Birth Story of our Baby Boy
Well, since a whole year has gone by and I still havnt’t written down Kenai’s birth story, I figured better late than never. And with him turning a year old it has brought back so many memories of that day and I can’t believe it has been a year. It feels like yesterday that we went to the hospital and met him for the first time.
I went into my doctors office on Kenai’s due date which was January 4th, 2021 for my 40 week appointment. At my appointment the week before I had been dilated 1 centimeter so I was hoping to have dilated even more so see some progress. The doctor checked me and also did a cov*d test for my induction on the 6th. At this time, for inductions the hospital was requiring a test 72 hours before induction, but if I had gone into labor naturally they would have tested me at arrival. I remember it being such a scary time because if I had tested positive, they would not have let Jacob in the room with me during labor… SO CRAZY. It made me so mad that was even a rule but my frustration with cov*d throughout my pregnancy coulee be a whole other post.
The doctor said I was still at 1 centimeter and that she would see me on the 6th for my induction if I did not go into labor before then. Thank God my cov*d test came back negative and we had nothing to worry about on that side of things. We went home and continued doing everything we could to get me into labor naturally. We tried walking, eating pineapple, spicy foods, bouncing on my yoga ball, you name it, and nothing budged. He was so cozy in there and I knew we would be going in for our induction on the 6th.
6:00pm - The night of the 6th we dropped off our dog Honey at my in-laws and then got take out and ate it in the car (all restaurants were not offering dining in at that time because of cov*d). We enjoyed our last meal out without our baby and drove down to the hospital. It was a weird feeling having it be such a calm experience. You always picture the scenes in the movies driving to the hospital with screaming, crying, and lots of pain. But ours was so calm and we talking about our excitement, nerves, and how we thought our baby boy would be. I remember being nervous and crying a little. Just ready for the experience to be over and have our baby in our arms.
7:00pm - Our check in at the hospital was 7:00pm so they could start me on cervidil overnight which helps with dilation. Again the whole experience felt so weirdly calm. It wasn’t until they checked us into our room and I changed into the gown that both Jacob and I started getting a little more nervous. The first nurse we had was SO AMAZING and sweet. She had seven kids and I knew she knew what she was doing. Looking back I so wish I had her for the whole birth.
8:00pm - They had put the IV in my arm and had the first round of cervidil going, which they insert vaginally. They also checked my and I was still at a 1. I was nervous for the IV but it went really smoothly and the nurse did a really good job. Once the cervidil was inserted they have to check your blood pressure the first two 30 minutes, then every hour all night long. So the nurses were coming in and our throughout the night so I didn’t get a super restful sleep but I think Jacob didn’t wake up every time so his sleep was a little bit better.
1:00am - The nurses came in and checked me and I was about a 2.5 centimeters dilated. They said I was having small contractions but I wasn’t feeling them at all since I was sleeping. At this point the nurses inserted the next round of cervidil and said they would check my blood pressure again at 30 minutes and then at an hour. After the hour check at 2:00am they said they would let us sleep for 2 hours and come back in to see how I was progressing.
4;00am - Time for another check. This time I was definitely starting to feel the contractions. They weren’t super painful but I definitely wasn’t comfortable anymore and they felt like really bad period cramps. At this point the nurses assessed my pain level to see if I wanted any temporary relief. I wasn’t in an unbearable amount of pain but again I was pretty uncomfortable and if something was goin to make it go away I was all for it. So they suggested fentanyl which gets put directly into your IV and makes you feel a little loopy and a little tipsy. A side effect to the fentanyl is nausea which I definitely felt right away. They gave me some alcohol wipes to hold under my nose to help the nausea and it definitely did help which was so weird and I had never heard of before. They did end up giving me some ant-nausea medication to help as well. After all that I was able to go to sleep for a little bit more.
6:00am - This is where things began to pick up. The nurses put more fentanyl in my IV and check me and I was at a 3. They were trying to decide if I was far enough along to start Pitocin or to do one more round on cervivil so they nurse went out of the room to talk it through with my doctor. While they were out of the room I felt a pop and a gush of water. My water broke! The only way to truly describe it is the feeling of a water ballon breaking in your hand but you feel it inside you. I knew what it was right away and I said “Uh, my water just broke” and Jacob was like “Really?!” so he went outside the room to get the nurse. The nurse came in a verifies that indeed my water had broken! Immediately after my contractions started to pick up more and were getting painful. I know when my mom had me her labor progressed VERY quickly after her water had broken. So much so that she didn’t have time to get the epidural. So immediately I told the nurse I am ready for the epidural.
