Living With A Bunch of K's: April 25th: A Day to Remember

Any of you who remember my pregnancy know that I could hardly stand it. Keri quickly became referred to as "Monster." I knew right off the bat I was pregnant because it hit me like a deadly disease. First the cramping that initially made me want to seek medical attention because I had never had a cramp like that in my life before. Next the 17 weeks of vomiting at any point in the day on any given hour (far from "morning" sickness). Oh and let's not forget the constant nausea, heartburn, stretchmarks, swollen ankles the size of my calves, 52 lb weight gain, constant urinating, unable to sleep, aching ribs, and cravings. It was a long and slow process and I loved to complain about it. I'm definitely not one of those women who misses that belly and enjoyed pregnancy. I am the far opposite.
My 37 week appointment rolled around and I went in for my check up, the usual stuff, but this time when I stepped on the scale nurse was a bit concerned. "Wow! You gained 6 lbs in 5 days," she said. Geeh, thanks lady way to put it so gently. Between that, my urine sample, and ankles not far from the size of my knees the doctors decided I needed to hang out a bit longer that day. After a million questions they discovered I had about 5 symptoms of pre-eclampsia. For those of you unfamiliar with this, pre-eclampsia is right before eclampsia, which is where you begin to have seizures. A bit problematic, but a 24 hour urine sample would either confirm or deny the diagnosis. They sent me home with a labeled jug and told me when I wake up the next morning to collect my urine every time I go to the bathroom for the next 24 hours. I was well aware of how often I was going, I practically lived in the bathroom, but you really realize it when you have to collect it. Not only did you have to collect it, but it had to stay cold. Yep, in our refrigerator... exactly what everyone wants in their fridge! By 4 am the next morning I had filled that sucker to brim. There wasn't room for a drop! Go figure 6:00 am rolls around and I need to go again. Well the jug is full so that means I'm done, right? Wrong! At 9:00 am I go back to the doctor's office to drop of the urine container and they inform me that the nurse was supposed to give me a second container in case that happened. They sent me back home to start over. What a pain!! 48 hours of collecting my urine?!?!?! And guess how it went that time around? Yep, I only need one container...go figure! After doing it correct and collecting it for a full 24 hours I dropped it off to the lab at the hospital, went and picked up Kris from work, and then went to church. It was April 24, 2011, Easter Sunday. I get back to the truck and see my phone has missed calls and a voice mail. It's my ob-gyn who very calmly says the results are back and to call are as soon as I can. It's 12:30 pm that afternoon when I call her back and she tells me I'm pouring too much protein in my urine...AKA you have pre-eclampsia. Then she fills me in that this means they need to get the baby out pretty soon and I am going to have to be induced. I'm startled but okay I get it. Then she asks, "So what time can you get here tonight?" That's when I hit panic mode. TONIGHT??!?!?! I was not ready I was supposed to have at least another 2 weeks, more if she was late. She told me to go get a good dinner because the hospital food was less then great and to arrive at L&D at 7:00 pm that night. I remember getting off the phone, sitting in the truck bawling and shaking trying to get a hold of my mother. I was not ready for this at all and decided right then that my mom needs to be here or I'll lose it. I calmed down after getting a hold of my sister Kelli and her talking me through it, then went home to fill Kris in. We decided to have one last meal out before Keri's arrival so we went to Red Lobster. My good friend Jessica was hosting Easter dinner so we headed over there but couldn't stay long. We got to the hospital and they had me change and got my IV started, then about an hour later the Doctor comes in to talk and let's me no I'm not dilated and 0% effaced...LOVELY! Then she explains to me about a little procedure where they insert a catheter through your closed cervix and blow it up like a balloon and overnight it will fall out and it will get you to 4 cm. I won't go into detail, but I'm sure you can imagine....It was without a doubt the most painful thing I've ever experienced and made getting up to go the bathroom in the middle of the night almost impossible. I felt my first contractions at 9:00 pm that night. The next morning the nurses came in to find that the catheter had not fallen out by itself like it was supposed to. Doctor says I'm the first in the 20 years she's been doing it (what are the odds!). So she has to remove it and then tells me I'm only 3 cm dilated. (lame! It was supposed to be 4) They had me get up and take a shower and then at 8:00 a.m. they started the pitocin and broke my water. Boy was that an experience...I had to dropped 5 lbs of weight as soon as she did that. It was like I peed myself, but it never stopped. I was bored just tolerating contractions then suddenly at 10:30 a.m. I pushed away my phone and computer and couldn't concentrate on anything. Things suddenly became EXTREMELY uncomfortable by 2:00 p.m. I was hurting so bad and had only dilated a centimeter so I took a nubain shot in my arm. It wore off within an hour and at 4 o'clock I took another one in the other arm. That one never worked. My contractions were coming every 45 seconds and doubling up. They inserted a catheter (the second one so far) to pump saline back into me since I had lost too much fluid from breaking my water. It's all pretty fuzzy now. I remember I was trying to stand and attempted to walk but I couldn't even hold myself up I was so exhausted. I don't even remember the conversations I had with Kris or my mom that day. I remember asking several times when it was going to be over. HA! They came in to check me and I was only dilated to a 5 and about to lose my mind I was in so much pain and wanted to push already. I was threatened with a c-section because my contractions were still doubling up and I could not sit still enough to let my body relax and finish dilating. I had no desire to do that so I took the epidural around 7:30 p.m. and had my 3rd catheter put in. As soon as it kicked I felt like dead weight and passed out for the next two hours. The doctor came back and I was finally dilated to a 9, but Keri's heart rate was dropping. I was completely clueless about why they had me rolling around from my left to right sides and oxygen masking me. Then at 9:44 p.m. it was time to push! Definitely the easiest part of the whole day! After 20 minutes and a few pushes Keri Evan Pfeiffer came into the world at 10:04 p.m. on April 25th, 2011. She was 7 lbs 3 ounces and 19 inches long with the cord around neck. Her daddy quickly snatched her after that and was instantly wrapped. She is DEFINITELY the greatest thing that has ever happened to us. We are so thankful for her!