Katherine Elizabeth Makes Her Debut

What an incredible Easter surprise! I was expecting a few Reese Eggs... not a baby! Saturday morning we woke up and got dressed for our church Easter Egg Hunt. I felt great other than just being HOT. (Both of our girls were carefully planned so that John didn't have to deal with me being pregnant during hot weather!) The Egg Hunt was incredible... the Lipfert's are so nice to host this each year at their beautiful home. They did an amazing job... we had such a great time. Anna had a blast! They had all kinds of animals for the kids to pet, tons of eggs filled with candy and a delicious picnic lunch!
After the Egg Hunt, we came home to the messiest our house has ever been! I talked to mom and Richard (who were in Europe) and complained about how hot and miserable I was! When Anna went down for a nap, John and I did too! When we woke up I grumped and griped about how we should've been cleaning (typical for me being hot and pregnant)! Early that evening we headed to the grocery store...we planned on having Easter lunch with good friends and I was cooking the ham. (Sorry Julia, Lynn, and EG! We definitely owe you three lunch!) We were also getting extra groceries just in case so that our families would have lots of good food to eat! We had the option of going in on Tuesday morning for Dr. Slocumb to induce me, however, neither of us were too sure that was actually going to happen. But...it was an option! I had also debated on whether or not I was going to drink castor oil on Monday. (It worked for Anna!)
While grocery shopping, I was having contractions, but I thought they were just Braxton Hicks. If you know me well, you know I wasn't timing them, so honestly, I have no idea if they were regular...or how far apart they were. After getting back home and unpacking groceries, John and Anna ate dinner. I just felt like I had a stomach ache. At this point, I had no idea that I was in labor. Later that evening...around 8:00...the contractions were about three minutes apart but didn't hurt. I called Jessi to fill her in on what was going on and that I would call her later if I needed her to come stay with Anna. John ran to the grocery store... we planned on baking Anna's birthday cake later that night to put in the freezer so that we could celebrate when our families came into town. While he was gone I was dusting in between my contraction...still 3 minutes apart...and stretching my stomach on the birthing ball during the contraction. Poor Anna kept asking me if I needed tums. Around 10:00 that night I thought soaking in a hot bath would make me feel better. It was at this point that I knew that I was really in labor, but I thought had P-L-E-N-T-Y of time. I called Jessi about 10:30 to ask her to come stay with Anna, but told her not to hurry because I wanted to stay at home as long as I could. I jumped in the shower after taking a bath so that I could wash my hair... Jessi got to our house around 11:20. I hadn't even finished packing everything. John was doing his best to get everything in the car. Around 11:40 we were off to the hospital.
We had planned on having a natural childbirth. After Lauren and Will's success with hypnobirthing, we wanted to give it a try. I made it to 8 1/2 cm with Anna without an epidural... I didn't think it would be too bad...especially if I were in a relaxed state...so much for that!
I told Jessi on the way out of the door that hopefully the baby would be here by 3 a.m. jokingly...I thought it would be well into Sunday before she made her debut! It was only when we were two blocks away from the hospital that I realized how far into labor I really was... I was yelling at John to DRIVE FASTER! He parked in the 30 minute drop off area of the parking garage. Thank goodness towing isn't enforced! After making our way into OB Assessment with only my purse. We waited on some idiot to check herself in and for the nurse to clean a room for me to go into. Luckily, we didn't wait long for another nurse to come in and check to see how far along my labor was progressing. She told us that I was dilated between 8 and 9 cm and was yelling for someone to come and help her. The labor and delivery rooms were all full so they put us in a postpartum room, which was much nicer. Everyone was scrambling to get things together. John was trying to call his parents and my brother to let them know what was going on... they all packed up and headed our way. Dr. Harper had been paged and was on his way. In the meantime, the nicest resident and nurses were taking great care of us! Katherine Elizabeth was born at 12:17 a.m. on Easter Sunday! Dr. Harper made it to the hospital just after she was born. Resident Dr. Ahmed was incredible! John and I were in total SHOCK! We still weren't sure what we were going to call her, but she was the most beautiful little thing! There is no greater feeling in the world! God is so good! They wrapped her up and John and I were able to spend the first hour with her after she was born before they took her to the nursery.
It was at this point that I called Mom and Richard to tell them that we had the baby. They were super excited too and really ready to get home! Jim and Paula, Alex, Meagan and Mama arrived into Macon around 5:30 a.m. We didn't learn until after they had left that visiting hours didn't start until 9 a.m. Unfortunately, we have no pictures, other than a few on our phones, until much later in the morning. Our car, with all of our bags, was still in 30 minute parking!