Kaua's birth story

Ok here it is. I tried to keep it brief, but as most of my fellow bloggy buddies who have recently given birth realized, it's tough to keep the story of one of the most amazing days of your life short. =) (Hey bloggy buddies, most of us have kids that are just days apart!)

It all started Thankgsgiving day. My mom was here visiting and that morning, as I went to the bathroom and wiped, I noticed a good amount of mucus on the toilet paper. You know, the kind you get when you're ovulating and it means it's a green light for BD. I knew instantly that I was beginning to lose my mucus plug. I continued to lose my mucus plug throughout the day. Nothing like huge globs of it, like I've heard from others, but just pretty much, wipe and there it was kinda thing. I also noticed that I had 3-4 bowel movements that day, and I remember reading that this could also be a sign of early labor. I told my mom, but she still thought that didn't mean antyhing and that baby would come sometime around my due date. She even convinced my DH to plan to fly out to work Saturday night because she thought baby wouldn't come before he came back (Wed, Dec. 2..thank God this didn't happen!).

We went to DH's family's house for dinner around 4pm. Dinner was delicious. After dinner my mom and I went for a short walk. We were claiming it was to help labor along, but we both knew, (or believed) that labor was not even anywhere near imminent, and used the time to try to burn off some of that turkey dinner calories. I had been feeling pretty comfortable throughout the day (I mean as comfortable as I could be at 38 and half weeks pregnant).

Around 7ish, I started to feel slightly uncomfortable. Nothing big, just wanted to sit on a couch and lounge around rather than in an upright chair. So I went into the house and left DH and mom and family outside to continue talking. As I was lying there, watching TV, I started to notice light contractions. Nothing big, but just something I began to notice. Coupling this with the mucus plug loss, I decided to pay attention to them. By 9pm I realized they were coming about 10 - 15 minutes apart regularly. By this time, I was a little sore, but just crampy sore. DH came in the house to check on me around 10pm and asked how I was doing. I said I was feeling uncomfortable so he suggested we head home.

When we got home and around 10:30pm I went to the bathroom and saw what's been known as "the bloody show." The mucus was now bright red bloody looking, but from WTE, I had read that this is just a sign of the vessels in the cervix rupturing as the cervix dialates more. I was getting pretty excited at this point. My contractions were coming on stronger now. They were fairly noticable but still only about 10 minutes apart. I told my mom and she said to try and stay busy, sleep or watch a movie. She admitted that it was possible he was coming soon, but wanted me to labor at home as much as I could b/c she thought I'd be more comfortable there.

I tried to do as she suggested but by 12am, I was having no luck. The contractions were coming on very strong now. I was having a hard time concentrating on staying busy or the tv when the contractions came. I also struggled with the breathing. Where was DH through this all? Out cold sleeping!!! He had had several beers during TG dinner and even went across the street to drink more with our neighbor before I made him come in (b/c I had a feeling baby was coming). So I made him hit the shower and get some sleep because heaven forbid the baby come that night and he's drunk through it all!! Anyways, by 12, I woke my mom up and said that I was in terrible pain and asked her to help me time the contractions. (We had only DH's cell phone to time the contractions....note to self - get a stop watch for the next time). The contractions were still only about 8 -10 mins apart. But because I was in so much pain, I called the hospital for advice. I couldn't believe that I could be in so much pain and still be in early labor. (Even though I knew I shouldn't even come in till the contractions were 5 minutes apart regularly).

I called the advice nurses and they agreed. I was still too early to come in. I asked if it was common for someone to be in early labor with so much pain - (I couldn't even talk at some points of the phone conversation while the contractions came on...I had to give the phone to my mom and just focus on breathing). But the nurse, and my mom both said that yes, it was common and that it was very possible that I could go like this for hours, days or even weeks! Boy was that frustrating to hear. I was like, there is no way I can even last through the night with this kind of pain.

I was kind of surprised at how much pain I felt. I always believed that I had a high pain tolerance, but these contractions put me to shame. I struggled big time. I remember saying that I would never get pregnant again, and that I couldn't believe women did this all the time. I would never wish this pain on my worst enemy. The pain was indescribable.

By 2 am, I had had enough. I was tired!! I was in pain!! and I was over it. I woke my mom up and said, let's go to the hospital. I dont care what they tell me, I'm demanding drugs. My mom said that when she heard me say this, she knew there was no way she was going to talk me out of it. So we woke up DH and we piled into the car.

The drive to the hospital was uneventful. I remember DH dropped us off at the entrance while he parked the car. I remember that during the walk up to the L&D wing I had to stop 3 times due to the pain from the contractions. I remember checking in and seeing my doctor there. They checked me, and lo and behold, I was still only 1 centimeter dilated and 50% effaced!!! Talk about frustration!! I could not believe how much pain I was in to be just 1 cm dilated. There was talk about the possibility of sending me back home, but my doctor knew me and knew I wasn't making up the pain...so he said that while it was still too early for an epidural, they'd keep me over night, give me morphine to take the edge of the pain away and see if I progressed on my own. If I did, they'd know I was going into labor.

