It's a..............

Another Boy!!!

My 2nd son, B.l.a.z.e. H.o'e.a.k.a.u.i.l.a ("Ho'ea") (middle name means "The Lightning Arrival") arrived in this world on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 9:19 p.m. It was a doozy of a labor and I did it without pain medication!!! (Although that was not my choice, he came so fast there was no time for the anesthesiologist to get to my room to give me pain meds!) I typed up my birth story my first night at the hospital, so I'm going to repaste it here:


Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011 9:19 p.m. 7lbs 13 oz., 20 inches. Apgar 9/10.

Where to begin.

Well as of last week I began to very slowly lose my mucus plug. I noticed some mucus at about 4:30ish at work. I noticed more mucus throughout the following days, but it was never really very heavy. I also began having more increased braxton hicks contractions, but nothing that I thought were noteworthy.

As the days passed, and my due date of Friday, Aug. 5 slowly began approaching, I became more and more anxious. I had not gone past 39 weeks with Kaua, and had hoped that this pregnancy would be the same.

Mom and I did a lot of walking when we could. I ate pineapple and did other things to hopefully speed the pregnancy along. Nothing seemed to be working.

Over the weekend, and perhaps starting on Monday, I noticed that my braxton hicks contractions were getting a bit stronger, such that I felt some cramping at times, but again, nothing consistent and nothing that I thought compared with the pain I felt in my first labor.

Tuesday night, (last night), we had dinner at my Papa's house for my cousin's 22nd birthday. Again, I felt some discomfort, sort of like an acheyness, but nothing that I thought was notable. I was also fighting a slight cold that both DH and I had caught from Kaua.

At work that day, and even the prior thursday (I only work Tues. and Thurs. right now), I was getting anxious and had a hard time concentrating. I kept logging onto babycenter to read about symptoms of labor and other women on the board who were approaching their due date. I even googled the statistics about what week of the pregnancy was most common for women to give birth. I was satisfied when it appeared as of the larger percentage gave birth in their 40th week.

Wednesday morning, today, I had a doctor’s appointment at 10:15. The doctor I saw, Dr. A, checked me for the first time. I had been declining checks previously because I knew it would not make a difference. With Kaua, I was checked at my 38 week appointment, told I was barely 1 cm, had my mucus membrane stripped, but told that I would likely go full term. Kaua came either 2 or 3 days later. So I knew my cervix dilation was not a good indication of labor.

Anyway, Dr. A checked me and she said I was 3 cm dilated. Great news!!! I forgot to ask how much effacement I was though. She quickly did the cervix stripping and boy did that hurt. I remember saying “ow, ow, ow” then reverted to my lamaze class breathing. That helped. Dr. A answered some of my brief questions about a potential induction if I went past my due date, explaining that they would schedule me for another appointment in 1 week and if I hadn’t given birth by then, they would go ahead and schedule an induction. But she stressed that she didn’t think I would make it to the next appointment and that she thought I would be giving birth any day now. I hoped she was right, but from previous experience, didn’t put too much emphasis on it.

I was feeling disappointed around 4pm today when it appeared as if nothing was happening on the labor front. However, as 5 pm rolled around I began noticing that I felt achey. The braxton hicks (or so I thought) were coming fairly often, but I’d have to say not more then 5-10 minutes apart. DH and I had tickets to go see the local semi-pro baseball game that night and I really wanted to go, but because I was feeling so uncomfortable, I decided against it. I made the decision very last minute though. We went to the UPS customer service center to pick up a nursing cover I had ordered through the internet at 6pm, and I was having some contractions all throughout the trip to and back. I began timing them and they were coming about 5 minutes apart.

I called my mom and told her that we weren’t going to baseball and that I thought that tonight would be the night and asked if she could come pick up Kaua. At first she said she was going to go to the gym and then check on me afterwards, but as it became clear over the six o'clock hour that this was it, I called her back and asked her to come soon.

