40 weeks- The Real Story, part 1

This post contains the story of our little Snowflake's birth. It does not contain graphic details but it is the story of birth. Consider yourself warned and proceed at your own risk. :)

I didn't sleep well the early morning of Tuesday, July 17th. I had moved to the couch to watch tv somewhere between 330 and 4. Around 5:00 a.m., I texted my girls on our instant messenger saying I just didn't feel right and maybe I was having contractions? Courtney has an almost 2 year old so she has been there before. She started asking questions, like: are you sick? Do you have to poop like crazy?, and suggesting I make sure my bag is packed, get up and start walking, even of it is just from room to room in the house. This pain I was feeling was happening about every 20 minutes.

When Hubby's alarm went off at 6:30, I went into the bedroom and crawled in bed next to him and said, ”I think I'm having contractions.” He looked at me like he was scared to death and then rolled over maybe hoping if he did that none of the before happened. After his moment of terror, he asked me what I wanted him to do (go to work for a little bit and see how I feel out just stay home with me). I told him to go to work for a bit and get everything ready because he might be gone for a while. BUT before you do that, pack your dang hospital bag!

I proceeded to take a shower, clean off the camera's memory card and make sure I had packed my last minute items. At 11:30, I called Hubby and told him he needed to come home. The contractions had started getting closer together and I was tired of being alone. My girls were awesome. I had lots of encouragement and excitement from them via text. When Hubby got home, I told him if he didn't act fast, he wouldn't be able to take Tobie in for her shot [see, I was under the impression he was only going to work for an hour or so, not 3.5]. They darted out the door and returned very quickly. 

After he got home, he loaded our bags into the car. Then said he would take Tobie out since we might not be coming back for a night or two (we knew family was coming and would be staying at our house so Tobie would be taken care of by them). 

I tried to call my doctor to see if he could see me early, wanted me to wait until my appointment, our go get checked at the hospital. They were gone to lunch. Since the contractions were more frequent, we decided to head that direction anyways and call again when we got closer.  The nurse ended up telling me to just wait until our 3 o'clock appointment so we drove to a nearby park. At Woodward Park, we walked from one shaded bench to another, which took about 15 minutes each. We only sat on 3 different benches because I would sit down to have contractions (and it was at least 100 degrees outside). We also saw some huge squirrels. Tobie would have loved chasing them! At one time there were 17 of them waiting on a group of kids to throw them some food. While doing all of this I had been timing and keeping track of contractions on my phone. They were happening more frequently but were still not 1 minute long happening every 5 minutes for an hour.

We went to the appointment at 3. The last time I was going to pee in a cup, I failed. I guess the nerves and pain got the best of me. After getting weighed and then throwing up, we went to our room. The doctor came in and was going to check to see how much I was dilated. Before he could do that, I had another contraction. His response was,”Oh! That's a good one!” Then he told us that I was a 2 maybe 3 and that he would probably see us later that night to have a baby. My thought was 'it took a week to go from a 1 to a 2 maybe 3 and you think I'm having this baby tonight? You must be crazy.' He then gave us 3 options, one of which he did not recommend… he would admit us to the hospital (this one was not recommended since I wouldn’t be able to eat or drink anything and would be confined to a bed), walk around Utica Square (a shopping area right by the hospital), or go home and try to relax for a while. We chose the latter so we could hang with Tobie again.

We got back home around 4:30. I tried to eat some soup and Sprite but was not very successful. {Prior to all of this happening, we had decided to wait to call the family. The hospital doesn’t really have a comfortable waiting area so there was no reason for them to come and sit around. We had also decided it would just be the two of us during labor and delivery so there really was nothing for the rest of the family to do.} Preston talked to his mom after the appointment and told her, “There was some progress but he (the doctor) wants to see us again on Friday.” Later, I talked to my Dad and Brother and told them the same story. I told Preston I felt bad for lying and he said, “I lied to my Mom first. You had to stick with the story.”

