Thursday, July 12, 2012

Welcome to the world sweet baby June

 
June Marie Calderwood was born on 6/22 at 6:24pm.  Here is her birth story for posterity sake (just look at the pics if this sort of thing bores you). I was due on 6/23, but thankfully since I was measuring a week ahead and this was my second child, my doctor let me be induced a day early. Just like my pregnancy with Kelsi, I wasn't progressing past a "1", but instead of making me go to the hospital the night before and be monitored, my doctor gave me a Foley Catheter the day before that was supposed to get me to a 3 or 4 by the time I came in for induction the next morning.
Kelsi went to stay with Grandma/Grandpa Calderwood for the night and I started having steady contractions around midnight that were about 7-10 minutes apart. I did not sleep well. I called the hospital at 6am to make sure there was room for me, and sadly there was NOT.  However, the charge nurse told me I should be able to come in around 8 or 9am and she would call me when there was room. I hung up the phone not too disappointed, since I was still having contractions and knew I would end up in the hospital sometime that day no matter what.
I received the call from the nurse at 8am and checked into the hospital and was hooked up to the pitosin by 10am. The pitosin kicked in quick and my contractions became very strong every 3-4 minutes. By noon, I was at a 5 and got my epidural. I asked the doctor to break my water, but he said he wanted to wait.  The nurse anesthetist "goofed" on my epidural and had to do it two times.  At the time, I didn't care because I just wanted the pain to stop, but now looking back - I'm pretty upset at him for putting me through double the pain! Once it set in, I was in total relaxation. I was sending text messages, updating facebook and just "waiting". I found out the reason my doc didn't want to break my water was because he had patients at his office until 4pm. So, when he came in at 4:45pm, I was at a "7" and still feeling no pain, so he broke my water.  By 5:15, I started feeling my contractions, so I hit my bolster button (gives an extra kick to the epidural) but nothing was happening.  Another anesthetist came in and added more directly to my back, but all it did was make my right leg go completely numb. By 5:45pm I was ready to push and in agony from BACK LABOR. It was the one of the worst  pains I have ever felt in my life, second to only my first Lupus attack when I literally thought I was going to die. As I was pushing, the doc realized that my baby had her head turned to the left and she wasn't changing position. After pushing for over 30 minutes and in tears from the pain, the doc said "Let's get this baby out of here". All the nurses went into action (I mainly had my eyes closed the entire time, but opened them to see one nurse hand the doctor a package of some sort). I asked "Are you going to use forceps?" When he told me he was going to use them in order to turn her head down so I could push her out, I burst into more tears fearing the pain and worrying about my poor baby. All the nurses tried to reassure me that my doc was the best doc they had ever seen, especially with forceps. I just didn't care at that point, I just wanted the pain to stop. Once he was able to turn her head, I pushed that beautiful girl out in less than 5 minutes. She was absolutely beautiful and just perfect. She didn't have any marks from the forceps and weighed in at 7lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long.

Kelsi and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit that evening.

 All of my loves



 Exhausted and happy that our little miracle had finally arrived.

 This picture was taken when we arrived at the hospital.

June is such a good baby. She pretty much eats, then looks around and hangs out for 45 minutes and then goes back to sleep for a few hours before she wakes up again to repeat the process. She only wakes once during the night and hopefully one day soon mommy will sleep as well as she does!
This is her first bath a few days after she was born. She looks so tiny in this picture!
Our first family picture taken before church.  We blessed June really early since my Dad was in town and I wanted him to be a part of that special event. I was exhausted and in near tears all morning, but it was worth it.
Sweet baby June wore the same blessing dress that her cousins Emma and Abby and her big sister Kelsi wore for their blessing days as well!

***WARNING!!! This next part is a little graphic...please skip if you are queasy....like my husband***
Two days after her blessing day, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling "warm". I reached down to realize that my shorts were WET. Embarrassed, I jumped up thinking I had somehow lost control of my bladder and peed my pants, but as soon as I stood up, I realized I was covered in blood. I was losing blood like crazy and clotting from marble to golf ball size constantly. I called my doctor and he said to WAIT a couple hours to see if it lightened, but that I should go to the ER if I was feeling lightheaded or if it got worse. I was pretty upset. HOW COULD IT GET ANY WORSE?? Didn't he understand that my bathroom looked like a war zone?? I've always thought that John had a tough stomach, but even he was pretty queasy at the sight. After two hours, and feeling cold, weak and dizzy from the non-stop bleeding, John took me to the ER. Thankfully, my parents were still in town for another day and they could stay with the girls.
After running some labs and an ultrasound they found that I had some retained placenta and decided they needed to do a D&C. My doctor showed up to perform the surgery at 6am and he cleaned me out.  I had my post-op appt with him this week and he kept saying that he could not believe how much blood I was losing at the time and that my hemoglobin level was very low. He said that he was very surprised when he realized just how much blood I was losing.  I am glad that I trusted myself and went into the ER when I did.

It has been over a week since my bloody scare, and physically, I feel really good. I have recovered MUCH faster than I did after having Kelsi. I am still trying to adjust to having more than one child. I haven't been the nicest Mommy to Kelsi since June has been born, but I am trying to rectify that. I can't wait to get back to my regular work-out routine and am really looking forward to June dropping her night time feeding in a few more weeks. :) She is right on track!

I am so thankful for the newest miracle that we now have in our home. I stare at her and think about how long we have waited for her to join us and just feel so blessed. I love my little family.

2 comments:

Derek and Becca Theurer said...

I have been waiting for this post! Yeah for little June! I can't believe you are a mother of two, now. That is so fun! She's a beautiful, little baby.

Amanda said...

congrats karina, she is so beautiful like kelsi and her momma. I am so thankful that you are alright and healing well. What a scare! I hope one day I can make it up there to see you and your family. Love ya lots and always Amanda