Andy and Kim Yerka: Kim's account

On Tuesday, I had a doctor appointment and I was informed my doctor would be away from Wednesday night to Monday. She stripped my membranes, hoping I would go into labor before she left. On Wednesday, Sept. 8th, I worked 2-11. I was uncomfortable the whole shift and it hurt to walk, but that was nothing new..the baby's head was so low she was practically coming out of me. I got off work and told Andy I was more uncomfortable than normal so he suggested taking a bath. It was a good idea, because I got to shave my legs :). We went to bed around 12:30ish and I remember I first got a contraction that was more painful at 12:50. That's when I started counting contractions. I got out of bed and thought if I went to the bathroom they might get better...cuz I couldn't be in labor... I thought for sure I would be late (my due date was Sept 9th). I had a really painful contraction in the bathroom and I couldn't breathe during it. That's when a nurse I talked to a couple of days prior told me to come in-when I couldn't breathe during a contraction. I woke Andy up and he told me to walk around. Since my contractions weren't super consistent, I complied, but I thought he would walk with me...nope...he went back to sleep. I walked around our living room and I had another one and I woke Andy up and told him we're going to the hospital because I didn't want to be in pain anymore. He thought it was a fluke, but since I was in pain he got up and put on the clothes he had on earlier...khakis and a nice button up shirt. I was wearing bright maroon scrubs. We looked awesome. Like he said before, we stopped at 7-11 for him to get a slurpee, but that was because I told him to drive around. I still wasn't sure if I was in labor or not. Well we got to the hospital and I sat in the car for a bit, because I was afraid if we went in they would send us away. I told Andy to drive around some more so he started pulling out of the parking lot and I had a SUPER bad contraction that made me nauseous. I told him I was going to throw up and he quickly parked and went to go get a wheelchair. While he was gone, I did throw up and I remember looking up and seeing that RN Andy mentioned earlier just looking at me. He probably had no clue what he should do, so he just watched. We got up to Labor and Delivery and they saw us coming and had the doors opened and ready for us...normally you have to check in at a window and then they unlock the doors for you. I first got checked around 1:45 and like Andy said, I was at a 3+. I was so disappointed, because I was in so much pain, but I was only a centimeter higher than what I was the day before. She told us she would check me in an hour and that hour somehow passed and I was still at a 3+ and normally they would send you home if you still hadn't dilated. BUT, I had thrown up twice more during that time so she decided to call the on-call doctor to see what he would say. Good news! He said I could stay and be given some fluids and anti-nausea stuff to see if that would help. Every time the nurse would come in she would ask me to rate my pain from 1-10. I hate that question. Since I could barely think or breathe when she was talking to me, I think that was a good enough answer for her. I don't know how many times I told this nurse "I don't like being in pain. I don't want to be in pain anymore. Can I please have something?". Pretty pathetic, but holy smokes. It's like a pain I can't even describe. At 3, Andy called my mom to tell her I was in the hospital and she should probably come up. We still weren't sure how long I would be able to stay in the hospital, but we knew we were having the baby that day. Around 3:45, the nurse checked me again and I was a 4+! I was finally given some pain killers that worked for like 45 more minutes and then the contractions were really painful again. My mom got to Logan around 5:30 and that's when things started to get exciting. Around 6, I was checked again and I was dilated to a 5+ . I got my epidural(which didn't hurt at all and probably saved my life...or sanity) and my water broke at 6:18. That was the weirdest feeling. I felt a pop and then a gush of water. When my nurses were cleaning up the fluid, they noticed Meconium in it, which meant the baby had a bowel movement while still inside of me and they were nervous about it getting into her lungs. Also during this time, the baby's heart rate dropped from around 130 to about 80 after contractions. I was quickly put on oxygen and given a shot to slow down contractions. At 7:20, I was checked again I remember my nurse, Heather, looking up at me and said calmly "Well, you're dilated to a 10". So, in just over an hour, I dilated 5 centimeters. Thank goodness for that epidural and I got it right in the nick of time. We were then told they like to wait an hour for the baby and mom to rest before pushing. So, Andy slept and I kinda dozed in and out. Around 9, the room was set up and I started pushing. Even though I had the epidural, I could feel the pressure of the contraction. Apparently her head was stuck or something because the nurse could see her head for a long time before her head crowned. At 11, the on-call doctor, Dr. Craig, came up and at 11:12am Evelyn Elizabeth was born. Andy cut the cord and then she was handed off to the NICU nurses to suck everything out of her lungs. About 10 minutes later I was able to hold her for the first time and I looked at her and she looked at me and I was smitten. She was and still is such a good baby. We love her so much and are so grateful she is part of our family. So, there you have it. And this is the short version too. Ha.

A little blurry, but this is what I spend the majority of my time doing