The contractions continued and I finally told Preston that we needed to go back to the hospital. He took Tobie out in the backyard. After several minutes of waiting, I went to the backyard to find them running around playing! I informed him this was not a drill and we needed to leave or we might have a baby in the backyard. By 6:30 we were headed back to Tulsa. We went to labor and delivery and they put us in a triage room to see how far I was dilated. After the nurse checked me she said, “What do you think you are?” I told her I had no idea. She said, “How about a 7.” At this point, it got really real for Preston. He then continued to comment that I was “bad ass” for already being at a 7. The nurse turned around, pushed a button and said, “We’re admitting at a 7.” And we were off to the races! I overheard the first girl that took us to our room telling our nurse, Allison, that ‘she didn’t walk in here like she was at a 7!’

We were taken to labor and delivery room #10. As soon as I was settled into the bed, Allison asked if I wanted an epidural. I quickly (possibly before she got the whole question out) responded with yes! An IV had to be started and blood work done before they would actually do the epidural. Allison said she would be on top of the lab to make sure we got the results back in time. By 8:50, I had my epidural and everything was growing up sunshine, roses and unicorns.

The last picture of the two of us

In this video, you can hear Kinley's heart beat from the monitor. On the little screen, one shows her heart rate and the other is my contractions.

Around 9:30, we called our family. His mom’s first reaction was that it was a joke. Preston reassured her that it was no joke. My dad, brother and niece were on their way to Enid from OKC. They said as soon as they got to Enid, they would re-pack and head over. One down side to epidurals is that they stop or slow down contractions. Mine stopped, so I was given pitocen to start them back up. Some time in there, the doctor broke my water too.

The room is ready! Now we are just waiting on a baby!

Preston’s mom arrived at the hospital right before we started pushing at 11:55. When we were getting ready to start, Allison said, “Dad, I’m going to need you to hold this leg while I get the other.” At that point, I thought, “Great. He is going to end up on the floor.” So as I was pushing I kept looking over at him and Allison kept looking at me and asking if I was okay. Finally I told her I was worried Preston was going to end up on the floor. She assured me that she would take care of him later. :) We (I say we because Preston was there, holding my leg) pushed for 30-45 minutes then took a break and tried again.

Around 1:15ish, the doctor called to see how things were going. Allison asked for him to come check himself. While in our room, we pushed again. Then he told us that she was transverse, meaning she was looking to the side, and asked how we felt about helping her out. I asked if they would be using the salad tongs (their medical name is forceps but we saw them in our birthing class and they look like salad tongs). We were told they would use a vacuum. We also saw this device in class; it kind of looks like a plunger that is suctioned to the baby’s head. Of course they informed us that there are risks to using it but I think there are risks to anything. 

This picture gives you an idea of the vacuum used to help babies out

Being a first time parent and unsure, I asked Allison what she would do. She said, “We could keep pushing for 3 or 4 hours and get nowhere and end up having to do a c-section or we could try the vacuum and it not work and end up doing a c-section or try the vacuum and it work to get her out of there.” So we took that as a recommendation to try the vacuum because they felt it could easily help her out and not wear her and I out in the process.

As soon as this decision was made, we pushed 5 or 6 times and Kinley Elise made her appearance at 1:57 a.m!

I remember feeling amazed that she came from inside me and was now out in the real world. It is such a shocking feeling of instant love and amazement at the miracle of life. I remember seeing Preston's face when he saw her coming out. It looked somewhat like a shocked face but was instantly filled with joy and love that his little girl was really here. He said, "Oh my!" several times, as if he couldn't believe it. 

After the doctor had her nose sucked out and she made her first peep, Preston was handed a pair of surgical scissors to cut the umbilical cord and she was laid up on my chest.

Nurse Allison showing me the sweet baby

Getting a little bit cleaned off (this picture also shows her little hat from the vacuum)

8 pounds 2 ounces!

More cleaning and diapering

Our new addition

In our breast feeding class, they recommended that we use the time right after birth to bond with our baby. They also say within the first hour of life is the best time for a baby to start breastfeeding. This time was also used for the epidural to wear off so that I could walk again. We decided this would be best for our new little family. In doing that, we told the waiting grandparents, uncle and cousin that they would have to wait until we were moved to our post partum room to meet Miss Kinley. 

What's next?? Kinley is introduced to family!