This is was our life leading up to her birth.
It was October 12, 2010 when we found out we were pregnant. It was a bitter sweet moment to say the least. We had been trying to get pregnant a year and half before with no luck. I was starting to just give up and just take the fact I couldn’t get pregnant any more, which was hard coming from me I never wanted anything more in the world than to be a mother. I wanted at least one of each, but at that moment in time I would take another boy in a heart beat.
August 12, we found out Kaden would need the open heart surgery we have waited seems like forever for! Something about the CHD journey…it never happens when you want it to. It was then we decided to stop trying to get pregnant. One of my biggest fears was I would be having a baby at one hospital while Kaden would be at another one having his surgery. I didn’t want that. I wanted to be there for my little man. At this point I really didn’t care if I got pregnant or not. My focus was now totally back on Kaden. After been told on two different occasions he would have to have surgery and they ended up falling through and lead to more waiting. His cardiologist wanted us to look around and decide on a surgeon so she could send the records and get it rolling…In the mean time we were getting ready to buy a new home and signing papers on it. My husband and I, after looking and reviewing and comparing different surgeons from all over the US we decided on Dr. Fraser at Texas Children’s in Houston Texas. He has more experience in repairing Aortic Valves and he was close so that was a plus.
October 12, as stated before we found out we were pregnant. I thought I might have been but I didn’t want to get the test just to see another negative. Derek is the one that was actually pushing to get one this time. So he picked one up from work that afternoon. After telling him I wasn’t going to take it, we might as well wait a little longer. He proceeded with, “Kaci, there are two test. If it is negative we still have one.” So I gave in and took it. For you ladies out there, that was the LONGEST 3 mins I think in my life!! Once I seen it was postive I just started tearing up. Because one…I was happy, I really was. I was finally pregnant, BUT second…I was thinking my worst fear was going to come true. That fear was put to the side as soon as I walked in the living room. Derek was playing outside with Kaden and came to check on me. He said well… and I was like “well…we’re pregnant” lol. His response…”I told you!!” Ha. Then he went out side and started running around with excitement. (little fyi, he’s a runner. He runs 5 miles a day even on his lunch break at work). After saying we wasn’t going to tell anyone until futher along…I found myself taking a picture of the test and sending it to my mom, and my sister. They couldn’t believe it….*weird family fact…when I had Kaden my sister was 2 weeks pregnant with her first, Makalya and didn’t know it at the time…well when she had Chloe…her second…I was 2 weeks pregnant and didn’t know it, ha** Anyways they were excited and couldn’t believe it. Since Derek’s mom couldn’t receive picture text we went over there…The way we broke it to her was I had pictures of Kaden’s thumb that he recently, at the time, shut the car door on. There was 2 pictures on there and I told her there were 3 with the third one being the picture of the POSTIVE pregnancy test. It took her a while, but she asked if were serious and I was like uh yeah lol. Needless to say everyone was excited but by the end of the day…by the way I took the other one the next morning just to make sure lol…I was setting wondering how God was going work this one out.
Feb 4, we took Kaden to Houston. Of course you all know the story I posted it on here. But they were wanting to have surgery this summer. But when they found out that’s when I was due they bumped it up to March. While we were waiting on a surgery date and not hearing back. I e-mailed them and asked what was taking so long. They disagreed on the timing of the surgery and decided now wasn’t the best time for surgery but wanted us to come back to check everything again.
Feb 6, I went for a check up and ultrasound to try to find out what we were having. They tried to find out what she was but she wasn’t showing, and rescheduled to come back 2 wks later to try again. While we were waiting for me to see the doctor, I got a call from a perinatal specialist, Dr. Gore, they were confirming the appointment for the next day. Not knowing I had an appointment, I asked if they could change it to that day and they did. They wanted to check the baby’s heart of course. Praying and hopeing for good news. I was nervous as all get out. Thankfully everything came out great and couldn’t see anything wrong with the heart…and we found out we were having a GIRL!! I continued to see the specialist once a month up until I had her. At the time I didn’t care if we had a boy or girl, we actually already had a boys name picked out: Preston Wesley (preston after Derek’s maternal granddad’s dad, and Wesley after my maternal granddad’s dad), but didn’t for a girl. When I was pregnant with Kaden we had Emily Grace for a girl picked out but didn’t have a boys name. So I guess it was just meant to be. I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to have one of each. God is Awesome!
April 6, we took him Kaden back and everything was stable! We were told once again that surgery will be put on hold. Thank God! I no longer had to worry about his surgery now I could focus on this new PINK bundle of joy.
Now for the good stuff. :)
I was scheduled for a repeat c-section on June 3 at 7:30amand had to be at the hospital at 5:30am. I went to the doctor May 25th and was told it was going to be moved to June 2, because my doctor was going out of town the afternoon on the 3rd.
June 1st, I couldn’t sleep for nothing! I had a last bit to eat at 11pm before I had to be cut off from drinks and food at midnight. I was listening to “I saw God today” just smiling and over excited, while Derek was playing a video game and Kaden fast asleep on the couch. I had a million things running through my head. Who would she look like? Would she have my hair color? Would she be ok? Would everything go smoothly? Most importantly…would her heart be ok even though we were told it would be?…
Derek and I couldn’t go to sleep that night. I think I finally dosed off around 1:30 just to wake up to the alarm at 4:30. We were on the road by 5 heading to the hospital. As soon we got there they were getting all the information they didn’t have previously, getting my IV started (kudos to my nurse she got the first time, and said I was the first redhead she was able to get the first time. Ha), and waiting…some more, and me STARVING. Ha...
