Hey Y'all,
I know I have been slacking on the writing the past
two appointments apparently. I have a reason you see. This past Saturday
Jan 17th KLB (Kolton Levi) our newest son and myself just got released
from the hospital after a roller coaster of a birth experience.
At
38 weeks I went in for our weekly doctors
appointment. We were surprised we had in fact made it all the way to
check day. I call it that due to it is where they see if you are already
at all dilated. I in fact was already at 3cm. Which does not seem like a
large amount but I went into the hospital at 4cm/5cm with O..but my
water had broke on its own ahead of time. With E....I had lost my plug
for multiple days and was in labor at home for a long time..having
contractions at home until 12:30am.
Wednesday two
weeks ago after my appointment I started to have contractions around
12:30pm..they slowly continued throughout most of the day and night. I
had let my parents know how the appointment and as they started to get
more consistent had let them know I think it is going to happen tonight
or very shortly. Little did I know what trouble we would go through to
bring K into the world.
We also let my friend Holly
know and she was working late that evening. We were not rushing. I hate
when people do not listen to their bodies and go in way to early. I did
not think I was going to be one of those ppl. We went into the hospital
just after 10 sometime on Wednesday and when I got there my contractions
were all over the place..sometimes 5 minutes apart and intense and
other times 15. I was 4cm when they had checked me. So they told me
without the head being back where the doctor felt it at my appointment
all I can do is wait for a bit and walk to see if things pick back up
again.
Well let me tell you...we walked and walked and
walked some more. They asked me if I wanted to go home..which was not
happening with two toddlers who can not watch mom in pain and I would
not be sleeping at home anyways. Well we spent time walking, watched
some tv..doing yoga poses to help move the baby down farther. My
contractions continued to be all over the place. The first nurse I had
was very nice..and felt so bad considering how far I had come and still
by the time her shift had ended I was not officially admitted yet and
only 4/5cm by then. I continued to be 5 for a long time and sat in the
first check out area for most of the day. I was told they would not
break my water or give me a epidural until I was in more active labor
since it kept changing its mind and they had 4 inductions ahead of me
booked in and a c-section taking priority.
At one
point in the middle of the night they gave me a shot of gravol and
another pain med to help a bit..thinking it would help me sleep some and
relax so things would move a little more quickly. We all were in for a
very long day. Well by 8:30 the doctor on call came and checked me and I
had stalled..before that I was in the tub for a bit..which i recommend but as for me it stopped my contractions. Felt amazing for pain but not the reaction I was looking for.
We
started to walk again...do more intense yoga poses and squatting for
longer periods of time. At 12:30 when the doctor came back in from pipc
where I was being followed I was farther down..but as of then she could
not break my water yet. The head was back up again and she was afraid
that the cord would come down first instead of the head. I could feel K
move and roll inside of me on and off during this whole thing. I was at
5/6 for the longest time.
Since my contractions were
stopping and starting it took my body longer to dilate properly. I was
allowed to eat breakfast and lunch..which I ate a small amount of trail
mix at lunch since I was afraid I may get sick. A lot of time went by
before the doctor would be coming back from the PIPC office downtown.
They had moved me into the room I would be delivering in but was still
not admitted until later on that evening. I continued to do more things
to help bring my contractions back. You have to be in active painful
labor before they will admit me or check me..so I thought here goes
nothing! I did some more yoga poses that my dear friend and awesome
Doula/Business Owner Shaunacy had sent me when I had text her earlier
that day. Sitting or I should say squatting in the birthing stool is
another thing I did this time around..which works great..but very
painful when actually trying to get through contractions. After doing
one of the yoga poses that looks a like child's pose I started to get
more intense contractions again and sat up in another Buddha type pose
to help bring the head back down again.
I remember
continuously asking if they could check me again...or break my water to
speed things along..or give me the epidural to relax my body to move
things faster. My body I felt was fighting against me with how much
starting and stopping it was doing. It got to the point where my
contractions were starting again and sometimes starting and ending..they
gave me another shot for the pain. I believe it was painful for my
sleep deprived husband, mom and dear friend to watch me. For enduring
such a long labor..and believe i know there is ppl who have labored for
longer than the 29 and a bit hours I did...but during the whole process
it feels like you trying so hard and failing. It got to the point before
they gave me the drugs that my contractions were so intense that it was
all I could do to stand the pain. I was exhausted and crying it hurt so
much. It usually takes quite a bit to make me cry for pain reasons.
After the drugs were given to me I felt that it did nothing..but my mom
and dear husband seemed to think it helped a small bit for my
disposition changed. I started to hummm or buzz instead of cry..and
breath...but mostly humm and buzzz..due to how intense my body was
working for this dear child.
