Birth Story

Okay, so it has been a week, and in the hospital our other computer died :( I guess it was it's time, and with the money that we saved by not getting an epidural, we got a new computer. Here is the story of James' birth...

On Sunday, the 19th I felt as though I was having contractions, so all during church we were timing them, but they wouldn't be very consistant, and later that evening we went on a walk with Karissa and Jenn and they went away, so not really labor. Monday I felt fantastic, and since I was at least 37 weeks I even went running at the gym besides the regular weights and biking. That night we went out to Bombay House with Jenn, but it wasn't spicy this time, good but not spicy. For family night and since we are spontaneous, we went biking at about 10pm up to BYU campus. There is this hill that I rode up on my mountain bike that I didn't even ride up when I would bike to campus everyday last year, but I made it. After that though there were no Braxton-Hicks contractions. At about midnight though I was feeling like I had on Sunday, but we just went to sleep because that had gone away before...

Tuesday morning I woke up with Nathan and I still hurt, but nothing that I couldn't handle. I decided though that I should take a shower just in case I did end up going to the hospital that day. The contractions kept coming, and as I was talking to my friend Michelle Williams online, I decided I should call my friend Aubreigh Parks who is an ICU nurse just to come be with me because I didn't really want to be alone. She had just finished taking her NCLEX exam that morning, and called me back so I asked her to come on over, I wasn't sure if I was in labor or not. Then I called Nathan and asked him to come home from work because I think I wanted to go to the hospital today. He said he'd call back in two minutes, and leave to come home at 10am. Aubreigh was 1/2 hour away, and was on her way. I was just getting the last minute things together in my bag, and kept having to stop every four or five minutes to go through a contraction. At 10am I called Nathan again since he hadn't called back, and he then left to come home at 10:25. When Aubreigh go here we took Lady for a walk to drop her off at our friend's the Murray's who also have a dog. That was about two blocks there and two blocks back. As we were walking Aubreigh asked, " do you think you can make it back?" Just at that moment there was a police car across the street who had stopped someone and I said "well, if I don't make it we'll ask him for a ride". I was joking a lot, which might be my way of dealing with the pain. Anyway, we got back to my place, and then we decided that I should eat something because if I really was in labor they wouldn't give me anything once I got to the hospital, and at that moment we didn't know how long this would take. I enjoyed a bowl of cheerios, then we decided to get to the hospital. Nathan was rushing home at this point, and after we had just left our house, he was close, so we met at the hospital parking lot. Good thing that we only live about a minute from the hospital. We got there, and I had to stop on the way to the elevators due to a contraction. Once we got to the labor and delievery floor, they put us in the observation area to make sure I really was in labor, hooked me to the fetal heart rate external monitor and a monitor to look at the contractions. His heart rate was great, and I was having contractions. Once we got into the observation area it was about 11:25am. Nathan took a conference call at noon, and the nurse came to check me and sure enough I was dialated to a 4.5, which means I was in labor, and I would be admitted to the hospital. I thus started to call my family, and low and behold, I couldn't get a hold of ANYONE!! So I again asked Aubreigh to stay, and she was a saint and did. We talked, and at about 12:30 a new nurse came in to check me. I was dialiated to a 7.5!!! She asked if I had to go to the bathroom, and I was like, yeah, I do, I should before I deliever. "No, that's the baby, we need to get you to a birthing suite like NOW!" Holy cow, he was coming, and he was coming fast! Nathan was no where to be found at this point!!!!! I said, "Aubreigh, find Nathan!" She did just a few minutes later, and we gathered my bags to go down the hall. I WALKED down the hall to the suite, though I had to stop through another contraction. I got into the bed, they checked me again, and I was now dialiated to 9cm! I was also Group B strep positive (I just had been tested the week before at my doctor's appointment and they hadn't called me with the results yet) so they quickly started me on penicillin. Luckily I had a sinus infection the week before as well, so asked if they could give me anything at my doctor's appointment, and so I had been on amoxicillin for that whole week! That was a huge blessing in disquise! I also was just joking with the nurse again, and when they said, "maybe we should break her water", I said, "maybe we should wait until my doctor gets here :)". My doctor, Sarah Daly, who was on maternity leave for another week, just happened to be at the office, which is just across the street from the hospital. She had been paged and was coming...

Quickly inserting the IV

Nathan and Kendra, James was born about 30min later

Aubreigh, aka the best birthing coach ever, and Kendra

... "There might not be enough time for her to get here" this other doctor said. "Wait, who are you? Let me introduce myself, I'm Kendra, are you going to deliver this baby?" It was another doctor from the same office that I hadn't met yet. "Well, maybe, if Dr. Daly doesn't get here soon I will be". Holy cow. "Do you want an epidural?" I thought and said, "Well...", "no, we need to know now, and even if we got it in, it might just kick in for the very end of pushing". "No, I guess not if it isn't even going to really work". Yep, so I was going drug free, So about two minutes later my doctor comes in, and I was like "hey there, took you long enough! Just kidding!". This baby was coming FAST! She checked me, and said, "okay, we are going to break your water, then we'll start pushing". WHAT! I was not ready. "Wait, I haven't finished the book On Becoming Baby Wise yet, the diaper bag is still coming in the mail, I'm not ready yet!" is what I said. The nurses thought I was hysterical, I was just making jokes in between contractions. After they broke my water I had somewhere between 3-5 contractions with 3 pushes each. Nathan was on one side of me, Aubreigh on the other, and each had a leg to pull up as I wouldn't do it since it felt as though that would break my pelvis. I think that I was able to push better because I didn't have an epidural, and I could feel when the contractions were coming. Aubreigh was AMAZING, and took charge, told me when to take a breath and she would count to ten and I would push, then I could take another breath. Nathan never left my side, but I can tell you I was pretty scared. Aubreigh said it would feel like I was being disembowled, and I said, "wait, I don't want to feel that, I want the epidural!". "Too late now" said the doctor. After 10 minutes of pushing, out came our precious little guy:

Just born

Looking at this bright new place

New parents

At 1:10pm he was born. 5lbs and 8oz, and just perfect. It was love at first sight, I bonded! Nathan got to hold him after he was cleaned, and then went with him to the nursery until we got a room. And that is the story. Some may say, wow, you had it easy, but I think it was short, not necessarily easy. From the time we were admitted to the hospital to his birth was about an hour and a half! I told everyone he'd be early (he was 37weeks and 4 days along) and he'd be small, now maybe people will believe me. I also upheld the family history of short births! Now we'll just have to see how fast they are from here on out.