Thursday, August 18, 2016

Amelia Hope

Amelia Hope Baxter
Before our sweet number three was even a blip on an ultrasound I had a feeling, this feeling that the next baby was going to take me deeper, require more faith and leave me closer to God than ever.  Two months in to having an outside baby this couldn't be more true.  While the story isn't probably so much of a struggle to outsiders, no serious diagnosis or life threatening events were ever faced, the struggle for me personally is very real and deep.  I remember taking the pregnancy test that morning and just that feeling of disbelief that God would bless us with another baby.  I showed Bryan as soon as he got home from the gym a little later.  The weeks that followed were filled with the usual, for me, nausea.  I also started having so anxiety, nothing alarming or life changing but just some little signs.  Everything continued to go well as the months progressed, we found out it was girl #3 and started to really get excited as we prepared for her arrival.
Labor and Birth
It all started on April 10th after church.  I suddenly started just not feeling right, seeing flashes in my vision and needing to sit and calm my mounting anxiety.  After a few minutes of working through it all I started feeling better, went home and took a nap and felt better.  I called the on call doctor and he thought it was probably just anxiety and not to worry but call if it happened again.  The new day, Monday it happened again only this time Bryan was at work and j have run to get my fingerprints taken for background checks to work at Lolas school.  I got in the car to leave and started to not feel right again, so I went straight to Bryan's work, called the midwife and we went in to get checked out. They wanted to monitor me for a while.  In the end my blood pressure was all over the place and we decided that my body was done being pregnant and induction was the best idea.
The outpacing started about 7 pm and gradually in creased throughout the night and I to the following day.  Not much by way of contractions, they were coming but slowly, little progress dilating or effacing.  The nurses kept saying, once I hit 4cm it would go fast.  Both midwives were scheduled to be off the following day so they really wanted me to have this baby that night.  I tried a few new positions and all of a sudden around 5:30pm my water broke.  The next hour was probably the toughest of my life.  Because of the pitocin and the anxiety I was prepared to need an epidural, they had me all ready to call the anastesiologist  but in a matter of about 20 min I went from 4 cm to 9 1/2 and just like that it was too late.  Mentally I was just worn out and was begging for some relief I started pushing at alittle after 6, they gave me a small dose of morphine which did nothing and 5 min later at 6:22 pm  Amelia Hope Baxter was born.  7 lbs 12 oz and 19 1/2 inches long.