Learning when to raise your hand - Kate's Arrival

Okay, I have learned many things over the last 2 weeks, mostly dealing with when to raise your hand and bring attention to yourself. As I wrote in a previous post, I originally told myself no to my water breaking....which I was wrong about. Then on Wednesday night, October 8th, I told myself that I was not having contractions but rather stomach pains. The nurse came into the room several times beginning at about 7:30pm. She put the contraction monitor on my stomach and it didn't show anything. She left and came back later when I requested and gave me some hot packs because I was having some pain in my back. They felt good for a brief second, then the pain was back. After about hour of pain coming and going, I told Don that the nurse had to do something this time. The nurse came in and said before she did something for my stomach pain, she wanted to check my cervix to make sure what I was experiencing wasn't labor pains. She did and then reported that I was 8cm dilated! So I went from nothing to alot in like 1 hours time. I was moaning some during this time but Don kept reading his book thinking I was just crying wolf! So then, like 3 nurses come running in my room. The nurse taking care of me was shouting commands to the others. They were sticking IVs and catheters in. 2 Doctors in my doctors practice were already coming in to do a C-section on another lady, thank goodness. They wheeled me to the Op Room between 9:30 and 9:45 and by 10:22, I became a parent. They quickly showed me little Kate and then Don and a few nurses took off to take Kate to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). She was so tiny and so precious! I started crying as soon as I felt her being pulled out of me and then again when I heard her cry. That little cry was the best feeling in the world! When I got back to my room, my parents were waiting and then it wasn't long before Don's parents showed up. I think the Farmers must have broken record speeds that night to make it from Albertville that quickly. They all were allowed to go see her in the NICU at 11:30pm. I didn't see her until the next day around 5pm. She was a squirmy little thing! Here is my take so far, she looks like Don but maybe acts like me. :) She is the cutest little thing I have ever seen and I can't wait until she gets to come home. They told us between 3 and 5 weeks with a best case of 2 weeks. She is doing really good in there, just sleeping alot and growing. I am SO proud of her! So the next few weeks we will be hanging out in the NICU at St. Vincent's Hospital. I hope to have her home around Halloween. Oh, and the last thing to raise my hand about was an incident that took place the last night of my hospital stay. It was about midnight and I encountered another situation that dealt with lots of pain medications and being on bedrest. I will not go into the details, but have truly learned my lesson of when to raise your hand. I will leave you with some pics of my sweet little Kate...
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