The Peters: Our Life as a family of 4: May 2014

Well the next morning after Kate was born (which was technically only a couple of hours later) all of the doctors were doing their rounds. Of course......first thing in the morning when we had not slept at all. Oh well.....I guess they were breaking us in to the sleep routine of a newborn. Kate's Dr came in to see here and mentally prepared me that she may have to stay longer than me. The thought of leaving without her made me sick to my stomach. She had to be able to regulate her body temperature, regulate her blood glucose, pass the car seat test and stabilize her bilirubin levels.
We spent the day being checked on by drs and residents and having visitors. It was so great to have everyone come see our little miracle!
Kate did wonderful with her body temp and blood glucose levels. The drs all seemed so impressed, because she was so small.
Her bilirubin levels were a little high and her doctor said that he would check again the next day and they had to have leveled off otherwise she would have to stay another day and be under the lights. He said he assumed she would probably be staying bc she was so small and the bruise on her head is cause for a spike in bilirubin levels as well.
Praise Jesus! The next day they were perfect! My doctor gave me the ok to leave early. So not only did we get to leave together but we got discharged early! It was AMAZING! Leaving the hospital together as a family!
Mamu and papa brought Kinsey and Logan to meet Kate on friday morning. I was a mess of emotions, having all three of my babies together finally! I had prayed so hard throughout the last nine months and my exact prayer had been fulfilled! Our family of 5 was together and healthy! Kinsey immediately went to her and tried to unswaddle her and change her outfit. She treated her just like baby dolls and had picked out tons of coordinating outfits and wanted to try each one on her! So sweet. Logan was a weepy mess, he knew his life had changed and he wanted nothing to do with me or Kate. Literally 3 days after she was born was the first time he would come and sit with me. He clung to daddy and cried and cried when he realized that daddy was staying at the hospital while he went home with mamu and papa. So very sad.

Now that we had been given the ok to leave it was time to go home and start our new life! Ready or not we are a family of 5!!
Here are a few hospital pics!

