kale's birth story

I have wanted to write this for a long time just to have it because I don't want to forget anything about that day but never gotten the chance or the time sooo here it is and I apologize in advance if it gets a little lengthy if you even get through the whole thing ;) I love reading birth stories so if you're weird like me than here it goes! 

January 3rd, 2010 - Due date. I went in for an appointment on the 4th and my doctor let me know that I was 1 cm and 70% effaced...and that I should be induced that week, which I DID NOT want to be induced..but Kale was quite the stubborn child as you'll find out.

January 7th, 2010 - Nathan and I went to the hospital to be induced at midnight on Thursday, January 7th. And as a weird point that I want to remember, the last thing I had eaten  b4 we had come to the hospital was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at my sister's house at 5:30pm on January 6th....When we first got there, the nurses of course checked me and did a ultrasound to see how kale was laying. I was 1 cm and about 75% effaced...and then they did the ultrasound. The ultrasound went good and everything was okay and then they told me that he was face up and his head was what the nurse called "ginormous" (way to scare a very pregnant girl...:)) So that made me a little nervous remembering what I was reading about back labor from face up babies and how bad it hurt...

When I had talked to my doctor at my 40 week appointment, he informed me since I wasn't "progressing" very well on my own he wanted to use the "gel" on my cervix to try to get it to open on it's own...and he told me that once they put it on, I would be able to sleep since I was coming in at midnight, i'd need it...well that was NOT the case. When the nurses put that gel in, I INSTANTLY felt cramping/back ache...it was not comfortable at all. I was constantly tossing/turning and having Nathan rubbing my back. So there went the "sleep" I was supposedly getting and Nathan was such a good hubby, and didn't sleep at all either and sat by my side. At about 3 am, I remember that my stupid contraction machine thingy totally broke and would not work...so we had to switch rooms which isn't that relevant but I want to remember everything from that night..haha Soooo once we were in the new room, it was probably close to 4am and my doc ordered them to start the devil drug.....aka pitocin. That is the #1 reason I did not want to be induced, because of all the horror stories I had heard and read about...but being almost a week late, I had to live with it. Right away when they had started it, it wasn't THAT bad...I mean I could totally feel everything but I could live through them. At this point I was like " oh yeah I can handle this " like some big shot or something...psht..but I'll get to that ;) After starting the devil drug, I did get a couple hours of sleep, but I remember being so freaking hungry. I am a breakfast girl and it was killing me not having food. Then I woke up around 7am having to use the bathroom and the nurses were switching shifts so it was a little hectic so I sent Nathan to get something to eat for himself...thinking he would eat downstairs..NO he brought his eggs, bacon and toast up to MY ROOM and ate it right in front of me... I can still smell how delicious it smelled...and how I wanted to tackle him for a piece of bacon...After that, my NEW day nurse came in (and FYI, I used to work on mom/baby at the hospital so I knew all the nurses and planned who my nurse would be) and her name was Steph and I LOVED HER. She started to up the devil drug which I was okay with.

Around 8:30am, my doc came in to check me and see what the action plan was. I hadn't been checked since about 4 that morning so I was VERY excited to see if I had progressed...in my mind I was thinking I HAD to be at least 5 or 6 cm...PSHT he checked me and I was EXACTLY what I was when I came in at midnight, 1cm and 75-80%. He let me know he would not break my water unless I was in "active labor" and he would come back in and check me at 12pm(noon) that day and if I had progressed to at least a 2 or a 3 he would break my water. So he told Steph to up the devil drug a little more and told me to get up and walk around the floor and bounce on this annoying yoga ball. So that's what we did. Me and Nathan went up and walked around, I wasn't in too much pain yet but enough to be uncomfortable

About 10am, my mom and my sister, Lacy came. I was relieved they were there because they knew what I was going through and I just needed visitors. They walked me around the freaking floor about a billion times which was getting very uncomfortable since I was humongous and my hips were in so much pain but they still made me do it and bounce on that damn ball.

