Kendree's Birth Story

{Disclaimer: Some of you will not want to read this. You've been warned}

Ronnie and I dropped off Easton at my parents' house at 7:30pm on Tuesday, February 16th and headed up to the hospital. We checked in at the emergency room and I was wheeled upstairs (that always feels a little ridiculous when you aren't actually in labor).

After getting settled in my room, and hooked up to the monitors it turns out that I was contracting every 5-10 minutes, but I couldn't feel them at all (those are my favorite kind!) I still was not dilated at all though. The doctor came in and gave me the cervadil drug at 9:30pm. That medicine would be in for 12 hours and then the doctor would re-assess the situation. I was offered a sleeping pill, which I declined. The cervadil regulated my contractions and intensified them just a little bit (every 5 minutes) but I was able to sleep through them, so I did get some rest.

At 9:30am on the 17th, when they took out the cervadil, I was dilated to a 2.5. We decided to do some walking to see if we could get things moving and that made everything feel much less intense. (At this point I was feeling most of the contractions in my lower back, just like I did with Easton). I walked off and on for an hour and a half and at 11am, got back into bed to get hooked up to the monitors.

Dr. Klingler came in at 11:25am to check me and I was at a 4. He decided to break my water to see if my body would continue the labor on its own. After my water was broken, the contractions became much more intense right away. I talked to the nurse about how long it would take to get the epidural (20 minutes after I asked for it) and decided that I would wait just a few minutes before asking for it so that it didn't slow things down. Just ten minutes later, I had to really start breathing through the contractions, and I asked the nurse to order the drugs.

At almost that exact same time, the baby's heart rate started decreasing, so the nurses started playing with my position to see if they could make things better for the baby. Things seemed to settle down after a position change. Just a little after noon, I began having problems keeping my breathing slow because the contractions were so painful, so they gave me an oxygen mask and at the same time, the baby's heart rate began decreasing again and the nurse decided to check me to see what progress I was making.

"You're all the way!," she exclaimed, followed directly by "You won't be getting that epidural." I remember thinking, "WHAT!!!" and at the same time, having the need to push, RIGHT NOW!

The floor exploded with nurses running everywhere, yelling to call the doctor to get up here NOW, and the occasional instruction to me to "do what I need to do." I had no idea what that meant, but I was fairly certain that they wanted the doctor there before I delivered, so with each contraction, I let my body do what it wanted to do naturally, but didn’t put any extra effort behind the pushing.

Dr. Klingler arrived at 12:20, threw on a gown and two contractions later, at 12:28pm, Kendree was here!

In all of the excitement, no one reminded the doctor that we didn't know what we were having, so when she came out, she was rolled away from us. Ronnie, the nurse, and I were straining our necks to get a look and finally the nurse yelled out “It’s a girl!” I started crying, out of joy, surprise and just the fact that it was over.

They immediately put Kendree on my chest and as she cried, they started to clean her off. Ronnie was also able to cut the cord. She looked a little bluish/purple to me, but pinked right up after a minute of crying. The nurses took her over to the heated bed to finish up the cleaning, etc. Soon enough, I was all cleaned up and little Kendree was being snuggled. (I know you are thanking me for leaving some of those details out).

A few other notes:

*Ronnie and I were both genuinely shocked to have a little girl. Ronnie because he thought he saw “something” during the ultrasound and me because it just seemed more natural to be having another boy, since that is what I knew. I did have a very vivid dream about two weeks before she was born that she was a girl, but I never know how much stock to put into pregnancy dreams. They are crazy. Combine that with the fact that all of the older ladies I work with kept on telling me that I was carrying exactly the same as I was with Easton (low) and many other wives tales (no morning sickness, heart rate ranges, etc) and so I HAD to be having another boy and that was that.

*I have never cared to know what it felt like to have a baby naturally. I had nothing to prove to anyone and was completely expecting to have an epidural and be on with it. That being said, I will say that it was awesome to be able to get up and clean up/walk around just about 45 minutes after Kendree was born. If I could guarantee that every labor would be just one hour of intense pain (and not the possibility of many hours) then I may even consider doing the natural thing again. Recovery has been so much faster and easier than it was with Easton, although I don’t know how much of that is Kendree being the second child (so my body knows what to do) and how much of that is the fact that I didn’t have the drugs.

*I asked the nurse if the hospital keeps track of how long your labors are and if that goes into your charts. She said yes, and that they usually have the labor "start" after you have made some progress, so in my case, she charted my labor as starting at 9:30am (when I was dilated to a 2.5) and ending at 12:28pm when Kendree was born. 3 hours. She also told me that if I EVER want to have drugs when I deliver, I have to make them give me the epidural before my water breaks. Good to know, good to know.