Katie's birth story...

In honor of her 7th birthday....

After Jesse and I had our 4th child in September of 1997, we both decided that we were done having kids. We had always discussed that 4 was our perfect number. Plus, after number 4, I experienced a devastating bout of clinical depression leaving me with great doubts that I could take care of the ones that I had. Although I eventually recovered, I was very sure that 4 was all I could handle. We did not take any permanent measures but did actively prevent. Fast forward to July 2000...we were in Metropolis, Illinois (home of the giant Superman statue) camping in a state park, on our way to a Florida vacation. AF was late in showing up by a week, which never happens for me...so I decided to take a pt. Imagine my shock and amazement when those two pink lines showed up as dark as can be. Jesse and I were both thrilled...and I can say this is the only time we have been surprised with a positive pregnancy test. We quickly adjusted to the idea of having another one and thanked God that He is in control of conception and determines life beyond our imaginations. The pregnancy was wonderful and uneventful besides some moderate morning sickness for the first trimester. Our due date was April 5th and despite an ultrasound, we did not discover the gender of the child I was carrying. Thus I had a plethora of yellow sleepers, onesies, etc. On the last day of March I began to feel some pangs and secretly prayed that the baby would not be an April Fool's baby. I have never had a baby early, so I believed that this would be the case again. The pains ended only to pick up again on Sunday, April 2nd and continue all day. Early Monday morning we called Jesse's mom to come stay with the kids and we headed to the hospital around 1am. I was determined not to show up in L&D until I was good and gone, so I walked the hospital lobby for a good two hours. Jesse slept on the couch and my mom showed up to keep me company. Finally I decided it was time to head up to L&D. Once settled in, they checked me and I was disappointed to find that I was only 5cm. The labor began to get tougher and I begged for a dose of nubain...of course, this slowed my contractions down. The ob finally showed up and broke my water, which picked things up a bit but not much. I did not want pitocin and was praying that the contractions would get going again and they finally did. I had a very tough transition which I did not think I was going to survive. My nurse was named, Robin, also, and I think she was desperately wishing I had been given an epidural due to my thrashing and moaning on the birthing table. Finally time to push and it did not take long for our little baby girl to make her entrance into the world!! Katherine Grace was born on April 3, 2001 at 9:36am and was 7lbs13oz and 20inches long. The nurses commented that she looked just like her daddy and they were exactly right.