Here is her birth story....
It started the day before her birthday. I had a doctors appointment, and of course my weekly ultrasound on that Tuesday. Now, most of you might think that getting an ultrasound every week would be fun. It really wasn't THAT bad.. but I was ready, beyond ready to not have to get them any more. Every week I had my amniotic fluid measured because I measured pretty low, and they wanted to monitor it. Well, at this appointment I measured reallllly low. They like the number to be at least a 6 or higher, without being too concerned, and I was measuring at a 4. After my ultrasound, I had an appointment with my doctor. I got back to the exam room and waited for maybe 2 minutes before the nurse came in and said he had to go deliver a baby. She told me that everything looked fine, and that they would call me if they had any concerns. At this point, I was thinking to myself... I'm not leaving until I get check out by a doctor, I didn't care which doctor. She suggested to have one of the other doctors come in and check my cervix, and talk to me about my ultrasound, I agreed. After about 15-20 minutes, one of the doctors from the clinic came in and basically said that I should go ahead and have my baby delivered. He wanted to check my cervix to see if that was even a possibility. The week before I was at 1 cm dilated... and it hadn't changed at all. I wasn't a candidate for induction (which I couldn't be induced any way because I've had a previous c section). He told me to come back in a couple days, have my fluid measured again, and go from there. Let me also mention that baby wasn't breech anymore. At my 36 week appointment I learned that baby had flipped... which shocked me! LOL. I had the opportunity to have a VBAC, which I was really hoping for.
After I met with the doctor, I got dressed and put my shoes back on, I was walking down the hall to checkout, and my doctor was just getting back from delivering a baby. I was sooooooo glad to see him. He had looked at my ultrasound before he went over to Labor and Delivery, so he really wanted to talk to me about what I should do. I went with him to his office as we discussed my possible options. He said that I could come back in a couple of days, and get checked again, and continue to do that, OR go ahead and schedule a c section for tomorrow, which was Wednesday. I chose the c section. Knowing my body, it would still be a couple more weeks before I would go into labor, and I didn't want to risk the health of my baby, just because I had the desire to deliver naturally... which I really really did. My doctor would have supported me either way, but I think he was really wanting me to just have the baby delivered. My c section was scheduled for Wednesday April 17 at 4:30.
The next day was a looonnng day for me. I had to be at the hospital at 3:00, and couldn't eat anything passed 8:00 in the morning. Yeah, that wasn't easy. I could have clear fluids up until 2 hours before, but they really don't want you to drink a ton before surgery. My in laws came into town around 1:00, so we visited with them for a little while before we went to the hospital. I was soooo thankful to have them in town. They were wonderful, and took care of Ellie the entire time we were in the hospital. It was a huge blessing not to have to worry about her. Three o'clock rolled around, and I was getting checked into the hospital. I got an IV started, and answered a bunch of health related questions. The baby's heart rate looked amazing, and I was ready to rock and roll. Now remember, we still didn't know what we were having.... so we were sooo anxious to get back to the OR and see our baby.
It was finally time to go back to the OR. I got a spinal, with morphine, which really takes you for a loop. I slowly felt my legs go numb, then I knew it was time. This c section was much more calmer than my previous one with Ellie. I am so glad I was able to experience a birth without being scared to death. It didn't take much time before they were ready to pull out the baby... and the first thing my doctor said was "well, hey there girlfriend." I was sooooo excited to have another girl! I was pretty convinced I was having a girl, Kenton thought we were having a boy. They took her over to get cleaned up and Kenton told me to pick her name. We were still deciding between 2 names. I decided on Gracelyn Kaye. Kenton got to hold her for just a couple of minutes, before they took her back to listen to her lungs. It's pretty common for some c section babies to have a little respiratory distress because they don't go through the birth canal, which squeezes that gunk out. I was all done and on my way to the recovery room and they were still trying to get her to breath better. I, of course, started to cry at this point. She had to go to the NICU for what seemed like forever, but was only about an hour/hour and a half. They brought her back to the recovery room, and I finally got to hold my sweet baby girl. She was just perfect.
Gracie looks so much like Ellie it's crazy. They are going to be best friends when they get a little older, I can't wait. Most people don't know where we came up with her name. I was on a baby names website (I believe it was the social security website that give you a list of baby names in order of popularity). Gracelyn was ranked like 460... which means it's not very common. I actually had never heard the name before, but fell in love with it when I first saw it. Kenton wasn't a fan at first, but came around to it after a while. Kaye is my older sister's middle name, and my grandmother's middle name. My grandma passed away very unexpectedly almost 2 years ago, so I wanted to use her middle name. She was a very special lady.
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