Reese's Birth Story | Part One
On September 11, 2019, Reese Madelyn Dilly was born at 6:03am – our precious, fiery baby girl. Her birth story can not be told without telling of the Lord’s goodness and attentiveness to His children. Praise Him for her little life and this story.
To begin, I feel the need to provide a little backstory. When we first found out we were pregnant, we knew we wanted to be surprised by the gender of our baby at birth. We were so very grateful for their little life and healthy pregnancy and we didn’t want to invite any ounce of unmet expectation or disappointment into those days before their arrival. I had always imagined myself as a “boy mom” and had filled many pages of prayer journals asking the Lord for such. Truthfully, I was scared to have a daughter and all Nathan knew was brothers and male cousins, so we were both semi-expecting and desiring a son.
We had had a name picked out for a boy for years before we got pregnant, but it took us until Week 26 to come up with our girl's name. I remember my mom, trying to provide help and guidance on a name, suggesting I think of descriptive words that come to mind when I would think of a daughter and find a name that matched those. I looked her in the eyes and immediately said, “If I have a daughter, I want her to be feisty,” to which my shocked, sweet mom replied “Oh. Not like calm, kind, sweet…?”
“Nope,” I replied. I want her to be feisty and be able to stand up for herself, just like Maddie” (my younger sister and best friend). Fast forward weeks later, Nathan and I had watched a great movie with Reese Witherspoon as the main character, and the next day while we were driving I nonchalantly threw out the name Reese as a potential for a daughter. Nathan agreed that he liked it as well and upon researching what the name meant, we both knew it was the perfect fit if we were to have a daughter…
Reese, meaning “ardent, fiery, passionate,” Madelyn, after my precious sister.
I had eagerly anticipated pregnancy and birth for as long as I can remember. Years before we began trying to conceive, I had done my research, desired an unmedicated birth, visited the well-known Midwife Clinic here in town, and had a loose birth plan in mind. When those pink lines showed up on the pregnancy test, I was elated to be able to start down this anticipated road. We became established with the midwives, whose practice was now associated with the University of Kentucky, and also chose to hire a doula (best decision ever).
Throughout the course of the pregnancy, we only had two ultrasounds – one to confirm and date pregnancy at 12 weeks and an anatomy scan at 20 weeks. While we were both still feeling “boy vibes” in our guess for the gender, after looking at the ultrasound pictures of our baby’s profile, I remember casually telling Nathan “I don’t know, I feel like that looks like a girl baby.” To which he laughed and told me I was crazy for getting that out of a black-and-white image of their facial profile. Momma’s intuition though ;)
Thankfully, we had a very healthy, uneventful pregnancy with no curveballs thrown at our plan for 39 weeks. I enjoyed pregnancy and as we neared the end, I was honestly excited to “get to work” once labor began. By the end of 38 weeks, I was feeling good and had yet to experience any Braxton Hicks contractions or signs of early labor. My consistent prayer for this baby and their birth was that the story of their birth would be one that could not be told without speaking of the Lord and that every single person who walked alongside us in the labor and delivery would feel the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
And won’t He do it.
Monday, September 9th
I hit 39 Weeks on Sunday and went to work like any other normal Monday the following day. In true Cassie fashion, I worked right up until the last minute for a suitable lunch break before needing to be in a series of afternoon meetings. I’ve always had low blood pressure and low blood sugar, and pregnancy was no different. Making sure I didn’t run too close to “empty” was important more than ever and I was cutting it close this day for lunch. I told my team that I was heading out to grab Chick-fil-a really quick and offered to grab them something. Thankfully for them, they did not take me up on that offer, because little did I know that I would not be returning to my office for several months.
12:20ish - En route to Chick-fil-a from my office, I was looking to change lanes when two cars in front of me braked to take a right turn. The car between us braked accordingly and I was late to look back and react. My Toyota Camry smacked into the slowed cars and immediately every airbag in my car deployed. Shock, adrenaline, tears, and the smell of smoking airbags all swirled as my brain tried to make sense of what happened. I was trying to see past airbags to tell if the other drivers were okay, all while trying to physically assess how I was and how the baby handled the impact.
Thankfully, I was able to reach for my phone and call Nathan immediately. He answered excitedly, hearing me crying on the other end, expecting me to say I was in labor. All I could manage out was that I had been in a car accident and I didn’t know if I was okay. I was able to tell him that I could hear sirens already approaching the scene (praise God for someone else calling 911) and where I was at. Almost instantly, two paramedics were at my car door and I was explaining to them through tears that I was 39 weeks pregnant and not sure I was okay. In the chaos, I hung up on Nathan.
While talking to the paramedics, I looked over to the front of the accident to see a familiar face. Our friend Paul from church had been right there as the accident happened and recognized my car, pulling over to make sure I was okay. I could hear his calm voice carrying over the chaos at the accident scene saying “Cassie, it’s Paul. What do you need?” To which I was able to say, “Call Nathan.” Paul was able to provide more detail and a clearer description of where we were and kept Nathan on the phone until he could be by my side. I will forever be grateful to the Lord for placing Paul there and for His provision of comfort and care.
