Kaitlyn's Birth Story

After dinner on Tuesday night (May 18, which incidentally is my grandma's birthday too. Happy birthday Grandma! Hope you like the present I got you! :)), I took the boys to Wal-Mart. Christian had some things he wanted to do around the house to prepare for the baby. I got a few groceries, and some khaki pants for Ethan, and a fish for our fish tank. At the checkout counter the man in front of me said, "Woah, I'd better get out of her way! It looks like she is going to have a baby any minute!" I said, "Yep, on Friday." I was feeling pretty tired and crappy from walking all around Wal-Mart.

On the drive home, I felt a little...leakage. I thought, "Did I just pee my pants and not know it?" (Being nine months pregnant, anything is possible.) When I got home and got out of the car, I had a little more leakage. I took the groceries in the house, calmly (on the outside, frantic on the inside) put the refrigerated groceries away, and whispered to Christian, "Either I just peed my pants or my water broke." I went to the bathroom and actually peed, so I knew my bladder was empty after that. Then I stood up and...more leakage. Yikes! I think my water broke!
So I called Labor and Delivery and said, "I think my water broke. I could have just peed my pants, but I think it's my water." The nurse said, "Come in and we'll check you. If it is your water, you're having a baby!" I said, "But I am not feeling contractions - well, nothing different than usual." And she told me to come in anyway.

By this time I was feeling pretty frustrated and nervous. Frustrated because I had hoped I could spend time contracting at home, and just go to the hospital when they got intense. I didn't want to be sitting around in the hospital doing nothing and waiting for 24 hours when they would finally start pitocin because nothing was happening. I was nervous because here it is, 7:00 at night, and now we have to do something with the boys right before bedtime (yes, it is the control freak coming out in me).

Other thoughts I had when they told me to come into the hospital:

• Well, I guess we won't be having quiche for dinner tomorrow night. Why did I just spend money on all of the ingredients?
• The poor little fish is going to die before we get him out of the bag to feed him.
• It's Tuesday at 7:00. Crappity crap crap! I'm going to miss NCIS, Glee AND Lost. What a night to go into labor. (Thank goodness for TiVo.)
• I guess I should probably cancel my four piano students for tomorrow. Oh, and visiting teaching too.

Christian called his stepmom, who lives five hours away in northern Utah, and asked if she could come be with the kids. She dropped everything she was doing, packed a bag, and drove here to southern Utah, arriving around 12:30. We took our boys to our friends' house who live two blocks away from the hospital and checked in at Labor and Delivery. Since I had already called, they had a room ready for me. They checked me, and my water had definitely broken. I was dilated to a four and 80% effaced (we got there at 8:10 PM). They hooked me up so they could hear the baby's heartbeat, and they gave me an IV loop, but never even hooked me up to fluids (they never even had to use the IV).

My friend had given me a big pile of Entertainment Weekly magazines the day before, so I pulled them out and started reading them (a trashy magazine always helps me relax). Christian and I chatted a little, and I would breathe when I had contractions. They were about as strong as the strong ones I had been having over the last two weeks. They were completely doable. I was afraid that they weren't doing anything since they weren't any stronger than before my water had broken.

The nurse checked me again at 10:00, and I was dilated to a 5 and 90% effaced. I thought, "Crap. I'm not moving nearly as quickly as I did with Aidan." I wondered whether I would have a baby before midnight (on the 18th) or after midnight. I was really figuring it would be after midnight.

My midwife, Laurie, arrived at about 10:45 and asked me how I was doing. She said she had actually been outside visiting for the last 20 minutes, but she hadn't heard me call her to the room and she could tell I was doing fine. And I really was. In fact, I told the nurse (whose name was Erin), "When you call Laurie, tell her I'm doing okay." When Erin looked at me questioningly, I told her, "When I was in Laurie's office, I was panicky about delivering naturally. I told her I needed her ASAP. But tell her I'm really doing okay." Erin told me, "If you are doing this fine dilated to a 5, I really think you are going to be fine delivering naturally. You are doing great!"

