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Week by Week

Jessica Katelyn and Katie Renae

I found out that I was pregnant about four months before my wedding. I was to be six months along at the time my wedding was scheduled, but I felt no need to change the date. It was very unexpected because I was taking that birth control shot (Depro Provera) and I was told I had a 99.7% chance of NOT getting pregnant. Although it was unexpected, I was really excited. I have always wanted children, and had a fear that I wouldn't be able to, and now I didn't have to worry about that anymore.

The pregnancy went really well. I had no morning sickness or ANYTHING that is characteristic of a pregnancy. It seemed to go by really fast because I had a lot on my mind. Not only was I getting married, but I was moving from Iowa to Nebraska, getting a new job and starting a whole new life. I was also attending college in my plan of being a grade school teacher. I had a new job at a daycare center and everything was going perfect. My wedding came and went, and I was barely showing. I wouldn't have believed that I was pregnant if I didn't feel my baby kicking me constantly. I thought that was the most wonderful feeling in the world.

My due date was in mid January. I got dates anywhere from January 16-25, 1997, so I told everyone the 16th. I planned on having my baby in my husbands home town in Iowa, even though I was living in Nebraska, so I was planning on taking leave from work starting at Christmas time and staying with my mother-in-law in Iowa until the baby was born. My husband and I took the three hour trip to my in-laws often, so it didn't seem like a big deal.

When I was in my 35th week, we took one of those three hour trips to Iowa. I was still barely showing. I had only gained 20 pounds, going from 115, to about 135. I went bowling the night we arrived in Iowa, and the next morning I woke up with bloody show. My first thought was that the baby was dead, and I was miscarrying. I called the doctor's office and was told they would call me back after I explained the problem. I went back to the bathroom, and the bleeding seemed to stop, so I calmed down a little, but I still had no idea what was going on with my baby. Forty-five minutes later, a nurse called back and asked me what my problem was. She then said she would call the doctor and call me back. It took another 45 minutes, and then I was reluctantly told to come in. The nurse explained that there were no doctors in and that I would be checked by a NP.

So, my husband (Chad) and I go to the small town hospital, and I am put in a room, and the NP comes in to examine me. She asks me a few questions, does an internal exam, and then leaves the room. Chad and I hear her tell another nurse in the hall to prep the OB room because I was 3 cm dilated. Since I was only 35 weeks along, they wanted to prevent me from going into labor, but the NP never bothered to tell me this herself. She came back into the room, and asked me if I was having contractions. I said that I wasn't. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor, and it showed that I WAS having contraction. I was starting to get really scared. They were talking about transferring me to a big hospital in Sioux Falls, SD. The small hospital wasn't equipped to handle babies born that early.

The next thing I know I am in an ambulance on my way to Sioux Falls, and there is a horrible storm out with sleet and worse, and the 75 minute drive by car turns out to be three hours long by ambulance. They had to stop driving every so often to scrape the ice off the windshield. They had given me a shot of Turbutaline at the hospital, and then again in the ambulance because I was still having contractions that I couldn't feel at all. My husband wasn't allowed to come with me, but he was driving up with his mother and my best friend. I just kept praying that my baby was okay, and that my husband would be at the hospital when I got there. I was so afraid he was going to get in an accident. I didn't want to have to deal with any decisions I would have to make at the hospital without him, but with all the trouble the ambulance was having, I wasn't sure he would get there before me.

When we got to the SF hospital, there was Chad, with his mother and my best friend looking down at me as they pulled me off the ambulance. I was put in a labor room and checked again, and my blood was taken, not to mention a ton of other stuff that they do to you in a hospital. The doctor came in and told me all the problems my baby could have if it was born at 35 weeks. She said that it would be best if they stopped the labor till at least 37 weeks. Then I was told I would have an ultrasound to confirm the due date. It showed me to be right where I thought I was, just about 35 weeks. But it also showed that I was having a GIRL!!! I was sure that I was going to have a boy. This was so exciting for me, I really wanted a girl so bad.

I stayed in the hospital for 5 days. Everyone left to go back to work. My husband to Nebraska, and the others back to Iowa, and I was in South Dakota all alone. My husband was there for only the first two nights. The hospital was great, though. I just watched TV and ate the whole time. They gave me all the food I wanted and it actually tasted good! After spending 40 hours a week at a daycare center, it felt great to relax. After 5 days, my mother-in-law came to pick me up and took me back to Iowa. I guess they felt it would be okay for the baby to come by then and that the small town hospital could handle it. I was given Terbutaline in pills to take until Christmas. After that is was up to my body.

