The Whitakers: The Big Addition

So, I went for my weekly checkup on September 22. I didn't sleep the night before because I had stayed up finishing my collegiate orders for Kennedy James, so I just assumed that was why I felt so bad. I was 37 weeks, and I was hoping that my doctor would schedule an induction for the next week. They were going to do a sonogram to check his size and see how much longer I needed to wait. I still had so much to do--my house needed a good cleaning, bags needed packing, and the baby needed a name. I thought surely I could get it all done in a week.

I had been having headaches, dizziness and swelling, but I contributed all that to being on my feet too much and over exerting myself with all the sewing and mommy duties. For all of you who have had a baby, you know the first thing you do when you get to the doctor is pee in the cup then have your weight and blood pressure checked. As I am sitting there having my BP checked, I notice my nurse's eyes get real big and a look of concern covers her face. She asked if I was feeling ok, and I said, I am just really tired and I have a headache. She checked it again--I had been through this before with Rollins, so I knew what was coming next. She looked at the protein strip in my urine and said, "it's loaded". I immediately started crying. I wasn't ready to have this baby. There was no sonogram, just the doctor telling me to go home and get my bags--I begged him to let me wait a few days because my brother and sister-in-law were having their baby the next day, and I still had so much to do, but he reminded me of the seriousness of my situation and said there were no other options.

So, Brother and I make a mad dash home to try to clean what we could, pack bags for 5 people, eat dinner, get the kids situated for the next couple days, and get back to the hospital. I had so many mixed emotions--I am a planner by nature and I don't like losing control of a situation. I was scared about the health of the baby and myself and worried about the children feeling left out with the new addition.

We had one last family picture made as we left the children at church with my parents on the way to the hospital. This picture has come to mean so much to me now, and I am really thankful we took the time to smile one last time as a family of 4.

Once we got all the monitors on that night, my nurse asked me if I was feeling anything, but I wasn't. She said I was having regular contractions and was already in labor. I called my mom and told her to come first thing in the morning because I didn't think this would take long since i was already contracting without pitocin.

The next morning, Rollins missed school and my mother brought her and Grady to the hospital. Rollins had been asking during the whole pregnancy if she could be in there when he was born, and I had no problem with it at all. A boy in her class kept telling her that my stomach was going to bleed and i was going to cry, so she was very worried. I have very easy deliveries, so I wanted her to see that my stomach wasn't going to bleed and it didn't hurt. She was such a sweetheart and sat by me to hold my hand. She has such a big heart to be so little!

I still wasn't feeling my contractions, but according to the monitors, they were getting very close, so my doctor said I better go ahead and get the epidural. As soon as I got it, I told all my family to go get some lunch because I was just a 4 and it would probably be a while. About 30 minutes later, I started feeling the contractions and they were pretty bad so I told my sweet nurse that I thought I needed a booster in my epidural. She said she would get the anesth., but checked to see where I was dilated to first. To our surprise, the baby had crowned! I called Brother while she called the doctor. The doctor made it to the room first, and I told him I was not having the baby without Brother being there, so he said he had another one to deliver and would be right back. Finally Brother arrives, along with my grandparents and the kids. My dear friend Valerie, who was also my nurse, kept telling me to breath through the contractions and not push--which was very hard to do. The other labor was taking longer than normal and I was begging Valerie to go ahead and deliver him herself. Evidently, the doctors don't want the nurses to deliver so she made me wait.
Finally, he arrived and all it took was 3 good pushes. It all happened so fast once he got there, that I didn't even realize that my mom, my grandmother, my husband and both my children were there to witness this little miracle being brought into this world. It was so special to have them all in there. Also, in the middle of me pushing, my Brother calls to tell us his daughter had been born. They ended up being 16 minutes apart. Harlie Kate was born at 12:30, and Jon Thomas at 12:46.

The cord had been wrapped around his abdomen cutting off his oxygen, which caused him to be so purple. I didn't even know it til later that night when Brother told me how scared he was when he saw them. I went back and looked at these pictures and it took my breath away.