I remember my friend Holly
and Mom going to talk to the nurses about my condition. It was hard to
watch. They had left me that day due to other planned inductions and a
C-section. It felt like what could be hours..and the doctor was not
going to be back until 4-4:30. Meanwhile 5:30 rolled around and that is
when she came in to check on me. I remember hearing "Ohhhh you are
buzzing that is what we want to hear you doing!". At that point I just
really wanted her to check me. The nurse had checked me earlier that day
but I was still not where they wanted then and the doctor needed to be
there. At this point she checked my water and to see where the head was.
The head was now off to the side a bit...and as she was checking so
they could give me my epidural finally..my water broke all over her arm
and the bed. It did not stop. I like to think of it as Noah's
Arc....every time the nurses changed the pad..it did not stop.
At
that point they got in touch with the anesthesiologist to give me the
epidural. Where they ask you a million questions and give you the needle
and get you all set up for the pain. My mom and dear husband have seen
the needle before...Holly had not..it was all she could do to look at
how large it was. I had been waiting for the epidural for so long that
it was great we were finally at that point. When she checked me and my
water broke..after all that time I was some how still at 7cm dilation.
Normally the epidural speeds everything up. Not this time..everything
slowed down and almost stopped again. Soo after a bit we were asked if
we would like something to force contractions. So then I was give
Pitocin to force my contractions. I never and I mean never wanted to
take it..but Doug verbally said.."Just give her the damn drug". He may
have been a little unimpressed they even asked us since we had gone
through so much to get this far.
I was given the
Pitocin to force contractions around 7:30pm. Things started to pick up
and around some time later on (little foggy on time) I was fully
dilated. They called the doctor in and joked about practice pushing. I
told them before not to tell me to practice push. The doctor came in
around 9:45pm and checked me again and said I was fully dilated and the
head was sort of there but not quite where she wanted it to be. She
started to manipulate my stomach to try and put the baby in the right
position to get the baby properly into the birthing canal. Before that
it was off to the right side. Around 10:02 we started to push. Each time
I pushed the doctor told me to stop. The first push K did a full 180
turn. He was facing upwards and turned to face fully down. As I pushed
and stopped each time she was turning his head and body. When the head
was out the cord was fully wrapped around his head two times. The baby's
hands were in up looking like he was trying to pull it off.
At
this point she had me push and stop, each time I pushed she would
unwrap the cord a bit more. At 10:06 he was fully out and born. Hard to
believe he was pushed out in 4 mins after 29 hours of labor. At this
point..there was no crying! She smacked his bum a couple times to see if
he would cry. They immediately rushed him over to the table to be
suctioned out and checked over. K was not breathing at this point due to
all the mucus in his system with the fast delivery and the cord being
wrapped around his neck. They called in one of the special care nursery
nurses just to be safe while they worked on him. He had to be given some
oxygen and the doctor turned him over and massaged/smacked ticked him
off to get him to cry and breath. He then became very alert, crying and
ready to fully be checked for his apgar test which went really well. K was 7lb 1oz and 20inches in length I believe. I would have to check haha.
The
Delivery Nurse then got all of his measurements and we took some
freshly born pictures with baby K. They took off the iv's I did not need
anymore and after a bit got my stuff together to move us to the
maternity ward. We were moved into a semi private room. That night there
was a lot of babies being born so the ward was really full. I was put
into a room with a new young mom. I am all about new moms and
understanding. However the girl I was put into was platinum
blonde..superficial. She called down to the desk for the nurses to
change a diaper for her in the middle of the night. K woke up about 4
times to feed that night/morning and we were up in the wee morning
around 5am..he got back to sleep but I did not. Lucky for me after
hearing the other girl buzz all night and having feedings she was moved
into Semi-private the next day. I did not get another girl in with me
until 1am. We came home from the hospital Saturday since they could not
discharge me at 10pm.
Monday Jan 19 we went for our 3
day check up which was almost 4 days old for K. When we left the
hospital on Saturday he was 6lb 110z and by Monday he was 6lb 13oz. He
had only lost 5% body weight and less than 3% by Monday. He passed all
hearing tests and blood work for jaundice. He had his tongue clipped at
the hospital and then again on Monday since it was still not fully done.
We go back for another check up this upcoming Wednesday where he will
be a day from being 2 weeks old!
We are doing great! A
little tired considering we may not be fully caught up on sleep. He is
doing well all around. Lasting anywhere from 2-4hrs. Sleeps through the
noisy chaos of our house. We were always busy..just different busy. Evie
loves K to bits! Always kissing him and asking to hold him. O loves K
too! He wants to share all of his toys. He is a bit jealous but overall
they will rule the roost together.
As for us we
finally sold our place and bought a brand new house closer to our
parents! New exciting things all in a week! I will write more soon..you
know on our Threenager and Tornado.
Love the Brants!
