On Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 9:56 AM Katelyn Elizabeth Poe came into the world. Her somewhat unexpected early delivery took most of us by surprise. I say most of us because I had a feeling deep down that she would come early. This whole experience (pregnancy and delivery) was much different from my first experience with Taylor. In some ways this is good and in other ways not so good, but in every way it was special. Katelyn's early arrival may have been a surprise to us, but God was not at all taken by surprise. In fact, He was the One who orchestrated the whole event. He knew from the very beginning this great adventure that He would be taking me on. I say great adventure because it has been an experience like no other. I am so thankful that I have a Heavenly Father who watches out for me and for my family. I don't always understand why things happen the way they do, but I am thankful that God is the One who is in control of all things and not me.
Here is Katelyn's story. The day started out like any other day. Daniel got up and got ready for work as usual. It just so happened that he had a prompting (I believe by the Holy Spirit) to put some items together in his bag to take to the hospital just in case I went into labor. Up until this point Daniel had not packed a bag for himself because he didn't have enough clothes to set aside that far in advance and Katelyn's due date was still 2 weeks away. Just like every morning, Daniel came over to my side of the bed to give me a kiss before he left for work. I told him that I thought I might be having contractions and wanted to get up and use the bathroom before he left. I had been having feelings off and on all night long like I might be having contractions and could go into labor soon, but I wasn't sure if what I was feeling was actual contractions or just really bad gas. I didn't want to have a false alarm and alert everyone just because I had it in my head that she would come early, so I tried not to make a big deal out of it. Besides, my pains had not been consistent up to this point.
Well, around 7:00 this morning I would say is when I officially went into labor. I tried to time my contractions, but I was having a little trouble telling when they began and ended. I just tried to estimate and it seemed like they were somewhere between 5 and 8 minutes apart. I know this sounds like a wide range, but I wasn't using a stopwatch and, like I said, it was hard for me to tell the start and the finish. I decided, however, that these were probably true contractions and not gas pains and that we needed to call the answering service at the doctor's office. I also suspected that my water had broken. It was not as obvious this time like it was with Taylor, so I wasn't absolutely sure. When I called the answering service they paged the midwife on call and in the meantime I jumped in the shower. I probably should have tried to take a quick shower, but I thought that I had plenty of time and wanted to shave since I knew I would not feel like shaving for a couple of days. While I was still in the shower the midwife called back. I had told Daniel what to tell her and she told him that everything I was experiencing were classic signs of labor and that we needed to go straight to Labor and Delivery at the hospital. After I got out of the shower I started rushing around. By this time my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. Daniel had already called Bud (stepdad) and RuthAnn (mom) and they were already at the house to get Taylor when she woke up. While I finished getting ready and got the rest of my stuff together Daniel scrambled around to finish getting Taylor's stuff together to spend the night with them and got the baby's stuff together to go to the hospital. Even though I tried to be more prepared and ready to go this time, I still was not completely ready when the time came. I am so glad that I have a husband who does not panic in situations like this and who thinks of everything - well mostly everything. At least he remembered the most important things. It was about 8:00 by the time we left and by this time my contractions were getting harder and were 4 minutes apart. I think my exact words were, "We need to go NOW." Because we left in such a rush we did forget a few minor things, but we knew that Bud and RuthAnn could go by the house and pick up the things we forgot before they brought Taylor to the hospital to meet her new baby sister.
As we left the house, Daniel said a quick prayer for our traveling safety and we were off in a hurry. We discovered that 100 mph doesn't feel that much different from 75 when you are driving through the country, but 65 mph feels like you are poking after you have been going 90 mph. When we got into the city we ran into more traffic and it felt like we were never going to get there. We finally arrived at the hospital around 8:30 (a trip that should have taken an hour). When we got up to Labor & Delivery I had to register with the receptionist. This was the last thing I wanted to be doing in the middle of having hard contractions. I had already pre-registered, so I don't know why they couldn't have done all of this after they got me in a room. They finally let us back to the nurse's station but wouldn't put me into a room and ended up sending me to Early Labor. Come to find out, they must have thought that I was not in labor because I was so calm. My advice to anyone who comes into the hospital in active labor would be to let it be known vocally so there is no doubt that you are ready to deliver.
I had never experienced early labor before, so I thought that I would have hours of contractions before I would be dilated enough to give birth. When I went into labor with Taylor my water broke first and they had to induce labor. If I remember correctly, I was in labor for 9 hours before Taylor was born. Well, Katelyn was not waiting 9 hours. Evidently my contractions were much more effective this time because once they got me in a bed and examined me I had dilated 7 cm. I was a little bit surprised, but I was also in a lot of pain. I was already feeling the urge to push. The nurse realized that I was ready and sent me on to a delivery room. Sharon, the midwife was waiting on me.
Now, I had planned to get an epidural and there was nothing that was going to keep me from getting it, but Katelyn had other plans - and evidently God did too. It was going to take 15 minutes to get my blood work back so they could even get the epidural and then we would have to wait for it to get put in and take effect. They had trouble getting my epidural in with my last pregnancy, so I knew that this could be a problem again since I have slight scoliosis. Sharon left the decision up to me if I wanted to go ahead and push through the pain or to wait on the epidural, but she strongly encouraged me to go ahead and push her on out. I was so scared. Sharon made a statement that made me feel a little better about going natural. She said that I would be out of pain faster if I went ahead and pushed and that she was ready to come. I decided that faster was better. She failed to mention that the pain would be worse. I just remember silently crying out to God to get me through it. I was shaking so violently from all of the pain. I pushed so hard that I busted some blood vessels in my face. Daniel said that I turned the deepest shade of red he had ever seen on a human. Everyone was so wonderful and encouraging. They really coached me through it well. I pushed through a total of 2 contractions and Katelyn was out. It seemed like forever, but they said it was just a couple of minutes. Well, if that is true, it was the longest 2 minutes I have ever experienced.
Once Katelyn was in my arms it was the most wonderful blessing. Sharon held up the umbillical cord and showed me that it was in a true knot. I wasn't sure what she meant by this at first, but Katelyn had been so active in the womb that she had managed to tie a knot in the umbillical cord. Only 1 out of every 200-300 babies have this. It had not caused any problems, but if I had waited on the epidural it could have slowed down the birth process and tightened the knot in turn causing Katelyn's blood pressure to drop and forcing them to do a C-Section. I was very grateful that God had given me the courage to go forward without an epidural. He truly was in control of everything and showed Himself faithful in the midst of my circumstances. I am proud of my beautiful baby girl and am so grateful that she arrived safely and healthy.
Here are some pictures that we'd like to share with you:
Katelyn Elizabeth Poe
Taylor loves holding her new baby sister.
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