I was on complete bedrest, only to get up to go to the bathroom. At Christmas, I was about 37 weeks, and I took my last pill at 6pm. The next day was my birthday and I turned 21. I had learned to tell when I was having contractions while I was hooked up to the monitors. While they didn't hurt, I could feel them because I would have a hot flash, or my stomach would get hard. After I stopped taking the pills, I would time them. They were pretty irregular. On the morning of the 27th, I couldn't sleep, so I was up playing solitaire on the computer, and timing my painless contractions. They were about 8 minutes apart and as regular as they had ever been. It was 5:29am when my water broke, right there at the computer! I went upstairs and woke up my husband, and he took a shower (we had taken childbirth classes, and they said that after the water broke, it would take hours and hours, and so he took his time in the shower!). The contractions started to hurt immediately after my water broke, and were suddenly 3 minutes apart. We got to the hospital around 6:00am. I went to the bathroom and it was confirmed that my water did break, and I changed, and by the time I got into bed, the contractions were unbearable, and I was freaking out. The nurse checked me to be at 7 cm. I suddenly felt the urge to push, and was checked again to be at just about 10cm, but the doctor wasn't there yet and I was told to not push. It was impossible not to push. I tried and tried, but I guess I was pushing anyway. I remember screaming and crying because it hurt so bad and I was really confused by how fast it was going, I really didn't know WHAT was going on. I could feel what seemed to be my body ripping in half. I think this is called the "ring of fire" feeling by some. The doctor got in the room just in time to give me an episiotomy and the baby was born at 6:48am on December 27, 1996. Besides where the doctor cut me, I tore in two more places. I had also swelled pretty badly. The doctor spend the next hour stitching me up, and despite the fact that she supposedly numbed me, I felt every stitch she stitched. It hurt worse then the contractions (but not worse then the pushing part). I didn't even get to see or hold my baby until they had me in my recovery room. Then they brought her in. She was perfect, and had a ton of black hair. We named her Jessica Katelyn. She was 7 pounds, 5 ounces, which is really good for being 3 weeks early. My recovery was awful. I bled a lot, and I ended up fainting once in the hospital. I couldn't walk very well for a week, and I was in a lot of pain everywhere. But Jessica nursed perfectly and other then a little jaundice (she didn't even have to be put under the lights), she had no problems. She nursed till she was 13 months old when she weaned herself (I was ready, too, by then!). When Jessica was about 14 months old, I found out I was once again pregnant (and they say that breastfeeding is not a birthcontrol!). My due date was set at November 16, 1998. This time, I had morning sickness that lasted all day. It lasted for thee months. I had a big fear of going into preterm labor again, so I tried to stay off my feet a lot and became rather lazy. I didn't work anymore, but I was going to school full time. My sister found out she was pregnant with her third child just about the same time. She had two boys and was hoping for a girl. After the morning sickness was over, things went well (slow, but well), until 28 weeks, I found out that I had gestational diabetes. The weird thing is that my sister had it, too, and neither of us had it with our previous pregnancies. I was put on a special diet, no candy and stuff, and 2500 calorie diet (WAY too much for me to eat). I stuck to it perfectly for about two weeks, and then slacked off. The doctor barely mentioned it again in my other appointments. Another thing about this pregnancy that was different then before was that I was having a ton of braxton-hicks contractions. I felt them pretty strong from about 20 weeks. They started out being about 4 or 5 a day, and by 30 weeks, they were more like 4 or 5 an hour. I asked the doctor about them and he said they were normal. It worried me, because they seemed even stronger then the contractions that I felt in my last pregnancy when my water broke. But because for the most part, they were irregular, I was told not to worry. At my 33 wk appointment, I wanted the doctor to do an internal check on me, because I was planning on traveling to Iowa, and I had a big fear of going into preterm labor while I was there again. Although the idea of an internal exam was not thrilling, I asked him to do one for my peace of mind. He didn't think it was necessary, and was surprised when it turned out that I was 1 1/2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. He told me that I should not travel, and that I needed to be on a drug called Brethine, and that I should stay off my feet at much as possible, but I didn't have to be on bedrest. Time seemed to crawl after that. The B-H contractions would be regular a lot, and I would think that my water was going to break, but then the contractions would go away. I was in constant fear of my water breaking, and I knew that if I went into labor, then my baby would have to be in