The Merry Merry Month of May

A lot happened in May so this may be slightly photo heavy. I will try to contain myself a bit LOL.

May 10, 2008

At 9 months pregnant I thought I needed to walk for charity. Actually, my boss Nick had wanted to know who would be interested in doing a walk/run that benefited the Moffitt Cancer Center. It was December at the time so I said yes. So here I am amongst my co-workers. I was the only one who chose to do the walk, but I am proud that I was able to walk the mile in 41 minutes. Not bad I would say!



May 11, 2008

Mother's Day was productive. My parents came down to do some finish work in my living room. Which I completely forgot to add to my April blog...the short version, after 4 years of waiting I finally got laminate hardwood floors installed. Mom & Dad had come down to show us how to install it and to make the cuts using their saw they brought down. It used to be just the concrete sub-floor which I had painted. That happened on April 6th, and then they came back on Mother's Day to assist in installing the molding. The living room just needs paint on the walls and the ceiling and it will be done.

May 19th my Mom left to go on a sewing cruise and left from the Port of Tampa. This day was also my Memere's 81st birthday. I really wanted to go up to visit her but gas is just too darn expensive and I had to work that day and the next and being only a few weeks from my due date I thought it wouldn't be a good idea. Unfortunately, what she really wanted for her birthday was not under my control. She really wanted our then un-named daughter to be born on her birthday but she didn't show up.

May 20th I had my weekly doctor's visit. Dr. Newton said I was only 1 cm dilated, minus 2 station which in layman's terms meant, not this week. It felt I would be delivering close to my due date which was June 2, 2008. Dr. Newton would be leaving for vacation on that Thursday but would be back on duty on the next Tuesday, the
27th. This worked for me, I had a million things I wanted to accomplish before she decided to make her appearance. I needed to pack the hospital bag, buy jammies from Target that opened in the front and some other necessities. I had planned to take care of this on Friday and Saturday. I of course, had plenty of time and a three day weekend to look forward to!

Yeah right. May 22nd, at 4:00 p.m., I'm at work. I bend down under my desk for something I dropped, and I felt something funny. I just figured, I shouldn't bend down like that anymore. I continued putting the office supplies away that I had ordered. Then a few minutes later, I felt a pain and what felt like a drop of liquid. I went and checked and things seemed normal, then I was in more pain. I am not going to lie, I cried because I knew in my heart my daughter was on her way, but I wasn't ready for her to arrive. I had many things I wanted to finish up at work, home things as mentioned, but she had other plans.

I go to my friend and co-worker Mike and tell him that I need to go but I am in tears. I am not ready to go, I have all these things on my desk that I continue to sort out and explain during contractions. Mike is making huge arm gestures telling me I need to leave, not to worry about my desk, they will figure it out. While still at the office, I call my sister and ask her what she is doing this evening. She tells me she is going gaming. I tell her no she isn't because I need her to pick up Vaughn from daycare. Of course, she hadn't put the car seat she has in the van and she doesn't know where daycare is, so we plan to meet at my house.

Finally, at 4:30 I left to go to daycare. Mike has walked me out and really doesn't want me to drive, but I'm pretty stubborn and I wasn't giving him a choice. I get in the truck and call my dad. I ask him if he can come down and stay with Vaughn, because the baby is coming. Originally the plan was to have Heather stay with Vaughn, but she had called in sick to work earlier in the week and could not afford to be off from work another day. My dad was great, he said he would leave to come down right away.

I get off the phone with Dad and call Justin. Justin had 2 finals to take this night. Once I got on the phone, I told him to not be upset but that she was on the way. He couldn't believe it! I told him to stay at school because we had plenty of time when I was pregnant with Vaughn, so he certainly had time to take his finals right? I told him I would call/text if something changed.

I pick up Vaughn from daycare, having contractions the whole way home. I am driving, saying "Ow, Ow, Ow" and Vaughn says "What happened Mommy? You have a boo-boo?" He was so sweet. I am in too much pain to think about how far apart my contractions are, I never once thought to time how far apart they were, I really felt I would be going through this for hours.