So anyway, within minutes of Laurie arriving, the contractions started getting stronger. I was trying to listen to music, but I couldn't focus on anything. I just had to breathe. Laurie had explained that I could deliver the baby in any position I wanted, and I had no idea what she was talking about. I figured there was really only one way to deliver. But she gave me some options. Right at that moment, I felt like getting on my hands and knees might help me feel a (tiny) bit better. So they gave me a birthing ball to hug, but it was too high and didn't help me. So they got a bean bag, made a huge hole for my giant belly, and I sunk into it. I was hugging the bean bag and up on my knees. They draped a towel over my lower back and bottom, and I felt surprisingly modest. The contractions were definitely a lot stronger, and I didn't feel like I was getting much relief in between (just a very short time).

Laurie checked me around 11:05 and said, "You are somewhere between a 7 and a 9. During the next contraction, I want you to push gently." So here comes the next one. I grab the bean bag and push gently. Laurie said, "Okay, you're at a 10. The baby's almost here. You can push when you are ready."

Push when I'm ready? I was just at a 7 a minute ago! Christian asked me if I wanted him to be by my head, holding my hand and giving me support or if I wanted something else. I said, "During contractions I'm in my own little world so I don't care." So Laurie said, "Okay Christian, come on down and see your baby be born." Here comes another contraction and I think I'm pushing and nothing's happening and this hurts and why is nothing happening? I can hear Laurie talking, but I don't hear what she's saying. Suddenly, Erin the nurse was right by my ear and she said, "Erin, you need to hold your breath and push." All of a sudden it clicked. I had been so prepared to breathe through the pain, and I had gotten to the push point so quickly, that I wasn't pushing, I was still breathing. So I held my breath and pushed. I realized after the fact that I hadn't been pushing as hard as I could. But after two contractions Laurie said, "You've pushed her head out. Reach down and feel her!" I did for just a second, but I needed to hold onto that bean bag. Christian was able to catch her head when she came out. (He told me a little bit later that when he caught her head, the only name that came up in his mind was Kaitlyn. He tried to think about the other names on our list, but that one was the only one he could think of. That made it easy for me! Kaitlyn it is!) But then her shoulders got stuck, and Laurie told me I needed to squat down a little to get the shoulders out. So I squatted down (still on my hands and knees) and out popped her shoulders and the rest of her little body!

Laurie immediately (within seconds) had a towel on the baby's back and scooted her between my legs so she was up against my skin, then they helped me sit up and I was able to hold her skin to skin while they sucked the stuff out of her mouth. Christian told me I kept saying, "Wow. Wow. Wow!" They checked me - no tears, no episiotomy. The placenta delivered and Laurie showed it to us. They never took her from me. She never left the room. I started nursing her within 20 minutes of being born. I nursed her for 30-40 minutes, and then I asked Erin the nurse, "What are her vitals?" She said, "We haven't weighed or measured her yet." ...oh yeah! I've been holding her the whole time!

I finally gave her up for a couple of minutes while they took her measurements in the room, and then Christian bathed her right there in the delivery room sink. (Christian asked me if I wanted to do it, but I wasn't ready to get out of bed yet. But then I did get out to take pictures of him bathing her.)

A few minutes later they moved me to my hospital room. I walked with no problems. This was by far the easiest recovery of the three deliveries. I wanted to leave the next afternoon, and Laurie even wrote my discharge papers, but Kaitlyn had jaundice so we had to stay another night.

That night I only got one hour of sleep because I was running on adrenaline. It was such an amazing, powerful experience. I am SO glad I did it without an epidural. I am SO glad I faced my fears and experienced this phenomenal birth. Overall, I had about 30-35 minutes of pain, and while I realized that yes, it sucked and yes, it was hard, I could do it! And I did! I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

This little girl was worth every moment.