November 30th started out just like any other day. All of our Thanksgiving guests had left except my Mom and Dad. I had a doctors appointment at 10am and when Regan said he was going to come with me, I was kind of shocked because I knew it was going to be an insignificant appointment. I had been dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced for 3 weeks and nothing was happening beyond that, so I truly thought the doctor was going to send me home yet again since I was only 39 weeks. In Ohio, they are super strict about no inducing labor until it is an absolute must...especially in my case since my first pregnancy was a c-section.
So off Regan and I went to the doctors appointment. My Dad was getting ready and I didn't even say good bye to him since I just knew we would be back home after the appointment. His flight back home was that night. My kids were home with Grammy & Grampy and I was so happy that they were able to have the last day off of Thanksgiving break with them. They had a girls vs boys competition with decorating ginger bread houses! The fact that I didn't even have to worry about my 4 kids on this day was such a huge blessing and I am so grateful to my parents for taking such great care of my kids. They truly love my kids as their own.
So, 10:00, Regan and I go to the doctors office and I get hooked up to the monitors to hear the babies heart beat just like I have been for the last 2 months! Right when they start up, I knew something was wrong. The heart beat sounded so strange and it was so irregular. I looked at the nurse and said that it sounded weird. She agreed and brought in a doctor. The Doctor said she was concerned about the sound, so they brought me into another room for an ultra sound. The ultrasound was the exact same sound of irregular heart beats, plus we could see the picture of the babies heart and it looked like it was beating irregularly. They brought in my Doctor and she was concerned. She said she didn't know what was going on, just that something with the heart was not right and that I would be delivering the baby today.
I started to cry. The thought of something wrong with my babies heart was so surprising. I had never heard irregular heart beats in all of my doctors appointments, so this was shocking. The Doctor told Regan to drive me right to the hospital. Once she left the room, I just started to sob. I am so grateful Regan decided to come to this appointment because I would have been a mess with this information by myself. He comforted me and told me that we would get more information at the hospital. The whole way to the hospital I couldn't stop crying. I was scared and all of the excitement of having a baby was gone. I just wanted to know that my baby was going to be okay.
I called my Mom and Dad and told them we wouldn't be coming home and that we were having a baby today! Again, I was so grateful that they were there for my kids! When Regan and I got to Riverside Hospital, we were greeted by the kindest nurse ever! She got me all ready in the labor and delivery room and made me feel so comfortable. Her name was Tovy. Once I was ready, the pediatric cardiologist doctor came in for an ultra sound. This doctor's name was Dr. Ho and she was so kind. She listened and looked at the heart beat and knew immediately what was going on. She said it was called Arhythmia and that she sees it almost every day. For some reason, the heart beat was beating in an irregular pattern and that in most cases, it starts to beat normally either after birth or within 6 weeks of birth. When she left, I immediately felt calm again. I was now ready and excited to have this baby!
Now for the waiting...Once we knew the baby was going to be okay, it was a matter of waiting for her to come! Around 1:00, a doctor came into break my water. It was a crochet hook looking thing that literally broke the water. I felt a continual gush of water for hours after this, however it was not enough to get the baby to come.
They put me on a slow pitocin drip to help things along. That made the contractions bigger and more painful. Regan and I were watching Man vs. Food on the Hospital tv just waiting for things to happen! Around 4:30, the anesthesiologist came in to give me an epidural. I forgot how bad that needle hurts! I was shaking uncontrollably after she gave me the shot and was freezing and itchy. It also made me nauseous and I kept throwing up. My friend, Heather Arnita came to the hospital room around 5:00 to take some pictures of the birth. I felt so bad that she had to wait around with us, but at the same time, it was comforting to just talk to someone to distract me from everything.
My Mom & the kids took my Dad to the airport and then came to the hospital to visit me! They were so cute and all brought pictures for the baby! It was so great to give them all a hug and kiss and see them since it had already been an emotional day. They stayed until 6:50 and then my Mom took them home. At this point, nothing was happening! The weirdest thing is, once they left, stuff started to happen! I all of a sudden could feel the contractions and I was feeling the urge to push. At 7:30, I told Regan I was feeling a lot of pain and so he pushed my epidural button for more meds...NOTHING! That's when I started to get worried! I knew my epidural had run out. It was too late to get more meds. I told the nurse that I felt like I needed to push, so she went to get the Doctor who was on call at the hospital. My own doctor didn't even come!