From about 7-8pm, my contractions were coming on a lot stronger and quicker. Averaging about 2-4 minutes apart and over 1 minute in duration (about 2 minutes). (As I typed this, he started crying so I picked him up out of the hospital bassinet and he stopped crying, guess he just wanted to be near mama. He also burped too, so that probably helped. He’s now in my arms as I type this on my notebook.) Anyways, DH and I were sort of frantically trying to get things together for the hospital. DH was trying to wash dishes and clean up from the fish dinner he had made (I didn’t have the appetite to eat it unfortuntely). I was trying to get last minute things we needed for the hospital and pack a bag for Kaua in case he was going to sleep upcountry at my moms. The contractions were pretty strong at this point and I didn’t seem to be having very much breaks in between them.

Mom finally came and got Kaua around 8pm. By then I was in major pain. She started telling me to labor as much as I could at home and blah blah blah, (a little too much bossiness). After she left, I tried to wait until a time in between contractions and called labor & delivery. I explained that I had been timing the contractions for the last 2 hours, and while the first hour was more inconsistent, the last hour had been fairly consistent at less than 5 minutes. As I was talking, the nurse noted that I sounded like I was in pain and said I should come into the emergency room to get checked. I asked if maybe I should try to tough it out longer, but she said I probably should just come in, just in case. (Boy am I glad I did).

DH was trying to load things into the car and I had a hard time even getting to the car myself. At one point, I was like no, I wanna stay on the couch, because it hurt so much to move. I was getting very little relief inbetween contractions. They felt like they were never ending. DH motivated me by saying that since it was our 2nd one, the baby could come fast, so I got up and went to the car.

We drove to the hospital which was only 10 minutes away and I was in major pain. DH asked if he should just drop me off or park the car and we walk in together and I was in so much agony so I yelled, “You think, I cant concentrate!”

He parked the car and we walked in. The room wasn’t crowded thankfully. They took one look at me and said “baby” and we both nodded yes. They asked if I wanted to walk and I said no, so they went to get me a wheelchair while I tried to check in. It must have been a little after 8:30pm. I was pretty useless at this point, so DH had to give them my card and ID and stuff. They had me sign some forms and I just scribbled. I would have signed anything at that point. They had DH go get a visitor’s pass and the nurse asked if I wanted to wait for him, and I was like “I don’t care.” So up to L&D we went. Luckily, DH was only a few seconds and he caught up to us before we could even reach the elevator.

They put me into L&D room 4 and the nurse checked me. She said I was at 5-6cm dilated and 100% effaced (my cervix was nice and soft). I asked for drugs right away, and she went to call the anesthesiologist. I also asked if I could have something now, but she said that it would be best if I waited since I was getting the intrathecal.

By then the contractions were awful. I wasn’t really paying attention to anything and really struggling to maintain my breathing, keep my eyes open and focus on anything. Everthing I did hurt like heck. I tried rolling onto my side, but that made it worse. I yelled and moaned at some points and begged the nurse to “help me." It had been about 15 minutes since she called the anesthesiologist and DH and I were getting anxious. The nurse tried to reassure me that she was on her way. I was in so much pain, nothing seemed to be helping. I was so sore, I began crying out during the contractions and said against my own better judgment, “I cant do this!” several times.

The nurse and DH tried to reassure me that I could, but nothing seemed to be helping. I guess the doctor heard me yelling, because she came in. Her name was Dr.B. They were finally going to give me some morphine to take the edge off, but she wanted to check me first. As soon as she checked me, she told the nurse, Ellen, in a frantic voice, “never mind, she’s fully dilated, she’s ready to push!” (it had only been about 15 minutes since the nurse said I was at 5-6cm). By then I was in so much pain, I didn’t care what the heck happened. I was aware that it was too late to get any medications and somewhat terrified of it, but my body just took over. As Dr. B and the nurse scrambled around the room trying to get their instruments, the doc told me to breath through the next contraction. I exclaimed back, “I have to push!” and she said ok, do it. DH held my right hand and I began pushing. I could feel the baby coming down and into my vaginal canal. With that first push, I’m pretty sure the baby crowned. I also remember feeling a poppin sensation and warm water gushing out.  My water bag broke on that push.  The doctor said just one or two more pushes and the baby would be here.

