off the machine. I then went and saw my doctor. She told me she wanted me to be induced on July 12th. I asked if I could wait until the 13th since my birthday was on the 11th and I wanted a little space between our birthdays but she said they usually don't schedule inductions on Friday's because it's a half day at their office. I agreed to be induced on Thursday, July 12th. I would have to go into the hospital at 8pm July 11th to start the process. I really wanted Karlee to come on her own. Brody was only 3 days late, but I was progressing and was already at a 3cm on his due date. I was still just a one with Karlee even being 6 days late. 

Brody had a fever the weekend before my due date. We decided to take him to the doctor just to make sure nothing was wrong before we brought home a newborn. The doctor said his ears were a little red which could mean ear infection and that whatever he had would probably clear up on its own but since I was pregnant and about to bring home a newborn they gave him some medicine just in case. 

Tuesday night, July 10th, I started getting chills in the middle of the night. I thought it was weird that I was so cold, but didn't feel sick. I woke up July 11th (my birthday) not feeling right. I was really hoping it was just the beginning of labor and that I was going into labor on my own. As the day went on I felt worse and worse. I laid in bed and rested most of the day. I decided if I still felt bad on Wednesday I would call the doctor to make sure the fever wouldn't interfere with the induction. When I woke up Wednesday, July 12th I still had a fever. I called my doctor and she wanted me to come in so they could check my white blood count and make sure I was ok. Kyle and I had to rush to get ready and head to the hospital because they wanted to see me in 1 1/2 hours and we lived an hour away. I got there and they took my blood and said it was probably something viral and would be fine. Then my doctor told me that my platelets were low and that if they dropped any lower I wouldn't be able to have an epidural. (Yikes!) She said I could either go straight to the hospital to start my induction or I could go home and just come back at 8pm like planned. She told me if my induction was still a week away she would advise inducing right away but that she highly doubted my levels would drop any lower before 8pm. I decided to go home and get a nap in before we had to leave around 6:45 to be induced. I kept taking tylenol every 4 hours, but still had a fever. 

We left around 6:45 to head to the hospital. We got there and were put into a room. They hooked me up to monitors, but they really weren't going to start anything until midnight. 

Kyle hadn't eaten dinner yet so I sent him down to get something to eat. We watched a little TV and then tried to sleep until midnight. At midnight they started my IV and started me on a low dose of Pitocin. They told me around 7am they would break my water. The pitocin got me contracting so, of course, there was little rest for me that night. Kyle started to get the fever Brody and I had so he also didn't get much rest. Karlee wasn't cooperating (just like her brother Brody) and so I had to keep flipping over on different sides and had to be put on oxygen. At 7am the doctor checked me and I was 3cm. She broke my water and it was clear which is good because at 3 days overdue Brody had meconium in his water. They told me I was allowed to get an epidural whenever I was ready. I wanted to wait as long as I could because I was progressing and didn't want the epidural to slow me down. An hour later I was ready for some pain relief. I think I could have held out a little longer because I wasn't in horrible pain like I was with Brody yet, but I remembered how much more comfortable I was with Brody after getting the epidural, so an hour after they broke my water I asked for the epidural. The nurse said the anesthesiologist was giving somebody else an epidural and I was next. I got my epidural and was waiting for it to take effect. My mom and dad called me after I got my epidural and said they were on their way. By the time they got there I was feeling great! 

But, of course, it wasn't that easy. My blood pressure started dropping after I got the epidural they had to give me (multiple!) doses of medicine into my IV to try to bring it back up and even had to give a shot in my leg of the medicine. At one point the nurse said she couldn't give me any more and called the anesthesiologist back in for help. He told her she could give me a few more doses of the medicine in my IV to see if it helped. The weird thing is they said it was so low I should have been faint feeling and dizzy, but I felt fine! The nurse said it made her a little less worried that I felt good still. Eventually they got it to a little higher number. It was still low, but they said my normal blood pressure was a little low so they were ok with it. 

