Due Date June 2nd

My final pregnancy picture at 40 weeks on the nose. I just didn't 'feel' like it was going to happen that day, so I went about our day as normal. Sydney and I ran a couple errands, took her to the park and the pool, made some lunch and finished hanging pictures around the house. Around 2pm I began feeling crappy, so Mom picked Sydney up and took her to her house and I took a nap. Normally, naps = me laying in bed watching tv and closing my eyes once in a while. This time I actually thought to myself "ugh... I have a chance to nap... but I'm NEVER going to fall asleep..." and next thing I know I am waking up and its 4:45pm! I dont even remember getting foggy; the lights just went out and I got 2 hours of sleep! So I get up and at 5:30pm we meet my parents and Sydney @ Garcia's for my Dad's birthday dinner. All was going well (except for Sydney getting ants in her pants) until mid-way through my meal, I got sick. Right after that, my back began throbbing. To the point of tears. I went outside as to not ruin my Dad's bday dinner and I wanted everyone to finish their meal and not fuss over me. But I finally couldn't take it. I barely made it to the car. I was in tears. Got home and laid down and Sydney spent the night with MeMaw and PawPaw. I was able to fall asleep around 10pm but woke up at 2am with painful contractions. I could not fall back asleep. I still felt this is another stupid false alarm and didnt really time them consistently. Somewhere around the time that infomercial about colon cleanses came on, I felt the contractions change gears. I got up and walked around, got water, drank two glasses and laid back down. By 8am I knew I had to call my doctor. I didn't want to go to L&D over a false alarm, but thought I should tell my doctor what's going on. They asked me to come in for labor check. So Andy and I were there by 9:30am. I was contracting pretty good 4 minutes apart, and barely able to walk. However... the bad news began to sink in after Dr. Hart checked me.
Apparently I *was* in hard labor, but Kelli had not dropped. In fact she was still pretty high up and I was only dilated to 1cm. Dr. Hart was then the 2nd doctor to tell me that my pelvis was very "flat", which is preventing her from dropping. (very similar to what happened with Sydney). I began crying. She sent us to the hospital to be monitored and to stop the contractions. She did not want to continue putting the baby in stressful contractions/labor if nothing was happening. I agreed to ride it out another 4 days (which would put me 5 days past due). She then told me we'd have to schedule a c-section at that point because inducing with pitocin greatly increases my chances for uteran rupture.
So we went to the hospital and got monitored at L&D. Kelli was fine and I was contracting harder and closer together. Looked like this really was labor. However, and sadly, I wasn't going to be able to follow through with it. Andy and I discussed our options and agreed that stopping labor, then waiting again to go into labor, and possibly having to do a c-section anyway, would be much harder on me emotionally and physically, then if we just scheduled the c-section and knew what and when. We called my doctor and I couldn't talk because I was so upset. So Andy talked to Dr. Hart and she said "well... what about today? I can be there in an hour". Andy and I said "yes". Then all of a sudden we really were having a baby! I was so at peace with this decision since I wouldnt have to stall my labor, then go home and feel defeated only to have to end up with a c-section 4 days later anyway. But suddenly it was happening so fast. My parents couldnt even get to the hospital in time and I didnt get to see Sydney before I was taken into the operation room. They prepped me and Andy came in, and next thing I know Kelli was born while a Kenny Chesney song was playing on the radio in the surgery room. They had to take her away to be on oxegyn, so I only got to see her for a few seconds and give her a kiss.
Skip forward through all the bad stuff... I FINALLY saw and held my daughter 3 hours later. As each hour passed without seeing her, I was so frieghtened she wouldn't be able to nurse, or that my shot nerves and anxiety would send me into post partum depression. So I called my friend Jeannine and dont truly recall the conversation, but I knew I had to talk to someone who wouldn't upset me more. Jeannine is always that candidate. I think I had to throw up 1/2-way through that conversation and may have hung up on her (sorry J9).
Andy was staying with Kelli this whole time to give her that human, skin to skin, interraction and that made me feel better.
He brought her in at 3:30 and low and behold, she latched on and nursed PERFECTLY!! She was just perfect.
I dont know how to end that story any other way.
born June 3rd @ 12:30pm, 6lbs 13oz and 18-3/4 inches.
Kelli Harper became a cherished member of the Eye family! We absolutely adore her and she is so adorable. No problems, no jaundice, nothing. Just beautiful and perfect. She even slept through the night last night with one hour interruption!!!