7 years

Seven years doesn't sound like that long ago, but in my path of life it was eons ago. Seven years ago I welcomed a sweet, precious baby girl into my life. My third little girl, just as perfect as the other two. I had no idea how this sweet little person would become my little lifetime pal, my little babushka. She has so many special qualities that I adore. She would give everything she owns away to anybody who might need something. She is fiesty and a born leader. She is smart and serious. She has this look where she studies the things around her, observing how the world around her works. She loves God and already has a faith bigger than anything I could have imagined as a child. Have I mentioned her extremely large heart? She amazes me every single day. There are three reasons why her father and I were together and she is one of them. The other two are her sisters. I would go through all of the heartache I have experienced again and again just because they were all three worth every second of pain. With that, I want to share Coryn's birth story with you, on this seventh birthday. I wrote this shortly after she was born.

Coryn's birth story- On September 15, I started having noticably stronger more frequent contractions. If I was up moving around, they were 5 minutes apart. Well all day my neighbor hung out with me, we walked, I bounced on my yoga ball, we ordered pizza that night, and our other neighbor came over too. At around 8:00PM I told J.R. that I thought it would be a good idea to take the girls to his mothers just in case. I wasn't sure if this was really going to turn in to anything. While there I called my OB. She said it sounded early, and that she would be glad to call the hospital and have them check me. I wasn't ready to go just to be turned away so we headed home. At around 10PM the contractions got stronger. J.R. went to bed. I stayed up on my yoga ball as the contractions got worse. I went upstairs at 2:30 and in tears told J.R. that the contractions hurt a lot worse, but weren't getting closer together, but that I was ready to go to the hospital. We got to the hospital at 3:00 they monitored me for an hour, checked me(at a 3) and sent me walking. We walked for another hour. I was a bit disheartened, because I hadn't changed at all since my appt when she first checked me and I had been walking all day long. So I didn't really think that things would change in just another hour so as I climbed in bed to be checked, I started crying. I was amazed to learn that I was between a 4-5. They were keeping me . They started my IV, started my anitbiotics for my group-B and we started to breathe through the contractions. At around 6 AM I asked for one of the IV painkillers and also if we could get the anesthesiologist in to place my epi. They told me it would be an hour before I would get my epi which I was pretty grumpy about, but figured ok the IV meds will help. Well they didn't I was in so much pain by the time the guy got there. He placed the epi and unlike my first two pgs, I didn't get the immediate relief. He kept telling me to wait a few more contractions, but the pain was getting worse and I knew it wasn't going to get any better unless he redid it. So finally after another block of time he began messing with it. He injected more of the meds w/ a syringe directly into the spinal fluid. It still did nothing so for the next few hours that was how it went. I was moaning and I remember having a death grip on the bed with each contraction. I was scared to death. Neither of my other deliveries were like this. J.R. and my mom talked me through each contraction. I couldn't have done it without both of them urging me on. I got to an eight and I was yelling at anyone who would listen that the epi needed to be done again. The moving it around and adding meds wasn't doing anything for me. The doctor came back in and had me sit up to do it again. I was so scared of pushing without it. As I was sitting on the side of the bed, I felt her head. I told them all, she's coming!! I started pushing because honestly it felt good to push. They were all saying don't push and I was just ignoring them. My doctor sat down and told me to give a trial push, and then was like Whoa ok stop pushing. I couldn't stop. With the next push, Coryn Marie Buckner made her appearance at 11:35 AM, Septemeber16, 2006, weighing 6lbs even and 18.5 inches long. She was gorgeous and I did it without the epi working!! I had a small internal tear and my doctor went to stitch me up. I flew up off the bed. He had thought because I was so focused pushing that my epidural had finally taken It ended up that the guy had punctured my spinal column and I was leaking spinal fluid. I got an epidural headache and couldn't even function in the hospital. On the day that I was released I had a blood patch done in my spine(where they take blood from your arm and inject it into your spine) I then had to lay flat on my back for two more days. I was also instructed to drink as much caffeine as I could possibly tolerate. My sister, who is a nurse, came and bathed me and my mom took care of Coryn. I was miserable. But I look back at all of it now and she was so worth every little bit of pain, and it has faded with time.