Catherine Elizabeth - 03.20.2011

Well, better late than never (in posting this), but Catherine was born at 6:35 am on Sunday, March 20, 2011.

It was a BIG surprise to say the least!  I had a feeling that she would come early, but I never thought it would be 4 weeks early.

I had been feeling really tired all day on Friday and Saturday.  The leg swelling had gotten worse and I was just feeling overall icky.  So, I went to bed early on Saturday night, hoping to get a good night of sleep.

Much to my surprise (and shock and terror), I felt a brief, sharp pain in my lower abdomen followed by a small rush of fluid.  It was 3:00 am and I had been sound asleep. 

I literally leaped out of the bed and ran to the bathroom.  As I was leaping out of bed, understandably startled, all I could say was "Oh!  Oh! OH NO!"  And then I tried to speak intelligently and tell Trey that I was pretty sure that my water broke.

I was not doing a good job communicating because I recall Trey telling me that I would need to get my thoughts together before I attempted to call the Emergency After Hours number.  So, I tried to gather my thoughts and then I called.  And she told us to head to the hospital to get checked out.

And then the contractions began.  Every five minutes all the way on the 40 minute drive to the hospital.  I looked over at Trey and said, "Yeah, I don't think they are going to send us back home."  I was right!

We arrived at Labor and Delivery just before 4:00 am and I got checked in and got in a room.  The nurse came in and got us all hooked up and confirmed that my water broke.  At this point I started to shake all over.  I was nervous and starting to panic a little bit because I was only 36 weeks along and I was scared for what that meant for Catherine to be 4 weeks early.

It all happened so fast that I really didn't have time to sit and dwell on it.  She was coming and we had some phone calls to make.  I called my parents (and woke them up) and they assured me that they would be there as soon as they could that morning.  Then I called Robin because they were the closest to Little Rock and I was hoping they might make it in time to wait with Lauren.  But everything was  happening so fast. 

Sometime around 5:00 am the nurse told me that the doctor on-call would be performing my c-section sometime that morning, so I thought maybe we had time.  That was a terrible assumption on my part, or a miscommunication on the nurse's part, but she came back later and said that the surgery would happen in the next hour.  PANIC MODE.

We had to come to the realization that Trey would not be able to be in the operating room with me because we had no one to stay with Lauren.  There just wasn't enough time to get anyone there.  I was disappointed and scared, but there was nothing that could be done about it.  it all happened so quickly.  Time to be a big girl and have this baby girl.

The shaking was the only part that was really irritating.  The epidural was no big deal, painless and began working immediately.  So grateful for that.

The c-section went very well and the doctor, although not my own, was very nice and careful.  He did, however, accidentally nick Catherine's forehead as he cut her out of me.  He said my uterine wall/lining was extremely thin and Catherine was facing up instead of down.  But thankfully it was a superficial cut and is gone now.  I don't even think it bled at all.

She came out crying and hollering.  And then I started crying because I knew she would be okay.  They lifted her up so I could see her and I couldn't believe how little she was.  She scored a 9 at one minute and another 9 at five minutes on the Apgar test.  She's tiny, but scrappy!  She was 2 lbs lighter than Lauren was when she was born.  And at least about 3 inches shorter.

She weighed 5 lbs. 12 oz and was 17 3/4 inches long.  Tiny, but healthy!  She looks a LOT like Lauren when she was born.  Catherine has the same dark hair that sticks straight up.  It's so fuzzy and cute.  Makes me wonder if Catherine will have curly hair like Lauren.  I think Lauren had a little bit rounder face, but I think Catherine's will round out as she puts on more weight.  They have the same eyes, nose and chin. 

We have beautiful girls, what can I say?  I'm a proud Mama.

We are doing pretty good.  Just adjusting to having two little girls in the house.  Lauren has been so great with her baby sister.  She wants to help all the time and I think it's very sweet.  She does ask a TON of questions, but she's 3 1/2 and there are lots of things to learn!