On March 24, 2010, we went to Babies R Us before heading off to the doctor’s office for our 39-week check-up. Since our OBGYN was out of town in Hawaii, we saw a new doctor that morning. The check-up went great, the baby’s heart rate was good, and the doctor said Kate was dilated to 4 and 70% effaced. He said, “I’d say see you next week, but I think you are going to have this baby before then.” We were thrilled with the news and excited that our baby was coming soon!
Kate had been having regular contractions the last two days about 10 minutes apart. That afternoon, after Andrew went to work, her contractions became much more regular and over the course of 3 hours were just five minutes apart. After calling the doctor’s office and a quick call to the mission, Andrew was headed home from work early. We drove to the hospital and arrived there at 5:30 in the afternoon. Many of Kate’s coworkers cheered her on as they wheeled her upstairs to OB triage. Before admitting Kate, OB triage wanted to see some progress to see if we were actually going into labor. So we walked the halls, waited for a check, walked the halls again, waited for another check, spent an hour in the spa, and got checked again. We discussed our options with the doctor, one of which was going home and waiting it out, we decided to have Kate’s water broke as contractions were now just 3-4 minutes apart and she was dilated to 6.
At 11 pm, we moved up to the Labor and Delivery floor and met our nurse for the night, Kris. A nurse midwife broke Kate’s water and contractions really picked up. Kate was so tense and could not relax the way she needed to. We opted for an epidural to help relax her body, stop the uncontrollable shaking and shivering, and decrease the pain. When they were preparing to put the epidural in Kate’s back, she threw up all the apple juice she just had and was quoted as saying “I’ll never drink apple juice again”. The medicine did exactly what it was supposed to and what we had hoped for. She advanced about a centimeter an hour after she finally relaxed. Unfortunately, one side effect of the medicine was that it dropped Kate’s already low blood pressure even lower. Andrew saw one blood pressure of 44/22 and she was pale as her sheets. The nurses rushed in and gave her oxygen and got her bp back up. Her color returned almost as fast as her blood pressure went back up.
At 6 am, Kate was fully dilated and completely effaced, ready to start pushing. Our nurse, Kris, had warned that first time moms normally push for 1-3 hours but insisted that we have the baby on her shift, which ended at 7 am. On her first push, Andrew could see the baby’s head full of dark hair and thought, “Oh my, I am going to be a daddy!” Kate was able to watch her progress with a mirror as she pushed. 20 minutes later, on the final push Dr. Tabor asked if Kate wanted to help deliver the baby and pull the baby up to her chest. At 6:22 am, Kate gave a final push and out came our baby. Dr. Tabor said, “It’s a girl! Do you have a name for her?” The proud daddy exclaimed, “Addison Joy!” Andrew cut her cord as she snuggled on Kate’s chest. Addison weighed 6 lbs 10.5 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. We are so blessed to have this gift from God!