I was VERY excited to see my doc at noon. He walked right in and checked me right away. Again, I was thinking I had to be progressing since I just walked 10 miles and bounced...but nope, still NO PROGRESS. So he then proceeded to tell us (I remember this moment so clearly) that he would not break my water until I progressed more and that if I don't progress he would have to send me home and maybe try inducing me the next week. I remember crying and Nathan almost passing out...haaha I'm laughing now but at that moment in time...I was so pissed. Nathan tells me now that he was about to punch him and if I was him, I woulda too. He told me that there could be complications if he did break my water because kale's head wasn't totally "engaged" (which steph told me that Kale was tight and engaged) and was "floating"  which means if he did break my water, the cord could come and rush down and come out first b4 kale's head and ultimately leading to an emergency c-section to try and save kale. ( I found out later that this exact thing HAD happened to my doctor and he could not save the baby, so I do appreciate him trying to keep me and kale safe) but back to when I was crying and so mad at him, I coulda killed him with the glares I was giving him. Thank GOD for Steph who was standing next to me holding my hand so tight trying to keep me from pouncing on my doc and punching him...again...she is an amazing nurse. Then, Steph asked my doc if I could AT least have until 5pm that evening to try to progress more and see if anything else happens (my water breaking, etc)  (thank god for her) so he told me that he'd be there at 5 to check me and if nothing happened, I was going home... So after my doc left, there was a lot of bad mouthing and bitching going on but in the end he was doing the right thing. I have to say this for it to make a little more sense why I HAD TO HAVE THIS BABY before that next week. We got induced on a Thursday, and me and nathan BOTH started a new semester of college that Monday and nathan started a new job that week also...so it was very emotional when he told us that he would send us home...we didn't know what we were going to do if we had to wait.

A little after my doc left, Steph told me that I should get BACK up and walk around and maybe that'll help me progress a little. So there I was, back up and walking in pain, but still my contractions were still very low and moderate. Honestly, the next couple hours are a little bit of a blur. I remember Steph coming in every once in a while to check on me and see how everything was going. My other sister, Becky, was working that day (she was worried about missing the birth...psht) she got off around 3:30-4 and I remember her texting my mom and lacy making sure she wasn't going to miss anything, little did she know :). But she was on her way at abuot 3:30.  At about 3:45pm, Steph came into my room and told me she was going to check me one last time before my doc came back to make the final decision. So you all know how fun and comfortable (not)  it is to get checked a bajillion times a day down there but I was anxious to see if I progressed any and she was just checking me and all of a sudden I felt a POP and a HUGE gush of water....YAYYY!! did I tell you how much I love Steph? :) Steph looks at me and goes "whoops, now you have to stay and have that baby today!!". Best moment EVER. Becky then showed up about 10 minutes later... Then after about 5 gallons of fluid pouring out...yeah, it was that much, my contractions hit me like a ton of bricks...HOLY SHIT, I told Steph about 10 minutes after my water broke that I need an epidural...I can handle a lot of pain but shit that was horrible. AND kale was face up so it was even worse in my lower back region. (So anybody who can do it without an epidural, KUDOS to you!) The epidural was AMAZING for about the first 2 hours. My doc then showed up and was maybe a little curious that my water broke RIGHT before he was going to come check on me..but he didn't seem too mad :) Around 7:30 it was time for Steph to go home :( I may have cried a little but another AWESOME nurse, Penny was working the night shift and would take care of me all night, which I was happy about!

I'd say around 8pm or so my epidural decided it didn't wanna work anymore and I was feeling really uncomfortable and irritable but Penny did check me and I was at 3 centimeters, yeah only 3..... The next couple of hours were quite a blur..don't remember a whole lot of the time between 9-3 but I do remember having a internal monitor put in that was very uncomfortable. My mom and sisters were such troopers, they stayed there ALL night with me and Nathan. I know they did go out to the waiting room to sleep for a couple hours until I needed them to rub my feet, and lower back and for becky to sneak me some mello yello (fyi don't drink mello yello while in labor...)

January 8th, 2010

Around 3am, Penny came in to check me. I was literally exhausted..it had been over 24 hours of labor and not eating anything, I don't remember very clearly but I'm pretty sure I was being quite a bitch...She informed me that I was ONLY at 5 centimeters and that I had a fever of a 102.9 and I'm not sure if she gave me anything for it or not but she informed me that she would let me sleep for a little bit (which means 10 minutes to a nurse ;)) and she'd come check it again. A couple minutes later she came back in and checked my temp and it hadn't gotten any lower so she was going to call my doc to see what was the plan. Also, when I was contracting, kale was having decelerations (his heart rate would drop really low) so that was also a big issue. I looked at Penny and told her "Tell him I want a c-section and I want it NOW" and she looked at me and said " I think that is the route were going." I never thought I would be so excited to be cut open and have surgery but I needed this baby outta me. I was exhausted and in excruciating (you all know)  pain because my epidural was not working properly. She came back in about 10 minutes later and said my doc was on his way to the hospital. PRAISE THE LORD, I was going to have this baby in the next couple of hours. EEEK.

