Meet Marlee Jo: A Finley Baby

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Cascade, Iowa 52033

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UnityPoint Clinic Urgent Care - East

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Dubuque, Iowa 52001

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Meet Marlee Jo: A Finley Baby

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marlee jo baby photo

My name is Kristin Hill and I've had all three of my babies at Finley Hospital. My daughter Kendall in 2012, my son Braeden in 2016, and our little girl Marlee Jo on January 21, 2018. She was 6lb. 8oz. and 19 inches long. My nurses Amy H., Lisa, and Tammy D. did an INCREDIBLE job. Let me tell you why!

With all three of my pregnancies my labors were slow moving and my contractions were irregular, but always very manageable. Therefore, I labored at home for as long as possible. When I had my first two babies I arrived at the hospital when I was 8 to 9 inches dilated. We checked in, the midwife arrived, and they were born one to two hours later.

My labor with Marlee was very similar to my labors with Kendall and Braeden. Contractions started Friday night and I had them on and off until around 2 a.m. on Saturday. I finally managed to get some sleep and by Sunday morning they seemed to have almost stopped completely, so I went to church and had coffee with a friend. That afternoon we visited my mom in Dyersville. While in Dyersville, I once again started having regular contractions that were about 30 to 45 seconds long. They were also a little more intense than the day before, so we packed up the kids and headed back to our home in Dubuque.

When we got home my almost two year old, who didn't have a nap that day, was tired, cranky, and just wanted his mom. He followed me around the house crying as I packed our hospital bags. He was only content when I was holding him. Soon, I found myself pacing up and down our hallway holding my son and having very regular and pretty intense contractions. It also just so happened to be around dinner time, so my husband was busy in the kitchen cooking spaghetti and wasn't really aware of how frequent my contractions were coming. To be honest, with all the distractions, I didn't really realize how close together they were coming either. When I finally asked my husband to time them for me as I walked up and down the hallway carrying our son they were only about 3 minutes apart!

To add to the already crazy situation, I thought my husband had already contacted his mom to tell her to come over so we could go to the hospital when I felt I was ready. However, he had wrote the text to her but forgot to actually send it!! Which he didn't realize until he picked up his phone to text her to come over and he saw he never sent the message he typed earlier. Therefore, my mother-in-law had no heads up that I was in labor and she needed to come over. She said she'd pack a few things and be right over. However, she lives in Key West and we live near Pennsylvania Ave., so it took her a good 20 minutes to a half hour to get to our house. At that point, the contractions were very strong and I was feeling like I had to push. We left for the hospital as soon as she arrived!

There is another hiccup in this story! I had called my midwife's cell phone two times while I was at home in labor, but she didn't answer and never called me back. As we were leaving the house I suddenly realized I hadn't actually got a hold of anyone to tell them we were on our way to the hospital! So I called Dubuque OBGYN's answering service. The gal on the phone was very nice, but said "I will call the doctor on call. If you don't hear from them in 10 minutes, call back." I was like, "I won't be calling back. I will be at the hospital in less than 10 minutes!" Dr. Janecek called me as we were pulling into the hospital parking lot. She said she'd let them know we were on our way up and she'd be right there!

As I was being wheeled down the hospital hallway, we saw nurse Amy H. bringing the last bit of equipment into the room. The nurses probably had less than 5 minutes notice that I was on my way upstairs to the have the baby and some how they managed to get everything they needed in the room. They helped me undress, got me in the bed, hooked me up to the monitor, and about a minute later I had a contraction. Dr. Janecek had not arrived so the nurses said to try to breath through the contraction, but I couldn't. I said "I'm sorry! I can't!" and I just let my body take over. My water broke and Amy caught Marlee as she came flying out all at once! It was incredible!

I am so very, very thankful for nurses Amy, Lisa, and Tammy for being so professional and so kind. They knew exactly what to do in a stressful situation. Marlee is a beautiful healthy baby and I couldn't have asked for better care while at the hospital.

I am still shocked that we were only at the hospital for less than 5 minutes before Marlee was born. The last bit of my labor moved so much more quickly than with my previous two kids. I never imagined I'd have a baby who came flying into the world like she did! Please pass along our many thanks and deepest gratitude to Amy, Lisa, and Tammy. They are simply the best!!!