My Baby is 3

Well technically she won't be 3 for something like 17 hours and 16 min but who's counting right? I have been so busy with getting ready to move that this whole milestone kind of crept up on me. I mean I had a panic attach (well practically) when Korbin turned 3! The truth is I am relieved to be done with diapers (even if she did pee her pants in the BX last week). I am positively thrilled to be done with the newborn feedings and even more happy to be done with newly mobile and curious babies. But I do miss the baby part, you know the needy cuddly look at you like you are the coolest person in the world part.

So I will bore you with the story of my dear baby Katara. We didn't want anymore children after Kane, well let me rephrase that, we knew we didn't want anymore children but thought maybe 5 years or so down the road we would want 1 more. I was completely shocked to discover that I was pregnant, so shocked I locked myself in my bedroom and called my best friend and cried to her, "what am I going to do?" She gave me the best advice ever, she said you are going to go tell Justin and be happy. And I was.

This pregnancy was different from the other 2, I only threw up a handful of times and all I could think about was salmon, broccoli and pineapple in the early months. As the weeks went by I started craving bomb pops and would limit myself to 1 box per week!

My blood pressure started creeping up around 28 weeks, I had my first significant amount of protein in my urine at 30 weeks. I didn't have pre-e yet but it looked like if things didn't get better I was heading in that direction. I teetered along that line for weeks and then finally on June 5, my doctor called me. He said this last 24 hour urine catch (I did them every week) was too alarming to ignore, he really wanted me in the next day but if I agreed to come in 2x he would give me an extra day to prepare myself for the dreaded induction.

I arrived at the hospital early in the morning on June 7, armed with a carefully typed birth plan and husband by my side. This was the first time I had entered the hospital when I wasn't nearly ready to push. I was terrified. They started the pit and I was going to have a baby.

Unfortunately for me, my condition was now called preeclampsia and I was started on a mag drip. Having it as a constant drip was so much different than the thigh injections I had with Korbin. Instead of making me feel like I was going to jump out of my skin and die it just made me so foggy that I can hardly recall things that happened after she was born, even her birth is a little foggy.

My doctor had to be in court for something that day, so he left me alone (hooray!) He came in before lunch and broke my water (something I didn't want but I wanted off the mag and the only way to get off of it was have her). He said he'd see me around dinner time unless things changed. AND they did.

Around 1300 the contractions started to feel real, I had wires and tubes everywhere and moving around was really hard, especially since I was really dizzy. I was able to get onto my knees and stayed like that for a while. Finally around 1530 I had, had enough I was actually going to request an epidural, I cried and cried as I told Justin that I wanted it. I felt like I was failing myself and failing our baby girl.

The pain instantly got worse after I had made the call, I finally just submitted to it and let it take over. When the anesthesiologist came in, it was the same one I had met with the day before when I found out that I was going to be induced. He remembered our talk and suggested instead of having an epidural that he would just put a shot of medicine in my back to help take the edge off. At that point I didn't care what he did.

The shot helped some and I was able to get back onto my knees and work through the contractions. Around 1600 I told Justin that she was coming down and to tell the nurse. He went outside and told them what I said, they looked at my monitor and said nope, not yet. We'll come in when it is time. A few minutes later I later I told him that my body was pushing, he went out and told the nurses that and they came in and told me to stop it wasn't time.

With each contraction my body pushed a little, I did my best to breath through them. Finally I could feel the burn and feel her rotate, I screamed at him to tell the nurses that she was coming, he opened the door and did and they dismissed it and said the monitors didn't show that it was time. Finally I yelled I have to poop, it's funny that, that phrase is what got someone in the room.

The nurse came in and said lets check and I said she's crowning, and yep what do you know I was right? Imagine that a mom who has given birth to 2 children before naturally actually was right about what she was feeling. Within the next minute or so she was born. When the monitors showed a flat line baby the room was full, the nurse had pushed the panic button just as the monitor flat-lined. So the pediatrician and nearly all the nurses ran in. You can imagine their surprise when they saw Justin holding the baby!

My doctor walked in as the room was being cleaned. He said, "wow you really didn't want the resident to deliver you did you?"

I went home less than 24 hours later.

Katara has been a challenge, but I couldn't imagine life without her, she balances out her brothers and our family. She is girly and wonderfully hard headed. She is my free spirit, and my most difficult child. She was made to be the baby in the family, heaven help me if she had been #1!

Happy Birthday Katara- we love you!