7:00am - The nurses checked me again and I was 4 centimeters. So I had gone from 3 to 4 centimeters in an hour which was the most I had progressed in such a short time. So the nurses gave the go ahead for the epidural and the anesthesiologist was in the room in no more than 15 minutes later. They said it would take a total of 10 minutes to do the whole process which I didn’t know was so quick. And it honestly felt so much faster than that. At our hospital they have the husbands sit in another room or facing away because they have had too many pass out from watching. Which in the moment I was kind of relived because I don’t know how Jacob would have done with being next to me for that whole process. The nurse, however, was SO sweet and she had me sit criss cross on the bed facing her with my back hunched over. She let me hold her elbows and lay my head on her shoulder which was such a huge help. I remember feeling SO much liquid gushing out of me the entire time. It felt like I was peeing and couldn’t control it. The anesthesiologist was also so nice and made it super painless and quick. In just a few minutes it was over and I was so relived. I remember thinking it was so much easier than people make it out to be. In the moment I thought the hard part was over cause that is was I was most worries about, but we still had a long ways to go.
8:30am - I was checked again and hadn’t progressed much so they started me on Pitocin. A few minutes later I started feeling super nauseous and a lot of pressure so I was given more anti-nausea medication and used more of the alcohol wipes. I also pressed the button for more epidural because the nurses said if I was feeling pressure that means I probably didn’t have enough of the epidural running through me. For the next few hours I was pretty nauseas. I had a few popsicles and was super hungry and they also gave me blood pressure medication for Kenai’s heart rate because it was going down during contractions. The nurse also put a peanut ball in between my legs and flipping me from side to side every 30 minutes to an hour to help the epidural get through me better and also help me progress some more.
11:15am - At this point I was 4.5 centimeters which was pretty discouraging. I knew that the epidural would probably slow down progress but it was still such a bummer know we still had so much further to go. They upped my Pitocin to hopefully help things move along.
12:00pm - I was checked again and was measuring 5.5 centimeters. YAY! Kenai’s heart rate was continuing to go down during contractions though so they put me on an oxygen mask which helped a lot. Especially because I could take off the cov*d mask they had me wearing the whole time. Ya, did I mention I had to wear a mask my entire labor… I will have more on that later…
2:40pm - Time to be checked again and I was at about a 7 to an 8! The nurse still kept switching me from side to side with the peanut ball. We FaceTime our parents and update them. I watched some friends episodes and Jacob took a little nap. I had more popsicles and upped my epidural a but also.
5:00pm - The nurses started another round of Pitocin to help the baby move a bit further down to make pushing easier. And we waited for the next check.
6:00pm - We made it to 10 CENTIMETERS! YAY!! I remember feeling such relief that we had made it and we would meet the baby soon. I remember making bets with Jacob on what the baby’s height would be, his weight, and what time he would be born. We did a few practice pushed but the nurse said he was still pretty high up so we decided to labor down for about an hour. Laboring down means you just sit and wait at 10 centimeters and let you body naturally bring the baby down lower to hopefully make pushing go faster.
7:00pm - We started some pushes with the nurse, and this was a new nurse, not the one I had from the beginning. I could already tell she was a bit more harsh and short with us but I was just ready to push this baby out. I did a few pushes and couldn’t really feel where I was pushing so they had me stop pressing the epidural button so I could get some feeling back to push. I could feel the pressure when the contractions would come and it was crazy feeling my body have a natural reaction to push. I would tell the nurse I need to push and sometimes she would just shrug her shoulders and say ok and sometimes she wouldn’t say anything. She mostly just sat by the little monster a few feet away from me and didn’t say if I was progressing, doing it right, or encouraging me. It felt so defeating because I had no idea if I was even making any progress. Then in the middle of all that she asked me to please put my mask back on… my husband about lost it. I was an hour into pushing, had already tested negative, and she was standing feet away from us. I was beyond done with her. I just barely lifted it back up and continued pushing without saying anything.
9:00pm - the time from 7-9 is the most fuzzy. I remember pushing with every contraction with everything I had and Jacob stood beside me holding my leg the whole time. She finally checked me and said to stop pushing and try and wait for the doctor to come in. The baby was almost here! Within a few minutes the doctor came in along with many other nurses and people that I didn’t know who they were. They laid out all the tools, the doctor got into her scrubs, and the annoying nurse said she was going to take her break and another nurse was going to fill in… really she had to leave right when the baby was coming?? She made no sense. But I was happy to have a different nurse and she was so so sweet and perfect! it was so hard to not push during the contraction though. I would say even harder than the actual pushing. Your body just naturally does it and I tried my best but I still pushed a little. The nurse said to do short fast breathes to help. The doctor then got into position and said I would have the baby in about 3 pushes!
9:29pm - Baby Kenai was born! Seeing him for the first time is a feeling you really cannot describe in words. Its relief, joy, pure happiness, and relief again. I was so happy it was over and he was here! They laid him on my lower stomach right away to clean him a bit but then took him away to suck out some fluid from his throat. Then a few minutes later they laid him on my chest skin to skin. I couldn’t believe that he was here! Our baby boy. They continued to clean him while the doctor stitched me up. I found out later I had a second degree tear which wasn’t too bad. The stitching probably took about 45 minutes which I didn’t feel, but the idea of what she was doing down there made me uneasy. But having Kenai in my arms made it go by fast.
We got to take Kenai home two days later and he passed all his tests perfectly. We are so in love with him and will cherish the day he was born forever.
