Link's Birth Story Part II: The Worst and the Best

We arrived to the maternity floor and checked in.  I was immediately taken to triage where  it was to be determined if I could be admitted yet. I was given a thin gown and hooked up to a monitor to see my contractions.  The nurse was very nice, got me some water, and then said she would be leaving since it was 7 and change of shift.  The next nurse was very young and not very nice.  She just seemed sort of put out to be there bothering with me.  After swabbing she said that it could not be confirmed that it was amniotic fluid, she tried to convince me it was either pee or left over lubricant gel from my appointment that morning. I'm pretty sure I can tell the difference between gel and flowing liquid that (TMI) came from my vagina, not my urethra where I had just FINISHED peeing.  I kind of got into a little argument with her.  Hey, I'm nine months pregnant and IN LABOR.  Don't tell me I peed on myself and didn't know it.  She checked me and I was 4 cm dilated.  This wasn't enough to admit me however, apparently. She said she would have to do a cervical swab.  Seriously? Out came the huge speculum.  I asked her if she really had to do that.  She said yes.  I still don't really believe that.  It hurt.  I was really unhappy and uncomfortable at this point.  But I was allowed to be admitted.  Hallelujah.

We were taken to the delivery room which was huge and right outside of the nurses' station.  At this point it was 7:30 and not only were my contractions getting steadily worse, but we were absolutely starving.  We ordered some food but they said the kitchen closed at 7 so it may be a while.  I was doing a lot of leaning over and heavy breathing.  I had told the nurses my goal was for a natural delivery - no pain meds or epidural.  This was a personal decision that wasn't about ego, I just didn't want to worry about side effects to me or the baby and I felt that I could do it, I was made to do it.  I could actually hear the nurses outside figuring out who was going to "take this one, she wants a natural birth." It seemed none of them really wanted to help with a natural birth, one of them said she thought every woman should have an epidural (I wouldn't want to deal with screaming women at work everyday either, I get it, but hey, have a little respect).  Overall, at this point I felt pretty unsupported by the hospital staff.

But, luckily, I felt extremely supported by my wonderful husband, who never left or pulled away even when I was screaming in his ear.  We went and walked the halls.  While out there we were stopped by a very pretty woman in scrubs.  She asked if my name was Staci, and I said yes, of course.  She introduced herself as the doctor on call who would be delivering me.  I was a little sad my doctor wouldn't be there, but she was lovely and I actually liked the idea of having a woman doctor.

I was getting uncomfortable enough I didn't want to be in the hall, so we went to the room.  To be honest, we were most disappointed that the food wasn't there yet.  It was around 8:30 when I decided to try laboring in the tub.  The tub felt nice but at this point the pain was excruciating, and I would have been able to handle it better if there had been some breaks in between but I swear they were almost right on top of each other.  Seriously I maybe had 5-15 second breaks between.

The nurse came in and checked me around 9:30 and I was 6.5 cm dilated.  I felt a bit defeated by this.  In reality that pace was pretty good, but the contractions were only getting worse, I wasn't sure if I could do this for several more hours.  Meanwhile our food came, but I was not able to eat at that moment.  I told Chris he could go eat but he stayed next to me in the tub.  At around 10:30 the nurse said I should get out of the tub because it can slow down progress and I might move along faster out of it.  This was easier said than done.  I think I had like five contractions just trying to get out of the tub and another three while Chris tried to dry me off.  I made it to the toilet and we probably sat there for a good 45 minutes because I just could not get up.  I finally made it to the bed so she could check me and the baby.  It was 11:30 and she said I was a 9!  I was so relieved.  By midnight I was a ten and ready to push. (Looks like he wouldn't be born on our anniversary after all.)

While I was getting into a good position, the doctor was getting ready and the nurses ready it was actually around 12:15 when I started pushing.  It felt good to push through the contractions, but it was hard to get him out and very painful.  I remember just saying "it hurts!" as I stretched and (TMI) tore, it felt like intense burning.  The nurse was completely in my face yelling at me to push.  I seriously wanted to punch her or tell her to shut the f**k up, and I might have if I had been able.

