My favorite pregnancy past time was reading other bloggers’ birth stories. It fascinated me how different everyone’s experience was and it helped me to wrap my head around the fact that this was something I couldn’t plan, it was going to happen how it was going to happen and I had to just go with it. It is so surreal to me that I am now sitting down to write Kenley’s birth story and recap the days that have forever changed my life.
By now you all know that I am not modest, I have no problem sharing anything and everything and when I was pregnant I really appreciated the stories that went into great detail. Plus, I’ve promised my girlfriends I wouldn’t hold back. SO, if you’d prefer not to read about gross but totally natural things, I won’t judge you for scrolling to the bottom where the pictures of the cute baby live.
With all that out of the way...here's the story of how my daughter was born.
As you all know my due date was Thursday, November 8th and after my due date and 3 more days had passed without a single sign of labor I decided to have my membranes stripped. I went in to see my doctor on Monday, November 12th and was 3 centimeters dilated, 75% effaced and had my membranes stripped. In case things didn't get going, I scheduled an induction for that Thursday, November 15th. My doctor (who you all know I love) was going to be on call Thursday morning but had a feeling I wouldn't make it that long. So she gave me a good luck hug at the office.
I sort of expected things to get going the minute the membranes were stripped, but no such luck.
The next day, however, things finally got moving.
On Tuesday, November 13th at around 1:00pm I was at work and all of a sudden got a bad cramp and got really sweaty. It lasted about 30 seconds and then completely went away....I had my first contraction and completely freaked out! I packed up all my stuff and ran out of work. I was fully aware that I may not have another contraction for days, but the one was all I needed to completely and totally check out of work...I ran out of there so fast I left my lunch in the microwave. About 3 hours later, around 4:00pm, I got to enjoy what was most certainly some sort of bloody show/mucus plug action. For the rest of the afternoon and throughout the night I had some light cramping, but nothing that could be timed or really felt like the real thing.
I woke up on Wednesday, November 14th at 7:30am with a more defined contraction. It felt stronger and had a more definite start and stop. And then they continued....they weren't painful and were coming about every 10-15 minutes. I still didn't want to get too excited, so I told Jason to go to work and I laid in bed and watched Mean Girls. By about 9:00am the contractions were getting more painful. They were still about 10 minutes apart, but I could tell this was finally the real deal. I sent Jason a text letting him know they were more frequent and more painful and he immediately came home.
I had been sending my mom text messages all morning with all the details and could tell that she was getting anxious, so I asked her to come over and keep us company and bring us lunch! :) She got to our house around 12:00pm and at that point the contractions were coming 7-9 minutes apart and were more painful, especially in my lower back. My doctor told us to call when the contractions were one minute long, every five minutes for a full hour. I still had some time, so, we watched Clueless and then Sleepless in Seattle.
It was right around 4:00pm and things were starting to get more intense. I was handling the contractions well with some weird sounds and chanting "owwwwie, owwwie, owwwwwwie". At this point I decided I needed to get in the shower, which felt AMAZING! Jason sat outside the door and I would tell him when the contractions would start and stop so that he could continue to time them. Twenty minutes into my shower and Jason yelled that I should get out...my contractions were now 3-4 minutes apart and had been for over an hour.
At 4:21pm Jason called the doctor and she suggested we head to the hospital.
Of course, we took off for the hospital right during rush hour. The car ride was AWFUL. I was in the back seat on my hands and knees trying to get through the contractions that were getting stronger and stronger and the darn car wasn't moving.
Here I am in between contractions...in the car....cute, huh?
We finally made it to the hospital at 5:12pm and were checked in to Triage. There, we had the most amazing nurse, Christine, who checked me out. She thought that based on the amount of pain I was in, I had to be pretty far along. Unfortunately, I was still only 3 centimeters but completely effaced. The pain at this point was almost entirely in my back. After about an hour of contractions in Triage, we were admitted to our Labor and Delivery room at 6:10pm (Jason took great notes, which is how I know exactly what time everything took place).
At 6:42pm my doctor came in to break my water to get things moving....as soon as my water broke, everything changed. I felt the baby drop lower and that caused the back labor to be unbearable. It was a pain unlike anything I'd ever felt, it literally felt like I was being stabbed in the tailbone. No positions, no breathing, no weird noises were helping the pain. At this point I was only 4-5 centimeters dilated and I knew that there was no way I could go 5 more centimeters with this pain, so I asked for an epidural.
