My Road to Motherhood Part 4-The Birth Story

I wake up Sunday, November 27th.  I go to the restroom, brush my teeth, and wash my face.  I notice that I am having some really mild cramping.  I tell Scott, and then call the nurse.  She gets me hooked up to the monitor to check for contractions and to check the baby's heartrate.  Kendall's heartrate was fine, but I was having contractions.  The nurse calls the doctor, and the doctor tells the nurse to give me my medication early to stop contractions.  I take that, and we wait a little while to see if the contractions stop.  They don't.  We give it a little while longer, and the contractions continue.  The contractions don't get more intense or painful, but my body just isn't responding to the medication at all.  There is another medication that I could take, but my heartrate has to be under 120 bpm.  Unfortunately, my heartrate was too close to 120 to be able to take the second medication.

The doctor came in around lunch time to check how far I had dilated.  I was still at 5cm.  Since my contractions hadn't slacked up any, they transitioned us to a labor and delivery room.  The labor and delivery nurse was really nice.  She explained step by step how things would go.  I got situated in the bed, and Scott and I watched football games.  I wasn't in any pain.  I was just talking and laughing.  I eventually dilated to 7cm, and I still wasn't feeling any pain.  I went ahead and got my epidural just in case pain came during labor though. 

I was lying there watching football and talking with family when I felt my water break.  It was just a little trinkle.  The nurse confirmed that it had broke, and she called the doctor to get her in route to the hospital.  A little more time went by, and I finally dilated to 10cm. 

Scott and my mom were in the room with me.  The doctor and nurse told me that when I felt a contraction to push for 10 seconds 3 times in a row.  (FYI:  one push is really 3 pushes for 10 seconds each)  I did just that.  At first I didn't feel like I was doing anything, but the doctor reassured me that she was moving down.  I pushed 4 times and Kendall was here.  It was crazy that she was moving down, and I wasn't even pushing at times.  She was ready to get into this world.  We heard her do a little cry.  It was so cute!   The NICU nurses were in the room with us to immediately get Kendall prepped to go to the NICU.  Before they took her to the NICU, they let me see her.  She was all swaddled up and cute as could be.  Of course, the tears came next.  I remember thinking, I'M A MOM!!!!!  Our daughter was born Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 6:25pm. 

The neonatologist came in the room and talked to us and our family.  He said that Kendall will most likely be in the NICU for about 2 months give or take a couple of weeks, but he felt good that she would be just fine.  She basically couldn't come home until close to her original due date. After 10 days of hospital bedrest and delivering Kendall, we still had 2 or so months left until we could bring her home.  We were progressing down this journey, but we were not done yet. 

Stay tuned for the NICU experience!