Callie's Birth Story

So I have been home for a couple days and am now sitting down getting ready to type out Callie's birth story. She has been an amazing little newborn so far and we are all just in love with her. Wilson is slowly getting used to her. He comes up and will look at her and pat her on the head. I think that's about as good as it is going to get for now. I think he is still too young to understand what is going on. But anyways onto birth story!

We went to Willis-Knighton Medical Plaza at Midnight on December 1, 2011. I had preregistered so I had to go through the ER entrance and get checked in.
By 1 am we were in our delivery room 8 on the second floor, and we had nurse Stephanie and she let us get settled in and took care of little things and at 3 am I had my iv put in and a pitocin drip started.
It caused regular but not painful contractions. When I got checked I had only progressed to 3 cm dilation and still 50% effaced. I was a little disappointed that the pitocin hadn't progressed my labor a little more.

So from there we slept and being a hospital would get randomnly woken up.

At 7:00 am, my ob Dr. Gina Gomez came in and with one swift jab with what I call the "knitting needle" broke my water.

Contractions at this point were extremely painful and strong. They came in at less than 3 minutes apart and after the first couple contractions I was READY for that epidural!
I had a new nurse now, her name was Tracy and she told me I had to wait until I was at least 4 cm, so she would check on me in an hour.

Well she made me wait a little longer than an hour but I tried to endure. Finally at 8:30 she came in, and checked me and I was at 5 cm dilated and 90% effaced. FINALLY!
She went and started prepping for the epidural for me and in about 15 minutes, the anesthesiologist came in and popped that sucker in quick! With Wilson I had to wait a long time for the dr. to get the needle and all that in place and this dr. had it done in less than 15 minutes!

My contractions started feeling less painful and by the normal 15-20 minutes all I could feel was some pressure every time a contraction came up. THANK YOU MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY!

I was worried I might have complications from the epidural, as you know things can always go wrong or not work right, but this epidural experience was amazing. I got a different type of drug this time though, where I actually had the ability to feel my legs and move them.
I don't think I would've been able to walk around but at least I wasn't just completely useless from the waist down.

A friend had come and offered to take pictures of the birth for us, so she had come and she, Andy, and I sat around and chatted until 10:30 am.

Nurse Tracy came back in to check me and realized that Callie was ready to come out. Like her head was already in the birth canal. She immediately started getting everything ready and Dr. Gomez notified.

By 11:00 am, everyone was all situated and ready to go. I was ready to push.

I had to wait for that first contraction to start pushing and from the first, I could see a headful of dark dark hair. (I had requested a mirror to be able to see.)

I was so excited and by the 4th contraction had my daughter out!

Callie Joy Kirk was born on December 1, 2011 at 11:25 am.

She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

She literally was almost the exact weight as Wilson, but Wilson was an inch longer.

She looked very tiny compared to my memory of Wilson. I think it may be because of the head shape. Wilson had the very cone-shaped head where Callie's head didn't look like it got misshapen in the birth canal at all.

She had facial bruising and swelling and burst some blood vessels in her eyes from having such a fast delivery. She cried for a little while, but finally calmed down and was now being the typical sleepy newborn.

 

 

I am amazed at how much faster and easier her birth went. I am thankful for having a healthy baby girl and that everything so far has went well. She hasn't had any of the issues that Wilson did. And I will have another blog post about my decision to bottle feed instead of trying breastfeeding again. But I won't make that long. I am at peace with my decision, and no one can make me feel guilty about it.

Birth story!

To start off with Wilson's birth was interesting to say the least. I wanted to go natural and was going to get induced on the evening 23rd which I was nervous about because I was thinking I would then have to have more medical interventions. Possible c section etc etc.
Well on Wednesday evening around 9pm I felt what was like a pretty intense menstural cramp. It's been like 10 months but that's all I could really think that it felt like. It came really off like maybe every 20 minutes or more but maybe a little less. It was enough to where I was like "Hmm?" but not really thinking anything of it.

I finally thought something was up at around 1 am and started thinking I should write down the times of when they started. So from 1:23 am I would have a contraction every 7-10 minutes for like an hour and a half.

At 3am the contractions were coming around every 5 minutes but there would be some where it was still 7-10 minutes apart. So then I really thought for sure I was in labor but not progressed enough to call the doctors.

I still hadn't had a bloody show or water breaking so that was another reason I held off on calling.

By 4 am the contractions were roughly every 5-6 minutes but still no water/bloody show. Since it was my first childbirth I thought that it would be good for me to labor a little bit longer at home to make sure that things were really progressing so I wouldn't go to the hospital and then get told I hadn't dilated much or anything and get sent home.

I finally called my Dr. at 5am which wasnt that long but they were pretty much 5 minutes even at that point. We were told to come in and so we got to the hospital at 5:30 and made our way to labor and delivery.

I got sent into one of the check in rooms and the nurse started the process of checking for labor and to see what the dr. wanted to do.

I was dilated 90% and a "stretchy" 4 cm which I guess the wording stretchy made both the nurse and Dr. think "Okay lets go ahead and admit her."
I got hooked up to some monitors while they got everything ready and kept having contractions.

