Parenthood Adventures: Millie's Birth Story

Hey Everyone,

I haven't blogged since Stella turned 2. Life gets busy with littles and I'm coming to find that adding a baby to the mix will make it even busier. I can't tell you how much I love reading or hearing other people's birth stories. I always tell people that pregnancy and childbirths are one of the coolest miracles that God orchestrates! I also love that I blogged about Ruby and Stella's stories as well. I can't tell you how many times I have gone back to read those. I should maybe print those out in case the internet ever gets blown up. ha! Anyway, on with the star of the show.

Millie Kennedy Harvey. Ben and I had a really hard time coming up with a name. Until we came up with her name! :) Ruby and Stella were both named after family members. Ruby was Ben's grandmas name and Stella was Ben's Great Grandma's name. We kind of liked the idea of keeping the name in the family. As you all know my dad passed away three years ago. His mom's name whom I never met was Helen Mildred Kennedy. At first we had thought Helen would be a great name. Then a couple weeks later, Ben wasn't as sure. So, I was talking to my mom about it and she said well, they never called her Helen they called her Millie. We instantly loved it. My maiden name was Anne Louise Kennedy. Tell me if you see a pattern in our girls. Ruby Ann (no e as it was after my mom and grandma's middle name) Stella Louise, and now Millie Kennedy. Get it? Our girls middle names was my maiden name. Cool, eh? Now, onto the birth story.

As some of you may know, I was growing quite impatient waiting for Millie to come. This pregnancy was particularly hard towards the end. I was bigger, my hips and pelvis hurt almost all of the time, and I had little energy. I think one of the hardest parts was feeling kind of helpless when it came to taking care of Ruby and Stella. Ben will get a huge shout out later in the story. Anyway, I hated that I wasn't able to get down on the floor comfortably with them and play or I couldn't tolerate the heat as much when is all they wanted to do was be outside. It was painful both mentally and physically. I thought since I was so big that maybe Millie would come early. Or maybe that she was my third baby that she would come early. Or maybe, since I told her she would be my favorite kid if she came early that she would come early. Well, none of those things happened. In fact at my 40 week appointment I was not dilated at all. That shouldn't have surprised me because Ruby and Stella were the exact same way. Girls stick together I guess. I really wanted to avoid an induction, but we scheduled one anyway. Ben starts inservice days on the 27th, so we wanted to have as much time as we could with him home. So, the induction was set for Thursday the 23rd at 7:00 AM. I was trying to do all the things to bring this girl naturally. I'm talking eating spicy food, pineapple, going for long walks, bouncing on a ball at the gym, swimming, traveling out of town, dancing in the living room with the girls. You name it and I was trying it. On Saturday night I started having some super mild contractions. They were so mild I was unsure if that is what they really were. They were also very spread apart. As in hours apart. I still remained hopeful that it would turn into something. The next day came and I had nothing. Sunday was the same story. Every once in awhile I would have a contraction. Monday came and nothing was happening, so we went down to Ben's parents for the day. I started getting a little more frequent contractions and they were a little bit stronger. I though, holy smokes this would be awesome! I called my mom when we got home and just said just in case be ready to come here if they get closer together. Well, at around midnight they were coming about every 7 minutes. They still weren't super intense, but they were frequent enough that I called my mom. She came out and as soon as she got here it seemed like things slowed down again. Ugh! Woke up the next morning and I had a 9:00 appointment with my OB. She checked my cervix and I was dilated to a 3. Yahoo!!! I Thought for sure she would just send me upstairs after stripping my membranes. Nope, she stripped my membranes and sent me home. I did ask if I could get induced one day early instead. She agreed. Remember how I wanted to avoid induction? Well, I was too impatient and sick of not getting sleep at that point. That following night (Tuesday) I had extremely painful contractions, but they were coming every 15 minutes. These contractions were way more painful than any I had with Ruby or Stella. I was honestly afraid that I was going to have Millie in our house because of how painful they were. When I'm in pain I don't want anyone talking to me or touching me. Lucky for Ben, he was able to sleep. The next morning came and we had to be at the hospital by 6:45. I could not wait. I basically wanted to walk in there, demand an epidural with some sort of cocktail to follow. I was so so tired after 48 hours of contractions and virtually no sleep. We arrived at the hospital. We had made it. The end was in site.