I pushed again, and kept pushing. The doctor again reassured me that baby was almost here and asked if I was still having a contraction. I didn’t know, all I knew was that I needed to push. So I pushed one more time and the baby’s head was out. I think I could feel the tearing (I tore in 2 spots, above and below), it was like a burning sensation, but with all the pain I had been enduring with the contractions, it all seemed to blend together. When the head was out, I didn’t see anything (I was in too much pain and there was no mirror), so don’t know if the baby had an umbilical cord wrapped around him or not, but they asked me to stop pushing, and I was able to briefly do so, but the urge to push came again. I pushed and the rest of his body came out and they said, “It’s a boy!” and put him on my chest.

He cried right away! He was all chubby and pink. He look very good and the nurse said he had an apgar scoreof 9/10. I was so exhausted and overwhelmed by the whole delivery I was sobbing with exhaustion and tears. From the time I checked in to the hospital and the time the baby came was only 40 MINUTES!!! Much more different than with Kaua. We didn’t have time to call anyone!

I got to hold the baby boy while they wiped him up and DH cut his umbilical cord. DH kept saying that I did so good and that I did it without drugs. I couldn’t believe it too!!! I’m glad it happened so fast, because it hurt like heck!!! I felt embarrassed at how much moaning and screaming I did, but thankfully, that was only for about 10 minutes and likely through only 3-4 contractions. After he came out, I told the nurse and the doc, "Yay, I'm not a bitch anymore!" They said no worries, it comes with the territory and they are used to it.

I delivered the placenta (which hurt a little too) and was shaking in awe and adrenaline. The doctor said that was pretty common for very fast deliveries because the adrenaline was still coursing through my veins with no where to go.

Now I sit in my post partum room. It is 12:47 am on August 4th. DH has gone home (hospital rules, only the mommy can stay, spouses/partners have to leave, WTF right?!). Mom had come after we gave birth and she also went home. I’m sharing the room with someone else who has the window. Oh well. (She ended up being someone I knew from grade school and soccer. She discharged the next day so I got the room all to myself the 2nd night).

Baby is in my arms, sleeping peacefully as I type this. I’m still kinda bleeding a lot and am supposed to monitor it myself. (I got a lot more pampered at the other hospital where I gave birth to Kaua…they do everything for you). Without DH here to help, I feel kind of limited. It’s hard to move around. I don’t even know how I’m going to sleep!!!

We’ve got some major brainstorming to do tomorrow. We still haven’t picked out an official name, although, I’m pretty sure his first name will be B.l.a.z.e. DH gets to come back at 8am. We made arrangements for Mom to watch Kaua in the AM and gram in the PM. Hopefully, he’ll be able to visit too. I’m not sure how he’ll react to having a new baby brother.

I’m going to check my pads one more time while I try to pee again then hopefully get some shut eye.

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.....

Kaua is HERE!!!

Hey guys, not much time to write, but wanted to update everyone and to thank you for your comments on my last post. I guess the little guy decided to cut mommy some slack b/c he came on black friday - November 27, 2009 at 8:25pm. Guess all my sniveling about being 1 cm dilated and no effacement didn't matter much huh?

Kaua is a happy and healthy little guy. He was 7lbs 2.3 ounces and 19.5" long. He was a little lighter than we expected, but I guess it makes sense since he was 1 week and 2 days early. We had our first follow up appt yesterday (our first day home) and he already grew to 21"!!! Crazy how fast they grow.

I'll post again in the next few days to share his birth story and hopefully some pictures!!

B MoM over and out -- and finally a mother!!!! God is sooooooooooo good!