Happy Birthday Greta!

My littlest kitty is 2 today and what a strange trip it's been! She's a hoot and a joy and total stinker. I was inspired by Jana and Nora's story to try to write Greta's. I have never actually written out any of their stories so I thought this might be fun to relive it all.

I found out I was pregnant with Miss Boo when Amelia was only 11 months old so I was a bit shocked to say the least. I took the test on a Sunday morning and Tim wasn't even home so I of course called Kary first. I believe I said "I'm pregnant" and she said "Shut up."

Anyway, a rather rough 6 months later I began to have really severe itching on the palms of my hands and soles of my feet. I mentioned this crazy symptom to a few friends and they all thought I was weird and my doctor said, "You're pregnant. You itch." I just figured it was another one of those strange things that happen when I'm pregnant as I had similar symptoms with Amelia. One night when I was 35 weeks I couldn't sleep so I got up to surf the internet for baby names~since we still hadn't come up with a girl name. On one site someone commented on a bunch of names and then added a PS question about itchy hands and feet in pregnancy. I about fell off my chair. I followed the answers thru the maze of websites and ended up here. I had every single symptom listed and then I did what any rational very pregnant woman would. I FREAKED OUT. I tried to go back to sleep but ended up staring at the wall til morning. After I got Caroline off to school and Amelia settled into TV, I called my doctor. She was on vacation for 2 weeks. Um. . .not good. So I asked to speak to the doc on call. She ordered a bunch of blood tests and said, "Come back in a week." I had a gotten a friend to watch the girls while I went for more bloodwork and in chatting with her (she's a nurse) she says, "So-and-so had that with her daughter and she knows all about it. Call her." So I called the girl who was actually researching to write a book on Cholestasis. Her daughter was delievered in distress at 34 weeks. She gave me a referral to a high-risk doc who knows all about Cholestasis. After 950 phone calls to his office I finally got my Doctor Uncle Dave to call him for me. He called me back within 30 minutes, said come on down and we'll get that baby delievered tonight. Um, hello? Now?!? So off we went.

We got to the hospital, they hooked me up for a non-stress test, ultrasound, and amnio. Baby Girl (who we had decided on the way to the hospital to name Georiga Grace) is not cooked fully. Her lungs were "close but no cigar" was what the doc said. So we were sent home for the weekend with strict instructions to go straight to the ER if there was no movement for 30 minutes or more. Talk about a relaxing weekend~NOT! Over the course of the weekend we got a call from a girl from church whose niece was stillborn from Cholestasis. So that really helped me stay calm. Tim would wake me up all night long to ask if she was moving. Or I would wake up to him poking at my stomach trying to get her to move.

I called Dr Ambrose Monday morning and said I'm really stressed out about this, what can we do. He was really great. He said he totally understood, come on in and we'll check the lungs again. If they are closer, we'll induce you. Cut to the chase, lungs were ready, sent us up to L&D, started the pit and we were off! My Uncle Dave is an anethesiolgist so he stopped to see me. He looked at my monitors and said, "Why don't you have your edpidural yet?" I told him I wanted to walk, wait til the contractions were stronger, blah blah blah. He laughed at me, went and got his partner, shot that epidural right on it. It was awesome. I was so numb I kept asking the nurse if I was still have contractions. At on point I yelled at Tim for farting in front of the nurses. She jsut laughed and said, "Honey, that's you." Oooo! I was so embarassed!

Morning of Jan 11 came. Dr Ambrose came in at 7:45 and broke my water. I was only 3 so we figured it would be a while yet. About 8:30 I started feeling really uncomfortable. I was buzzing the nurse but not getting an answer. I sent Tim out to find her. He told her that I thought I needed to be checked. She rolled her eyes, told Tim that I was just at 3, and she'd be there in a minute. She came in 10 minutes later, lifted up my sheet, turned white, yelled "Don't push!" and ran out of the room. I complete and Baby Girl was crowning. After a flurry of activity, Dr Ambrose starts the 10 count to push. I got to 4 and he said "Stop, the head is out. . .oh, nevermind." I looked down and saw her little feet. He never even got a chance to suction her. That's what happens when your last baby was 8 lbs and this one was 6 lbs! She was healthy and perfect.

Greta Lindsay (Tim changed his mind about her name while I was in labor) was born at 8:50 on January 11, 2005. She is so much fun! Greta learned early on that in the chaos she needed to speak up or we'd forget about her. These days her greatest goal is to be just like her big sisters and tries so hard to keep up with them at all times. We love her to pieces and are so thankful for the gift that she is!