Katelyn Suzanne Murray
Born: March 1st, 2015
Time: 7:50 p.m.
The day began like many of the others at the late stage of pregnancy, Hill did not sleep well and she was uncomfortable. However, last night was particularly bad due to the Braxton Hicks (aka contractions at this point) that kept Hill up during the night. Dad is getting excited because Hill goes into labor when she has a particularly uncomfortable day.
Because Hill had such a rough night, Preston went out and got some castor oil from his sister Cami with the fix'ns to make a nice castor oil shake. Apparently this is a sure fire way to get a baby to come. Hill was still a little skeptical so she wanted to wait until after church if she was going to take any at all.
Fast forward a little bit to church time. Hill decided to go to try and take her mind off of the pain she was feeling. She was still feeling contractions (she still thought they were Braxton Hicks at this point) but they were not consistent. Hill's mom, Suzie, had come into town the night before to help out when needed, and she started timing Hill's contractions as the day went on. About two thirds of the way through church the contractions started happening every 15 minutes, time to start getting excited!
We headed home from church early to head to the hospital. Since we walked to church (Hill wasn't having bad contractions before church) Hill had to walk home with more intense contractions. She was a trooper and made it home just fine. We rounded up our stuff, let our kids know where we were going, gave Suzie some last minute instructions, and we were off!
We arrived at the hospital at about 5 PM. During the drive Hill's contractions stopped for a bit and we were not sure if things were really moving forward. After waiting for a few minutes Hill had quite the intense contraction and we were off to the races! We rushed into the hospital (it was actually slow walking with some breaks for the contractions) and we got admitted. I should note that for the previous two pregnancies Hill's water broke, so it was a no brainer but to head to the hospital. This time around we got a curve ball and Hill's water did not break, hence the hesitation.
She got into triage and she asked to be checked and she was already dilated to a 6! There was no walk of shame for Hill! Since Hill wanted to deliver naturally we got admitted to the special room with the hot tub and other things for helping with the labor and delivery process. At this point her contractions were tolerable and things were processing nicely.
After a little bit Hill decided to jump into the hot tub for the more intense labor portion. This was a great thing because it calmed her down so that she could better work through the pain of the contractions. She did this until she was dilated to about a 8. I gave Hill a blessing at this point, that all would be well. Soon after the doctor got called in.
We were very upbeat thinking that things were going really smooth and that Katelyn would be here shortly. The doctor came in and checked here and said she still had a little way to go, but he was kind enough to break her water. Turns out contractions after your water is broken are pretty intense, much more so than when the water is still intact. The doctor then left the room (sad day!) while Hill labored some more.
Hill labored for about another hour or so and finally made it to a 10! About this time the first nurse that was helping us had to go home and another nurse took her place. It turns out this nurse was new and she was still learning her ropes, this turned out to be a key issue later on. The doctor got called in a second time, checked Hill's status and stated "let me know when you are ready to push!" I need to note here that previous doctors have been very proactive and have instructed us on what needs to be done to get Hill in the necessary position to start pushing and have the baby. This was quite a different experience. I am not sure if the doctor normally has the nurse get things set up like getting the stirrups out and dropping the end of the bed, or if the nurse gets things done on her own, but either way it was quite frustrating that everyone was just standing around waiting for Hill to say "I am ready to push" instead of coaching her. I finally asked the doctor to give some instruction, coaching, anything to help things get moving. He and the nurse finally started prepping the bed and what not for the delivery.
Once everything was ready Hill pushed through about 2 contractions and Katelyn was here! She was a nice shade of pink and crying beautifully! They cleaned her up a bit and she was ready to be put on mommy for some cuddle time.
I figured that the excitement was now over and things could calm down a bit. I was definitely wrong on this account. The nurses cleaned everything up, declared victory, and left us to recover before being moved into the recovery section of the hospital. One of the big concerns for the mom is that her uterus contracts and clamps down to cut off the bleeding from where the placenta was attached. It turns out that Hill's placenta, for whatever reason, did not want to detach. The doctor had to apply a decent amount of force to help it out of the uterus. What he did not know is that there was about a 1" circular piece of the placenta that stuck to the uterus. This causes Hill to hemorrhage for about an hour to an hour and a half before the nurses figured out what was going on.
Our nice, but inexperienced, nurse kept feeling Hill's uterus to make sure it was contracting as it should. After about an hour she figured something was wrong so she got another opinion from who we would later describe as the "mean nurse". Since most women get an epidural, it is not a big deal for the nurse to push really hard on the uterus to make sure that there is no coagulated blood and to ensure it clamps down properly. However, if you have someone who has not had an epidural, pressing down hard on the uterus hurts like the dickens!
It turns out that Hill's uterus was full of blood from her hemorrhaging, the nurses eyes got big, and there was a flurry of activity all the way from giving more pitocin, to calling the doctor to come back to the hospital (again) to check on Hill. The end result is that nothing worked so their only option was to whisk Hill away to the operating room to find and remove the stubborn piece of placenta (which they successfully did).
After Hill was taken to the operating room, I was left to myself since Katelyn was taken out of the room so that the folks could focus on Hill. One of the nurses was kind enough to bring me in and explain everything from the best to the worst case scenarios that could happen. Not much fun for me! I came to the realization that for the first time in our marriage there was a chance that I would lose my wife. It was quite the emotional ordeal. One of the nurses saw I was having trouble and was kind enough to bring little Katelyn in for me to hold as we got through the difficult time.
A little while later a nurse came in and let me know that things had gone really well and that they were going to be bringing Hill back in soon. They determined that it was indeed a piece of the placenta which they were able to remove and that Hill was recovering nicely.
The next little bit was quite funny because Hill was so tired from labor, delivery, then the next operation with its accompanying drugs, that she was not able to stay awake. She would ask the doctor or the nurse a question, then immediately fall asleep! She would then wake up a little while later and repeat the process. For a bystander it was quite a funny thing to watch!
There you have it, 8 lbs, 8.8 oz. One big baby!
Here is the proud father with his new little girl. So precious!
Here is mommy holding the little lady after she made the transition to the recovery room. Both mommy and baby are doing great now!
Our little angel sleeping soundly.
Preston went home to watch the kids while Suzie came and visited Hill in the hospital. This was the big moment that Suzie came for, holding her little grandbaby!
Here is another picture of the little sleeping baby in the hospital. So sweet.
On the way out of the hospital we grabbed a picture of mommy, daddy, and baby.
Jordan and Natalie were so excited to see their beautiful little sister. They both took turns holding her and giving her kisses. They are some great siblings!
Here is the little one in her crib. She is one tiny angel and we are excited to have her as part of our family! We are grateful for Heavenly Father's blessings during Katelyn's birth. We are thankful for the power of the priesthood and the safety and protection it provides. We feel so very blessed.
