Grace Teresa Slack

After a long wait and a difficult labor, our sweet girl finally arrived just as pure and perfect as can be. We feel so blessed to have this little angel in our family.

A brief overview of my Birth Story: Wednesday evening I went into labor on my own and labored at home for several hours, When contractions were getting really intense Kent and I headed to the hospital and my mom stayed with the girls. I labored with Kent at the hospital for another 5 hours with really strong contractions coming every 3 minutes, trying to avoid the epidural for as long as possible. At around 5:30 in the morning, exhausted, spent, and dilated to a 7.5 I opted for the epidural to give me some rest.

Then it happened as it always does, but worse this time; my blood pressure plummeted. It felt like death; there was ringing in my ears, dizziness, nausea, I couldn’t breath, I cried out for help. They gave me oxygen and ran to get some kind of blood pressure medicine. The blood pressure was 60’s/30’s, but finally came up and I started vomiting. The baby’s heart rate was dropping at that point into the 60’s and would not come up. All the nurses ran in trying to turn me and get her heart rate back up, ready for an emergency C-section if not. After a minute or two her heart rate finally started coming back up again. This scenario happened several times and was really scary. It was awful! I know that there were a lot of prayers said for me and the baby, and I know there was power in those prayers, that Heavenly Father was protecting us and helped us through. I felt there were angels in the room comforting us too, through those scary moments. Kent was also such a great support for me through it all, there at my side the whole night encouraging and supporting.

At around 12:30, after 7 hours, and only 1/2 cm of progress, they started the Pitocin. The next thing I knew, I felt a lot of pressure and the urge to push. They called the doctor and it took him 2 mins 43 secs to get from his clinic to the room, as he promised us earlier that morning. After only about 5 mins of pushing she was born at 1:12pm. I could not hold her right away as there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, and they had the team waiting to suction her out right away. She weighed 7 lbs even and was 20 inches long.

She was fine and healthy and they finally let us hold her. She was beautiful, but had darker features then I had imagined she would, different then my other two, which I love.

We decided to name her Grace after two amazing women in our lives. Grace is the name of my paternal grandmother who I adore and admire so much, and Grace is also the name of Kent’s paternal grandmother who we both respect and admire as well. For her middle name we used Teresa, for Kent’s mother, an angel in his life. I heard Kent whisper to her, “we will give you the middle name Teresa after your grandmother who is one of the most hard working, selfless, loving and giving people I know.” One of my most dearest amazing aunts also has the name Teresa so it all just seemed right. So there you have it Grace Teresa Slack.

Nana and Papa brought the girls to meet there new little sister. They loved coming. Anna was fascinated and entranced by her new little sister. She would not leave her side and constantly wanted to hold her and look at her. On the other hand, Elise was a typical 2 year old. She was interested for 3 seconds, looked at her, patted her head and was off, more interested in all the neat things in the hospital room.

Nana and Papa were also pretty excited to meet their 4th grandbaby.