Sophia Kay

As I wrote the last two entries, I realized that this may turn into a more then once a week blog. That's alright, isn't it? Good...because i'm not really interested in changing my mind right now.

I also realized that I never properly introduced the star of this blog, that would be my daughter.

So here's her story:
Before finding out that I was pregnant, I was one of those girls who longed to tell her husband in a cute way. You know the type, buying a cute newborn onsie or cooking baby veggies or buying blocks spelling it out. This changed as soon as I peed on that little white stick and sat in the bathroom for 2 minutes waiting for it to show me yes or no. Here's the kicker. I was on birth control...and I never missed a day. I had somehow managed to match cycles with a coworker and I frantically texted her one night to ask her what day of the week we usually started on. She replied with 'Tuesday'. I tested on a Monday, the day before my expected period. I felt off somehow, like something was wrong but not really wrong per se. Luis thought I was crazy, told me i'd tested before and that nothing was different this time around. I left him to watch his tv show and when I got out of the bathroom some time later I think I might have been in pure shock. I handed him the pregnancy test and he stared at it and then at me before asking what a pink plus sign meant.

That began the most harrowing journey for us. I had just had my second surgery and we had literally JUST been cleared to have children. This was both a blessing and a surprise for us, because truthfully we weren't trying and we weren't financially ready to have children. We were moving in a few short months, and we were heading to my in-law's house until we got his transfer orders. I spent the first 3 months in agony. I was sick 24 hours a day and pretty much everything made me hurl day and night. I lived off of popsicles and tomato sandwiches. The one thing i'm most proud of is that I never missed a day of work due to morning sickness. Sure, I ran to the bathroom a lot those first few months, but I never called in because of it.
I had my share of issues but mostly it was an easy pregnancy. I had heartburn every night, woke up 5-8 times a night to pee, or to switch sides because I developed severe sciatica pain. I agonized over every little thing, was she moving enough..was she still ok? My heart started skipping beats about halfway through, but my cardiologist gave the all-clear and said it was normal. Disconcerting? Yes, but normal. When I hit about 38 weeks I was done. I worked all the way up to 38 and a half weeks pregnant and was on my feet all day up until my last day. At that point, I went back home to where I would be having Sophie and stayed with my parents since they would be helping out after the birth. My mom worked me to the bone, she had me out walking every single day. My doctor would not induce me before 40 weeks, but he wouldn't let me go past 40 weeks either, so when they checked me 2 days before I was a full 40 weeks...they scheduled my induction for the following Tuesday. Sophie proved them all wrong and at about 5AM on January 2nd (her due date) I went into natural labor all by myself. It was excrutiating..and I spent the car ride screaming in agony all the way to the hospital which was 40 minutes away. My poor husband didn't have a clue as to what to do except let me squeeze his hand. When they got me into a room, they started the epidural, but I went to almost 6 cm without it...and was having contractions all the way through the epidural procedure. Because of my heart, they didn't want me pushing constantly and so the entire labor process lasted a whopping 17 hours. There was miscommunication among all the medical professionals involved and finally when they let me help push, it lasted all of 10 minutes - maybe less. They had to bring her out with a vacuum assist and so I had some massive tearing and cutting going on that didn't make itself known until way later. The moment that they laid her on my chest erased all thoughts in my mind except how beautiful she was. I had spent 9 months with her kicking me from the inside and finally I could see my baby in the flesh and understand just what I had created. Daddy came over to cut the cord and then they took her...he got to officially hold her first, I was shaking too badly from the medications. I managed to be able to hold her for a couple of minutes before they whisked her away to the nursery.

We went home a day or so later...it seems like a huge blur to me now. She had fluid under her skin on her head from the vacuum, and I remember feeling so guilty that I had done that to her. We met with her pediatrician when she was only 2 days old and she assured me that it was normal and would go away within a couple weeks. We are so incredibly lucky to have our pediatrician. She cares for Sophie and we are blessed to have a network of doctors available for all the specialists that we've needed to see for her several skin conditions.

Sophia Kay was born on January 2 at 10:27pm, weighing 8 lbs exactly (3 lbs over the estimate they gave me a couple hours before birth) and 20.5 inches long.