Leap Day 2012 will forever be my most memorable Leap Day. It is the day I got to meet my precious baby girl. I wanted to have a little girl for as long as I can remember, and on that day I got my wish.
I was scheduled to be induced on March 1st. Because of the issues with Aubrie's umbilical cord (you can read more about it
here), my doctor wanted to be able to monitor her for the entire labor. That would have been a Thursday. My mom was going to come down Wednesday so that she could be here for the birth. We heard that there was supposed to be a big storm coming Wednesday though, so we told her she should maybe come Tuesday night instead. She ended up running into quite a bit of snow on the way over anyway, and the trip that should have taken 3 hours took 8 1/2! We went to bed, but I heard her come in at about 2:15 in the morning. I could never fall asleep after that.
Around 4:00 AM I realized that I was having some contractions. I looked at the clock to see how far apart they were. They were already about 5 minutes apart. I waited about 30 minutes before I woke Paul up. They tell you that you should wait until your contractions are 5 minutes apart for an hour before you go to the hospital. We started timing them though, and some of them were only 2 or 3 minutes apart. We quickly decided that now was the time to go, not in an hour. I woke my poor mom up, who had only been asleep for about 2 hours. Paul and I left for the hospital, and my mom waited at the house with Grant until Paul's mom could get there.
When we got to the hospital I was already dilated to 5 cm. The contractions were really coming on hard. I had an epidural with Grant when I was at 4 cm, so these contractions were stronger than anything I had experienced with him. I immediately asked if I still had time to get an epidural. The nurse assured me that I did. We just had to wait for the anesthesiologist. That hour was the hardest labor that I have ever gone through. I don't know how women do it without epidurals! You are stronger than me! :)
I had labored for about an hour when all of a sudden Aubrie's heart rate dropped into the low 50's. At the same time, I had the hardest contraction yet, and could hardly concentrate on what happened next. About 5 nurses swarmed into my room. They put an oxygen mask on me and had me get onto my hands and knees. They were trying to bring the baby's heart rate back up by changing my position. After about 3 minutes it still wasn't recovering, and I vaguely remember one of the nurses saying to take me down to the OR because my doctor was most definitely going to want to do a c-section. They gave Paul the scrubs to put on, but told him they didn't know yet if he would be able to come in. As they wheeled me down the halls I don't remember much. I was having extreme contractions one right on top of the other, and all I could think about was the pain and my baby.
I remember laying in the OR with tons of people all around. I was having a hard time breathing through the mask they had on me. I remember someone kept saying "Where is the doctor?" They didn't want to put me under until he was there. The whole time I kept wondering how my baby was doing. I looked up at the nurse who was holding the mask on me and asked her if the baby was okay. She just stared back at me and wouldn't say anything. I remember the relief when I finally saw my doctor, and then I was out...
Paul was the first one who got to hold Aubrie.
He didn't end up getting to go in for the c-section, but she was perfectly fine when she came out, so the nurses brought her out to him right away.
Then Gammy got to hold her.
And after about an hour, I finally got to hold her.
They told me that the time from when her heart rate dropped to the time they got her out was only 12 minutes. My doctor said after he got there she was out in about 2 minutes. It was the longest 12 minutes of my life, and I am so thankful to God for protecting Aubrie and me through it all.
Thank you Lord for your many blessings!!!