Wow! It is so hard to believe that I am now a mommy of 3. It is no secret that this pregnancy has been quite eventful. I don't think it was until after Kate was delivered and healthy that I actually realized how anxious/stressed I had spent the last 6 months. Although it was a very scary time, I want Kates story to be one that glorifies our Father. It was truly His plan. And she is truly His child. Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time." (My labor, her delivery, our wonderful support network and even more- the days ahead which I have not yet seen!)
So here it is, Kate's birth story:
We had an appointment with our high risk ob last Wednesday. I was 37 weeks exactly on that day and we had been prepared that if Kate had continued to not grow as she should that we would be delivering her early. The numbers that they were looking at were her percentiles. At our 33 week appointment Kate had dropped to the 20th percentile. They prepared us that if Kate were to drop below the 10th percentile then they would recommend delivery then. After our hour long sonogram at the high risk ob's office, they put all of her measurements in the computer and she measured 6th percentile. That was a very significant dropped and showed that Kate had all but stopped growing. They told us there that they would recommend she be delivered that day or the next at the latest. They told us to go to our regular ob's office and we would schedule a time.
We showed up to our regular ob's office for an appointment later that afternoon. He agreed with the high risk and scheduled us for an induction the next day, Thursday May 8th at 7:00. Suddenly it became very real and we had to talk about some hard things. Although I was 37 weeks and considered full term we were having a baby early and with that came increased complications. We had to talk through whether or not we wanted the NICU team present during delivery. Because she was measuring very small we chose to have them on hand in the delivery room in case we were to need more invasive help. Just talking about all of the possible complications brought up a large amount of fear for us. The sonogram measured Kate at 4lbs 13oz earlier that day. They said that can be up to a 1lb off in either direction. Which meant we could potentially have a 3lb baby. That is a very scary thing to think about. We also talked about the increased risk for a c section this time. Normal decelerations in the babys heart rate are normal during delivery. Our doctor made it clear that he would not tolerate many decelerations in Kates heart rate during her delivery being that she already has her size working against her and that he would move to a c section much faster if that were to occur. Because I have never had a c section that brought even more fear to the situation. More so a fear of the unknown. He assured me that he would be there to deliver Kate no matter the time of the day. For me that was very reassuring. We left his office feeling very anxious about the next day. We had a dinner at the church scheduled for that night but we decided to bail on that and just have a relaxing dinner with some of our closest friends the Blasdels. That was exactly what I needed that night. I just love the comfort of good friends. We are soooo incredibly blessed. After dinner we went home and finished up some last minute bag packing and getting stuff ready. We got the car seat ready, pack n play set up and baby clothes packed. I took a nice hot bath and some tylenol pm and tried to get a good nights sleep.
I woke up at 3am Thursday morning and could not go back to sleep. I laid in bed and tossed and turned until it was time to get up and start getting ready at 5am. We checked into the hospital at 7am and things go to moving quickly. They started an iv and pitocin to induce labor. I was not even dilated or effaced at all. My body was nowhere near ready to have this baby and we were starting from square one. Throughout the day we had many visitors and the company helped keep my mind off of the pain and nervousness that our sweet baby was going to be here soon. My dr called and wanted me to have an epidural very early. He said that was important because if Kate began to have decelerations in her heart rate then we were one step ahead of the ball game if we needed to have an emergency c section. The nurses came in multiple times and told me that Kates heart rate would drop a little if I were to lay in a certain position for too long. They would move me to another position and then her heart rate would go up. This made me even more anxious and I kept my eyes on that baby moniter all day in fear that her heart rate would drop again. They broke my water rather quickly in hopes that my labor would start progressing. By 6pm I was only dilated to a 3 and 50% effaced. It seems the doctors were disappointed in amount of progress I was making. I had maxed out the dose of pitocin that could be given and I was at a standstill. At 7pm we were given 3 choices. 1. Have a c section now. 2. Keep the pitocin where it was and hope that I would start to dilate more (which was unlikely) 3. Take an hour break from the pitocin and then start it up from the lowest dose and hope that it would jump start me into dilating more. We chose option 3. They stopped the pitocin and suddenly all of my contractions stopped. That was really disappointing. My body was really not ready to deliver this baby. I was also feeling a strong amount of pain on my pelvic bone. The anesthesiologist came in and did some test to see if my epidural was working. It turns out my epidural was working perfectly and that it was bone on bone pain that I was feeling. It was her head on my pelvic bone. After an hour they started the pitocin again and gave me a little while to see if it worked. After coming back to check on my I was only dilated to a 4 and not any more effaced. At this point they told us that there was nothing more they could do to help me have a natural delivery and they recommended we have a c section. This was a very emotional time. I had been in labor for 15 hours and now we were having a c section. At this point all of our friends and family had left and I was in tears alone. Just then my good friend Jessica walked in. God is good. Jessica has had 2 c sections and comforted me like no one could. God knew I needed her. After the decision was made to have a c section everything moved very fast. Josh had to get in his scrubs and I was wheeled into the OR. Our amazing nurse could see that I was very very scared and crying. She stopped everyone in the OR and asked if she could pray over me before they got started. Everyone, including doctors nurses scrub techs and the NICU staff came over to me and placed their hands on me while she prayed. God is good. SO good. Once my doctor walked in I lost it. Too many emotions were running. It had been such a long painful day and now we were getting ready for surgery. In a cold, sterile room where everyone is moving very quickly. I did not know if Kate was ok and I felt completely out of control. I was beginning to panic. I have set in on many c sections during clinicals and I knew what was happening. I knew that my stomach was being cut open. I began to feel pain. I told them I was in pain and they gave me more pain medications. That is all I remember. Josh said I then went unconscious. That of course freaked him out. They staff assured him that I was ok. Because I was not awake my doctor told him he could come around and watch the surgery if he wanted. What a brave guy. He watched the whole thing and he watch them take Kate out. She was crying very loudly. Praise God!!! She was absolutely perfect. The NICU team was told they could leave. How amazing is that!! Josh ran back and forth between taking care of Kate and I (who was still asleep) and keeping family informed. She weighed in at 4lbs 13oz and amazingly perfect. I was still asleep when she needed to be fed so they gave her some formula from a syringe. I woke up in a fog about 2 hours later. It took me a few hours to figure out where I was and what happened. Josh said I was talking all sorts of crazy nonsense and the staff told him that the medications make some people do that. The first thing I remember is asking him how much she weighed. He responded by saying "I have told you that 10 times!" After awhile I began to come back to normalcy and was able to hold and feed Kate. Praise God. That was the most emotional part of this whole process. I was holding my healthy (but small) baby and feeding her. In that very moment I felt a sense of relief as if the whole world had been taken off of my shoulders. It was that moment that I felt exactly how anxious I had been over the past 6 months. I felt as if I could breath again.
We were wheeled back down to our room where our troopers of family and friends were waiting. At this point it was 3am. Nearly 24 hours after we started labor. Exhaustion was an understatement. After a short while of visiting and passing Kate around friends and family left and we tried to sleep. This was about 430am.
That day was a whirlwind of emotions. I have never felt God in my life more. This was his plan the whole time. Although this was not the birth story I had imagined in my head or even wanted, it was perfect in His time. Our little Kate is here and we are in love.
Whew......that was a long story.
Next up I will update on the first few days of Kate's life.