The Mulloy's: February 2018

Caitlin May Mulloy was born on February 20, 2018 at 8:55am. She weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces. and was 18 inches long. She is our largest baby by just a couple ounces- Patrick: 6 pounds, 6 ounces; 18 inches; Peyton 7 pounds, 1 ounce, 18 inches; and Conor 7 pounds, 2 ounces, 20 inches. She scored an 8/9 on the apgar test. We could not feel more blessed to welcome Caitlin into our family. We are all so excited to have a precious little girl to love.

We had been expecting this precious little girl for weeks since I had been having contractions for nearly a month. I was also dilated to almost a 4 for a couple weeks. Both the doctor and I were pretty shocked that she did not make an early arrival. All of her brothers were born before 38 weeks, so we fully expected her to follow in their footsteps. But our precious girl had a different plan and held out until her induction date at 39 weeks.

We were scheduled to start our induction at 5am on Tuesday, February 20th. I had been told that it would be a very long process and not to expect her to arrive until late afternoon on Tuesday. Since I was Strep B positive with this pregnancy, the plan was to arrive at the hospital and receive 2 doses of penicillin before starting any medication to progress the labor. I was told that I would receive one dose of penicillin and then wait for four hours and then receive the second dose of penicillin. We were asked to arrive at the hospital at 5am and were told the check-in process would be about an hour. Around 6am we were called back to the delivery room. I was hooked up to all of the monitors. I was already having contractions before even starting any medications. I had woken up in the middle of the night a few times with some painful contractions. I think little girl was getting ready for her big day!

We started an IV with fluids around 6:30am and the nurse mentioned that she was planning to start the lowest dose of pitocin possible, which she said was just a small drip and shouldn't do anything. Michael and I both glanced at each other and I think we were both a little nervous about starting the pitocin so early. I mentioned to the nurse that I had been told I needed to have two full doses of penicillin before starting any pitocin. I also told her that my labors are very quick and that we should probably make sure I received all of the necessary medication to make sure the baby was safe first. She said that it shouldn't be a problem and that the small amount of pitocin I was receiving really wouldn't do anything.

A few minutes later she came in and hooked up the penicillin. She warned me that it would burn pretty badly and to let her know if we needed to slow the drip. I definitely wasn't prepared for my arm to be on fire. I would have asked her to slow it down, but I could feel my contractions picking up speed already and just wanted to make sure I received the medication as fast as possible. I had prepared to wait a long time before starting the labor process and had brought some magazines. But, I didn't even have time to pull out anything. Everything was going very fast and I felt like I didn't even have time to catch a breath in between people hooking up different IV's (pitocin, sugar water, peniclin, etc) and the contractions that were starting to come.

At about 7:15am the doctor came in to break my water. Again, I was surprised that they decided to go ahead and try and progress the labor before I received the second dose of penicillin. My doctor mentioned that she had a few quick surgeries throughout the day, but could move them around if needed. She told the nurse to try and give her a little bit of notice before I was ready to start pushing.

After the doctor broke my water, I immediately requested the epidural. The nurse seemed okay with that plan since my previous labors had been so quick. I was starting to shake pretty badly from the medication and I was having some pretty intense contractions. So getting the epidural was less than pleasant. He started the test run of the epidural at 8am. I was told that it would take about 45 minutes to work it's way through my body. The anesthesiologist said that he would be back to check on me in about 45 minutes. My leg started to get numb on my left side about 15 minutes later, but that was the only thing that the epidural was reaching. At about 8:30, the contractions became so intense and so close together that I couldn't speak or even ask Michael to call the nurse. Luckily, he understood that I was ready and called the nurse. The nurse checked and realized that I was complete and Caitlin was ready!

She immediately called back the anesthesiologist, who was very quick returning. He gave me a very large dose and readjusted the entry point to see if he could get the epidural working. Everything had happened so quickly that there had not been time to put in a catheter yet. They mentioned that it was the only thing holding Caitlin back. Once they put in the catheter, Caitlin was ready. She quickly tried to call Dr. Lipsitz, but was afraid there would not be enough time for her to get there. She yelled to another nurse to call the hospitalist immediately. Right as she yelled to call the hospitalist, Dr. Lipsitz literally came running in. She got there just in time. My epidural started working right in time for me to push. Normally you can feel the pressure from the contractions, but since I had been given such a large dose a few minutes beforehand, I couldn't feel a single thing. I think I probably would have only had to push once if I could feel anything. But, I ended up pushing 3 times and she was here!

First daddy daughter picture

Mommy and daddy picture

Such a precious little gift

Those cheeks! I could just eat her up!

The big boys got out of school a little early to meet her. Patrick and Peyton were SO excited and they had been fighting over who was going to hold her first.

Patrick was very generous and let Peyton go first.

And Patrick's turn

Big and Allie meeting Caitlin

Nana meeting Caitlin

And uncle Matthew

Conor was less than thrilled that he was losing his baby status

We did finally convince him to give baby a kiss though

Well... we tried for a picture with me and my four little munchkins :)

Conor was more comfortable sitting on daddy's lap with his favorite snacks...cookies and cheetos

First family picture!

Resting after our visit with big brothers

She came so quickly that she took a big gulp on the way out and was spitting up an enormous amount. I sent her to the nursery that night, so that I could make sure someone was watching in case she started to choke. But, she was so unsettled in the nursery that they brought her back after a couple hours. We woke up with a beautiful sunrise over the Nashville skyline.

First morning with my sweet girl

Dr. Lipsitz came back to check on us the next morning. She said that she had been thinking about the delivery all night. She said she was so thankful that Caitlin waited until the induction date. She said that by the time I realized I was in real labor, there was no way that I would have made it to the hospital. Thankful that my sweet little girl had her own plan and didn't follow in big brother's footsteps.

Caitlin also had her first check-up that morning. Her weight was 6 pounds, 10 ounces on her second day. The doctor said she looked amazing and had no concerns at all. He did mention that they wanted her to stay one more night as a precaution since I wasn't able to get the second dose of penicillin.