My parents finally arrive and get Kaden to the waiting room. I gave my little man a kiss bye…and I give my momma one last kiss before I’m wheeled away just a hour from then. I couldn’t help but tear up. My mom is awesome, I love her so much she so strong and fighting breast cancer wonderfully. I couldn’t believe God was giving me a daughter that I could have a special relationship like my mom and I do. Before too long it was 7 and everything was set to go, they were just waiting on my awesome doctor to come and talk to me. Dr. Grafa finally came around 7:30 and said, “Well we made it, are you ready?” . My response, “Oh yeah”. : - ).
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| My Momma and Bethany (her #4 grandkid and 3 granddaughter) Two out of the 3 most important girls in my life! The other being my Memaw!  |
They got the surgery blankets and I was switching beds and they were putting the blankets over me it was oh soo cold in there! Lol. I didn’t remember all these details with Kaden I guess because it just happened so fast then and didn’t have time to think about the details. (I’ll go into details when I do his birth story).
They asked if I was having a tubal and I said no. Then they started with the spinal Derek and I decided not to. We didn’t want any more kids, but just incase you know. But If I was able to change my mind in that OR I would have!…I didn’t have a good experience with the spinal this time. It took them a while to get it in. They had to use a bigger needle and put it in a different spot of my spine. I don’t know if that was the reason, but my blood pressure dropped 2 different times dangerously low. I had trouble with nausea and they kept giving me medicine for that. For you ladies who have had a spinal you know what I’m talking about when I say, when I felt the numbness start coming closer to my chest it was fine of course and it’s a werid feeling, but once they got me some what situated I felt it start coming up to my throat and had some trouble breathing. SCARY feeling!…My nurse was starting to get worried because my lips were turning pale and my face, after another dose of the medicine for nausea (making it 4 total), I was finally feeling better and my nurse (loved her!!) said you look better, your lips match your hair. Ha. Then she proceeded to tell me that my blood pressure dropped really really low two different times. I was thinking oh that’s why I was feeling like that, no more kiddos for me! Then next thing I know they were saying, ok she’s stable bring in the dad. At this time they were already cutting on me. Derek walked in and felt so much better seeing him, but told him this is the last one, no more kids. Lol.
It took Dr. Grafa a while working around all the scar tissue, but I kept asking Derek what time it was. Finally I heard ok Dad do you want to see…and next thing I know I was hearing the most sweetest cry! Kaden was screaming when he came out (even 3 weeks early), Bethany was crying but not screaming. Such a girl. Ha. Dr. Grafa mentioned how big she was and had a ton of hair. I guessed her to be 8lbs 6oz she wasn’t that but she was born at 8:06am : - ). They took her over to the bed to clean her up and Derek was saying she has your hair and she looks like you…
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| A few second old! |
Of course momma was smiling ear to ear along with the tears lol. She was screaming good by then, but when they brought her over to me, like with Kaden, as soon as I started talking to her she calmed down.
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| First time I seen my babygirl! |
They took me to recovery and brought her back in there along with Derek. You can so tell we had a heart kiddo first because the first thing Derek said…”She doesn’t have a heart murmur”…Praise God!! Then he said she is 8lbs 10.6 oz and 19.5 ins long. It was so nice to hear she didn’t have a heart murmur and her O2 stats were good. I was one happy momma that couldn’t feel anything. Ha
I was then rolled to my room soon after and I was able to see my little man and the rest of my family. Once they gave Bethany a bath we soon noticed her hair wasn’t red, its but mainly in the sunlight. It’s dark brown with red mixed in. And a few days later we noticed she looks more like her Daddy than she does me. Lol. But she still adorable of course. : - ). Our family is now complete. We have our boy AND our girl.
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| All ready for town...along with the bow my momma made me! |
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| Aren't I cute?!?! |
We decided on Brooklyn but after a few months I decided it wasn’t girly enough for me. Lol. One day Derek was talking about Starbucks (he’s a coffee addict. Lol) and was talking about his favorite one in Allen, TX. And I was like where and he said in Allen you know off of Bethany dr and Frontage. And I was like That’s it! Bethany! Lol…
We struggled for a middle name for a while. He talked about Marie, because our ice cream shop we used to eat at while dating (still do) was called Beth Maries and he just thought that would be perfect and I told him you got Bethany but your not getting Marie. We went through different names like Mae but I didn’t want her initials to be BMI . I’m weird when it comes to naming kiddos lol. So one day we were at a bookstore, Derek and Kaden when looking at something while I was looking for baby books in Barnes and Noble, and came across a Christian baby name book. So I started fliping through it, I was looking to see what Bethany meant and it was House of God, thought that was neat. Then I went to my name Kaci and came across Kate while flipping back to find my name. Noticing it mean pure one, I thought this is it! Bethany Kate…It just fits. When I told Derek he was ok whatever and didn’t seem to care. When it got closer to having her he wanted to change it and I was like look you got Bethany and I can have Kate it’s only fair. Lol. So he didn’t seem to fight me too much on that since. So Bethany Kate it is. Beautiful name for a beautiful little girl.
Now you get to watch her grow up throughout the years through our blog along with her big brother. I will posting a post on her 2 months tomorrow or Wednesday according to how she acts tomorrow after her shots. :/ Thanks for reading.. I know this was long. Take care and May God bless you all!!