So I got a morphine butt shot at 4am and tried to sleep some. The pain was still as intense as ever, but with the morphine, I got groggy and tried to sleep in between contractions. I was so out of it and sore at this point that I couldn't talk sometimes. I remember the nurse would come ask me questions and sometimes I'd just ignore her, I was in so much pain. I would tell my husband to squeeze my arm hard just so that I'd have other pain to focus on when the contractions cames.

Thankfully, the morning rolled around and they checked me again at 7am. I was making progress, slowly. I was now 2-3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. The doctor said that while it was still early, I could opt for the epidural if I wanted. I was like heck yeah, give me the drugs. My mom wanted me to try walking around first to speed up the progress, but there was no way I could walk at that point, I was in so much pain and exhausted from basically being up most of the night. They brought breakfast in for me, but I was in too much pain to eat it.

At 9am the anesthesiologist gave me the epidural and let me tell you, I was a WHOLE new woman. It was like NIGHT and DAY! I could talk, I could open my eyes, I could focus, I was pain free, I was a happy camper!!! Let me tell you, I have no idea how women can stand the pain or labor without epidurals. I'm a total advocate for those things. =)

They let me hang out and checked me again at 11am. I had progressed to about 3-4 cm and 90% effaced. Things were moving real slowly for me so they asked if I wanted pitocin. Again, I was like yes, anything to get this show on the road. My contractions were still irregular...like they would come every 5 minutes, then every 2 minutes, then one after 7 minutes etc. They were hoping the pitocin would help make them more regular. They started me off at a low dose, but about every hour, they'd come, see that my contractions still weren't as ideal as they'd like and up the dose.

By 4pm they checked me again and I was 7-8 CM and 90% effaced. They upped the pitocin again. By 6pm they checked and I was ready!!! 10CM and 99% effaced. The very nice young doctor (I think she was a resident because the older OB would come in and watch her) said there was just a teeny tiny bit of cervix around the edge of his head, but that it would soon disappear. They gave me about 30 more minutes, then by 7pm the young doctor, the old doctor and a bunch of nurses all came into the room. It was time to push!!!

I pushed for 1 hour and 25 minutes. It took a while because my contractions were still regularly irregular (so they called it). I'd push, then have to wait 2-5 minutes for the next contraction to push again. They put a mirror up for me to watch, but in the beginning I was getting discouraged because although they were very encouraging and told me I was making progress with practically every push, I could see nothing happening down there. My DH even said that sometimes he'd say I was doing good, but only because the nurses and doctor were saying so, because like me, he'd see no real progress either. It was kinda funny, because football was on tv, and during the breaks, DH would be watching tv, the nurses would be chitchatting, my mom would be talking with DH's mom, and I would be watching the monitor, waiting for another contraction to register (I could feel the contractions coming, but it was easier to see them coming on the monitor).

Then finally, his head was showing!!! It still took a while for it to come out. Everytime I'd push him a little further out, but then he'd slip back in. Finally, I stopped watching the mirror (partly b/c the doctor sat infront of me and blocked it) and just concentrated on pushing. I guess his head finally came out b/c in the middle of a push, the doctor said, stop pushing and I could feel his body just slip out (which surprised me, I had always thought the shoulders were the hardest part to get out, not in my case I guess). The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck once, but it was very lose and we weren't alarmed. His heart rate had been fairly steady throughout the pushing. He was out!!!! He didn't cry until they clamped his umbilical cord for DH to cut, then he let out his first scream. It was wonderful!!

DH cut the cord, then they put him in a blanket and placed him on my chest. I was like whoa, this is my kid!! This was what was in me the whole time. I was amazed to see that he was like a little person...full head of black hair and huge dark eyes. Super cute. I didn't feel any rush of strong emotions though, which is what I had anticipated. I felt more awkward and I was shaking uncontrollably at this point due to the adrenaline and I remember saying that he's got his own vibrating chair on me. They let him stay on me for quite some time while I delivered the placenta and partially while she sewed me up. (I had 1 2nd degree tear...small she claimed).

Eventually they took him, cleaned him up, weighed him and measured him. 7lbs 2.3 ounces and 19.5 inches long (though we think that was a mistake b/c 3 days later he measured 21 inches). He was such a good baby!! Not much crying at all. He even ate about 2 hours after his birth for two whole hours! 1 hour on each boob(I think part of the length was because it took a while for him to get colostrum out of me).

They waited for some feeling to come back to my legs and transferred us to our postpartum room where we would stay for the next two days. What a wonderful exhausting day!!

Now Kaua is 1 week old and we swear he's grown more already. He was super skinny at birth (long arms, legs, fingers and toes). Now it looks like he's got more fat on him. Still skinny though. (Both DH and I were scrawning kids, so it looks like Kaua may be skinny as well). More pictures to come.....