Heather arrives at my house and I am trying to remember what I need while contracting. I am convinced that I will be driving myself to the hospital once Dad arrives. Heather, who is more stubborn than I am believe it or not, says absolutely not! I would say it was around 5:30 and I can't wait any longer for Dad to get to the house. I wrote him a note to call my sister on her cell and we leave. I had sent Justin a text message telling him we were leaving, and as I'm in the garage wanting to get in the truck he calls me. I tell him he needs to leave school, I feel bad knowing he has finals. He was at least able to finish one but left school immediately. He stays on the phone with me to be encouraging, trying to help me remain focus and breathe. I know he meant well, but the last place I wanted to be was on the phone, so I told him I would see him at the hospital. It took FOREVER to get to the hospital in 5 o'clock traffic.

We FINALLY get to the hospital after what seemed like EVERY red light. Heather parked the truck and I went in. I felt like everyone was looking at me (that was because they were) and there were some couples there for the child birth class at the desk. One woman's husband got me a wheel chair, the security guard helped me fill in my name as I was having contractions. Still couldn't tell you how far apart they were - didn't care.

The security guard asked me if someone was with me. I said yes, they were parking the vehicle. It felt like forever before Heather and Vaughn came in. Once the security guard saw Vaughn he said that he couldn't come up with me. He then asked me if I wanted to wait for Justin. I said no so he called up to Labor & Delivery to have someone come down to get me. I swear the woman who came to get me was on God's time and not on "HEY A BABY'S COMING" time. She was walking so slow!

Finally get upstairs to Labor & Delivery and they stop me at the Nurses Station. A woman asks me for my Id and Insurance card during my contractions. Of course, I'm thinking "are you kidding me?!" and I think the nurse who took me to my room was thinking the same thing.

Finally they hook me up to the fetal monitor at 6:25 p.m. and I am 6 to 7 cm dilated. I am asking for the epidural as I am very uncomfortable and the contractions are really coming. The nurse told me I had to wait until they took my labs. By this time, sweat is pouring off of me, and Justin is still not there yet. I don't have too much time to think about him not being there between contractions.

Dr. Miller comes in the room, re-introduces herself as she had only met me once before. She checks me again and I am about 9 cm dilated at this point. She leaves the room I think to get ready or perhaps check on another patient. She isn't gone very long and when she comes back in, she looks at me and says "You're pushing, keep pushing!" I'm thinking, I'm not pushing!! I'm just trying to work through this contraction! They lay me back a bit and with one push out came my beautiful little girl, it was 6:36 p.m. Justin arrived a few minutes after, coming into the room saying "Honey, I'm here, I told you I would make it!" to which I replied, "No you didn't. She's over there." He looked at her and come over to me, he was visibly upset he missed it. He thought he had time, so he went to our house first to grab the Rebel because I had forgotten it, and also grabbed my pillows. He does know how obsessed I am about my pillows so that was very sweet.

I made him hurry up and take pictures of Kyra as I didn't actually have my camera in the room. Heather had forgotten to grab my bag out of the truck when she came into the hospital so I was without her scrapbook, my camera, I had squat! These were her first photos...




My official labor & delivery nurse came in the room and my labs had never even left she came out so quickly. We nicknamed her Lightning because that was the speed in which she arrived. She was 19 1/2" long and 7 pounds, 5 ounces. Of course, she wasn't named yet, that didn't come until May 24th. We would have broken tradition if we had named her earlier than that!

We named her Kyra Lilith and even had the birth certificate record done before noon! We still didn't leave until almost 1:00 p.m. because Justin had to load the car, change the car seat around and we also had a late visit from Alaina. So here are some photos of her leaving the hospital.




We go to Subway first before going home because I'm starving! Then we get home and we are both exhausted.

There are more things that happened in May but this will be Part I. Part II will be much shorter! :)