the hospital for a long time. The doctor wanted me to take the drugs till I was 37 weeks. I stopped taking them on the 25th of October. At my appointment on the 26th, I was 3 cm dilated. The doctor asked if I was having contractions and I said "YES, constantly!" but I still wasn't sure what was a b-h, and what was a labor contraction. They didn't hurt, but they were really annoying. He sent me to the hospital for observation. I spent the next 5 hours dilating to 3 1/2, and the contractions were the same painless contractions I had been having for months. The doctor sent me home and told me to come back when the contractions were stronger. They got the strongest they ever were on the way home, but then they stopped. They would come on and off getting stronger each time they came, and be as close as 4 minutes apart, and then they would stop. This happened for days. I got pretty depressed during this time. Since I was 33 weeks along, I lived in fear that at any moment, I would go into labor, and now that it was okay, it wasn't happening. Even though it was three weeks before my due date, I felt as if I was past my due date because I never expected to get this far. Every day, I would think it was starting, and every day I was disappointed. The contractions got to the point where they would hurt, but just as bad as a bad menstrual cramp. On November 2, I went in for my 38 week check-up, this was a whole week after I left the hospital at 3 1/2 cm. By this time I gave up thinking it would come and I thought for sure I would be over due. But the doctor said that I was 5 cm dilated! I told him how I was having contractions all the time, but then they would stop. He stripped my membrane (whatever that means), and told me to go to the hospital when the contractions start. I asked him how big he thought the baby was and he guessed it to be about 7 pounds. I had a big fear of my baby being too small and having to be in the hospital. The appointment was at 10:00am. I called my husband at work and told him that this might finally be it, and he told me to go pick him up at work at noon (we only have one car). So I took Jessica to the sitters, and went to get my husband. He wanted to go back home to change his clothes, so we didn't get to the hospital until about 1:00pm. They did all the wonderful hospital things that they do, taking blood and so on, and my doctor came about 2:00pm to check me. I was now close to 7 cm, so he broke my water. Then the contractions got stronger and stronger until about 2:45 I couldn't handle them very well anymore. I tried to breath through them, but I couldn't, they made me feel like crawling into a hole and dying. The nurse asked me about 3:15, if I wanted any painkillers, I said "okay." They get this tube thing in my hand so they can put drugs in me, but before they could get any drugs in my it was time to get ready to push. The nurse was told by another nurse to give me a partial dosage of Nubain. So I guess she did it. It just made my head spin. The nurse asked me if I felt like pushing and I said "no.. YES!" And then the doctor was in there telling me to push. It wasn't like the last time, it didn't seem to come naturally. The doctor reprimanded me for not pushing right, but I wasn't sure how to push right. It took a few contractions for me to get it right. The doctor was trying really hard to get me not to tear, and at one point told me to stop pushing. I thought I did stop, but I guess I didn't because all the nurses and the doctor started yelling at once for me to stop pushing and it scared me and I guess I finally stopped. It was all so confusing, I wasn't sure what I was doing. The contractions were much harder and the pain seemed to hurt much more then birthing Jessica. I didn't feel as though I was being ripped apart, but I did feel the contractions so much more. I just wanted it to be over, and at 3:43pm, there was a baby on my stomach. I was so amazed. I didn't get to see Jessica that soon, and the first thing I thought was "what is all that white stuff all over her?" They took her away to check her (apgars where 9 and 9). I had to have one stitch. But it didn't hurt. I did loose a lot of blood and they gave me a shot to deal with that, and I started throwing up. I was sick for the next few hours. But they brought me my brand new daughter and told me that she was 8 pounds 3 ounces. And I had been afraid she was going to be too little! At 3:43 pm, on November 2, 1998, Katie Renae was born! She was two weeks early. My recovery was so easy this time. I was up and walking in just a few hours (after I stopped throwing up!). Katie nursed just as well as Jessica, but the pain for me was awful! The nurses told me that the cramping while nursing was worse for the second kid, but I don't remember it hurting at all the first time, and this time I had to take Tylenol just to nurse my kid. But it only lasted for about 4 days. Jessica didn't respond all that well to her new sister. She is 22 months old and is really jealous. I am writing this one week after Katie is born, and things are not better as far as Jessica is concerned. I know it will take time. But as far as I am concerned, I have the two most perfect daughters in the world. From, Pamela Schwebach cpschwe@megavision.com