Kamryn Magee is here!! (pretty long)

Okay, here's the story...

On Monday the 28th, I started having "contractions." After 3 kids and labors that go like clockwork, I knew that they didn't feel like real labor contractions, but they were very consistent. They were about 7-10 minutes apart, so I decided that we better go to Labor and Delivery (L&D) to make sure that everything was okay. We packed a bag and were all ready to go, so we dropped the kids off at Chad's parents house and headed up to Durango at about 10:30pm. We were back home by 1:30 am without a baby. Well, she was still in my tummy at that point.

All day the 29th, I wasn't feeling well and was supposed to have a playday (sorry, Jayme) and have Halle's friend Kendra over because Kendra is moving away and they wanted to spend some more time together. Halle ended up staying with Kendra and her grandma and Ethan went to the movies with Kim and Aspyn, so I only had Jayci to take care of. She went down for a nap and I decided to nap with her. Chad came home from work at about 4:30 and straightened up the house for me a little bit.

All of the sudden, I felt a gush while I was laying in bed. I was awake at this point, so I knew that it wasn't just pee or anything. I told Chad "My water just broke!" and I threw the covers off of myself and he said, "You're bleeding like crazy!" That freaked me out so I immediately called my midwife and told her what was going on. She said not to worry that there can sometimes be blood in amniotic fluid and just to go straight to the hospital since Jayci came so quickly (20 min. after we got to the hospital). So we jumped into the car and I called L&D to tell them that we were on our way. We met Jimmy at the main road and dropped Jayci off with him and sped up to Durango.

The hospital is usually about 40 minutes away and it took us about 25 to get there. As we were turning into the hospital, I called L&D again and told them that they needed to have someone meet us at the door because I was afraid I was going to deliver in the car. They were there and saw the blood on the towel that I had and calmly decided to get a wheel chair so that I wouldn't have to walk. We got to L&D and they told me to put a gown on. While I was in the bathroom, a huge blood clot or something like that dropped to the floor and I realized that I was just covered in blood on my legs and feet.

My midwife got me on the bed and checked me and more blood came out and she informed me that I was only dilated to a 2 and said that she was going to go talk to the OB on call. The OB came in and (everybody is so calm at this point) tells me that I have to have a c-section!! So I started crying because I didn't want a spinal block. I am scared to death to have a needle in my spine! All of the nurses are all of the sudden all over me trying to put in IVs and a catheter (very uncomfortable, by the way) and drawing blood and I was just terrified!!
So they wheel me into the operating room and gave me the spinal (turns out to not be so bad...wish I'd known that before giving birth naturally 3 times!) and test me to make sure I'm numb, and at 6:17 pm, Kamryn entered the world! I was kind of out of it with the meds and the shock of having my body cut open that I didn't even realize that she wasn't crying. They took her out before I could even see her and I told Chad to leave me and go with her.
After about an hour of being on the table, I was ready to go to recovery. I spent about an hour there and was being updated all the while on Kamryn's condition. Chad took a picture on his phone and showed it to me. He was going back and forth between Kamryn and me checking on both of us. He was so great through it all! I finally go to see her when she was about 2 hours old. And of course, she was perfect.

So here's what the problem was: I had a placental abruption. This is where the placenta separates from the uterine wall. Usually there is some sort of trauma that would cause this to happen, but in my case, the only thing I can think of is when I fell onto my butt at a swimming pool 2 weeks prior to having Kamryn. I'm going to ask the Doc at my check up if that's what could have caused it, but there's probably no way of ever knowing.
So for who knows how long, Kamryn's been swimming around in blood. She had it in her lungs and in her belly and her eyes and ears. For the first couple of days she would poop blood (placenta blood, not her own) with the meconium and it's still coming out of her eyes from her tear ducts. She has to be on oxygen 24/7 for now. We don't know if that's from the blood or just because she was early. It doesn't matter either way. She's healthy besides that and we feel very lucky to have such a great little baby.

I'm recovering slowly, but that's how I have to do everything anyway...slowly. It really sucks that on my last baby I had to be cut open, but I'm so thankful to live in the day and age where me and my baby are going to eventually be 100% fine and healthy. The doctor told me a couple of days after the delivery that if we had come to the hospital just 30 minutes later that she wouldn't have been there and the anesthesiologist wouldn't have been there and we would have had to wait for them to get there and Kamryn and I probably both would have bled to death. It's very sobering to realize the magnitude of what can go wrong and how lucky we all are that Kamryn and I are still alive.

Kamryn is a wonderful baby. She came out ready to nurse! And that's great for how early she was. She weighed in at 5 lb. 8 oz. and was 17 1/2 inches long. To me, she looks like a combo of Jayci and Halle. Halle really hopes that her hair is blonde and Jayci just wishes that she would get down and play! Ethan thinks that she is wonderful and they're all great to her.

We thank God everyday for the blessing we have in all of our children and how fortunate we are to have the friends and family that we do. Thanks for reading and thanks ahead of time for all the well-wishes.