Jason knew how very badly I wanted to give birth naturally. So he did exactly what I told him to do if I asked for medication....he told me I could do it. He told me I was strong. He told me that if I got the epidural there was a good chance I would have a C-section, my ultimate fear (I am TERRIFIED of surgery). But his words meant nothing to me...this was the one time I screamed at Jason. I remember feeling the fear of God within me and I looked at Jason and screamed "I don't care. I cannot do this. I need the f-ing epidural." And so....the nurse got me hooked up to an IV.
At 8:10pm the anesthesiologist came in. He was all business, and frankly a little scary. But, I found comfort in the fact that the man who was inserting a needle into my spine was focused and wasn't interested in small talk. In order to successfully insert the epidural he needed me to sit completely still which was IMPOSSIBLE with excruciating contractions coming every couple of minutes. The first (yes, the first) epidural didn't go so well. First he gave me the local anesthetic and then attempted the epidural. I felt a super intense shooting pain in the left side of my back, which caused me to panic. He then gave me another shot of the local anesthetic and tried the epidural....which didn't work. SO, he switched spots. I got one more local anesthetic and then a successful epidural. I felt relief almost immediately and was so grateful. I began to shake and couldn't stop, so the nurse covered me up with warm blankets, we put on FRIENDS and I was able to relax.
After the epidural, the nurse checked me and I was 6 cm dilated. Because I wasn't progressing they started me on a small drip of Pitocin. So basically, everything I was trying to avoid was happening. I just tried to relax and prayed that everything would go well and that I wouldn't find myself on the operating table.
At 11:12pm the nurse checked me again and said "Alright, you're done." Both Jason and I were confused as to what exactly that meant so Jason asked, "So, a couple more hours then?" and the nurse replied, "No, I'm going to get ready, it's time to push." It was so surreal. We were just hanging out, watching FRIENDS, I couldn't feel a thing and all of a sudden the nurse nonchalantly tells me it's time to have my baby.
I started to push shortly after which was very strange. For some reason the monitors weren't able to read my contractions, so the nurse literally had to sit there with her fingers inside of me to tell me when I was having a contraction. She would say "OK" and then her and Jason would each grab a leg, I would bear down and then push to the count of 10, take a deep breath, push to the count of 10 and then take one more breath and push to 10 for a third time....then rest until the next contraction. Once the baby had made her way down a bit I was able to feel pressure when I was having a contraction, which I liked way more because I felt like I was actually involved in the process. SO, I would alert the team when I was feeling one and again I'd push.
About an hour into pushing the nurse called in my doctor. They needed to increase the Pitocin to keep my contractions coming but the increase in Pitocin was causing the baby's heart rate to drop. I looked over at Jason who was sitting on my left and was looking at the heart rate monitor. Baby girl's heart rate had dropped to 80. He gave me a look, a look that said "you need to push this baby out and soon" and that's all I needed. The next contraction I pushed with everything that I had in me, to which my nurse exclaimed it was my best push yet. While I was making progress pushing, the baby's heart rate was still low so the doctor pulled out the vacuum in order to get her out quickly. Once again...something I definitely didn't want, but at this point I couldn't argue. I was willing to do anything to get my baby out quickly and safely without surgery. Literally the
second my doctor put the vacuum in me the baby's heart rate jumped back up to 130. My little drama queen didn't want the vacuum anymore than I did and decided at the very last second to behave herself.
I felt pressure and once again put every fiber of my soul in to pushing out my baby and sure enough, out came her head. I took a deep breath to push out her shoulders but before I could push I felt her slide out. She was so long and skinny she came out with one GIANT push. It's a feeling I can't describe.
On Thursday, November 15th at 1:07am my baby girl was born. I will never forget the moment I saw her and yet I have absolutely no way to put those few seconds into words. I remember saying, "oh my God, oh my God" over and over and being so overwhelmed with pride and relief and shock that I couldn't even muster tears. The nurse took Kenley's stats and made sure her heart rate was OK and then I was finally able to hold my angel for the first time...and
that is when the tears started.
It was without a doubt the most incredible moment of my life.
I always said I would go into labor with an open mind and do what I needed to do and what I felt was best for me and my baby. I was so worried that if I wasn't able to go natural that I would be disappointed or feel like I failed, but I don't feel even an ounce of that. I was so miserable and in so much pain, ultimately I am really happy that I decided to ask for help. And, despite a little bump in the road, my baby was born safely and that's all that matters in the world.
