Wow! It has been over a year since my last blog post. I never blogged about pregnancy once! That is amazing. I actually started up a post about 3 days before I delivered, but decided that I really didn't have anything to say and deleted it. :) Then I wouldn't have been able to say I went a whole year without a blog!
So, Blogger, I have a baby. We found out December 7th, 2013 that we were expecting and, boy, were we surprised. Not because we weren't trying to have a baby, but because we had JUST started trying to have a baby. Looking back, I could just smack myself for all those times I thought I was pregnant-- early pregnancy symptoms don't play around. I was exhausted!
We decided that we were not going to find out the gender of our little Turkey (so named by the holiday around which he would have been created) until its birthday. This was so difficult, to be honest. Registering for baby things is not near as fun when you're not sure if you should choose the pack-n-play with more pink/red/purple/yellow or more blue/green. The non-girly side of me won out and we chose everything in blues/greens/yellows (yellow was my concession color in case it was a girl). It was a lot of fun to hear all the guesses. The predominant guess was girl. My suspicions are that this was due to the fact that I have a large badunkadunk (auto-correct loves that word). If the majority of people could have had a before/after comparison, I think they would have realized that it did not increase in size as much as they thought it had. My suspicions about this being the reason for the overwhelming "girl" vote in person was due to the fact that everyone looked at a side profile and were inconclusive and then had me turn around to the back. It was at this time that they proudly proclaimed that I would have a girl. Don't you love strangers? :)
Alas, that majority vote was indeed wrong as Aden is a boy. I guess my behind didn't get the memo.
The pregnancy was not a difficult one at all. I was very blessed. No throwing up. Just heartburn. Oh my, did I have heartburn. My son now has a head of hair to testify for my heartburn. In fact, on checking in to the labor and delivery, I tried to list heartburn as a complication of pregnancy not once, but twice! They didn't buy it. I was tired during the pregnancy, but isn't everyone? I am blessed as I was able to stop working at 32 weeks. My sister gave me this magical week to stop working, and I am forever grateful for that estimate. It was just enough time to enjoy doing nothing for a while and then to get down to business mentally preparing for our little one.
Aden decided to meet us early. I woke up on July 31st at 0220 to go pee, like all women do countless times during the night in their last sprint of pregnancy-- I was 37 weeks and 5 days. My hips hurt, so I leaned on the side of the bed and felt a little gush. Not a huge one. In fact, it was small enough that I got back in bed and didn't wake my husband. Ten minutes later, I got out of bed to test this gush again. At this time, I felt another little gush. I woke Seth up at this point. Not because I thought I was in labor, but because he had gotten really mad at me one morning several weeks prior when I *thought* I had a contraction and let him keep sleeping instead. We Googled how to know if your water has broken and determined that we were not sure.
At 0249, I had my first contraction. Again, it was not a huge deal and I was not sure I was in labor. But Seth started tracking them. The next was 6 minutes later. They averaged about every 5-6 minutes for about 30 minutes--at which time I decided I needed to get out of bed and pack a bag. Did I mention that I'm the biggest procrastinator in the world and that I had not packed a bag because I wanted to keep wearing the clothes that I intended on packing in the bag? The clothes that were now in the dryer at 0300. And I had to put away all the clothes in the dryer because what stay-at-home housewife can only fold half the clothes in the dryer; even if she is in labor?
By the time this fiasco was complete, my contractions were every 3-4 minutes apart and it was 0430. We headed to the hospital and I called to give them the heads up. Even this close together, they were not that bad. I was able to talk through most of them. When we got to the hospital, we had to wait at registration for what felt like an eternity. I'm convinced the lady didn't think I was in labor since we said I was 37 weeks and I was breathing during contractions and not screaming. I really did feel like it was 45 minutes. The time on my IV was 0550, we should have gotten to the hospital at 0455. So yeah, I'm going to say we were at registration for 45 minutes. I refused the wheelchair and walked myself up to labor and delivery because it hurt worse to try to sit through a contraction. I had to get to the hospital early in labor because I had to received two courses of antibiotics before birth as I swabbed Group B Step positive at my 36 week check so I was not yet freaking out in labor, just in labor.
