Imagine you’re Kyle – it’s late Friday evening and you’re laying down to rest while your wife continues through epidural induced bliss, waiting for complete dilation. You hear the nurse come into a dimly lit room and gently talk to your wife. Minutes later, 6 more nurses swiftly enter the room and every light is flipped on. You open your eyes to your wife being flipped from side to side and then tiled heels over head in her bed. You catch her eyes and try not to show your fear as she peeks between the bed railings. You notice that she’s clinging to it with her left hand while she holds an oxygen mask with her right. Our primary nurse instructs another to ‘hit her’ with some drug you’re not familiar with. The midwife enters the room and begins to feel her back and belly. All you can do is pray – and then finally – you hear everyone in the room exhale. The machines stop beeping, the extra nurses clean up and leave calmly. The midwife says good job and follows them out.
That was the worst of a few scares we had during delivery, but let me take you back to the beginning...
----- Wednesday, July 20th -----
I had my first “contractions” which I’ll now just call cramps. I think my mind was playing tricks on me as I hoped for a baby to arrive on my time line.
----- Thursday, July 21st (Due Date)-----
At my 40 week appointment, I’d made no significant progress since my 1.5 cm / 60% / -2 measurements that I was given at 37 weeks.
[Side Bar | They measure for dilation (completed at 10 cm), effacement (completed at 100%) and the baby’s stage, which is also known as centimeters above and below the pelvis. Stage of -5 is where they start measuring above the pelvis and +5 is crowning. This is helpful to know in order to understand the story of how we progressed through labor.]
Needless to say, I left the office Thursday disappointed that #BabyKJ was obviously going to be late. Around 11:00pm Thursday night, I woke up to contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. They lasted until about 3:00am.
----- Friday, July 22nd -----
Those early morning contractions subsided to a varied frequency. They'd come every 15 minutes for a few hours and then slow to being one per hour, but they persisted ALL DAY and into the night. In hindsight, I know this was what they call ‘false labor’ or ‘pre labor’. These contractions were uncomfortable, but not yet painful. They provide no progress toward birth, but are many peoples bodies’ way of preparing for true labor.
----- Saturday, July 23rd -----
Around 3:30 am I woke to painful contractions coming every 10 – 12 minutes. These lasted all morning and were consistent in timing. I wanted to go to the hospital but I didn’t want to wake Kyle in the middle of the night for nothing. So, I waited it out until around 8:00 am. We packed the car and made the long (2.5 mile) drive to the hospital. My contractions were still about 7 – 9 minutes apart and causing me to pause while walking or talking. We entered the Labor and Delivery triage. My progress measurements... 2cm / 80% / -2. Tears! They sent me home and said it was probably still false labor. FALSE LABOR!? You have to be kidding me. All of that pain for ZERO progress. I officially declared we would not be having any more children. (Ha!)
[Side Bar | I was told at least a dozen times to come to the hospital once I had contractions coming at least every 5 minutes, so painful I couldn’t walk or talk through them, and had lasted at least an hour. So, while I was upset to be sent home Saturday morning, I knew that would be the result. I had not met the requirements given to me by every midwife I saw, but I wanted to think I was special and my contractions must have been working better that most. After all, they hurt SO bad. #firsttimemom]
After we left the hospital, Kyle decided to treat me to one last Saturday morning Waffle House date, and then we’d spend some time relaxing and trying to make the contractions go away. Our hope was too visit the Atlanta Ice Cream Festival and attend Henry’s First Christmas in July Birthday Party that afternoon. I did EVERYTHING the nurses (and the internet) said would end false labor. Took a hot bath, watched a movie, tried to nap, rolled on an exercise ball, drank lots of water, and took a hot shower. Nothing worked. When I got out of the shower I proclaimed that this MUST be real. My contractions were consistently every 4 – 5 minutes, and I couldn’t walk or talk through them (sound familiar? See side bar above). We were going to the hospital and we were staying this time. I just knew it!
