Rory Lynn: The Missing Puzzle Piece

After having Piper and soaking up that time with just her, we started down the road again of trying to get pregnant in June 2022, thinking that it may take a while to have it stick, but it actually took the very first month, so we found out we were pregnant in July, but unfortunately lost the baby a month later. This miscarriage was a bit different though since it was a blighted ovum, which means no embryo was forming. It was difficult to go through but we also both felt like something was not right about that one, but then after a few months, we got pregnant again in December and were filled with much more positivity.

Lindsey had a pretty similar pregnancy journey this time around in terms of sickness and fatigue level and the different trimesters, but toward the end, she was very much more uncomfortable, plus she was 7-8 months pregnant during July which was one of the hottest/dryest months in a very long time. For me though, mentally and emotionally this pregnancy was very taxing. I was on edge in the beginning, assuming something to go wrong, and then was beyond stressed and anxious for the birth to start to the point where I could not concentrate at work the final few weeks. We thought Lindsey going a full 7 days late with Piper was tough, but with Rory, she came 10 days late and that was extremely hard on both of us in different ways. Looking back now, it seems like a small glip in time, but living out the days when you expect your baby to come and she doesn’t arrive, then it feels like torture.

Rory Lynn Campbell was born at Mercy Gilbert Hospital on Wednesday, September 20th at 2:21am, and she came out so fast it felt like a blur. Lindsey started to slowly have contractions on the day of her induction appointment, but they were spread out so we had to wait but ended up going into the hospital at 9:00pm, she was dilated a 3, so she was given a pill to help soften her cervix to speed things along. She started to have more intense contractions and opted for the epidural and was dilated a 7, then not much longer was dilated a 10 and internally felt the need to be pushing before the doctor was even ready. Lindsey had to hold back pushing and also doing so with her epidural not working correctly, so she was feeling all the pain that comes with labor, luckily only pushed for about 10-15 minutes but it was excruciating. Rory came only 2 hours after Lindseys active labor started, there was no time to rest.

Thankfully this time around, Covid and quarantining wasn’t a factor, so we were able to have our family and close friends come visit us in the hospital before Rory was even a day old. We weren’t as closely monitored by the nurses, maybe because we weren’t first time parents, so it was nice to be left alone more and we were ready to go home sooner than before since we were eager to begin our life as a family of 4. We had Piper come with my parents right before we got discharged so she could meet Rory at the hospital and then go home with us all together. The meeting of the sisters was quite a roller coaster. At first, she acted how we expected, which was somewhat shy and uninterested. After about an hour, then she started to warm up to the idea of holding her and quickly progressed to holding her and giving her frequent hugs and kisses. The instant love was so strong for her little sister that if we had to change Rorys diaper or someone needed to tend to her, then Piper would have a hysterical meltdown, it was a lot to process and full of big emotions. Since we have been home, slowly catching up on sleep, it’s been a common theme for Piper to go from 0 to 100 with emotions over small things so it’s taking time for her to adjust, which is very understandable. Rory has been figuring out the whole sleeping and feeding thing, some of the same tricks we learned with Piper have carried over to Rory yet the two seem a bit different and already sensing a strong dependent vibe from Rory, liking to be held and nursed. We are absolutely loving this time as a family, watching the girls bond and feeling complete. Time is only going to speed up so we are trying to be present and even cherish the tiredness or rough times because at the end of the day, this is our family, these are the kids we were meant to have and we couldn’t be happier.