The McGarys : January 2015

WARNING: Total picture overload.

The first week and a half of December was a whole lot of waiting around for baby to arrive. It's funny how everything seems so normal in hindsight but at the time those days went by sooo slooow. I try to keep myself busy before my due dates but everything is hard to do at that point anyway. Sleep doesn't exist and practically the whole rest of the time is spent in the bathroom.

In the waiting room for Kallie's 4 year doctor checkup

Library storytime

Crashing my friend Robin's ward Christmas party. It was a Bethlehem style dinner.

Robin and me

Brad's mom flew into Jacksonville on a Wednesday night and I was scheduled to be induced the next morning at 5:30am. Of course I couldn't fall asleep until 2am and then about a minute before my alarm was set to sound at 4:45am I got a call from the hospital saying my induction wasn't canceled but I was basically on standby because something was happening at the hospital and there weren't any empty rooms. Brad had already woken up and was in the shower so I had to tell him we weren't going anywhere for awhile. And it stunk because I wasn't supposed to eat for 5 hours before my appointment. I called the hospital at 8am for an update but they still had no clue when they'd be ready. When 9am rolled around I decided to eat a little breakfast because who knows how long it was gonna take for them to call back?

Grandma playing with the girls

They had lots of fun

Sure enough about 10 minutes after I ate, the hospital called and said we can come in right away. After we arrived I felt so bad for eating that I told the nurse but she said it was fine. I'm not much of a puker anyway.

My doctor was optimistic that my labor would progress quickly so I was excited. However it didn't turn out that way. At first I felt really guilty for being induced because it was taking longer than I expected so I thought the baby was obviously not ready to come. But then my doctor found out the babe was face-up and that was probably the reason. They started laying me in different positions to encourage baby to turn over. That's when my friends Robin and Jill arrived, and then my sister-in-law Jen soon after. I loved having them there. Having them hanging out in my room talking and laughing was fun and made time go by faster.

Jen, Robin, me, Jill

After the nurses had moved me around a few times, labor progressed a lot faster and even though I had an epidural, when it was almost time to push I started feeling contractions again all down the left side of my body. It didn't last too long though. As soon as the doctor and nurses came in to get everything set up I started shaking because I was nervous. I hate that feeling of not being able to control shivers.

I love this shot of Jen and Robin in the back round

I was recommended Dr Rebenack by my friend Molly and I was not disappointed. He's great. I suppose we could have included the baby in this picture :)

Taylor Faye McGary
(yes, we give birth to conehead aliens but they morph into humans within a day.)

Right after everyone left and I had scarfed down my first few bites of food (courtesy of Jill and Robin for fetching me some Waffle House), I gave the baby to Brad because I started feeling pain down my left side again...similar to my contractions right before I started pushing. It got bad enough that I paged the nurse. When the front desk asked what I needed I said, "Can I get a nurse? I'm feeling pain all down the left side of my body...and I suddenly feel really dizzy". Next thing I knew I was laying down staring at the ceiling as well as lots of different nurses hovering over my face asking me questions. "What's your name? Do you know where you are? Why are you here? What's your birthday?" So I had fainted for a few minutes because of hemorrhaging and a couple medium sized blood clots in my uterus. I ended up having to get two units of blood transfusion the next day because my hemoglobin was about half the normal level. After I fainted they gave me a shot in my leg to help my uterus contract. That thing gave me some nasty side affects that lasted alll through the night. I feel bad for the nurses that took care of me that night.

This made me think back to earlier in my pregnancy when I was fighting really hard for my insurance to cover a birthing center. After days and days on the phone and a few tears, I gave up and decided it wasn't worth it. I decided to give birth in a hospital because our insurance covers that 100%. I remember feeling a sense of relief and peace about that decision. I even wondered if God was looking out for me because if something bad happens I'll need to be in a hospital. Now I feel like that was true because my hemorrhaging could have been really serious, even fatal if I had been anywhere else. I've also had feelings of guilt for being induced without medical necessity (twice). It was purely out of discomfort and convenience. However I think I have such a hard time toward the end of my pregnancies because my babies are huge, I swell aLOT and my babes just keep getting bigger. If I waited any longer to give birth to Taylor, she may have been too big to push out, which would have ended in a C-section.

Taylor and Daxton

I absolutely loved giving birth at St. Vincent's Southside. They are the first hospital that let me consume anything other than ice chips while in labor (I got to ~~eat~~ drink juice, broth and jello!) It felt amazing to not starve the whole time. The anesthesiologist came in very early in my labor just to introduce himself and answer any questions. Then when the time came he did an awesome job giving me an epidural. I couldn't feel any pain but I could somehow still feel and move my legs! Apparently that's how it's supposed to be. That was not the case when I had Jayda.