At 3:30 pm, we got back to triage. I went to the same room, was checked by the same nurse, and was glad to hear I’d made it to 3cm / 90% / -2. That was enough to garner me a stay in the hospital. They took me to the labor and delivery floor and got me an epidural immediately. I was in heaven. Sending snap chats, texting friends and family, #BabyKJ was coming. We learned in class that the average first time moms take up to 18 hours to deliver. I wasn't sure when true labor had started so I was prepared for a long night, but hoped to have a baby by the end of the day or very early the next morning. I had a few low blood pressure readings and I didn’t react to the normal medication so they got some extra help from the nurse anesthetist, but no one seemed too panicked. We noticed KJ’s heart rate dropped a few times based on my position changes, so I pretty much stayed put on my left side. He was being sensitive, but doing ok. Shift change was at 7:00 pm and that’s when my wonderful nurse Megan joined the team. We had 12 hours for her shift and we were going to have a baby with her by golly. She gave me popsicles, checked my vitals, everything moving along, it was just slow. I had watched Pitch Perfect and was reading a book on my phone when she came in to do the last check late Friday night. She rolled me to my back, looked at the monitor with big eyes and immediately said – “nope, let’s roll you back to your side”. Before I knew it I had an oxygen mask and was upside down in my bed. Nurses were flipping me left to right and then up on my head. I peeked through the bed rails and saw Kyle. He looked mortified. He looked down at me and tried to hide his fear with a smile and a wink. Back to my left side I was flipped where I noticed tons of extra feet in the room. I heard the midwife walk in. She asked the nurses some questions I didn't understand and was poking and prodding at me. Apparently I was on my 6th consecutive contraction and KJ was on minute 4 of heart deceleration. They put something in my IV and then there was finally relief. Because of the epidural I hadn’t even realized how tight my back and belly had been until the midwife was poking and I it was suddenly squishier. Everyone left except Megan who then explained what happened. Basically we hit a position that KJ really didn’t like along with consecutively strong contractions and low blood pressure. He was going downhill fast. As soon as they found a better position and provided a drug to stop the contraction he came right back to normal. It was a close call, but one the Lord brought us through. The midwife then came back and completed the measurement that started this chaos. I was 10 cm / 100% / -1. Hooray! It was time to push. However, she explained that because of the sensitivity KJ had shown throughout the evening, they wanted to be prepared for the worst in-case he didn’t handle pushing well. I sat straight up and down in the bed to allow him to start dropping into lower stages and they set everything up for a c-section, just in case. Because there were only a few patients on the floor, the Dr. from my practice was on call right outside my room. Since it was almost time for the most painful part of the night, I thought it’d be a good time to try and get my epidural fixed. It has been working too strong on the right side and not strong enough on the left. The nurse anesthetist did some wiggling and re-dosed me with more meds which put my whole lower body to sleep.
----- Sunday, July 24th -----
2:15 am - After they were set for the C-section and I'd spent an hour sitting straight up it was time to push. I pushed for 45 minutes and made no progress at all. I was too numb. I sat back up for an hour to let the re-dose wear off and let gravity pull him a bit lower. 4:00 am – time to push again. The nurse showed back up and we got started. She’d call the midwife when he was past stage 0. I pushed for 30 minutes making very slow progress. I was tired and frustrated but just kept trying. I prayed between each push that the Lord give me strength I did not have within myself. Another nurse on the hall had finished her delivery and wandered in to see if she could help. Since my nurse was alone, she stayed to help me push. That nurse (another Angel from the Lord) said something that made it all click. Suddenly, I understood where to push and started making much better progress. Still, I was exhausted and wasn’t quite far enough along. By 5:10, the midwife came back. KJ was handling pushing well, but now I was the one at risk. Pushing for too long was not healthy. She gave me until 6:10 to get him past 0 stage or we’d have to consider a C-section again. I pushed until 6:00. I had 10 minutes left and I was so close. After declining a mirror many times, Megan mentioned again that she could see the head and she thought if I could see it it’d give me the last boost of energy to finish. I figured why not. Turns out, she was right. Something about seeing our baby put me into super woman mode. I made it into the safe zone and cried tears of joy knowing there was absolutely no more risk of an emergency C-section anymore. Megan was typing on the computer, and the midwife went to put on her delivery gear. I asked if I could continue to push. They said “sure…” as if they didn’t think it’d make a difference. Just a few pushes later they both turned back and saw that he was crowning. Both Megan and my midwife were the biggest supporters through this whole thing. They were fully on my side and might have been more proud that I was that we'd made it to the finish line. I will forever love them both!
As his head emerged, the cord was wrapped 3 times. The midwife unwrapped it. One more push, and there he was. 6:27 am - screaming and purple - YIKES! The cord and his color scared me a bit but all the medical staff said it was a relief to know what was causing his distress. If he’d come out looking normal, they’d have still been worried about proper heart development or other potential problems. He spent a few minutes at the warmer and pinked up right away. He spent the next hour on my chest. The rest is history.
----- Happy Birthday #BabyKJ -----