Kipling Alan - A Birth Story

Last week I shared about the arrival of Kipling, but today, on his two-weeks-old birthday, I wanted to share about his actual birth story. It's not a lovely and romantic post with a beautifully decorated room and hosts of visitors and well wishers. I've read many birth stories online that are composed and "perfect." Our story is like us, unfolding with little control from us, but beautiful in its own way.

Somehow, in the flurry of the day, I had the clarity of mind to keep a short timeline on my phone of how the day progressed. Had I not thought to do that, we would have no documentation of what actually happened because as soon as Kippy was born I forgot everything. Ha! Mom brain is real.

August 9, 2017  

8:15 am - 39 week OB appointment. Dan and I enjoyed one last OB breakfast date at Pret. Man how I miss those special breakfasts now.

8:45 am - We arrived at the hospital and checked-in at the front desk. I got hooked-up to the fetal monitors, not realizing I wouldn't be able to take those stupid monitors off for the next 24+ hours.

10:00 am - After some monitoring and waiting around, since the labor and delivery floor was super crowded, the doctor on-call decided to induce. I waited in triage, hooked to the monitors, until they had a delivery room ready. I inhaled part of the lunch I packed for work knowing that as soon as I got a room I would be on a clear liquid diet until the baby arrived. Dan left to buy me a phone charger and then headed home to meet Mandy to grab the hospital bag.

12:00 pm - I was brought to delivery room 606 around noon and hooked up to an IV and was basically immobile from that point. The room was huge and comfortable and private. There was even a shower in the room which I don't really understand why because once you have the monitors on you can't do anything. I took my 39 week bump photo in the bathroom. I had planned on taking it that morning before I left for work but we were running late and then, well, hospital gown bump photo it is!

12:30 pm - Lunch arrived. Broth, red jello, lemon icee, juice, and tea. This was actually way better than I thought it would be.

12:45 pm - The Physician's Assistant (PA) inserted the Cevidil which is the drug that starts to soften the cervix and takes 12 hours to work so basically I was told to just lay there and relax. Every 20-30 minutes a nurse would come in to make me roll over or move positions to get a better read on the baby. They were pumping me with IV fluid so fast that I had to pee like every 30 minutes which was a hassle since I was hooked up to so many monitors.

While we hung-out, Mandy put together little treat bags for the various nurses and PAs that were coming in and out of the room. I got the idea from Reba and it seemed like everyone was really grateful, particularly because the labor and delivery floor was really busy that day. We also took pictures!

4:30 pm - All afternoon I was trying to get in touch with work to start my maternity leave which resulted in an hour long phone nightmare with the outsourced company charged with handling the leave. I was crying and annoyed but eventually it got worked out. But, still, not something I wanted to deal with while going into labor. Mandy and Dan were with me all day to keep me company and fetch me ice chips and keep me laughing.

5:15 pm - Dinner arrived and I was SO ravenous that I ate it all. So Dan and Mandy went out and got me more broth from a soup shop down the street and smuggled it in for me.

At some point in the early evening I started getting back pain which oddly felt exactly like the pains I had so many years ago before I had my surgery. It wasn't unbearable but it was very uncomfortable and NOT what I expected contractions to feel like so I didn't think they were actually contractions. I'm still not sure they were but I don't know what else they could be.

11:10 pm - The nurse was having me shift in bed again when I felt liquid all over me. I said, "oh, I think my water broke." The nurse insisted I had just wet the bed and then I said "well, I can't stop the stream." She again, insisted, I had just wet the bed. Mandy smelled it and said it was not urine but they didn't check. A little bit later it happened again and a different nurse finally tested it to see that it was in fact my water that broke.

After the water broke, the back pain and discomfort which must have been contractions really started to become intense.

I'm not sure if the pain and the water breaking was something that happened naturally or if it was a result of the Cervidil. Part of me thinks I would have gone into labor that night regardless of being induced but we'll never know for sure.

August 10, 2017 

12:00 am - At midnight the PA checked my cervix and said I was only 1/2 centimeter dilated. Apparently after 12 hours of being on Cervidil if you haven't started to dilate then you have to take a second 12 hour dose (this is why being induced can take days). Fortunately, I was progressing a little so they planned to start the Pitocin after I hit 12 hours (around 2 am).

12:15 am - Although the pain wasn't unbearable, I had said I was planning on getting an epidural so the nurse said it made the most sense to get the epidural then. They cleared the room and the anesthesiologist came in and got me all hooked up. Afterwards, they inserted the catheter which I was really grateful for because the pressure on my bladder was really bad and I was having to pee all the time.

1:00 am - Around 1 am my mom and dad come back to visit. They came straight to the hospital from the airport and had to wait in the waiting area until after they got the epidural hooked-up and the catheter inserted. I was so happy to see them and regret a little that I didn't get a photo with them. They stayed a bit and then headed to our apartment and Dan and I settled down to try and get some sleep.

1:45 am - I was NOT tried and struggled to even rest the whole night. I knew I needed sleep but I was just so wired and excited. I think I dozed but I never fell asleep. It was hard to sleep anyways since the nurses came in every 20 minutes to check things and have me switch the side I was laying on because the baby's heart rate kept fluctuating.

2:30 am - About 12 hours after they started the Cervidil they started the Pitocin via the IV. After that the pain came back little by little until the anesthesiologist came back and "topped off" the epidural. The monitors also started to bother me a lot at this point. The Pitocin makes you itchy and so the straps holding the monitors were so scratchy. I actually took the fork from my dinner tray and was using it to scratch under the straps it was so intense.

5:00 am - Early morning the PA checked to see that I was three centimeters dilated and decided to stop the Pitocin temporarily due to baby's heart rate. I was thrilled to be progressing since everyone had told us it was going to take a LONG time.

6:00 am - About an hour after they turned the Pitocin off, I started feeling a lot of bladder pressure from the baby moving down and since his heart rate improved, they restarted the Pitocin. Shortly after that my catheter fell out which surprised the nurse since apparently it wasn't supposed to move, let alone fall out.

10:00 am - Just after 24 hours of being at the hospital I started feeling more pressure and some pain. I mentioned it casually to the nurse and she said she'd get the PA to check. It took several minutes for the PA to come back but when she checked my cervix she said, sort of alarmed, "Oh! there's the head, you're 10 centimeters dilated. This is my shocked and already exhausted face!! I progressed from 3 cm to 10 cm in only 5 hours.

11:00 am - They shut off the Pitocin immediately and called the doctor which took a bit of time for her to arrive (remember it was really busy). It wasn't my regular OB who delivered and I'm still not sure why. It was a doctor in the same practice who I had only met once. She was nice and encouraging and explained how she wanted me to push and what was happening and then within a half hour Kippy arrived!! It was so fast and not like anything I expected. Dan and Mandy were there and Mandy took pictures the whole time and I was even able to reach down and help pull Kippy onto my chest. 

I'm not going to share any of the gory photos but it was a beautifully ugly experience. It wasn't as painful and it wasn't as scary as I imagined labor would be. My body took over and in a few sets of pushes he was here in our arms. I didn't even have time to take my gown off. I used absolutely NONE of the tips or skills we "learned" in our birthing classes. Ha!

Dan, me and Mandy were all crying when he came out. Beautiful and perfect.

I'm looking at my baby now, just two weeks old and still so tiny but already so different from his first moments of life. Motherhood is HARD and in that second when they put him on my chest, I felt a love so deep I have nothing else to compare it to. I imagine it is the love that God feels towards us, something I had never really considered before. I hope in the hard moments ahead I can remember those first few seconds and treasure the gift that Kipling is to me. The miracle of life that God chose to give to us.