My blogging days have been put on the back burner for quite some time while I've been living and enjoying life with my little family.
This past summer, Bill and I decided that we were ready to see if it was in God's plan for us to have another baby. Ever since I was a little girl, I've always said that I wanted four kids. I'm sure this is probably due to the fact that I was the youngest of four. I jokingly made the comment that we wouldn't get pregnant until the first day of my last period was on someone's birthday. With Reagan, it was my sister in law, Kristin's, birthday and with Kinley, it was Roberts. Well, low and behold the first date of my last period was my birthday ... famous last words ..
On Saturday, September 12, 2020, I woke up at 5:30 and decided to take a test. I can't even tell you what made me decide to take one .. but it was positive
Here we go again .. .just like every other pregnancy I was sick. This time it started off way sooner than normal. Thank goodness for medication to help curb the sickness. To me, this pregnancy just felt different. A part of me thought maybe this meant we would be having a boy, but I was wrong. We found out we were going to have another little lady!
I had a cerclage placed and everything was going well .. until ... my anatomy scan at 22 weeks. During this scan, we found out that part of my bag of water had slipped through the small opening in the cervix (even with the cerclage). We then went back for scans weekly until 24 weeks to check the progress. Those scans showed the water bag was still through the cerclage, but there hadn't been any change throughout those two weeks. Then, we were just scheduled for growth scans every four weeks. I was told to stay off of my feet as much as possible and no lifting more than 10 lbs.
Thankfully, due to COVID, we were still on a 100% virtual teaching schedule. This allowed me to continue to teach from home. Neither dr. wanted me to return to in-person teaching due to the risk of you coming early.
For most of the month of April, I would feel pain off and on. There were a few nights where I couldn't sleep because it hurt. To me, it felt like the cerclage was ripping.
Saturday, April 24 - I couldn't sleep at all. I had period like cramps and pain all night. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep on the couch off and on. I had to sit up and lean my head over to the back of the couch because I just couldn't lay down.
Sunday Morning, I woke up and got myself together enough to go to church. I wasn't hurting as bad, but I also tried to not do too much. As Sunday progressed, the "period like" pains continued. At one point, I went to the bathroom and had very light spotting. This was the point of concern for me because when I talked to my dr about pain, her first question was always "is there any blood?". I decided it was better to be safe than sorry and paged the doctor on call. He recommended that I go to labor and delivery to be checked out and to ensure that this wasn't the "real thing". I just knew that we would go up to the hospital for a few hours and be sent home.
My Mom came to pick up the girls. I wasn't even going to pack them anything because I didn't figure we'd be there that long. I ended up throwing together a few things in a suitcase and Bill put my hospital bag in the car (which was about half packed). I mean - I was 35 weeks and 4 days. This baby wasn't coming quite yet.
We got to the hospital at 1:10. When they hooked me up to the monitors, we could hear baby's heartbeat and she sure was happy and moving inside. At first, the contraction monitor wasn't picking up anything but I was still feeling that pain. After some adjustments, we noticed that I was having contractions every 3-4 minutes. Whoa ... this was a reality check.
A nurse came in to check me. I was dilated to a 1 but I also still had the cerclage in. They went ahead and started an IV and some antibiotics (for group B strep because my results hadn't come back yet) just in case I was going to deliver. After quite a few hours, the nurse came in and said the dr. decided to admit me. My exact words were, "does this mean we're having a baby today?" and she said, "I hope so".
We moved down to a delivery room and started to settle in. The dr. came in and said he was going to take the cerclage out and we would see what happens. Well, that was easier said than done .... After 2 very painful attempts of "digging" around to find the right spot to cut the cerclage, it was decided that I would go ahead and get an epidural. This would assist in getting the cerclage out without causing pain. By this point, I was hurting bad. Stronger contractions and my cervix was SO sore from all of the moving and pulling.
