KLB's Birth Story

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!