The delivery portion was great. I was quite anxious to find out what the contractions all night had done to my cervix. I was so anxious that my heart rate was up. The nurse asked if I was nervous. haha. I said yes. It seemed to take her forever to check me, but once she did she said that I was at a 3. THREE? Are you kidding me? The hardest contractions of my life got me nowhere? So, they started me on piton and my contractions were coming every 3 minutes. I asked for the epidural and thankfully Mr. Anesthesiologist man was quick to come. I don't want to mention any names, but the anesthesiologist reminded me of someone off of Grey's Anatomy who got into trouble for being drunk. Thankfully, this guy was not drunk and he did a great job of giving me relief. I kind of wanted to give him a hug when he left, but thought that was inappropriate. My Doctor came in a little later...she is amazing by the way. If any of you are reading this and are from around Buffalo....I will hook you up. She is incredible. She came in and checked me and said I was at a 5. Yes! We are getting closer to meeting this sweet girl! She left to go get changed. This was her day off mind you. My nurse gave me a birthing peanut ball. It's literally a ball that looks like a peanut. It is what did the trick for me and Stella and it ended up doing the trick to bring Millie. During this time however I got extremely sweaty and nauseous. I thought I was going to throw up. Is all i needed was a wet rag, ice chips, and to have my bed put up a little bit. It didn't last long. My doctor came back and I was at a 9. YESSS! So stinking close. She came back a couple minutes later she checked and it was go time! I was so excited and so relieved. During my contractions, they would tell me to push and that is what I did. In between contractions it felt like we were casually having coffee talking about tattoos. That is really what we were talking about....tattoos and if they hurt or not. ha! Anyway, it only took two pushes and how came Millie. She had her hand up by her face and she came out crying away. She cried a lot more than my other girls. She also peed on me first thing. Ah well! The amount of relief that I had was incredible. To finally hold her on my chest and get glimpses of her dark hair. There is no better feeling on this earth! She weighed 7 lbs. 11 ounces. She was my biggest baby yet!

We are now at home and so enjoying this peanut. Ruby absolutely adores Millie. She wants to hold her all the time. She sings Jesus Loves Me to her in the sweetest little voice. She will do anything for me as long as it involves Millie in some way. ha! Stella on the other hand isn't as into Millie just yet. She loves holding her, but she also would rather just play with her toys. She doesn't understand either I don't think that Millie is real and that you can't just shake her rock-n-play as hard as you want. haha, either way Stella is still super sweet. She just needs to be watched around Millie. Now onto one of my favorite humans of all time...Ben. He is going to get his own paragraph.

Ben is incredible. He never once complained about having to do pretty much everything in the last few weeks. I'm talking laundry, cleaning, dishes, cooking, and everything in between. Not to mention being the most fun dad and taking the girls places when I just needed a break. He encouraged me daily by asking me what I needed. He never made me feel guilty for not being able to do much. He continued to check in with me to find out how I was doing each night. Each night we talk about our high's and low's from the day and how we can be praying for one another. I just felt so loved throughout these last few weeks. Then, comes baby and he continues to be so wonderful. He asked if it would be helpful to take the girls and I said, well, that might be my new love language. Ha! I love the girls, but right now it was been so nice to get some alone time with Millie...and catch up on some rest. She likes to sleep during the day and then cluster feed until about 1:00 in the morning. Sleeping during the day with a 2 and 3 year old just doesn't happen. Anyway, Ben has been amazing!

Another special shout out to my mom who came and spent the night two nights in a row and occupied the girls while I was having contractions. She made the best meatloaf and it was just so nice having her here. Another shout out to Ben's parents who also took the girls to their house for two nights. It allowed Ben and I to come home from the hospital and have one more night without the girls. We were able to rest and enjoy a little calm before the storm. So, thank you parents! We love you!

I will try and keep y'all update on how things are going. Ben goes back to school on Monday. Ruby starts pre-school on the 4th and hopefully we will find a routine once again! Thanks for reading!