Karlee still wasn't cooperating and I was still switching sides and being put on oxygen. The nurse kept coming in to up my pitocin and told me my contractions were actually spacing apart instead of getting closer together. She said they were strong enough but not coming as close together as they would like. My doctor came in around 11am and said my contractions weren't getting closer together like they wanted and that Karlee wasn't tolerating the contractions very well, she wasn't moving down into the birth canal, and I wasn't progressing as quickly as they would like. She said if I were progressing quicker she might have considered a normal birth, but since she wasn't tolerating them already she probably wouldn't last much longer and I would need a c-section anyway. So, she suggested I get one...now! Kyle was sitting in a chair next to me and leaned up and asked "Are you okay with this?" I said "What am I going to do, say no?" Then I started to cry. I had held it together before then. They started prepping me right away and getting Kyle his scrubs. Everybody had left the room because she was checking me when she first came in so it was a big surprise when nurses started piling in and packing our stuff to move and prepping me for a c-section. It was quick!! The doctor yelled into the hallway that I was going to have a c-section. Kyle's parents, my parents and my friend Hannah were outside in the hallway. My mom said "Oh, Kellee, I'm sorry!!" and then came and gave me a quick hug and started to cry herself. 

They added something to my epidural and started wheeling me to the operating room. As they wheeled me out of the room and into the hallway everybody was in a line just watching me be pushed down the hall. I started crying again! They wheeled me into the OR and moved me from the bed to the operating table. They told me to put my arms to the side and rest them on arm rests. My IV was in one arm and they hooked me up to a heart rate monitor on the other. Kyle came in and the nurse told him he could touch my arm or squeeze my hand if he wanted. They then put up the curtain and began cutting away. After a few minutes they told Kyle he could stand up and look over the curtain. I'm very surprised he did! Not long after that I heard crying. She was loud! Brody had such a quiet and sweet cry at first, she came out screaming! I started crying again! 

One of the nurses came and took our camera to take some pictures of her being weighed. She weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches long. She was born at 11:37am. 

As they were sewing me up a nurse said she gave me something in my IV for nausea. Not long after that I started getting nauseous! She added a little more medicine and I felt better. I was getting really restless and felt like I needed to move, but of course I couldn't because of the epidural. I wanted to move my arms but didn't know if I was allowed. It was driving me crazy! When they stitched and stapled me up they moved me back onto the bed so they could wheel me back into a room. I was shaking because of the epidural (I was shaking after the first time they put it in earlier in the day). They had told me before I went in that I could hold her as they wheeled me back to the room and I was scared that since I was shaking so hard they wouldn't give her to me. As soon as they put her in my arms I stopped shaking. When we got back into the room they took her from me to get cleaned up. Immediately I started shaking again. I couldn't control it and found it really neat that the whole time I was holding her I didn't shake. 

They cleaned her up and gave her to me to nurse. I nursed her on one side and started getting really restless again and feeling like I needed to move my legs. I switched sides and tried to nurse her more, but just couldn't. That restless feeling was really driving me crazy. I felt horrible asking this, but I asked the nurses to take her back for a little bit. They were fine with it and put her under the warmer for a little bit. They flipped me on my side to see if I could get more comfortable. Kyle scratched my back to take my mind off wanting to move my legs. After a few minutes they switched me to my other side. I then started feeling a little better. The nurse then told me that as my epidural wore off I would not want to be laying on my side like that! So they flipped me back onto my back. By then it was time for everybody to come back in to meet Karlee. 

Everybody got their turn holding her and I felt better and better as my epidural was wearing off. Of course, once it wore off the pain of the c-section set in! Ouch! I stayed in the hospital 3 days and it hurt so bad to get out of bed, walk to the bathroom, then try to get back into bed!

Her temperature was low the whole time we were in the hospital and they threatened if she couldn't keep it up they'd have to put her in the NICU for a while. They put her under the warmer one more time and said if they had to do it again she would have to go to the NICU. Luckily, she stayed right above the lowest temperature. I was so ready to come home after 3 nights of constant people coming in and out of the room. I joked and said that we'd get better sleep if we were at home and only had to deal with Karlee! 

We were able to leave on Sunday, but first we needed the photographer to come take pictures and I needed to get my staples out. I couldn't believe they were already taking my staples out! I was a little scared! The nurse said the pain was similar to plucking hair with a tweezer, luckily it wasn't even that bad! It wasn't bad at all. A little after lunch we were all packed up and headed out the door! I managed to sit in the very back seat of the van in case she got fussy, but she slept the entire hour it took to get home! We are so happy to have her home and healthy and she seemed to just fit right into our family!! :)