Killian Grey's Birth Story - One Month Old
Our little guy has been with us for a month now, CRAZY! I wanted to share the story of his journey into the world and how our first few weeks have been.
My due date of 1/20/2017 could almost not have come soon enough. I was trying to be patient and enjoy the last few days of it being just Steve and I but I was getting tired of being pregnant and was so excited and anxious to meet our little boy. I didn't want to induce labor because I wanted my body and the baby to let me know when they were ready for labor.
During the last 2 weeks or so before my due date, I spent a lot of time walking, drinking red raspberry tea as well as getting a massage, pedicure, bouncing on a birthing ball and even acupuncture to encourage the little boy to not make me wait too long. At about 12:26am Thursday morning, the day before my due date, I was awoken with the start of contractions. I started timing them while I walked around the living room and cleaned to keep busy. If it was going to be time for the baby to come, I wanted Steve to sleep as long as he could so I waited for just another 30 minutes to wake him. It was obvious by 1am that we were going to need to go to he hospital very soon. My contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart and we were told to call and go to the hospital once they were 5 minutes apart for an hour, so things were progressing quickly. With only 2 hours of sleep for each of us, Steve and I started to get everything together (the hospital bag was already packed) and called the on-call doctor at 1:30am. She talked to be about what was going on and told us to go ahead and come in.
When we arrived at the hospital, it was just before 2am. I was taken to a room to be put on monitors for the baby's heartbeat and my contractions to make sure I was really in labor. We were there for about 2 hours being observed. They were paying close attention to the baby's heartbeat because it dipped a couple times during contractions but it steadied out in between so they weren't too alarmed. The on-call doctor came in to check on me and by about 4:30am, we were moved to our delivery room.
The delivery rooms at St Davids North Austin are extremely nice. The room was very large, it had a rocking chair, a couch that turned into a bed and a huge bathroom. Since they were observing the baby's heartbeat, once they moved us, they wanted to keep me on the monitors until they got a good reading on his heartbeat and felt confident that he was handling the labor okay. My doctor arrived at 8am. She broke my water to help Killian start decending and cleared me to get out of the bed to walk around during my contractions. For the next few hours, my dilation progressed wonderfully, about a centimeter an hour until it was time to push. Fast forward through 3 1/2 hours of pushing and the baby boy was still not coming down. I had reached my end. I had labored for over 16 hours with no pain medication and no end in sight. My doctor strongly advised that we do a c-section. In all the birthing scenarios I thought about, I never considered a c-section. I wasn't resistant to the c-section, though, because I knew that I was at my end and the lack of progress over the past 3 hours was disheartening. From the time that we decided to move forward with the c-section, to the time we had our little boy in our arms, was a matter of 10-15 minutes. We were parents! The doctor told us, after he was out, that he was facing the wrong direction (sunny-side up) and the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, which is what was preventing the baby boy from coming down and out.
It seems strange to say but I am thankful for my labor and delivery difficulties and the entire experience. It was without a doubt the most challenging and painful yet joyful experience of my life.
My due date of 1/20/2017 could almost not have come soon enough. I was trying to be patient and enjoy the last few days of it being just Steve and I but I was getting tired of being pregnant and was so excited and anxious to meet our little boy. I didn't want to induce labor because I wanted my body and the baby to let me know when they were ready for labor.
During the last 2 weeks or so before my due date, I spent a lot of time walking, drinking red raspberry tea as well as getting a massage, pedicure, bouncing on a birthing ball and even acupuncture to encourage the little boy to not make me wait too long. At about 12:26am Thursday morning, the day before my due date, I was awoken with the start of contractions. I started timing them while I walked around the living room and cleaned to keep busy. If it was going to be time for the baby to come, I wanted Steve to sleep as long as he could so I waited for just another 30 minutes to wake him. It was obvious by 1am that we were going to need to go to he hospital very soon. My contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart and we were told to call and go to the hospital once they were 5 minutes apart for an hour, so things were progressing quickly. With only 2 hours of sleep for each of us, Steve and I started to get everything together (the hospital bag was already packed) and called the on-call doctor at 1:30am. She talked to be about what was going on and told us to go ahead and come in.
When we arrived at the hospital, it was just before 2am. I was taken to a room to be put on monitors for the baby's heartbeat and my contractions to make sure I was really in labor. We were there for about 2 hours being observed. They were paying close attention to the baby's heartbeat because it dipped a couple times during contractions but it steadied out in between so they weren't too alarmed. The on-call doctor came in to check on me and by about 4:30am, we were moved to our delivery room.
The delivery rooms at St Davids North Austin are extremely nice. The room was very large, it had a rocking chair, a couch that turned into a bed and a huge bathroom. Since they were observing the baby's heartbeat, once they moved us, they wanted to keep me on the monitors until they got a good reading on his heartbeat and felt confident that he was handling the labor okay. My doctor arrived at 8am. She broke my water to help Killian start decending and cleared me to get out of the bed to walk around during my contractions. For the next few hours, my dilation progressed wonderfully, about a centimeter an hour until it was time to push. Fast forward through 3 1/2 hours of pushing and the baby boy was still not coming down. I had reached my end. I had labored for over 16 hours with no pain medication and no end in sight. My doctor strongly advised that we do a c-section. In all the birthing scenarios I thought about, I never considered a c-section. I wasn't resistant to the c-section, though, because I knew that I was at my end and the lack of progress over the past 3 hours was disheartening. From the time that we decided to move forward with the c-section, to the time we had our little boy in our arms, was a matter of 10-15 minutes. We were parents! The doctor told us, after he was out, that he was facing the wrong direction (sunny-side up) and the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, which is what was preventing the baby boy from coming down and out.
It seems strange to say but I am thankful for my labor and delivery difficulties and the entire experience. It was without a doubt the most challenging and painful yet joyful experience of my life.
Happy 1 Month, Killian!
Comments
Post a Comment