Cherished Moments with my 2 Angels: Birth of a Baby Girl

Mikayla's hospital picture - I would love to have known what she was thinking! I love the face she is making!

A couple of years ago, on his birthday, I posted Drew's birth story. At that time, I said I would be posting about Mikayla's birth story soon. Unfortunately, soon turned into a couple of years later. Her birth has been on my mind a lot lately as I think of her as a seven year old, who thinks she is going on 16. A lot of times I find myself wondering where the time has gone. Since we found out that we were expecting her, she has been our little peanut. It is hard for me to believe that our sweet baby girl has grown into a sweet, sassy, smart, independent seven year old.

Craig and I always knew that we wanted to have at least 2 children, maybe 3. We also had talked about our first two children being 2 - 3 years apart. So, when Drew turned a year old, we started discussing the possibility of adding to our family. On New Years Day in 2003, a home pregnancy test showed that we would be, in fact, adding to our family. Craig and I were ecstatic, and Drew was happy about it, but at 17 months old I'm sure he didn't understand how his world was about the change. He was first grandchild on both sides of the family and had been king for the last year and a half. Craig and I went to my first doctor's appointment at the end of January, where they did an ultrasound to help determine my due date. The first time we saw our second baby on the screen, she was no bigger than a peanut, so that's what I called "her" until we knew for sure that we were having a baby girl. From the ultrasound and other information, it was determined that my due date would be September 4, 2003 - we were looking forward to having two precious gifts in our lives 26 months apart.

The pregnancy progressed very similar to my pregnancy with Drew. We were overjoyed when we found out that we would be adding a little girl to our family at our second ultrasound. Then, we were facing our biggest fears when my triple screen test came back showing a 1% positive for Spinabifida (sp). When I got the call from Dr. Toler at school, I knew something was not right. I got so upset that Craig didn't even know who I was when I called him to tell him. Dr. Toler scheduled us for another ultrasound the following week to check for sure, but he felt pretty sure that this result was a "false positive" due to the fact that we had just had our ultrasound the Friday before and the tech did not notice anything abnormal. When we went for our next ultrasound, we were again assured by the tech that all looked normal and that our baby girl was okay. The doctor then offered reasons why these tests sometimes come back with a "false positive" result and told us that we would be having an ultrasound each month for the remainder of the pregnancy to ensure that Mikayla was on track for growth, and that her kidneys and other organs were developing normally. It wouldn't have changed a thing had things been different - we would have loved (already did love) our girl anyway. Thankfully, though, everything was fine and our baby girl is perfect!

In my third trimester, as in my third trimester while pregnant with Drew, my blood pressure began to rise. For some reason, I have a history of pregnancy induced moderately high blood pressure in my third trimester of pregnancy. For that reason, I was scheduled for an induction with Mikayla one week before her due date. Craig and I were scheduled to arrive at the hospital the night before, on August 27. Cervidyll (sp) was used to soften my cervix to prepare my body for what was to come. The next morning, August 28, 2003, at 7:00, I was started on a Pitocin drip. The morning of my labor progressed very similar to Drew's. Craig and I had already spoken extensively with my nurses, as had Dr. Toler, to let them know that I didn't labor very long with my son and that the delivery was even quicker. Dr. Toler had given them strict instructions to call him as soon as I had dilated to 5. (With Drew, only 30 minutes passed between the time that I had dilated to a 5 and he was born.) Dr. White did not make it for Drew's delivery, and Dr. Toler was hoping to make it for our sweet girl's.

There were many people at the hospital that morning with us. Drew was at daycare because we didn't want him to see mommy in pain, but we knew he would be at the hospital as soon after delivery as possible - Aunt Jennie was going to pick him up after her eye appointment that afternoon. Daddy, of course, was there, along with Poppi (my daddy), Mimi (my mommy), Grandpa (Craig's daddy), Grandma Cheryle (Craig's step-mom), Uncle Chris (Craig's brother), Aunt Jennie (my sister), Uncle Jonathan (my brother), Aunt Laura (my mom's sister), and Grandma were all there to help us welcome our new little bundle of joy. Throughout the morning, they were all allowed in the room and we were laughing and talking. After my water was broken, however, the pain got more intense and I asked for my epidural. We had also already talked with the nurses about how my epidural did not work for the entire time during Drew's labor and delivery. Because of all of this information we provided my nurses, they stayed in our room a good part of the day. They would leave for minutes only to go check other patients, and then they would return to check on me. I was very grateful for this!!

As with Drew, the epidural provided me with about 30 minutes of relief from the pain. After 30 minutes, the pain returned and it was more intense than before I received the epidural. After talking with the nurse about this, she proceeded with the "wipe test". She wiped a moist towelette on my forehead and asked if I could feel that, to which I replied "yes". She then wiped a towelette on my stomach and asked if I could feel it, to which I replied "yes". She then wiped a towelette on my right thigh and asked if I could feel it. When I replied "yes" to that, as well, she said "you aren't supposed to feel that". So much for the epidural, huh? But I had already told them that - remember that I delivered Drew basically having nothing for pain.

