Most of you probably know a lot of them but for my memory sake I will reiterate so feel free to skip around.
I went into pre-term labor with Kyra at 33 weeks. I was sitting in church and Garth didn't believe I was contracting. I tried to give it a couple hours but finally I told him we needed to go in to be safe. So we went in and sure enough my contractions were good and strong 2 minutes apart and had been for hours. I was 2cm dilated and 60% effaced. And all of the tests they did to test for the possibility of labor came back positive so I was forced to stay. I was then put on modified bed rest and medicine to stop the contractions.
I took the medicine as sparingly as possible. It gave me hot flashes and causes swelling and rapid weight gain. I also don't like being on medicine pregnant AT ALL. So I only took it after I had exhausted all other methods of stopping the contractions.
I went off the medicine on Thanksgiving and black Friday I had contractions all night long 2-3 minutes apart that never progressed.
This became my new normal. Prodromal labor about 3-5 nights a week that started almost like clockwork between 7-8pm every single night. Hard contractions 2-3 minutes apart for hours and hours on end. Sometimes they would make me go into the hospital to check baby girl. Other times I would just do my best to get any amount of sleep.
By 38 weeks my doctor said my baby was still not engaging and I wasn't progressing at all despite my body trying. It is common after being on the meds for pre term labor that your body struggles to get it going again. He offered to induce me and I was shocked.
I had specifically sought out a doctor who I knew would never ever induce me unless necessary. He is so stubborn about meds and interventions in pregnancy.
But he knew all about Camden's surgery, and I came in with contractions when Camden got the diagnosis, and then he watched me not sleep and struggle right after Camden had surgery so honestly I think he just took major pity on me. He said he normally never offers but knew my pregnancy had been such a long road.
I was on the fence but ultimately decided I was ready to be a mom again. Ready to sleep again and ready to feel good again.
So December 22nd we were scheduled for 6am induction. The doctor hoped that if he broke my water it would be enough to kick me into labor and my body would just go.
When we arrived they were very very behind and we were told we would have to wait a couple hours. Waiting they had me on monitors and it was funny to see I was already contracting 2-3 minutes apart, as per usual.
After a while I asked if we could eat and she said you will have to ask your doctor. My doctor arrived at 8 and said I'm here to break your water! Which meant no eating. And I was starving! But I was ready to be done being pregnant even more. So he broke my water which was actually quite weird. Camden my water was broken at 9cm and then I just pushed him out. I didn't really feel much. Breaking your water early is kind of gross. I didn't even consider how messy and inconvenient it would be to be periodically gushing water through my entire labor. I like to walk around and move so that was an unfortunate realization. But we managed!
I walked for two hours straight though I had asked for a birthing ball, my nurse never brought one back. You could tell she really didn't think I was going to go natural and didn't like the idea of having to let me. I imagine for inductions is so much easier to get an epidural in and get the pit turned way way up. Then the nurses really can just time it all however they want. But oh well. She was a little harsh at first. Garth ate food at this time much to my dismay but I knew if he didn't he would get sick.
At 10am she came in and asked if she could start the Pitocin. I said she had to check me first because I needed to mentally know where I was at and know that the pit was necessary. She acted like I was obviously not in enough pain to have increased at all but agreed. I had increased 1 cm but it wasn't enough contractions regularity wise so I agreed to let her do the pitocin. So 10am the smallest dose of the pitocin began. My contractions picked up then and I was a little nervous I wouldn't make it.
I was still strapped to monitors, I FINALLY got the birthing ball, but I could only move about a foot. So I bounced on the ball and stared at the monitors.
I felt like I was having a hard time finding confidence because I felt out of control. I didn't know if my contractions were just like the ones I had had for months and would do nothing, or if the pit was working and it would stay this way for a while, or if they would keep cranking up the pitocin and things would get really really hard. Mentally I was getting discouraged and bummed out, plus I was just really tired.
I stood leaning over the ball and then alarms started to sound that my oxygen was low and my hearing muffled like I might pass out. So Garth helped me sit back down on the ball and I felt like in that moment there's no way they would let me labor naturally if the pitocin was affecting me like that. But then things changed. I felt like my body finally caught up to what the pitocin was trying to make it do and I was able to get into a bit of a rhythm. Then they upped my pitocin a little.
