Thursday afternoon Courtney started getting sick. Our dog Romo had been sick (pooping blood, nice!) for the last 4 days. So I had been fixing him gourmet food and he wasn't getting better. I had a doctor appointment and Courtney was not being good. She didn't feel good and was just being bratty. The doctor didn't have any good news. I hadn't dialated anymore (was at 2-3cm) and he said see you next week, meaning the baby isn't coming anytime soon. This was actually somewhat good news. Ben was on call that night and for the next 3 days, so having a baby in the next few days was just not going to be convienient if Ben was to be there.
That evening we went to our friend's house to watch baseball and then as I was putting Courtney to bed, she did not want to go down (which is very unlike her) so I let her actually watch TV in our bed for a long time. I figured since she was sick she could snuggle with us. Meanwhile, Romo had another pooping episode and I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the carpet and spraying room freshner. Fortunately I was able to get her to bed about 11. Just as we were about to settle down for the night Romo pooped again. Ben was so frustrated that he kicked both dogs outside for the night. They had only been out for about 15 min., but long enough for us to be sound asleep. We woke up to furocious barking by our two dogs, Ben looked out the window to yell at them and saw a giant coyote about to jump into our patio. He yelled, "A coyote! Go get the dogs!". So nine months pregnant I sprint down the stairs and let the dogs in.
Settling down again for sleep, I wake up to hear Courtney crying for me and not feeling well. I held her for a bit and got her back to sleep. Then she woke up again. Back into her room I went. Meanwhile, I was having contractions and they were slowly getting closer. I fall back to sleep and wake up to a horrible stench in our room. I get up to find Romo had pooped blood and poop all over our nightstand, wall and chair. So back on my hands and knees to scrub the carpet, the wall and the chair. Just as I finished, I hear crying in the monitor. Ugh! Will this
night ever end? I locked the dogs in our bathroom and lay back down, iphone in hand as I start to track my contractions. They were getting closer and closer. But I wasn't sure how real they were. Was it the fact that every time I got up I had another contraction, or the gas from my Taco Bell lunch, or the stress of the evening?
I prayed that the Lord would give me wisdom. I didn't want to be that pregnant woman who shows up at the hospital only to be sent home. I also prayed that the Lord would comfort Courtney so I wouldn't have to get up anymore. I kept counting the contractions, they were getting closer and closer. Once they were 3-5 minutes apart for an hour I was starting to get concerned.
It was 4:15 am and I didn't want to gave to wake anyone, especially Courtney who had finally been asleep for a few hours. So I let it go another 30 min just in case. After 30 min of them being 3-4 min apart I figured it was time to call the on call doctor. I called him at 4:45 then woke up Ben and called my friend Katly to come stay with Courtney. Fortunately Karly lived just a few doors down. I grabbed my packed hospital bag and We were on the road by 5 am to the hospital.
Once we were admitted they checked me and they said I wasn't dialated enough to go into labor but they would check with my doctor once he did his rounds in the next hour. So we waited. Once he came around he confirmed that since I was still two weeks before my due date, I was too early to induce and he needed to send me back home. But just to double check he suggested taking a walk around the hospital for an hour and then have me re-checked and if I hadn't progressed much then home we would go.
Fortunately it was a shift change and I got a new nurse. Dr. Capobianco had the new nurse check me so she had something to go by when I returned. After checking me she looked up at me with a puzzled look and said, "How far along did they measure you?", I replied, "2-3 cm". She said she needed to check with the doctor because either she is wrong or I was in labor. So he came and checked me again and sure enough I was 5-6cm. What a relief! In the bed I stayed and medicines began pumping. Since I was diagnosed with Strep, I needed to have medication for a minimum of 5 hours for saftey of the baby, so they slowed me down quite a bit and waited for the 5 hours to break my water.
A doctor came in around 12 to break my water, and then my nurse said she was going on lunch and to have her back up nurse page her if there was progress. She hadn't been gone for 2 minutes before I said, "Uh? I think something is going on, can you check me?". She checked and sure enough Caylee's head was crowned! There was a flurry of nurses and action going on in our room as they prepared for Miss Caylee Love. The doctor was paged and was on his way. I wasn't allowed to push because she would have been born without the doctor there, which I was fine with. It was so painful waiting. It seemed like an hour that we waited, but it was only about 15 minutes. Once Dr. Capobianco arrived, he scrubbed up and told me to push. I pushed 3 times and she was out!
Caylee Love McKinsey
Born September 24, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Weighed 6 lb 11 oz 18 inches long
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