At 6:40 am I was going to get moved so I got unhooked and the nurse asked me if I wanted to use the bathroom before I moved rooms. I told her yes because I felt like I could probably use the bathroom. So I waddled my way in and sat on the toilet and basically eeked out the smallest pee in my life.

Literally though right after that, I felt a really big gush of water come out following it. I knew it wasnt me though because I couldn't control it at all. I'm sure it wasn't that big but it totally felt like the water breaking gushes in the movies that you see.

The nurse then came in and was like "yeah that was your water breaking!" I was pretty relieved it was on the toilet though it could've happened anywhere but at least I didnt make a mess.

So then I get into the room and the dr. and nurse inspect me again since my water broke and used the hook to basically finish what I had started. I had another big gush but then I changed into the gown and basically labored for another 3 hours or so.

At this point we kind of stopped keeping track since we could see on the monitor when I was going to have another contraction. I tried using the birthing ball but out of all the labor positions that one was really painful. I got by by a lot of pacing and standing and then I used the rocking chair which really helped out. The rocking chair was by far the one I liked the most because I would "rock" through the pain.

So by 10:15 am I was really in a lot of pain. My contractions were now coming in at 3-5 minutes and just a lot more painful. I was starting to really think about getting medication to help. The nurse came and inspected and I was 6.5 cm dilated and still 90% effaced.

She gave me then 2 narcotics to try to help relax and dull some of the pain. I was worried I would feel loopy or some of the other side effects that can happen but honestly I felt nothing. I felt slightly relaxed but definitely didn't help with pain at all and I wasn't really even that relaxed.

11:15 am I am still in crazy pain and now talking about wanting the epidural. The nurse inspects me and there was no progression at all. No dilating or effacement. I was getting contractions every 3 minutes and it literally felt like there was no break in between.

She then pages the dr. to come and do the epi for me and I didn't have to wait that long luckily. I dont remember how long I had to wait but I do know that when he came it took a good 20-25 minutes for him to get it in. I thought it would be this crazy weird thing with like my spine going crazy and reading all the horror stories about epidurals gone bad.

But with the contractions still coming through I was trying my hardest to lean over the table as still as possible afraid that I would get paralyzed or something if I didnt.

Once the epi kicked in I had to then just lay in the bed but after being up for so long, Andy and I both were just soo tired. We both passed out and slept. I slept for about an hour and the nurse wanted to check on me. So I was check and was dilated to 9 cm in basically a little over an hour.

That was amazing and scary at the same time. I was thinking that my labor might stall and I'd be laying there for hours. I didn't have to have any pitocin so all I had was my bag of fluids. When the nurse checked me she told me that I would probably be pushing really soon or feeling like maybe I need to push.

Well that got me pretty excited and at that point I couldn't sleep any more. Andy was passed out still. I didn't feel anything really but I guess the dr. who did the epi was apparently pretty drug happy that day because a lot of women got the full dosage.

The nurse and I discussed whether or not to turn the epi off at that point which she could do. Or have to have the dr. come back and turn it down some. Honestly I was scared about feeling the contractions so I asked if the dr. would turn it down some. He dialed it back from a 10 to a 7 but looking back I wish I had told him to turn it down more.

I then was kind of texting on my phone telling people I was getting ready to push soon.

This is where things timing wise get a little fuzzy for me. I blame it on the lack of sleep we had and just the excitement of everything about to happen.

The nurse came in and checked again and even though I said I didn't feel anything she said that he was coming and it was time to push! I think it was around 2 pm at this point so we wake Andy up by saying "Hey Anna's getting ready to push."

He was soo disorientated lol. I think this is where the epidural was not in my favor because I couldn't feel anything. No pressure couldn't even hold my own legs up in a stirrup or anything! And it was dialed back some.

It was my first labor so that could be something to it too but for a good hour I was pushing with each contraction. The nurse was holding my one leg and Andy the other. I actually got a mirror and was looking to see the progress each time I pushed. It felt slow going to me but seeing it little by little was encouraging. There was then a point where his head was then stuck. I was pushing but he was just not coming out. It wasn't out far enough to I guess vaccum out but not going back in.

My dr. then asked me about how I felt about an episiotmy. I was again scared and not wanting to do it. I know that they say that it is better to tear naturally but the dr. was saying that from the looks of it if I kept going I would either just stay stuck or tear worse than the inscision he would make.

I was anxious to finally have my baby so I agreed and he went ahead and did it. He then promised me that with this next contraction I would have my son. Sure enough the contraction came and I pushed as hard as I thought I could. My dr. then told me to stop. and give just a little push to get his head out.

I could see in the mirror that he had the cord wrapped around his neck, which the doctor slipped over his head and then his little hand and arm came out and then all the rest of him and then there he was. Laying on my chest at 3:22 pm.

Now again everything is a blur. I got to hold him for a little bit and then it was time to get his vitals and cleaned up and everything. Andy was then able to be close by him and was next to him while he got everything done.