Once my nurses discovered that the epidural was not working, they did give me Demoral in my iv, which helped tremendously. I labored longer with Mikayla because she was "sunny side up" - in other words she was laying on her back, instead of on her belly. I was having extensive labor pains/contractions, but showing no progress due to this.

However, during one of my intense contractions, the situation got very scary for all of us. I begin to hear a heartbeat on the monitor (they had been monitoring Mikayla's heart rate the whole morning) that was way to slow to be a baby's heartbeat. When I asked the nurse whose heartbeat it was - I was sure it was mine, she said "no it's the baby's". I then went into panic mode - asking over and over again what was wrong because I knew her heartbeat wasn't supposed to be that slow. The nurse told me that it wasn't, but that everything was going to be okay, she just needed me to calm down. She kicked everyone out of the room except Craig and my Aunt (who is also a nurse) - we had already been told that only 2 people would be able to be in the room and our plan was for Craig and my sister to be in there. I didn't want my sister to see anything go wrong, so instead I asked my aunt to stay in there with us. My sister had to leave for her eye appointment shortly after that and would be bringing our boy up to the hospital for us soon. She asked me to take deep breaths and calm down - that would help my baby the most. They were rolling me from side to side, shaking my belly, and I even had an oxygen mask put over my mouth and nose and was instructed to breath deeply. They massaged the baby's head, and were getting ready to prep me for an emergency c-section (had called for the doctors and all) when Mikayla's heart rate picked back up. All of this happened in a matter of seconds or a couple of minutes at the most, but it sure felt like hours. During the next contraction, Mikayla's head crowned, and one nurse said "I don't know what it is, but it has a head full of hair". I just remember saying "my baby?" because Drew was bald until he was almost 2. Less than a minute later, at 3:33 pm, Mikayla Alysee was born with one push. She weighed 7 lbs 5 ounces, was 20.5 inches long, and was absolutely, beautifully perfect. When she was first born, I didn't hear her cry immediately, and again felt terror. But my aunt reassured me that she was fine - that they were suctioning her nose and mouth. A second later, I heard the most beautiful cry I've ever heard in my life and my eyes filled with tears. I just kept saying, over and over, "that's my baby, that's my beautiful baby girl". And she was! Dr. Toler did not make it to deliver our sweet girl, and instead our two nurses delivered her, with the help from the operating room doctors who had come just a few seconds before thinking that I would need a c-section. The nurses told us afterward that what probably happened (to cause her heart rate to drop) was that when I had the last big contraction, Mikayla flipped over onto her belly. She was squeezed so much that her heart rate dropped a few seconds. Because of this, the NICU team was also in my room during delivery, ready to take her there if needed. We were so fortunate that our baby girl was perfect in every way when she was born, and she didn't have to go to NICU at all!! Craig and I were very emotional after all of this, and he stepped out in the hall and began to cry. We didn't know that our family had gone down to the cafeteria to get some lunch. When they walked back up the hall, the first thing they saw was Craig leaning again our door, crying. They didn't know that we had a healthy baby girl, so of course their first words were "what happened?". He reassured them that she was here, and that all was fine now. They all got to come into our room, then, and they got to meet our sweet little baby girl! We were all talking at once - about how our lives were changed forever. A few minutes later, Aunt Jennie came into the room with Drew so he could meet his new baby sister. He loved her from the first moment he saw her! He kissed her and talked to her (and all of us) for a couple of minutes, and then daddy took him out in the hall to press the button to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to announce that another star had been born. Drew doesn't remember it, but we always tell him how he got to be the one to announce that his baby sister had been born.

Mommy gets to hold her baby girl right after she is born!Grandpa gets to hold his first granddaughter right after she was born. I couldn't get this picture to turn right side up for anything. We sure miss Grandpa!!Mimi and Poppi hold their granddaughter right after she was born. I love the adoring look my daddy is giving her!!Uncle Jonathan holds his niece right after she was born. She had him wrapped the first moment he saw her!
Daddy holds Mikayla while big brother, Drew, loves on them both. This was the day she was born, and Drew didn't want to leave the hopsital. The only reason he did was because he was spending the night with Mimi and Poppi.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time - I even have it as a black and white. Mikayla sleeps on daddy's belly the night she was born.

It was a stressful day for all of us, but a joyous day as well, because we got the best gift of all on August 28, 2003 - a new baby girl to hold, love, and raise. Thank you, God for giving us Mikayla. Our lives would surely not be the same without her.

Aunt Jennie holds Mikayla the day we came home from the hospital. She has adored her since the first time she laid eyes on our girl!

Drew has always been such a sweet big brother - well, most of the time. He loved trying to give her her paci when she had lost it.

Another one of my favorites - our two angels napping side by side. Drew had just turned 2 in July and Mikayla was almost a month old in this picture.

Mikayla's first Christmas - 2003. Poppi was holding her and Drew, but they sure were focused on something else!

Grandma and Grandpa hold Drew and Mikayla that first Christmas in 2003.

Mikayla looked so cute in this "Santa Girl" outifit. Nana was holding her at our get together at Uncle Chris and Aunt Julie's house.

Mikayla's first snow! January 2004 - we didn't keep her out there long at all, but we at least were able to get this picture of her on the sled with big brother, Drew.