a birth story

The woman clutches her womb, sending a knowing glance toward her husband. The look tells him, “this is it” and he quickly and efficiently heads to the nursery to grab her Vera Bradley hospital bag, lovingly packed with several onesies that she cannot choose which the babe will wear first. Together, they drive to the hospital and in between contractions, they smile at each other and talk about how excited they are that their lives are about to change forever.

That’s the way I saw Baby K’s birthday going down. Totally did.not.happen.

I started off the day with a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday morning. This was after an eventful Monday spent at the hospital with ridiculously high blood pressure. They eventually sent me home with plans to return the next day to see my regular doctor. After taking my blood pressure a few more times, they collectively decided that inducing would be best. I can’t say that I wasn’t relieved. I was.

They scheduled my induction for the next morning and I drove home with plans of doing homework and spending my last night before motherhood in bed. Captain J decided to go see a doctor about his shoulder since we were already at the hospital. He planned on coming home and taking care of me afterward. As I was spreading the good news to family and friends about our impending miracle, the hospital called. They said, “We think you should come back now.”

EEk! Now? Like as in, turn my car around, walk into the hospital, and have a baby? Oh my gravy.

I said I would be back soon and went home to grab a few things and more importantly, eat! Meanwhile, J is stuck in the hospital with no cell service and I’m frantically redialing his phone over and over to tell him we’re about to be parents.

You know that lovely scenario I mentioned? Well, imagine this one:

Woman grabs belly and looks to her left and her right. No one is at home to take her to the hospital. She must drive herself.

That was more like it. At this point, I had been contracting for over a week with little results. As I drove myself back, I realized my contractions were about 2 min apart. I got in the birthing room after getting a hold of J who rushed up, still in his ACUs. This was it! I settled in for a long day laboring. Periodically, my nurses would come in the room, asking if I was okay and if I needed painkillers. I repeatedly told them I was fine and that now that the baby had turned anterior, I wasn’t feeling the contractions that much. They couldn’t believe it, as the contractions were measuring off the charts. I began to think, maybe I won’t get an epidural.

HA!

An hour later, I was quite whiney and an hour after that, I was desperate. Unfortunately, I had waited too long to tell anyone about my pain and the doc was in surgery with someone else. After a few more hours, he finally came in and I have never been happier to see a middle aged, short, bald man with a syringe in his hand ever before in my life. The epidural was welcoming. I didn’t mind that minor poke in my spine after what I had just gone through. Anyway, the epidural was amazing. It truly allowed me to enjoy the birth of Baby K.

For the rest of the day, I laid around playing words with friends on my phone and cracking jokes with my loving husband. When “YaYa” and “Aunt Paige” arrived at the hospital around midnight, there was still no baby. I broke the news to them that I wasn’t even dilated a solid 4cm yet. To say I was discouraged after 12 hours, is an understatement. We visited with them awhile then the nurse wanted to check me again. They left the room thinking I was at 4 and they re-entered hearing the nurse yell, “We need to break down the bed!”

I was fully dilated to 10 cm and fully effaced. She asked me to push a little and quickly told me to stop. They called the doctor and all of the sudden, I’m supposed to know how to push a human being out of me. Craziness. Obviously, I figured it out 😉 Delivery  didn’t go as I expected either. It was all so fast.

Monitoring the baby’s heartbeat told them that it was dropping quickly. I didn’t understand what was going on at first until I started listening to the sound waves and only heard my own, slower heartbeat broadcasting. Doc said we had to get the baby out now so I pushed as hard as I could and out came our precious little K. The cord had been wrapped around his neck so when I finally heard him cry seconds later (which felt like minutes later), I was overjoyed! Thinking back now, it makes me cry. I can’t look at him without thinking how he holds my entire life in his tiny little hands.

Baby K weighed in at 6lbs, 8oz and 20.5 inches long- a cute bundle of perfection, if you ask me.

Daddy and Baby K

Reppin’ Ft. Polk!

Look at that face!

When he makes this face, he is allll daddy. 🙂 And how cute is that hat? Special thanks to the reader who sent it- I love it!

No matter how this sweet baby made his way into the world, I’m so so happy he did.