They checked me again and I was a 6 at noon so I had increased two more centimeters!. They were finally allowing me to get into the wireless monitors and get into the tub. I knew I could do it at this point. My body had caught up, things felt normal I was progressing, and I was finally allowed to move around. I labored in the tub for a while and you could tell that the nurse finally had confidence in me. She kept telling me how awesome I was and anyone else who came into the room told me about how they were talking about me outside the room. Garth and I laughed about how she completely did a 180 attitude wise toward us.
This labor I really did the breathing and mental managing of pain all on my own. I just closed my eyes during each contraction and kind of did my own thing so it was a very quiet labor. A nurse came in and turned down my pitocin back to 1 because she said my contractions were 1-1.5 minutes apart and really strong and she didn't want to over do it for the baby. I was still really comfortable at this point though so I was fine with whatever.My contractions were really never more than 2 minutes apart the whole labor partly because of the pitocin, but Kyra never showed any signs of stress at all.
They checked me again at 2:30 and I was a 7.5 so then I knew I was in transition and I was pretty excited. They did warn me she was posterior so transition would take longer and the back labor would be harder. We got back to the tub which was great for a while until she got really really into my back. Once she was in my back I couldn't sit anymore so we got out of the tub and I got ready to lean on the ball over the bed. The nurses were trying all sorts of different things to help with the back labor but ultimately things were getting very very intense.
Then I told them I felt like I needed to push which shocked me that it came so fast.
They checked me and I was a 10 so the doctor was called and they told me to wait to push.
Waiting to push is the worst feeling in the world I think!
We let Anna know she needed to hurry if she was going to make it and everyone got prepped for the baby.
I had looked forward to pushing the entire time because with Camden pushing felt so good and relieving. There was minimal pain at first pushing him, of course when he crowned it did hurt. He took about 30 minutes to get out.
Well Kyra was nothing like Camden. She was still posterior and she KILLED. Pushing was extremely difficult and extremely painful. I was so confused and I was struggling to find a good rhythm and position. The doctor and nurses felt a little demanding to me instead of letting me labor down and figure things out they kept telling me how to do it and the ways they wanted it done were not comfortable at all. I found myself getting a LITTLE cranky at them lol. BUT it only took 10 minutes of indescribable pain and she was out at 3:47pm. She came out very very blue which I was then told is normal in Colorado. (Highest apgar score you can get here is a 9 because of it). Who knew.
What I experienced post birth I can only describe as like a mini roid rage lol. The pitocin wasn't turned off till I had her out and right after I had her I felt really sick and really cranky, and the only thing I can think that was really different with her birth vs Camden's was that I still had pitocin pulsing through my body. I was just really crabby, and probably kind of mean to the staff..
But slowly I leveled off and felt more like myself and felt better about things. I got to hold her for almost an hour before they weighed her or anything. Anna missed the birth by about 5 seconds, but she got to see her brand new and hold her too!
Overall it was a beautiful, hard, tiring experience. I'm grateful it went the way it did and I'm so glad she's here. But laboring in the hospital staring at monitors and being strapped down for 4 hours to begin is really not the most ideal way to start labor. When you're induced things are a little different as far as what you're in control of. Kyra was very painful, but I went into it knowing she would be because she was painful to just carry inside me!!. Her labor and transition was easier than it was with Camden just simply because I knew what I was doing. This was the period I was very quiet and just in my element. However, pushing her out was much much harder. So it was a give and take [:
Garth was awesome. He drew on my back from 10am to the time I began pushing. He breathed through contractions with me and he was by my side every step of the way--as usual. I seriously am so so lucky to have that man. He was all in the entire labor, except for the portion where I made him eat his food in the corner! [;
The nurse actually came in and teared up telling us watching us was awesome because we are such a great team and that Garth takes such good care of me she didn't have to worry about me at all. The other nurse was shocked that I am 24 because that's how old she is, her and my doctor told us that I look like a 20 year old and act like a 32 year old. So they were all very nice. Despite the fact I think I was mean to all of them after I had her! Only for a little bit though! Then I apologized [:
She is finally here and she is beautiful!
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