Carmen Elizabeth Turnidge

I had been worrying for awhile that I wouldn't recognize the contractions when they came, just because all I had experienced before was braxton hicks directly to full on pitocin induced. Thursday and Friday I had contractions all day, but they seemed really mild so I figured it was more false labor.
Friday afternoon we took a long walk to 7-11 for a slurpee, the contractions started coming and actually started getting stronger so I figured this had to be the real thing. They were about 5-7 minutes apart. I started cleaning the kitchen, but around 8:30 they suddenly just stopped. Oh well, I thought, so I started making a cake! I had all this energy and couldn't even think of going to bed. Around 10:30 they came back, so strong I could hardly stand up. But they still weren't even close to what I consider pain, just very uncomfortable. We decided if they were still coming at 12 we would go. Pulled the cake out of the oven and put the frosting in the fridge. Dropped Lilli off and headed over to Abington. We got there around 12:30, but had a hard time finding the right parking garage, they have tons of them. We ended up parking a little far away, but walking never hurt right?!
We got to Labor and Delivery around 1, and sure enough, they were real contractions. I was relieved, it would have been a little embarrassing to be just having false labor.
Right away they noticed that she had an arrhythmia and were having a hard time following her heartbeat, and since the contractions were coming well on there own they said we would just go with that. No complaints from me, so far this was not bad at all! Unfortunately around 5 AM the contractions slowed down drastically and I only had two in an hour. I was so disappointed I really didn't know how to react. But they said "we'll, you're here, lets have this baby." They started the pitocin around 5 (by now I had dilated to a 6). At this point I had been thinking I would be able to go completely natural, but with this new change of events and my past experience (pitocin=pain) I decided to go for the epidural. I got that around 8 AM, unfortunately it only worked on one side and I just felt icky..I have to admit I regretted getting it. The nurse was totally awesome and got the guy back after she realized it hadn't worked, they gave me a bolus for the side that it didn't work on. So it felt like it had worked after that, which was a relief. My doctor arrived around 7 and said he was surprised I was still there, he thought for sure she would have been born by then. Then the shocker..at 7, 8, and again at 10 I had stopped dilating. They upped the pitocin so I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes but it didn't seem to be working, even after breaking my water. I was so scared that I would end up having a c-section. The big surprise was when I went from a 6 to a 10 in less then an hour!
At this point they were still hearing the irregular heartbeat, and had called NICU to be there when she was born, just in case. They did reassure me that this happened all the time, and usually in 9 out of 10 babies it disappeared after they were born. But I still worried. I was thinking that I might have to repeat my experience with Lilli (having her whisked off to the NICU minutes after she was born and only holding her for two or three minutes). I was pretty emotional about it.
At 11 I started pushing and ten minutes later she was born. 9 lbs 2.5 oz. 22 inches long. Several minutes later the neonatologist came and told me there was no sign of the irregular heartbeat, I can't put into words how I felt after that.

Have you ever noticed that when everything seems to be going perfect a curveball is always thrown your way?
As Carmen and I were preparing to be discharged the pediatrician heard the irregular heartbeat again. The next thing I knew they were taking her down to the NICU to monitor her heartbeat, and I was left alone with buckets of tears of course. This was around 9AM; at 10 Eric and Lilli arrived, we sat around for awhile and they came and told us a cardiologist was going to be coming and doing an echocardiogram and it was possible that she might want to do a 24 hour test, which would mean going home without our little girl. About 10,000 buckets of tears later (and several prayers) we went down to the NICU, Eric stayed in the waiting room with Lilli and I went in and waited for the cardiologist. They thought she would be there later in the afternoon, but around 12:30 they came and told me that she had arrived. At about 1:30 she did the echocardiogram, and my prayers were answered. She found a small hole causing a heart murmur, but wasn't big enough to ever cause problems and chances are it would heal itself anyway. She said, make an appointment for 6 months with me to have another one to make sure everything is alright, otherwise go home!
Unfortunately, being discharged from the NICU is a little challenging, so after a really awful car seat video I had to watch, calls to our pediatrician, and orders to have another bilirubin test (she was at 11, and should be 0), and mountains of signatures we were on our way...at about 5:30 pm. We were all so happy to be home!

I am so excited to have this darling little girl home with us and am excited to start this next phase of life..as a mother of 2!



Looks like fun...


A whole lb less then Lilli!


Just a little emotional, I was so happy to just hold her.


Our darling little one.

Lilli loves her new sister!

Dad and Carmen


Me and my girls.

Look at that happiness!