Kinley's birth story begins on the morning of July 28th. I woke up in the FOULEST mood ever! I was so over being pregnant and horribly grumpy. A friend invited me to come with her to Babies R Us and wander around and I begrudgingly agreed just because I had been so anti-social the last few weeks. After getting all ready to go out (at 3PM, LOL) I decided to take a 39 week belly picture. While I was opening the blinds in my room, I felt a gush. Went to the bathroom and fluid had leaked through my pants... but not enough to be totally sure it was my water breaking. So, I changed and put on a pad. Called DH and told him I thought things might be starting. He convinced me to call L&D and I agreed after having about 5-6 gushes of fluid over the next 2 hours. They told me to come in ASAP. Went in and they did the test, but said it didn't seem to be amniotic fluid. I was only 1-2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, so they sent me home.
I was SO mad. I hadn't wanted to go in, but only did because of DH and my mom. Ugh.
That night, went to bed around 10PM and woke up at midnight to go the bathroom. I was so antsy (because I was sure baby was coming) and couldn't get back to sleep, so I surfed JM for a while and played scrabble.
Around 1:45AM I started timing my contractions, though they weren't painful. I had been having them all day, but they seemed to be getting more consistent.
By 3:30AM, they were getting painful and were 2-3 minutes apart.
At 4AM, woke up DH to rub my back. He decided it was time to go to the hospital shortly thereafter.
Got to hospital at 5:15AM. 4cm dilated and 90% effaced. YAY!
At this point, things get a little fuzzy. I know as soon as I got to my room, I had an IV put in for GBS positive and the blood pressure cuff and the monitors on my belly. All VERY annoying during labor. Shortly after arriving, the pain started getting REALLY bad and I threw up once. At this point, I began considering an epidural. The nurse offered me somethings similar to Stadol, but I declined being that I did not want to feel loopy. I decided to wait on the epidural.
By the way, I had to pee almost constantly throughout labor. My DH kept having to bring me a bedpan because it was such a hassle to get unhooked from everything so often. I think I would have literally labored on the toilet the whole time if I had that option.
Then the pain got really, really bad. The nurse checked and I was 6-7 cm. She told me I was at transition and that I could do it without the epidural. The pain was so intense, I just felt like a big baby. I was moaning and kept saying that I couldn't do it, I need an epidural. DH and nurse kept encouraging me that I was so close and I could do it.
The nurse left for a while and I started to vomit again. While vomiting, I really thought I was having a BM at the same time, so I told DH I needed to go to the bathroom NOW. He quickly unhooked me from everything and I went to the bathroom. I really did need to go. But, the nurse came in and freaked out- afraid I was going to have the baby on the toilet. Checked me and said it was time to push.
It. hurt. so. bad. I kept crying and saying I couldn't do it. They kept forcing me to push and I kept begging them for a break.
After about 10 minutes of pushing, I felt her head, then shoulders and arms/legs come out. That was a really weird feeling.
Immediately I asked DH the gender and he said, "It looks like... a... girl" (very hesitantly and with maybe a slight bit of disappointment). He had totally thought we were having a boy... I laughed a little bit at his response and felt sooooo happy to have another girl. When they put her on my belly, I asked if she was normal size because I thought she was unusually tiny. Thankfully she was 7 pounds 1 ounce and 19.5 inches long- very normal.
It took about 8 hours for us to figure out her name- Kinley Elisabeth. Born on July 29th at 8:44AM.
I got only about 2-3 hours of sleep each of the first four nights, so I was beyond exhausted and a crazy, hormonal mess. We finally caved and are co-sleeping, so now I actually get sleep and feel rested. It is lovely.
OH, and one last thing. For the first day or two, I told anyone who would listen how painful labor was and swore I would NEVER do it without an epidural again. I felt like it had been so stupid to put myself through that torture. It is really true, however, that the memories of labor pain start to disappear. After being stuck in the hospital for 2 days I made a deal with DH that I would do natural birth again if he would agree to do a home birth... he is all for it (YAY!!!!)*
