And baby makes three…

Where do I even start… June 27th 2011 was a day I have been waiting my whole life for; it was the day I was going to become a mom…

I had a scheduled induction on June 27th. The night of the 26th I remember laying in bed thinking “holy crap tomorrow my life is going to change forever.” Kevin and I just laid in bed talking about Charly.  We wondered how things were going to be after she was here, talked about how fast my pregnancy went by and  how everything  was going to go tomorrow.

Before I knew it; it was the morning of the 27th, my alarm was blaring and it was time for me to get out of bed… Let me just say I dragged my feet all morning and truth be told I was scared… Could I really do this? Do I even know the first thing about being a mom… Holy crap I never took a lactation class!?!? How am I going to feed the baby… YIKES! Somehow I was able to get showered and somewhat ready (how does one get ready to go have a baby?).  As Kevin and I left our house that morning he said “well, the  next time we come home we will be a family of three.” As we were walking into the hospital I remember looking over at Kevin and saying “can we go back home?” he made the comment that it felt a lot like we were checking into a hotel and I remember looking over and saying this is way different than checking into the Fairmont… and there we were on the 4th floor of Mc-Kay Dee Hospital…. ready or not here we go.

Before I knew it they had me changed into my hospital gown and the IV’s hooked up. This is when Kevin called the moms (my mom and his mom) to let them know that they could come up and it was time to start the Pitocin. Dr. J came in and broke my water around 930am and I remember as she was getting ready I asked her if she needed to get a bucket or something.  Everyone just laughed and said ‘no that’s what the towels are for…’ After my water was broken I guess they wished they would have taken my advice and got the bucket because I had so much water (my L&D nurse, Connie, told me she would not be surprised if I had just lost 10 lbs because  there was so much water).  For those of you who’ve never had a baby,  this is the craziest feeling ever, I am not even sure how to explain it other than a uncontrollable gush of warm water… this odd sensation of course gave me the giggles which made even more water come out (which squirted out like a little fountain), needless to say I had everyone in the room laughing.  It was now time for my epidural (I was lucky, I went into the Hospital 4cm dilated, so they were able to give me my epidural quick that I never really felt a hard contraction;  I felt a few small ones but nothing too bad).  I can honestly say that this was the most painful part, maybe it was because needles scare me, or maybe it was the fact that the anesthesiologist was not that friendly…  Regardless it HURT! Once everything was done it was time to wait and wait…

The Pitocin did cause me to have contractions, however, along with the contractions came some unwanted side effects.   With each contraction my blood pressure would drop and even more worrisome after every contraction Charly’s heart rate would drop from 150 to 90…

They would turn off the Pitocin for 30 min and then turn it back on to try and ‘solve’ this problem, but every time it was restarted I had to start at a lower dose (4).   The plan was to get me up to a dose of (12), but the highest that we could ever get was to a 8 before the problems would start back up. We were told that they were going to turn it off, let my body rest for another half hour and once again and turn it back on at 4:30.  The nurse did tell me that if it did not work this time I would have to get a c-section. I remember thinking ‘ok just do what you’ve got to do, I am so ready for this to be over with…’

It seemed as soon as my nurse told us this, the nurse was coming in saying that Dr. J had reviewed the strips (my contractions and Charly’s heart rate) and that she would be here in 10 min and it was time to get me ready  because  we were having a c-section… I remember thinking wow what happened to 4:30? I thought we were going to try this again? Before I knew it they had Kevin dressed and I was being pushed to the OR.

The actual C-section is a Blur for me… I remember trying to joke with Dr. Patel (the Anesthesiologist ) telling him that he was the candy man (There was simply  no teasing with that man), and Dr. J telling me I had nice tissue (Ha Ha… Really I have never had that compliment before). Kevin looked down and said “can you feel that?”, I responded, “No, but I cant breath like someone is pushing too hard on  my lungs” (After the fact Kevin told me they were doing quite a bit of pulling and tugging). 

***Warning -  The below photos are from my C-Section**

And before I knew it Charly was here! I got a quick glimpse of her; and then she and Kevin were off…

I remember laying there thinking holy cow they just cut me open, took my baby and now I have no idea where she or Kevin is… This was the craziest feeling… I was now a mom… But seriously where was my baby? Where was my husband?

After surgery I was taken to a recovery room and still no baby or husband?  Finally Kevin, Charly and a nurse from the nursery came in.  Charly was perfect (Apgar score 9/9), then the nurse said what I had been dreading “your baby is starving you need to feed her” (Oh crap… I knew I should have taken that darn lactation class) I just looked at her and said ok but I have no idea what I am doing… Luckily she knew exactly what she was doing and was able to help me.

We were then taken to our post-delivery hospital room.. Yeah! I get to see everyone (Keith and Lynnette, my mom and Justin and Mandee were all there). That first night in the hospital I am not sure I slept at all… I just laid there staring at Charly and Kevin… thinking ‘wow the Lord has blessed me so much, I am truly thankful to have such a loving and caring husband and now a perfect little girl… God is Good!’

Charly had one little set back on that Tuesday (June 28th), they came and got her to do a hearing test, Kevin and I were in the room visiting with Pastor Gerrod and Paula (I still could not get up). I remember hearing a baby crying but not thinking much about it… Well after a few minutes our nurse came in and explained that Charly had stopped breathing in the hall but they were able to get her breathing (The baby I could hear crying was mine) and that she was being looked at by the NICU doctor… I remember feeling tears well up in my eyes and just looked at Kevin and said go be with her…  Charly had what they call a Blue Spell, when babies are born via C-section their little bodies don’t get squished enough to get all of the amniotic fluid out of there lungs which can cause some babies to choke and stop breathing. Although Scary this is something that can happen, I am just thankful that it happened when the right people were in place to help her… I am not sure what Kevin and I would have done had this happened with just us.

In total we spent 5 days in the hospital, My recovery has been surprisingly quick and we are now enjoying life with our perfect little girl…

Charly Lynn Pickett Born June 27th at 4:49PM, 6lbs 12oz and 20 inches long.