Finally I could feel the head coming out, and then everything else just seemed to fall out and I felt the first instance of relief I had had for several hours.  They placed this tiny little warm body on my chest and I couldn't even believe he was here.  He was absolutely beautiful with a whisp of hair and dark steel gray eyes.

Link William Kennedy was born on Tuesday, July 23 2013 at 1:23 in the morning, weighing in at a healthy 7 pounds 4 ounces and 20.5 inches long.  Perfect.

 This was RIGHT after he was born, hence I look like hell.

Link's Birth Story Part I: Before the Hospital

Link's due date was August 3rd 2013.  Having this date in mind, seeing my ankles and feet swell beyond recognition, and with the agony of warmer and warmer days to come I was dead set that he would come in July. NOT August.  I did not want to walk around as an elephant any longer than absolutely necessary in the summer.  In fact, I had a date in mind from the beginning.  I just knew he was going to come on our anniversary, July 22nd.  Which is twelve days "early" (anything after 37 weeks was just fine with me!)  I just knew it.

On Saturday, July 20th my bestie Leah and I went to get manis and pedis.  I was very thankful I got this one last thing done for me, it made me feel pretty in the hospital (mind you I could not actually see my own face.) That night around eleven while I was in bed I noticed some very slight sort of cramping feeling in my lower abdomen.  I knew this was it.  It was the beginning.  I knew the baby may not be here for quite a while, but I could tell it was real.  The cramping would come and go every 7 to 10 minutes, and last 10-20 seconds.  Overall I was very happy and excited I might get to meet my baby boy soon.

I had been disappointed at my last two doctor's appointments.  At 36 weeks when I was checked there was no dilation or efacement. Zero.  Not what a woman who was hoping to have the baby at 38 weeks wants to hear.  At my 37 week appointment, again, no dilation.  He said my cervix was a little thinner, but that he didn't think baby was coming sooner than my due date.  Shucks.

So Sunday morning, July 21st, I woke up (Chris had already left for work at 5 that morning.) I went to the bathroom and noticed (TMI warning!) some slightly pink mucus.  Yay! He was definitely on his way.  I called Chris and told him so he was on the heads up and so he could let his work know in case he needed to leave.  By eleven am, I wasn't feeling any more cramping, and was feeling well the rest of the day.  I went to the grocery store to get a bunch of food to make and store in the freezer for after baby comes. (We bought a stand alone freezer for our garage on Friday, July 19th - just in time!)  I can not remember at all what Chris and I did that night.  We just went about our normal routine.  We both had work in the morning and I had my 38 week appointment before work.  In bed again I noticed the cramping coming around every 7 to 9 minutes, still very light, not painful, just definitely there.

In the morning July 22nd, again, I had a slightly redder mucus when I went to the bathroom.  I remember looking in the mirror and saying to myself, "this really is real."  I went to my appointment, proclaiming to the nurse and my doctor that I had been having activity and would be having this baby soon.  He looked at me, happy, but I could tell he was thinking I was probably jumping the gun.  I was, after all, a first-time mom and had been having no movement downstairs at all yet.  He checked me and I could see the surprise on his face.  I was dilated 3 cm and 85% effaced.  Guess I wasn't lying.  He said it looked like I would be having this baby in the next day or two.

I called Chris on the way to work to let him know about the progress but that he should be fine to stay at work (he got off at 2:30).  I went in to work around nine and did some office stuff for a couple hours while keeping track of my contractions, they weren't painful or incredibly regular (9 to 13 minutes apart) but they had been steadily coming as opposed to the previous day where I wasn't noticing them during the day at all.  Thankfully work was really low key since my boss was on vacation for the week.  Around eleven I decided to go home.  My goal was to get the house cleaned up a bit and maybe take a nap.

