Nothing but the Truth, part 1 Katrena...

In May of 2000 I found out I was pregnant, young and excited we shouted this news to the world. I had not a care in the world, I was young (22), healthy, but obese. I weighed 210 lbs at the time I found out I was pregnant and at delivery I weighed about 240 lbs. My pregnancy was super easy other than morning sickness, which I had everyday up until the day I delivered. My only craving was Burger King Whoppers with cheese. I was happy, excited and totally thrilled to be having a baby and even more excited when I found out it was going to be a girl.

My pregnancy was pretty uneventful up until the end, when I was 8 months and at the point of my pregnancy where you are to be examined weekl,y my Doctor had a heart attack. We lived in Cedar City and there were only 2 OB's and a NP in the town. When my Doctor was out I was seen weekly by his nurse, but never examined. Two days past my due date I had an appointment, upon arrival I found out my Doctor was still out, that he was only doing deliveries at this point. I told the nurse that I was concerned because I had been leaking a green fluid and that my husband would be going out of town the next week and was there any way that I could possible be induced. She contacted the Doctor and he said that would be fine I was to come in Sunday night. In the meantime they were to run a non stress test on the baby to make sure she was okay. The NST was started, but my baby did not respond, they sent me out for some breakfast and juice and when I returned still no response, they even tried a more extreme NST where they put this thing up to your belly that is like a blow horn. With the blow horn she only responded once out of the three times it was tried. At this time they sent me over to labor and delivery where another NST was done, still no response. My Doctor happened to be at the hospital to release a patient so he came in and spoke with me, he said to meet him back in his office (which was connected to the hospital).

As I returned to my Doctors office, he did a quick exam and said that I was not dialated. He then did an ultrasound and said that this baby had to be delivered that day. I was taken back over to labor and delivery and induced. I again was young, and had no idea what was going on. I still did not sense the urgency of the matter, and was only beginning to put together that the 15 times a day she was moving was not enough. My parents were called and told to start heading down from Salt Lake. After about 6 hours of hard contractions, and continous d-celling of our sweet baby, I was still not dialated, nor had she dropped. At this time my doctor broke my water, and then there was complete chaos. My doctor gasped as the green fluid came rushing out of me, and I was informed that she needed to be born ASAP. I begged to wait for my mom and dad to get there, I wanted a blessing so badly and was informed there was no time to wait. My sweet Doctor, who was LDS, leaned down and told me that there was no time to wait, nor for a blessing, but that he knew that Angels were administering to me at that time. In less than an hour on January 19th at 6:04 pm my beautiful Katrena was born via c-section, the cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times and her body 2 times, I was also informed that her cord was extremely long and coiled, it looked very abnormal. I was given a quick glimpse and she was rushed away, it was at this moment that I realized the pediatrician was in the room waiting for her.

As I layed in the recovery room, my Doctor sat by my side apologizing over and over. I knew that the situation was out of his control. Yes maybe if I'd been monitored better things wouldn't have been so bad. Her little body was already beginning to die according to the Doctors, she had pneumonia, was in need of a blood transfusion and was having seizures. We came so close to losing this beautiful miracle, but she made it.

Katrena weighed 5 lb 5 oz and was 19.5 inches long. I had to wait 6 hours before I was able to see anything other than a picture of her, and 5 days before I was able to hold her in my arms. After spending some time at the hospital she was released home and other than continued respiratory problems, she was healthy. I was thankful for the beautiful miracle I'd been given. With every passing year, and pregnancy I become more and more grateful for my little miracle. The Doctor's believed that she was past due and that she was dying inside of me, now they have a different theory...

No hospital pic, didn't have a digital camera at the time and well I have to take apart the scrapbook to get to one, so I'll add it when I can, but you can picture a sweet tiny baby with a WHOLE lot of tubes, oxygen, etc.

3 months

March 2011