Today Kellen is a little over two weeks old! It seems both forever ago that he was born and yet I also can't believe he's only two weeks old! This post is about his grand entrance into the world!!
Tuesday April 23rd was a day like any other. I was still pregnant and praying every minute that I would go into labor! That evening, I was babysitting my neighbor's two kids for an hour. They came over to my house and we were watching TV. When their mom and dad came to pick them up, I stood up to hand over the little one and felt a giant gush! I knew I had either peed my pants or my water broke :) As the water kept coming and coming, I knew that my water had really broken. Chris was washing dishes and I yelled to him, "hey! My water broke. For real!" He was surprised, but surprisingly calm! We called the doctor, packed up our stuff, and headed to the hospital.
A key detail to mention here is that my water broke at 7pm and I hadn't eaten dinner yet. I knew that once I got to the hospital they wouldn't let me eat, so I had some yogurt, but I was so excited and anxious that I couldn't eat anything else. BIG MISTAKE.
We got to the hospital, filled out some paperwork, they checked to make sure my water really had broken (uh, duh!) and then admitted us! I was only 1 cm dilated so they started me on pitocin. My mom got there very soon after we were admitted and Penny and Denny came not too much later. Once pitocin started my contractions started getting more intense. And I was starving! After every contraction I would say, "just so everyone remembers, I'm really freaking hungry!" We walked around the hall a few times, I had a popsicle, sat on the birthing ball, but by 1:30am I was done. As a contraction ended, I said, "that's it! I'm done!" My mom, the encourager, said "that's right, this contraction is done, good job!" And Chris said, "I don't think that's what she meant!" I meant get me an epidural right now!! It took about 15 - 20 minutes but the love of my life - the anesthesiologist - finally showed up and gave me an epidural. It wasn't too painful getting it and the pain was better almost instantly!
At that point I was exhausted, so we all decided to get some sleep. Penny and Denny went home to catch some shut eye and Mom and Chris slept in the room. After a couple hours, I woke up with some intense pain in my sciatica. I didn't really understand that I could get more drugs, so I was just trying to tough it out. By this time, the nurse who delivered me, Jamie was there. She was absolutely amazing! It became clear that I couldn't take the pain any longer and she said I could get some more drugs through my epidural. I felt so much better after that round of drugs, but still wasn't 10 cm.
As my labor progressed, I started feeling intense pressure to push. I wasn't 10cm yet though so I couldn't. I tried lots of things to deal with the pain. I tried sitting up - which apparently freaked Kellen out and we had to turn off pitocin and I was on oxygen for a few minutes as his heart rate dropped. That was scary but he responded well after that. I tried singing songs - like "American Pie" (it's a long one!), but the pressure was so intense. I got another round of drugs and pretty soon was ready to push.
Both the doctor and nurse said there was a very good chance I would need a C-section because he was still very high. He was also face up, so the doctor kept trying to turn him. I started pushing around 8:45 am. Denny and Penny had returned - Denny waited in the waiting room. Rick was there as well. It was so wonderful to have my family surrounding me, cheering me on. As I was pushing, the pressure again was very intense. Even when I wasn't having a contraction I had an insane urge to push. After about an hour of pushing, they gave me another round of drugs to relax me. Before those drugs I kept telling the doctor that I couldn't do it and begging her to just pull him out! :) After the drugs, I looked at her and said, "I think I can do this!" I pushed, and pushed and pushed! Finally his head began peeking out. He had an intense cone head and finally the crown of his head was out! I wanted to push the rest of him out, but nooooo, they said I had to wait for another contraction. Well, my contractions decided to take a break and it was a good 5 minutes before I had another one! Yup, I was just laying there with my baby's head half out. Let me tell you, not such a good feeling. I kept saying, "this is unreal! This is ridiculous!" Finally, I had another contraction and out he came! Kellen Lee Kays! Born at 10:45 am, 8.04 lbs and 21.5 inches long. April 24th happens to be the 8 year anniversary of Chris and my's first kiss - the day we counted as our anniversary before our wedding. Pretty cool, huh!
The first time I saw him, I immediately thought he looked like me! (which he does) He grabbed my hand and I have never been so happy. Of course, they cleaned him up, cleaned me up, and everyone got a chance to hold him. Everyone pretty much left after that - we were all exhausted! They brought me food - the best meatloaf I ever ate in my life! and I nursed. Eventually we were moved to our hospital room.
The rest of the day was spent staring and marveling at our sweet baby boy. I felt really good after, considering I had just gone through 18 hours of labor! Kellen's head was seriously messed up. He had lots of bruising and eventually even had scabbing. The doctors were concerned that the bruises would leave him at a higher risk of getting jaundice, but luckily, he never did.
We were finally able to go home on Friday. Nursing became a big issue - but I'll talk about that in another post!