Chris got home around 3pm and that's when I noticed the contractions getting a little stronger, but still very mild.  Porter had been sort of limping after he had been lying down for a while, at first we thought he just had a stiff leg or hip, but it had been going on for a while.  So we had a vet appointment for him scheduled at 4 that day.  So we packed him up and headed to the vet.  My contractions were definitely getting more consistent by then.  I had three contractions during the twenty minutes we were in with the vet. (The vet thinks Porter has either a strained or torn ACL, oh no!)  Next, we needed to pick up the freezer.  So, with Porter in the back seat, we loaded the freezer in the back of the truck.  On the way home I noticed my contractions getting quite a bit more uncomfortable.  Still I wasn't alarmed.  I figured we would go home, get some dinner, pack up, finish cleaning the house, and spend the night just trying to stay comfortable and go to the hospital in the morning.

Well, we got home and while we were waiting for Chris's brother and father to come help unload the freezer I went to the bathroom.  (TMI Warning!) when I sort of stood up/hunched over to wipe (can't really bend at this point) there was a small gush of warm clear liquid.  I sat back down and contemplated this.  Welp.  Guess this is going down tonight.  On our anniversary.  Good thing we didn't have anything planned.

I yelled for Chris, when he came in I told him my water had just broke, which meant we needed to get to the hospital now.  Things were a little frenzied.  Chris called his brother again to ask where he was (turns out he was just turing into the neighborhood, and was like "chill.") As he pulled up, Chris was frustrated his dad wasn't with his brother so he couldn't just leave the project to them while we got ready to leave.  So while Chris and his brother dealt with the freezer I packed a bag and gathered things we would need for the baby. Chris hurriedly fed the dogs and explained to his brother how to take care of the dogs while we were gone (including giving Porter the medication we had just gotten for him.)  Overall it was really overwhelming.

Finally we said goodbye to the dogs and were on the way to the hospital.  Since, obviously, Chris's family would know we were going to the hospital we decided to call my mom and let her know we were going as well.  Of course she offered to come down and wait (this is why I didn't want to tell anyone too early!) I was like "NO!" I love my family, but I didn't need anyone waiting on me while I was in labor and I only wanted Chris in the room.  Besides, it was 6:30 by the time we were going to the hospital, and chances were this baby wouldn't be born until the wee hours of the morning anyway.  People just needed to relax.  Meanwhile, I was not relaxed.  The contractions were becoming very uncomfortable on the car ride.  We arrived to the hospital.  We hadn't had dinner.  It was hot.  Happy Anniversary.

Catching Up: The Baby Shower

My sister and my best friend Leah threw me a wonderful baby shower on May 19th, 2013 at my Aunt Nita's house.  Picture dump:

 Awesome diaper cake my sister made - seriously the best

the great food

cute whale cupcakes

Believe it or not, I was only 29 weeks along at my shower.  I got told several times MONTHS before my due date that I must be ready to pop.  Nope, still have a ways to go.  Having a rather short torso, the baby really just stuck right straight out from pretty early on. So basically they were just pointing out how huge I was.  Thanks.

Me and the beautiful hostesses

Me and the grandma-to-be's

With the great-grandmas

Catching Up: And It's A.........

BOY!!!
On March 14, 2013 at the 20 week appointment we found out we are having a little baby boy.  I am super excited.  I felt like it was a boy the whole time and I love the idea that any/all of my future children will have an older brother.

 Forgive the crinkled-ness, Porter got ahold of some of the pictures. :)

Yup.  That's all boy.

Catching Up: Spilling it

On December 18th, 2012 we had our first ultrasound appointment.  We had decided to use the very first picture of the baby as a way to tell our families for Christmas, since the timing just happened to work out so perfectly that way.  Here is little baby at 7 weeks 3 days:

Chris's family was going to Jackson Hole for the holidays, so we had an early present exchange.  That night we had Chris's mom and mine along with his siblings over for the gift exchange.  We made sure to have the Grandmas-to-be open the frames at the same time.  They were very excited.  We told my dad two days later at his birthday celebration (his birthday is the 19th).  I gave him a little snow globe tree ornament that said Grandpa on it.  It did not take long for him to catch on.

It was a time of excitement for the future.  I definitely feel so blessed to be near so much family and to be having the first grandchild on both sides of the family.  This child will definitely be very loved and very spoiled!