Bringing Baby into the World

While I'm waiting (and hoping) for responses to my previous post, I can write this one because I do not intend to include pictures in this post. This is more for my benefit than anyone else's because it is way overdue, but I needed a written record somewhere and this is the 'where' that I've chosen. So while I still remember all the details, I'm going to proceed to describe the labor and birth process of my sweet baby Wailin Kailyn. Beware, this may be a long post.

I'll start with a brief overview of the pregnancy. This is debatable since I saw so many different doctors during my pregnancy (as I moved and graduated and switched insurances multiple times) but my due date was November 11, 2009. The entire pregnancy went just fine and there were no complications at all. The only things of note were that I was sick the ENTIRE time, right up until my hospital admission, and that Baby Girl Strong was a little small but still healthy, and we planned on naming her Korrali (which most people didn't know). Also, I assume I had them but I never was able to identify a Braxton Hicks (false) contraction which comes into play later in the story.

On November 3rd (a Tuesday), Garrett and I were at our friends', (Elizabeth's and Chad's) apartment eating, playing games, and watching the comedian Brian Regan. During dinner, around 6 or 7, I started feeling something going on inside my belly, but I didn't know if I was feeling real or false contractions because they were pretty faint and did not hurt at all. I was very squirmy and uncomfortable during Brian Regan (which people now say was something that tipped them off) but I attributed that to my large, heavy belly and the hard wooden chair I had been sitting on. Eventually we went home and tried to go to sleep. I was very hot under the covers and a little too cool out of the covers so again, I kept squirming and being uncomfortable. We did not suspect that I was in labor yet so when I decided to just stay awake a while longer and go watch some tv, Garrett continued to sleep (since it was a school night for him, after all). As I watched this show about crocodiles, the contractions continued to get closer but still not any more painful. I was very confused and curious about what was happening and I did start to wonder if I was really in labor. It was nothing like I expected it to be so I thought I'd do some internet research just to make sure, which is very typical of me. People laugh at me because who does that while they are about to give birth? Apparently I do;) I wanted to know the characteristics of Braxton Hicks versus real contractions, but even after reading a lot I never was very certain which ones I was experiencing. Around 2 am or something, I started timing them on this website I found and they were about 5 minutes apart with a pretty short duration (like 15-30 seconds).

So I just continued having contractions, wrote in my journal about how confused I was, and kept watching that crocodile show (which was very interesting by the way). However, the intensity of my contractions eventually started increasing. Of course then I looked up ways online to cope during the contractions, which is something I really wished I had done earlier in the process. Around 4 they were getting pretty unbearable and instead of staying confused about what was happening, it occurred to me that I didn't think these would just go away if I ignored them. I was convinced that they were real contractions. I was at the point where I could find NO comfort during each contraction and I had to do something. I tried walking, sitting, crouching, nothing worked. I finally woke up Garrett and told him I thought I was in labor. He was happy and very sleepy and told me he wanted to watch me have a contraction (I guess so he could tell if I was really in pain...?). Anyway, we took our time and gathered our things (luckily I had previoudly made a list of items to bring to the hospital). I was starving so I tried to eat a piece of toast but didn't even finish half of it. My contractions were 3 minutes apart when we got to the hospital and I was 3cm dilated when they admitted me, which was at 5 or 5:30am.

The nurses asked me if I wanted an epidural to which I responded an enthusiastic YES! I also vomited up that piece of toast I mentioned earlier, as was my regular pregnancy morning custom. I also had really uncomfortable heartburn and asked if they had anything for that. They gave me this really awful tasting liquid to drink, which I didn't think was a good idea. The nurse said that the strong awful taste is what cancels out the heartburn though. Naturally a few minutes later, that too came up. Finally they gave me a pill for it and I think it went away. I think I waited like 30 minutes or an hour for the anesthesiologist to arrive, which wasn't too bad. I don't remember the shot being very bad (especially as I had previously seen the huge needle they use in a childbirth class). Once the drugs kicked in, I couldn't even remotely feel my contractions. In fact, I don't remember this, but Garrett tells me after I got the epidirual, I went to sleep for a few hours. I learned that even though it shouldn't happen, my contractions slowed to 9 min apart after the shot. They thought that breaking my water would help so they did that. Garrett watched and made a really unfortunate face when not only water came out. It was kind of funny, but also I didn't really let him look at what was going on down there after that.

So anyway, breaking my water did help speed up the contractions, but still not enough. They still decided to induce me with petocin. That sped up the contractions a lot and after a while they had me start pushing. I couldn't feel my legs at all, they were numb, so I needed help holding my legs back while I pushed. Oh yeah, Garrett was the only person I wanted in the room with me, but there were family and friends in the waiting room during most of this. I pushed (which wasn't as tricky as I had heard) for an hour and 15 minutes and then Missy Kai was born at 2:13pm on November 4th. I heard her adorable cry, teared up a little, and fell in love with our sweet baby darling. They did set her on me directly after she was born for just a second. Then they suctioned her off, weighed her, and gave her back to me. I had no idea how pretty she would be. I tried to nurse her shortly after but I had no idea if she'd gotten anything at all.

We had a hard time nursing. She wouldn't latch very well and I was in pain and exhausted. We had lactation specialists visit often to help. I was so tired nursing her every 3 hours. The day we were supposed to discharge we learned that she was jaundiced, which is sort of normal. We were discharged a few hours later than planned but they did let us go home with a bilirubin light suitcase we were supposed to keep her in. The lights break down the bilirubin in her blood but we didn't keep her under them enough. The next day her levels had gone up again, which is bad and she was dehydrated and lost weight. It was a very stressful first night home. It was also very emotional because we got readmitted to the hospital so that they could help her get rid of it. We were happy though because we at least thought she would get better. Her poor litte feet and even head got pricked so many times since they had to test her bilirubin levels every 12 hours for the next couple days. I felt so bad. After two more nights in the hospital again, she got rid of her jaundice and was super healthy.

Anyway, that was our labor and birth experience with our darling daughter. It was confusing, emotional, and wonderful. We're so happy she has joined our little family!