My friend Heather probably thought I was a crazy person because I was totally acting like a crazy person! I was screaming, "This hurts SOOOO BAD!" I literally could feel everything! I have never experienced this kind of pain in my life! Doctor Bell, a doctor who we learned has delivered more than 2,000 babies was so patient and kind to me. He would say, "Where does it hurt?" I would say, "ALL OVER!" I felt like I wanted to just pull her out of myself because I knew once she was out, the pain would go away! Well, after pushing and screaming for what seemed like an eternity {I think it was like 20 minutes} I felt the head come out, followed by the body. Instantly, I felt relief.
Winnie Joy Fackrell was born at 8:06 pm on November 30, 2015. She weighed 8.12 lbs and was 19.5 inches long.
Right after she was out, Doctor Bell held her down and patted her. I couldn't see her immediately and was so anxious to hold her. Her umbilical cord was very short, so he couldn't raise her up to show me. Regan took the scissors and cut her cord. Then, they laid her on my chest, skin to skin and let me hold her like that for 20 minutes. It was so awesome to just hold her like this for so long. I was just crying because she was so beautiful. She didn't cry, just snuggled right up to me. She was covered in the waxy vernix and Regan and I knew she was our biggest baby just by looking at her.
She was so beautiful and perfect. My friend was taking pictures the whole time and I am excited to see them when she is finished editing them because the whole experience is kind of a blur since I was in so much pain! While I was holding her, Dr. Bell delivered the placenta and stitched me up. I felt him doing it but it wasn't painful since I had so much adrenaline. He showed Regan and I the placenta which was gross to me, but interesting to Regan. We joked how some people keep their placenta and make it into pills!
After I held her, the nurses took her to weigh and measure her. They checked her heart beat and it was still irregular beats so we just needed to continue to monitor it.
This is the first time she even cried-when they put the diaper on her.
Once she was all bundled up, they gave her back to me. This is when I really started to examine her. She looked like she had been in a huge fight! She was swollen and red!
The thing that I automatically loved about her were her CHEEKS! I LOVE chubby cheeks!
This is one of the pictures Heather took. I love it because I seriously just felt so much love after the delivery! No pain, just pure love.
We were shocked to see that she had blonde hair! All of our other kids have had dark hair at birth!
That night, after she was bathed and we had held her in the recovery room, we had Winnie go to the nursery so we could get a few hours of sleep. Every 2 hours, a nurse would come into the room to check me. I was so surprised that I was able to walk by myself to the bathroom by 2 am!
I didn't sleep well at all, and by 5:30, all I wanted was to hold Baby Winnie! They brought her into me and we just snuggled all morning. Of course she wore a bow on her first day!
This was the first time I saw her with her eyes open! She was such a sleepy baby.
Regan was so awesome and stayed at the hospital with me the night of her birth and the whole next day. Throughout this whole thing, he has been very loving and supportive and I am very grateful for him.
He was definently a proud dad right from the start! Whenever a nurse would come in and say, "Is this your first baby?" We would just laugh and say, "no, it's our FIFTH BABY!" That always got a lot of funny reactions!
By noon that next day, December 1st, I knew I was ready to go home! I have never left the hospital before 2 days after birth, so I was pleasantly surprised that I felt good enough to go home! At 8:06 pm, 24 hours hours after delivery, they took Winnie to get all of her tests done to make sure she was ready to be discharged. The biggest blessing is that the pediatrician monitored her heart beat and only heard regular heart beats! I was so relieved that her heart beat had regulated and that she was healthy enough to be discharged.
I dressed her in this cute, fuzzy, mint green outfit and bow to match me when we went home!
The nurse wheeled me out to the car where Regan was waiting, we put her in her carseat and headed home for our next adventure...5 kids!!!!!
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