By Small and Simple Things...: 2015

I wanted to make sure I wrote down the birth story of baby #4 before I forgot the details, but finding time to blog with a newborn in the house has been a bit of a challenge. Hopefully I can remember the important things.

On September 23rd, 2015 at 9:18 am, KyLee Dawn was born. It was a quick labor and delivery; the quickest of any of my children's births, and also the most painful. At my appointment on the 22nd, my doctor stripped my membranes in the hopes that I would go into labor on my own so he wouldn't have to induce me. He was going out of town for a conference the following week and wanted to make sure that he would be there for the baby's birth. I had light contractions that afternoon but they wore off after a few hours. I woke up at 3 the next morning, which was typical for me because I hadn't slept straight through the night for months. I quickly realized I was having contractions. I was still tired, so I didn't really time the contractions. Just by paying attention, I could tell they were coming about every 10-15 minutes and lasting a minute. They stayed that way until 5, when my husband got up to get ready for work. He came out to the living room to find me kneeling on the floor, and I told him he shouldn't go in to work. The contractions weren't really steady, so while J called his parents and I called my mom, I timed the contractions. In that hour they went from every 10 minutes to every 8 minutes. Once my father-in-law got to our house to stay with the kids, we got in the car and drove to the hospital. From the time we left the house and got to the hospital, my contractions were coming about every 4-6 minutes. We got checked into the hospital at 6:45 am and got to a room and settled in. The nurse checked me around 7:30 and I was dilated to 4 cm.

My doctor saw J in the hallway and got excited because J wasn't in his scrubs and he knew that meant our baby was on the way. The doc stopped by the room to see how things were going and to make sure I was doing okay. The nurse checked me again at 8:15 and I was at 6 cm. The nurse let me get up out of the bed and offered me a birthing ball, but I just wanted to stand in the middle of the room with J holding me. Once I was out of the bed, the contractions became much more intense. At 8:45 the nurse wanted to check me again and found out I was at 8 cm, almost dilated to 9 cm. They called the doctor and told him it was time to come catch the baby. They let me get back out of bed to finish my labor. It was the most intense labor I've ever been through. I didn't have any medicine for the pain, because I knew that if I did, they would make me get back in the bed and I didn't want to labor in the bed. I just kept telling myself I could do it, although every contraction made me want to scream. Luckily for J and the hospital staff, the most I did was some groaning. After an excruciating contraction, the doctor asked me if I felt like I needed to push, and I told him yes, so he had me lie down on the bed to check me and I was fully dilated and the baby was down all the way. He broke my water to get me ready for pushing. However, once I got back in the bed, the baby went back up and wasn't down as far as she needed to be. My doctor and nurse got me ready to push and I had to push 3 times just to get the baby back down where she needed to be, and then once she crowned it only took one more push to get her out. The pushing hurt a lot more than I thought it would and the doctor told me a few minutes later that the baby had her hand up by her face when she was born, so I was pushing more than just her head out. The doctor didn't even have time to get his gloves on, so he caught her bare handed. We warned him that I was a fast pusher. After that, it was all smooth sailing. I didn't even need any stitches.

All around, I have decided that this was the best and worst labor and delivery I've ever experienced. It was the worst because I didn't have any pain medicine and the pain was excruciating. It was the best labor and delivery for several reasons:

1) It was very quick. If it hadn't gone as fast as it did, I probably would have been begging for medicine.

2) My nurse was amazing. She paid such close attention to me. I felt like she was going through the labor with me instead of just watching. With my previous births, I was in a big hospital and had several nurses assigned to me, yet I never felt like any of them ever paid any attention to me, other than checking the machine that was monitoring my contractions. And when I was ready to push, they never believed me when I said I was a fast pusher. This time, my nurse barely paid attention to the contraction monitor and just watched and listened to me. She told me that I was doing a good job after every contraction, and if she was talking to someone, as soon as I had a contraction she would stop talking and pay attention to me. I felt like she was respecting me as well as taking care of me.

3) My doctor ~~was~~ is the best doctor I've ever had. He treats me like a friend and a patient, instead of just someone on a conveyor belt being pushed through appointments. He respected my wishes while I was in labor. I didn't want him to break my water early and he didn't. I didn't want any pain medicine and he didn't push it on me. The doctor I had for my other children always broke my water when I didn't want him to, and always strongly encouraged epidurals or pain medications.

4) My doctor and nurse put the baby on my chest right after she was born and left her there for two hours. They didn't take her away from me and let me nurse her and hold her. They even cleaned her up while she was laying on me. All my other children were taken away from me after they were born and poked with needles and had medicine rubbed in their eyes before they were given back to me. The nurse didn't do any of that this time until several hours after baby was born. I feel like they took a holistic approach to my labor and I think, for all of these reasons, this labor and delivery was very personal to me. If I have any more children, I hope the experience is the same as this one.

Now, here are the pictures we took.

KyLee Dawn, born September 23, 2015 at 9:18 am.

She was 7 pounds, 4.5 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long.

She wanted to nurse as soon as I put her up to my breast. She is the best breastfeeding baby I've ever had.

Uriah didn't want to hold her at first, but once we got her home he wanted to hold her all the time.

Jordyn was so excited to have her here!

Bonnie loves having her very own baby.

The proud daddy.

Our doctor holding KyLee. I will be forever grateful for him and the kind of person he is, and I am grateful that J got his job at the hospital and met this doctor.

The rest of these pictures are a little out of order...