More Than Conquerors - Part 5
About two months before Kacie’s baby was due she caught
the flu. She got pretty sick
and began to vomit. The vomiting caused her to begin having contractions. They started
coming regularly so Jack and I decided to take her to the hospital. The nurses hooked her
up to the fetal monitor and sure enough she was having real contractions. They knew
they
had to stop the contractions because the baby was still so small. So they put her on
Terbutaline to stop them. The medicine did stop the contractions but it had some side
effects. One was that it made her nervous and the other was that it made her blood
pressure go up. So she stopped taking the medicine. Well that caused her to again start
having contractions. The doctor said it was more risky to have the baby right now than it
was for her to be nervous. And he would monitor her blood pressure closely.
About three and one half weeks before Kacie was due, she called me at work. She was
concerned because her one leg was really swollen. I called the doctor and was told to
bring
her right in. So my husband drove her to my work to pick me up and we headed to the
doctor’s office.
They took her into a room and checked her blood pressure while she was sitting up.
Then
they had her lay down and they checked it. Then they had her stand up and they checked
it again. Then they had her lay on her left side for a while and they left the room. The
nurse came back in a while later and redid the whole thing. She left again but came back
shortly with the doctor. He informed us that he was sending her across the street to the
hospital to see if they could bring her blood pressure back down. He didn’t seem to
alarmed so we weren’t worried.
When we got to the hospital they took her to a room and hooked her up to a blood
pressure machine that took her blood pressure about every 15 minutes. I don’t remember
how long we were in there but all of a sudden the doctor comes in and says “Kacie, were
going to have a baby today!” I looked at him in complete shock. He then explained that
her blood pressure was too high and he was afraid of pre-aclampsia. So they took her to
the labor and delivery room and induced her. She had to labor in a dark room and we
weren’t allowed to talk or make any noises. We also couldn’t take any pictures. I
remember that night even now like it was yesterday.
As her contractions got stronger her blood pressure got higher. The doctor wanted her to remain as calm as possible and the contractions were causing her to scream and stress out. I remember wanting to run from the room at first. I swear I felt every pain she felt as if it were my own. I wanted to take them away from her and carry it all myself. Finally the doctor told us he had to give her a shot to take the edge off the pain. Boy did it do that! And more! It knocked her out cold. She slept through each contraction. She’d moan a little but from that point on she was better. The alarm on the blood pressure monitor kept going off every few minutes though. It was so high at one point it was something over 200. (I can’t remember but I’m guessing it was like 180/220.) Anyway, at that point it was time for the baby to be born. Kacie was told to start pushing. It was the most exciting time of our lives. This was not the first time I had been a labor coach. I have done it many times over the years with friends. In fact I have been involved in deliveries approximately 12 times. But this was the first time it was my daughter. Jack and I just kept telling her to push, push, push!
All of a sudden the most beautiful little (literally little) bundle came out. She was so tiny and precious. The doctor cleaned her up and handed her to me. I will never forget the way it felt to hold my grandchild in my arms. I can’t even find words for it now. Kacie was still out of it due to the medicine. But when I put her baby in her arms she just couldn’t believe it was hers. She looked at her baby and said “I’m a mother!” It was great. We had a great time of bonding together. Just the four of us, Mommy, Grandma, Papa and Becca Rebecca. Then we took her and got her weighed. She was only 5 pounds, 1 ounce! So tiny. But praise be to God, she was healthy!
The next afternoon we got to take them home. And now it was time to adjust to a new born living in the house. Who could imagine that something so tiny would turn our lives so topsy-turvy!
Becca had some problems with jaundice right after she was born. Her pediatrician told Kacie it was caused by her breast milk and that she needed to quit nursing. (We found out later that the best thing we could have done for the baby was to nurse her more. The type of jaundice she had was normal for breast fed babies and would go away on its own.) But at the time we didn’t know better, so we started her on formula. Becca was a very fussy baby. And for some reason she was fussiest from around 5 PM until after midnight. Poor Kacie was getting no sleep at all. When the baby was just a few weeks old Kacie came to me crying because she was getting no sleep at all. So her dad and I did what we could to help her. Jack would play his guitar and I would hold Becca in my arms and sing along. I would gently rock her. It seemed to help a lot. In fact, the guitar turned out to be the one thing that could really calm her when she was upset. (Jack is playing guitar as I am writing this right now. It really helps me too.)
Well, this nightly guitar playing, singing and rocking went on for over five months. Finally after trial and error, we discovered Becca was allergic to the soy formula. When they put her on regular formula she did fine. She went from being a fussy baby to being a very happy personable baby. But I am getting ahead of my self by a few months.
Christmas came and went and 1992 arrived. CJ was getting
big and she was tired of
being pregnant. She was due the first week of March. She and the baby’s father, Ryan
had broken up. A young man named Jack seemed to like her a lot. He would come over
every day and spend time with her. He was a nice young man but I never felt anything
about him one way or another.
