Ouch!

My husband and I found out we were pregnant about 5 months after we arrived at his new duty station, Fort Riley, Kansas. We had been married about 7 months, he had been home from Iraq for about 9 months. Needless to say, we were very busy adjusting to a completely different lifestyle, a new place, and then we discovered we had a baby on the way! My pregnancy was difficult. I was sick every day for the first 6 months... it never failed, my husband would leave the house at 6:30am every morning and as he was walking out the door I'd be making a dash to the bathroom and hoping I would make it in time! My first ultrasound determined that we were having a girl, we couldn't have been happier! Although my doctor didn't tell me at the time, they also discovered that my daughter had urine backing up in to her kidneys. They scheduled me for a second ultrasound and discovered the same thing, but still didn't tell me. I went in to pre-term labor at 34 weeks. My husband rushed me to the hospital, which was over an hour away. Needless to say, that was the longest hour of our lives! When I FINALLY made it to the hospital the nurses admitted me, hooked me up to a fetal monitor, and checked to see if I was dilated. I was at 3 cm and was 75% effaced. Upon consulting with a doctor, we decided it best to try to stop the labor and try to give the baby a few more weeks to develop. Thank God it worked! But then they put me on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy, and that was not fun at all! Between my pre-term labor scare and my daughter's birth I had one more ultrasound. This was the third, at this point I figured something was up and discussed it with the technician and the doctor. That's when they finally told me what was going on. I wanted to ring somebody's neck! I was so upset! All three ultrasounds showed the same thing: urine in her kidneys. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good either. But we'd just have to wait to see if her body corrected itself after birth, because there wasn't anything we could do before then. On March 20, 2008 I went in to labor at 38 weeks. I started having contractions about noon and we called the doctor and decided it was best to head to the hospital right away, considering my previous history and the fact that we had an hour drive. By the time I arrived at the hospital I was 100% effaced and nearly 4 cm. I dilated fairly quickly, and the doctors decided to break my water about 6:00pm. After that my contractions became quite painful, so I got an epidural and was in heaven... or atleast I thought I was. At about 10:45pm I started to push, after two pushes the doctor looked at me and said "Ok, this is it. Give it all you've got." So I did... I pushed as hard as I could, and I expected to hear everyone give a shout of joy and then see my baby being handed to me. Well... that didn't happen. A fourth push, still no baby... a fifth, no baby. I pushed for over an hour and each time the doctor would tell me that was it. I lost count of how many times I pushed... it was a lot. By midnight it started to take a real toll on me emotionally as well as physically. My epidural was still masking the contractions, but I began to feel pain from the stress of the baby's head. It was horrible. I started crying... I remember looking at my husband and telling him I loved him so much and I was sorry I couldn't have his baby. One of the nurses had been by my side basically since I was admitted and she told me not to say that because I was doing great and the baby just decided she wanted to wait a little while, keep us all in suspense. Finally, the doctor decided to do an episiotomy at the start of my last push and BAM the baby popped right out! I began crying even harder the second they handed her to me, after everything I had been through during my pregnancy and not knowing what was ahead of us... it was just amazing to hold her! Rayleigh was born at 12:07am on March 21, 2008. She missed her Uncle's birthday by just 7 minutes. We laugh about it because she is quite jealous, and I think that's why she waited. She knew. And she was determined to have her own special day, not have to share it with her Uncle! After several tests and ultrasounds on her, the doctors have said that it looks like her kidneys are fine. We won't know for sure though until she is potty trained, if she is unable to hold her urine there may be a problem. But we're starting that now and she seems to be doing fine, so I'm hopeful that she is 100% healthy. Either way, she is 100% mine!