Devynee's Birth Story

As I said in the 39 week post, I was awoken by contractions at 3:30 a.m. on the 23rd.  I timed them for about an hour on the couch (bless you ipod contraction timer app) and while they were five minutes apart, they weren't painful, so I decided to go back to bed.  I slept until about 6:00 a.m. when Kendree was up for the day.  I continued to have contractions all of that morning, but they were not painful and ranged from 5-8 minutes apart. 

After the doctor's office opened at 8:00 a.m. I called to talk to a nurse about whether I should just move up my doctor's appointment for that day (I was supposed to see at doctor at 3:00 p.m.).  They told me to call back when my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart or I had to breathe through them.  Soon after that phone call, I started having to stop what I was doing when the contractions came, but they had also slowed down and were 7-10 minutes apart.  I must have had some internal knowledge that this was it (although in my head I was still convinced that they would stop at any time) as I spent the morning not cleaning my house, but instead sending all of the last minute emails I needed to send for work.

Of course all of this was taking place on the one day that I hadn't really "planned" on as far as child care.  Ronnie's parents were driving up from California and due to arrive around dinner time and I hadn't really thought beyond that. I called a few good friends to make sure I had some child care in place until someone from Laramie could make the drive over to take over.

At 11:00 a.m. the contractions were pretty consistently 7 minutes apart and I was starting to have to breathe through them, so I called the doctor's office again.  I was told to wait until they were 3-5 minutes apart.  At this point I think both kids knew something was going on, as they were following me around the house more than normal.  At one point, Kendree wanted something out of my room and I had to stop and lean on the bed to breathe through a contraction.  I looked over to see her with her hands on the mattress just like me and she was blowing air out through her mouth.  Too funny.

My friend had told me she could take the kids anytime that day except from 11:00 to a little after noon, so of course my contractions became closer together a just a bit before noon.  I called Ronnie to leave work, called my sister to leave Laramie and then called another friend to take the kids.  We dropped off the kids at about 12:20 p.m. and drove to the hospital.  Ronnie dropped me off at the door and valeted the car. I was checking into the hospital as Ronnie finished texting my sister instructions on where to pick up the kids and that was at 12:29 p.m.

They wheeled me up to the labor and delivery floor and took me to the "triage" room where they had me change into a gown and then checked my progress to see where to place me (labor room, delivery room, etc.).  The nurse who checked me asked if we had any guesses.  Ronnie guessed that I was at a 4 and I said that I wasn't going to guess, because I didn't want to be disappointed.  She then told us that I was at an 8 and asked if we were ready to have a baby.

We walked down to a delivery room where they took some blood and asked if I wanted an epidural.  I decided that since I knew that once they broke my water I would have this baby pretty darn quickly, I would do a second delivery drug free.  The pain relief just wasn't worth the extra recovery for me.

At 1:10 p.m. the doctor came in to break my water.  Immediately the contractions became very intense and I wasn't able to move at all during them.  The nurse told us to push the button when I felt like I needed to push and at 1:25 I told Ronnie to push it.

The doctor had been waiting just outside the room and immediately walked in with the nurses to deliver the baby.  I pushed through the next contraction and contrary to Kendree's birth when they made me stop pushing in between contractions, he encouraged me to continue to push and as such Devynee was born at 1:28 p.m. 

They immediately announced it was a girl and placed her on my stomach.  I immediately started crying.  She seemed very purpley-blue to me and the nurse was doing everything she could to get her to pink up.  After a minute or two of crying, they started to put the oxygen in front of her mouth to help her along.  Ronnie also cut the cord during this time. After about  five minutes, they took her to the table nearby and sucked her stomach as she had a lot of amniotic fluid still in it (apparently in non-speedy births, this fluid is automatically pushed out as the baby works its way down and Devynee had no time for that natural pushing to take place). There was no major concern as she still scored 8s and 9s on the APGAR score, but they were taking precautions. 

Soon I was snuggling my baby again as I was cleaned up.  I then took a shower and we all moved to a Mother/Baby room down the hall.  Several nurses told me what a "superstar" I was as I had delivered ahead of all of the other mothers who had arrived at the hospital before me.  It is all about winning afterall.

A quick note:
While I chose to have the drug-free birth this time, I still told Ronnie in the exact same point of labor (pushing) that "I can't do this anymore!"  Shortly after Devynee was out, I told Ronnie that I thought I remembered how bad it was with Kendree, but I didn't really remember.  I suppose that is a good thing and the reason that we as women even contemplate having other children.

Thanks for sticking with me through all of that!

And since I know you are wondering...
Kendree's Birth Story
Easton's Birth Story