I remember my doc coming in about 4:45 and saying he was guna get ready and they were guna be bringing me into the OR soon. At that time, Nathan was already dressed in the "hot" scrubs and they started rolling me down the hall to the c-section room. ALL I remember about going there was I was shaking so bad, I felt like I was so cold but I had about 30 warm blankets on my arms...still I was like convulsing. I remember getting into that room and right away Nathan could not come in there with me which freaked me out. I needed him in there, but THANK GOD for the nicest, most kind and caring man ever, my anesthesiologist. He was AMAZING. Nathan then got to come in and they tie your hands out from your body to the table...which I was so cold and shaking so bad the anesthesiologist let my hands free so I could put them on my chest (and I guess it's a big no-no to do that so, thank you nice man :) ) My doctor was about to start and then they gave me some sort of medication through my IV which made me so god, awful sick (this is where the no mello yello during labor comes in) I start dry heaving so bad and my sweet anesthesiologist is helping my head up so I can throw up and throw up and throw up.... (tmi maybe, sorry!), and and there I go throwing up the WHOLE TIME during my c-section. the anesthesiologist kept telling me "breathe kaity, breathe, I can't give you anything for nausea until the baby is out" while he is rubbing my hair (such a sweet man) , by then I wanted to scream "GET IT OUTTA ME THAN" but they were working on it. and then I hear my doc say "WOW, kaity  this is a big baby"...and then I heard it...the sweet cry of my baby boy and my doc put Kale over the screen/shield so I could see him and he was HUGE and beautiful and screaming just the way he should.  I started bawling...and then I got that sweet medicine that made me not nauseas and after that I was gleaming, and it was amazing.. They wisked Kale away to the table and Nathan did not get to cut his cord which I was disappointed about but whatever.

After c-sections, the all the baby's go to the NICU to get weighed, and make sure they are breathing good because c-sections are a little bit more traumatic for them. Of course, Nathan went with Kale to the NICU to get weighed, where I knew my mom and sisters were waiting outside the NICU. And who knew how long it took to sew someone up after the c-section, I never ever knew it took that long...but when I saw Nathan coming back to the room with our baby in his arms, I melted. There isn't a better feeling in the world. But of course the first thing I asked Nathan was "HOW MUCH DID HE WEIGH?" and Nathan goes "guess" and I said "IDK just tell me" and he spits out "He was 9lbs 7oz...." and I about shit my pants right on that table. HOLY crap. He was big, healthy and the most beautiful thing I have EVER seen. I did get to hold him for about 5 minutes while I was getting sewn up and they had to take him back to the NICU to suction some fluid out of his lungs...

The one thing I can recall after them taking Kale back to the NICU was the nurse practitioner that was sewing me back up told me that she would need to roll me to one side of the bed and then roll me to the other side. I think they were switching blankets or something? haha. But, I can still hear her saying it too " Kaity, we are going to roll you to your side and you are going to feel like your going to fall but you won't because we got you" well after that they turned me and I SWEAR TO GOD, I was going to fall off that damn table...haha like the feeling when your heart drops because you don't have control!!  I laugh so hard about it now because at that moment I swore I was going to hit that floor. Did that happen to anyone else?

To be completely honest, after they took Kale back to the nursery and I was done being sewn up, I fell asleep and felt like a zombie. I hadn't slept in over 35 hours...and I was exhausted. The next time I seen my baby boy he was perfect, (clean) and ready to snuggle with his momma and the first thing I did was order food while I admired the babe.

The day after my c-section, my doc came to check on me and we just kinda talked through the whole thing and he did tell me that I would NOT have been able to have him vaginally and I didn't feel as much as a failure for not being able to have him the way I wanted.

My sweet baby boy was born on January 8th, 2010 at 5:50am. 29 HOURS OF LABOR. and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.


Well, I applaud you if you got through all of that!! haha