I was going to be induced on Friday November 18th at 8am. Michael and I got up VERY early in order to get all done that we hoped to including a priesthood blessing for me, getting ready for the day, packing last minute items, and tidying up the house ONE last time! I received a phone call from the hospital at 7am and the nurse told me that they were so busy that they did not have enough room for me to come in so we may need to reschedule if some rooms did not lighten up.
I will be honest in saying that I was ticked and very sad that I may have to wait longer to see me little girl! I had waited what felt like forever for this day to come and now it was going to be delayed?! After calming myself and saying many little prayers I knew that it was all in the Lords hands and it was all going to happen when it needed to.
At 10am I received the good news that they were able to get me in at noon! Thank heavens! First of many prayers that were answered over the next few days! We arrived nervous, excited, and ready to go just after noon and got all checked in and settled into our room. My mom and little sister Madi arrive just before one and got all settled in as well. Madi was going to be my scribe/record keeper/photographer which she did a great job! My mom of course was there to be whatever Mike and I needed her to be!
At one my doctor checked me (I was dilated to a 3 still) and broke my water then I was started on the pitocin! I was able to take the contractions for a few hours, felt that I had experienced the contractions enough, and received my epidural at 4! WOW!!! What a difference! I guess I was way lucky because the epidural worked perfectly!!!!!! I was also surprised at how little pain I felt while receiving the epidural! It was a family friend who administered it and he was for sure the hero of the day! Thank you Steve Harline!!! I was then checked again and was already dilated to 5cm! Things were going along great!
Now when I was feeling every contraction (being as close together as a minute apart and some lasting up to 2 minutes long), Mike put a movie in to help distract me which worked well. I was having a lot of back labor and was very thankful that I had my rice bag with me because that helped relieve a lot of the pain. I was also extremely blessed to have an AMAZING coach by my side the entire time. He was so good in letting me know when contractions were coming and when they were almost done. He rubbed my back and just knew all that I needed! Sometimes I was not sure how he knew what to do because I never told him what to do, he just did it! Well once I was feeling blissful and the epidural kicked in, I once again was able to talk to those around me and enjoy the rest of the journey.
We watched another movie over the next few hours, talked, laughed, my family all got dinner, and I enjoyed a few snacks such as popsicles, juice, jello, and a sucker. At seven the nurse checked me again and we were all hoping that I would at least be to 7cm, that was all we wanted. Much to our surprise I was fully dilated!!! WOOHOOO!! Baby girl was still kinda high so my nurse let me labor down for some time so she could work her way a little lower.
About 8:30 the nurse checked me again and we were ready to start pushing! We thought for sure our little girl would be with us by about 10 or 11. The epidural was still working great. I was numb enough to pretty much feel no pain but I was still able to move my feet and legs just enough that I was not dead to the world. It was kind of hard to feel when the contractions came so I relied a lot on everyone else to tell me when they were coming. I did eventually figure out from the pressure in back back when a contraction was coming which helped as well.
Well I pushed for quite awhile. The nurse and my mom and Mike kept telling me what a great job I was doing and they kept telling me that they could see her head and she had lots of dark hair! I was so excited but was having a hard time understanding while she was still not here. Finally one of the nurses brought in a mirror so I could see the progress in hopes that it would help the entire process. I was not sure on how I felt about it but it was awesome! I loved having that there! For those of you have not had it there during your delivery, I would recommend it, very cool experience! It was great to see what was happening! The down side of it was that I could see the progress and the regress. Her head was playing peakabou and we were not in the mood to play! Just before midnight the nurse began talking c-section because I had been pushing for so long. When the doctor came in to check me and make a decision, I must have showed her how determined I was to have her via vback because she said with an episiotomy
HERE IS THE KICKER! As she crowned, we saw more than just her head... her HAND was there too!The REASON she would not come out was because her right hand was up by her head! No wonder that little stinker would not come out! She made things much more difficult than it needed to be. That made me feel a little better knowing I was just not a wuss at pushing!
So all in all I was in the hospital 12 hours (12pm check-in, 12:25 had baby Kayla), in labor for about 10 hours and pushed for ALMOST 4 of those 10 hours! Pretty good for my first baby I think!
Kayla Marie Brown was born on Saturday morning at 12:25am at 8 lbs 10oz and 21 inches long. She has LOTS of dark hair and is the most beautiful baby!
When the nurses were doing all their fun little tests on her they found that her blood sugar levels were low. We gave her formula regularly for about 12 hours. At every feeding they checked her levels again and they were not getting better. The pediatrician called me at about 2pm Saturday afternoon and said that they would need to admit her to NICU so that they could give her an IV and get her blood sugar levels where they needed to be. Well being EXHAUSTED and a new mom I broke down. I was so sad but also thankful that she was going in for such a minor reason. She was released from NICU on Monday morning with her levels finally stable. There were a few concerns with hypertension for me so we stayed until Tuesday and finally took our baby girl home!!
The overall experience was just wonderful! The labor was grand without much pain involved, our stay at the hospital was incredible, the staff went above and beyond their call of duty, and quite frankly we can not wait to do it all again! How thankful I am to have this beautiful, healthy baby girl in my life. I have been blessed in many many ways but SHE has been a gift as well as a blessing! As usual, I would not have been able to endure what I have over the past 3 years as well as the incredible journey over the past 10 months without my sweet husband who has been my my side through the good and the nasty (really and truly), prayer and my Heavenly Father, and the support of family and friends!
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