The accident had backed up traffic down Harrodsburg Road, so Nathan took his 4-Runner into the grass median and drove the length of the back-up from downtown to where I was, receiving many dirty looks, I am sure. So thankful for that sweet husband of mine not giving one care and getting to us as quickly as he could. By the time he parked his car in the median, the incredibly kind paramedics were explaining that I needed to be taken to the hospital to confirm that everything was okay with me and the baby internally. I just kept mumbling in my hysterics that I didn’t want to ride in the ambulance and that I just needed to go to my midwives' office to be checked. Nathan firmly told me that we were going to the hospital and when told that he couldn’t ride in the ambulance with me, he point-blank said “No, I’m riding with.” The paramedics were truly so so nice, and obliged instantly, as long as his car wasn’t in the way of traffic. With a quick glance over his shoulder at his car in the grass median, Nathan replied: “That looks out of the way to me.” With a quick confirmation shrug from the traffic officer on the scene, we were loaded into the ambulance and headed to the University of Kentucky Hospital. En route to the hospital, I asked Nathan to text my boss (who is also a friend and goes to church with us) to let him know I wouldn’t be back for my afternoon meetings… priorities.
The Emergency Department is a BUSY place, especially when you are 39 weeks pregnant and coming in as a “trauma” patient. There were around 20+ nurses and doctors in the ED bay with us. Nathan knew that I was still hoping for a surprise gender in the midst of all the crazy, and he was so intentional to let every new person that came to examine us know that we didn’t know the gender and still wanted to be surprised. Sweet man.
The hospital had called my midwives to let them know one of their patients had been admitted and soon our midwife Hayden was walking towards the head of the exam table to be with Nathan and me. I started crying as soon as I saw her, because 1) Hayden goes to church with us and is a friend of ours, and 2) I didn’t know she was the midwife on call for that day. Once she was by our side, she said she had been praying over us the entire drive to the hospital and I felt a sense of peace and calm knowing she was who was in our corner in the midst of the next minutes and hours of the unknown.
Everything began to calm down in the emergency bay as we got positive report after positive report from each doc that was checking me and baby out and slowly the number of people began to dwindle. However, with the lessening of adrenaline, I began to feel the hunger and drop in my blood sugar that had prompted the drive from work to Chick-fil-a in the first place. I looked at Nathan and told him I needed juice or something stat. The nurses assured me once they were done watching the baby on the monitor they would go get me something, to which I announced I didn’t think I would make it that long.
Sure enough, I started to pass out and with that, the baby’s heart rate started to drop. Both monitors for baby and me started to go off and instantly our peaceful bay filled with 40+ people, shouting questions and commands across us, trying to determine why the baby was dropping and instructing the space next to us to be prepped for an emergency C-section. The high-risk OB with us was quickly explaining to Nathan that Baby’s heart rate had dropped to 50bpm for 4-6 minutes and if it stayed down 10 minutes, they would have them out via cesaeran within two.
That was enough to snap me back to consciousness. I was immediately hooked up to an IV, administered fluids, and was eager to do whatever I was instructed to help get Baby’s vitals back up. They got me on my hands and knees, gave me some oxygen, and thankfully, our strong little babe leveled back out. I finally got my juice, we were continued to be monitored for half an hour and then eventually wheeled up to the Labor and Delivery floor to continue to be watched.
Around 2:30pm - Once we were settled into our room on the L+D floor, we were told by Hayden that after consulting with high-risk doctors, our care team felt the best decision would be for us to not be leaving the hospital without our baby. For someone who had planned and so desired to labor at home as long as possible and to give birth without any medication or intervention, I was heartbroken. However, I also knew what a gift we were given in having a healthy and safe baby and mom and so I held both my grief and gratitude simultaneously as we continued the conversation to discuss options for induction.
I am so so thankful that we were under the care of our wonderful midwives, who knew my intended birth plan was having to pivot and were determined to provide me with the closest possible experience that they could. We chose to start a foley bulb, the least medicated option, after some time resting. My mom & mother in law came to the hospital to check on us, while Nathan’s dad went to our condo to grab our things. Hayden called our doula Riah for us and filled her in on the situation and they made a plan for Riah to head to the hospital around 11am the next morning.
6pm - By 6pm I had showered, had dinner (Chick-fil-a was dropped off for us because I was still craving it and never got it for lunch haha), said goodbye to our moms, and settled in to start the induction process. And then the shaking from adrenaline began (and would not stop until the end of birth). The events of the day had settled in, as had the bruising and aching from the car accident and my body began uncontrollably shaking.
6:30pm - Hayden and our precious nurse Janita (who had been with us in the Emergency Department) came in and began the process to place the foley bulb to artificially dilate my cervix. At the time of starting the process, I was zero centimeters and negative across the board as far as dilation, effacement, and station go. They attempted to place the foley bulb for 30+ minutes, but the baby’s head positioning was pushing my cervix sideways to the left and making placement nearly impossible. It was explained to us that the process was like trying to thread a limp spaghetti noodle through a cheerio, but the cheerio was angled sideways. FUN. After more than half an hour of squeezing Nathan’s hand and breathing through the discomfort, I asked for a break. Laying on my back with cracked ribs was becoming incredibly uncomfortable.
8pm - Hayden came back and this time, with my feet in stirrups and deep breathing, she was successful on the first try. With the foley bulb finally in place, I began to feel contractions early in the night. I was given a Unisom and was able to get some interrupted sleep. Baby kept swimming off the monitors around my abdomen, so nurses were in and out every half hour or so to reposition the monitors to keep an eye on Baby. The remainder of the night went as such, while we tried to rest and await progress for the morning.
Part Two continued here.