They swabbed for amniotic fluid twice--it was negative. But upon checking for dilation she found that I was a two and that she could feel my baby's hair. Indicating that my water had indeed broken. She was able to stretch me to a three and we got the antibiotic started. It is funny now to think that I needed this confirmation that I was indeed in labor. They hooked me up to the fetal heartbeat monitor and I needed them to tell me that I was indeed having contractions. It got real very fast in that L&D room, but I was unsure that it was real at that point.
After the antibiotic finished, I got in the tub. This was not as good for me as I was anticipating. I needed to get on my hands and knees during contractions to take the pressure off my back. This proved to be a dangerous activity in the tub. Seth turned on the jets and I stayed in for probably two hours just to say that we did it. During this time, I got to where I couldn't open my eyes during contractions and kept them closed pretty much constantly. I stopped talking, pretty much altogether. We got out when it was time for my second antibiotic. I wanted her to check me again and was disheartened to find out I was only dilated to a five. I turned to Seth and told him that "I can't do this" with my eyes closed. I meant that I couldn't do labor without medication. He thought I meant that I couldn't do labor and laughed at me. We had talked about my sister using a
peanut birthing ball and that it really helped her progress. Seth asked and we received. I think the labor and delivery nurse, Amy, put it best when Seth asked her if they help. She said "Do they help with pain? Absolutely not. Do they help with progression? Yes." Boy, those contractions, lying in bed on my side, were the worst. I would never wish that upon my worst enemies. I felt so helpless. I wanted to be on my hands and knees during contractions-- or at least standing up. Not lying down on my side. But, we continued. I felt my body starting to push about thirty minutes later and was only a 7 or an 8. By an hour and fifteen minutes after my friendship with that dreaded ball began, I insisted that she check me again to see if I had progressed anymore. I was a 10. She started getting things ready in a hurry while she tried to coach me on pushing. My midwife was not there. Amy was coaching me on pushing and after what felt like an eternity, Aden started crowning. Enter the midwife, Amanda, just in time!
I have to share that before Aden was crowning, only the second phrase I had said to Seth in probably four hours was "It is never coming out!" I was 100% convinced that there were only two possibilities in this scenario. 1) There was no baby, this was all for naught. 2) if there is a baby, I was going to die with it inside me. This is why no one in active labor should ever sign any legal documents. You are not capable of rational thought; well, I wasn't at least.
After what felt like years of pushing (but was only 30 minutes), and one last big finale of pain, Aden was out. The midwife helped his head and shoulders out and said to me "Ok, mama. Pull out your baby." This was, by far, the coolest part of it all and I will forever remember it. L&D nurses, midwives, please do that for your patients. On my way bringing him up to my chest, Seth grabbed his right leg, swung it up, and announced "It's a boy! Kaelyn, it's a boy!" Although Aden's sex actually depended on Seth and had nothing to do with me, I felt like I had given him the world in that moment. I can only hope that his enthusiasm would have been the same if it had been a girl. I guess we'll never know.
I was bleeding pretty badly, apparently. I had no clue what was happening down there. I was just so glad that it was over. The midwife had Seth cut the cord pretty much immediately because she wanted to deliver the placenta as she wasn't sure where the bleeding was coming from. This was the one part of my unwritten birth plan that didn't go the way we wanted it to. We wanted to do delayed cord clamping. We wanted to wait until the cord stopped pulsing. In that moment, it didn't even matter. After only 9.5 hours of labor at 1201 on July 31st, my baby was here. A perfect 8 lbs, 7 oz and 20.75 inches long.
You see, birthing plans are a funny thing. All except the cord was exactly what I had planned. I had a completely un-medicated birth (other than antibiotics, but you all know what I mean). My husband coached me on breathing through the whole thing. In fact, I would say 95% of the time it was just the two of us in the room. He was my rock and I don't know how I could have done it without him. And, although all of it went the way I had "planned," nothing was what I expected. That was, easily, the hardest thing I have ever done. I have so much respect for all mommas out there. No matter what your birthing experience was, having a baby is really hard.
One day, I hope to shift my focus in nursing to labor and delivery. Hopefully, I can be a part of someone's birthing story one day. Amy meant so much to me. I want to be someone's Amy.
Now, if you'll excuse me. My little ravenous poop machine is calling.