The "man of the hour", anesthesiologist, came in and did the epidural. I had one with both Reagan and Kinley so I knew exactly what to expect. It felt a little different than what I remember but once it started working, I was so glad. What I didn't realize was after they gave me meds through it - I said, "I feel like I'm going to puke" and next thing I remember was opening my eyes and telling them I was hot and needed a cool rag. Apparently, I went unresponsive for about 30-45 seconds. When I came to, I saw all these nurses, my ob, and the anesthesiologist around the bed saying my name. I looked over and saw Bill's face and knew something went wrong. My blood pressure had dropped after the medicine.
After making sure I was okay, my doctor was successfully able to get the cerclage out. As soon as he removed it, he checked me and I was dilated to a 4. He went to grab the supplies to break my water. Within 10 minutes my water was broken and I was at a 5. I was getting excited that maybe this would go fast ...
Well ... that didn't happen. They started Pitocin to help me along. It was hours .... I remember them telling me I was a 6 ... 6.5 .....7 ... still 7 .... 8... still 8...... still 8.. I was dozing off and on during this time and I remember Bill saying "well, we're not going to have a baby today .. it's 11:40"
Around 1:00 am, my doctor came back in to check me. I was still at an 8. He had me do some pushes to see if he could feel anything, but nothing happened. He said "we need to decide what we're doing with you. I don't usually recommend csections, but it's been this long and you're still at an 8 and I can't even feel the head". I said "let's just get this baby out". So, off he went to prepare for a csection.
I've never had a csection before but in this moment, I was just ready to meet our new baby girl. Bill got all prepped and they came to get me. I remember wheeling back into the OR, being moved to the other bed, and Bill coming in. When the doctor started cutting, I could feel it. I was SCREAMING out in pain. The anesthesiologist started giving me more meds and telling me it would be okay. At this point, things started getting foggy for me.
On Monday, April 26 at 2:38 am, Reese Monroe was born! I remember them saying .. there's alot of hair, her head is out, she is a girl!" I also remember them telling Bill to go see her. Then, it starts getting foggy for me. I felt like I was flying in an airplane in space full of orange peels. Then the plane landed and I opened my eyes in the OR.
What I didn't realize was Reese was born in respiratory distress. She was tinted blue and was taking to the Level 2 nursery to be put on oxygen. Bill was also asked to leave the OR and was sent back to our room to sit alone for close to an hour. During this time, my blood pressure kept dropping. I was unaware of any of this. I woke up in the recovery room and remember hearing them talking about what happened to me and thinking "wow, that's really scary" but now I can't remember what was said. I don't even remember being wheeled back to our room or really much of anything of that early morning. For some reason, I feel like I remember hearing we got back to our room sometime around 4:00 am.
During our stay, the anesthesiologist told me 3 different times that I was a trooper and that everything that could've went wrong during that delivery did. I still don't know all of the details but plan to ask the doctor next time I see her to see if she can give me more.
I am so grateful to God that I came through that surgery and that we decided to do it when we did, so Reese could be out and on oxygen. She had to stay on oxygen until around 10:30. Bill was able to go down there at any point to see her, but we couldn't hold her until she was off of the oxygen. All I wanted to do what see my baby, but I couldn't go see her until I could get out of bed into a wheelchair. Talk about motivation!
Around 10:45, I was in a wheelchair going to see my baby. To my surprise, she was off of oxygen and I got to hold her! Bill had ran home to grab a few things, so I had to call him to let him know that I was holding Reese. He hurried back, so he could have a turn. She had to stay in the nursery until around 7:00 pm that evening. The doctor wanted to make sure that she could handle her feedings before releasing her from there. We did go down throughout the day to see her and were down there at meal times to feed her.
The rest of the hospital stay was pretty uneventful, thank goodness! We were discharged on Wednesday afternoon around 2:00 and excited to go home to let Reese meet her big sisters.
Reagan and Kinley are so SO proud of her! They are always around her touching her hair and giving her kisses on her head. They argue over who's turn it is to hold her.
We are loving our life as a family of 5 at home + 1 in heaven. We still haven't mastered a schedule or getting everyone ready to leave the house in an orderly manner, but we will get better. 
We are so very, very thankful for all of the prayers during this pregnancy and that God was with us that early morning to ensure Reese and I would be okay.
Miss Reese, you have completed our family. We can't wait to watch you grow up and develop a love for your big sisters!
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