As CJ’s due date came she began getting restless. She had hoped her baby would
come early just like Kacie’s did. But that was not to be. In fact her due date came and
her
due date went. (CJ is not the most patient person by the way!) Finally the doctor said
he would induce. I wanted her to have the baby on March 14 since that is my birthday,
but the doctor picked March 11 instead. So early in the morning on March 11 we called
to
see if the hospital was ready for her. They weren’t yet and we were told to call back later
that morning. We did, and they still weren’t ready. CJ was really getting depressed.
But the next time I called back they told us to come in.
When we got there the doctor began to induce her by using the gel. They put her on the
monitor first then they had us walk around for an hour. She didn’t feel anything. When
we got back he came in and did the same thing again. She hadn’t started dilating and the
doc said if she didn’t take by the third time she’d have to go home and they would try
again another day. She didn’t like hearing that. They put her on the monitor again for a
while, then we walked again. She was having some contractions. She thought they were
pretty strong, but I wasn’t to sure. She could still laugh, talk and walk with each one so I
figured she had a ways to go yet. My memory gets a little foggy here, and unfortunately
Jack wasn’t with us yet to help me out. But I think they jelled her a third time. We went
walking but suddenly she had to stop with each contraction. We were making our first
lap
around the area when suddenly she stopped and grabbed on to me for support. I knew
then, she was in real labor! So we went back to her room and the nurse came in. The
doctor came in too and checked her. She was definitely dilating and he decided to break
her water bag. But before he even got a chance to do it, the bag broke on its own. Now,
there was no turning back!
Well, her labor was progressing rather steadily now. I think
CJ was shocked about
how much pain she was in though. At one point she grabbed my shirt and pulled my face
up to her face. With a look of pain on her face she cried, “Why didn’t you tell me it
would
hurt like this?” I just smiled and said, “If I did, would you have listened to me?” She
knew
I was right. Soon it was time for her to go into the delivery room. By this point her dad
was with us. We had a pretty good time in there. (OK, maybe CJ didn’t really have
such a good time, but it was pretty neat.) We had Christian music playing on a tape
recorder and Jack rubbed her back as I coached her. When the contractions got too hard
and she couldn’t talk any more she would snap her fingers at her dad and he would know
to rub her back. Soon she said she had to push. So I ran out and got the doctor.
Well no one could believe how fast she had dilated. She went from 7 to 10 in about
10 minutes. They didn’t even have anything set up yet. But the doctor dressed into his
greens as she began pushing. I guess she got too excited and began pushing too hard
cause
all of a sudden she had blood squirt out all over the doctor, the nurses, her dad, the wall,
door and floor. She had a hematoma that ruptured. Suddenly everything began moving
fast. The doctor called for the vacuum and all these nurses came rushing in. They had to
get that baby out of there before CJ lost too much blood. Well, it scared the day lights
out of her and I guess it must have been painful too cause she began screaming to the top
of her lungs. All of a sudden this one nurse came out of nowhere and put her arms
around
CJ and started talking in her ear. I don’t know what she said but it calmed her down.
And suddenly the baby’s head was born. The nurse told CJ to look so she did. She
looked at the head between her legs and said “Hi Christy Marie. Mommy loves you.
Hurry up and come out.” Well you would have to know our CJ to understand how
perfectly natural that was for her. And so Christy was born and granddaughter number
two had arrived.
CJ was a good little mother. Christy loved nursing and did it well. In fact, we
used to tease CJ that the baby was supposed to nurse for 10 minutes and then take a
two hour break . . . not nurse for two hours and then take a 10 minute break!
When Christy was six weeks old, CJ and Ryan decided to try and work things out.
Soon they were dating again and together all the time. It wasn’t long before I knew they
were in love again.
Meanwhile Kacie was dating a really nice guy also. He really loved the Lord and seemed
to be going in the right direction. We thought he would become our future son-in-law.
Ryan decided to go into the Air force so he could support is new family. Only there was
a
slight hitch. It seems a single man with a dependent could not enlist in the military. But
he
could if he was married. So, we decided to allow them to get married even though CJ
was only 16 years old. (She was 3 months shy of 17.) We knew it would be the only way
for Ryan to do something with his life. I have to say that his father and mother were
against this from the start. They tried to warn me that we were making the biggest
mistake
of our lives. But since Ryan was now 18 they really couldn’t do anything about it. So on
November 14, which was also Becca’s first birthday, CJ and Ryan became man and
wife.
So CJ was married and Kacie was virtually engaged. Her boyfriend had pretty much
made it clear that he intended to marry her and so we thought life was good.
Isn’t it funny how every time I thought that things were going in the right direction, disaster was always just around the corner!
To find out what happened next, please read part 6 of my story.
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