Kai's Birth Story

Hello friends, it's been awhile! I've been on a short hiatus from writing on here because we finally had our baby! Kai joined us on January 24th, which was his due date! He was 8 lbs and 20 inches at birth and just absolutely perfect.  Today I'm going to share with you Kai's birth story...and here's how it goes.

I woke up just before 7 am on the 24th to Caleb getting ready for work and had a strange feeling. I decided to just get out of bed and start my morning a little early and went to the bathroom. As soon as I got in there, my water broke! It was the strangest thing and would not stop gushing. Caleb was just about to put his shoes on to leave when I told him to stop and that it was go time. I finally was able to gather myself, call my doctor who told me it was time to go to the hospital, and called my parents to tell my mom not to go to work either. I made myself a small cup of coffee and let Caleb gather our stuff up to go to the hospital. We said goodbye to Wrigley and were off!

Thankfully our hospital is only 10 minutes away. We decided to stop at Panera to grab bagels since I wouldn't be able to eat once I was admitted in to the hospital. I waited in the car but within minutes Caleb was back and told me he forgot his wallet! After using my card to buy the bagels we had to drive back to our house to get his wallet because he obviously needed his ID. This ended up being a good thing though because I was able to eat my bagel during the drive.

We finally made it to the hospital and they were going to start me out in triage, but once the nurse saw how much water I had leaked she said we could skip it and go straight to a labor and delivery room. I was already 4 cm dilated when they first checked me! The contractions were manageable but building. My parents arrived soon after to keep us company and then the wait began.

After about an hour the contractions started getting more and more painful. My doctors were at the hospital already for other births and the one came to check on me. I was 5 cm dilated, and she told me if I wanted an epidural, now would be the time, I decided to get it. I wanted to be able to rest and save strength for pushing. It really wasn't as bad as I had imagined. I could still wiggle my toes and I could still feel some of the contractions but they weren't painful. I progressed at about 1 cm per hour.

Once I got to 9+cm I stalled slightly. There was a slight piece of my cervix left around the outside that just wouldn't open up, so my doctor had me do some practice pushes to help push it out of the way. That worked and I was finally at 10 cm! I started doing regular pushes every 2 minutes with my contractions. I felt a little frustrated that I couldn't tell if I was doing it right since I was numb but the nurse told me I was doing fine. They kept checking my progress and it just wasn't much. My doctor came to see my progress and noticed my tailbone was very prominent and curves up inside of me. Well, that caused Kai to get stuck, His poor little head wouldn't budge past it even after 2 hours of pushing. I decided to take a small break to regain some energy and get some fluids in me. I started pushing again after about a 45 minute break but it didn't feel like much was happening. At that point my doctor told me I could keep trying because he is doing fine and not under stress, however, I started getting a fever from being dehydrated and that could be passed on to Kai, which really worried me. My choices were to either keep pushing or have a c-section. I was completely exhausted and was at the point of needing oxygen to help me breath because I was so out of breath. I told my doctor I would try for another 45 minutes until 10pm and if there was no progress then I would have a c-section. She said okay and went off to help another women deliver her baby. I tried my absolute hardest for those 45 minutes, but I was losing hope of birthing him vaginally. It was close to 10 pm, and I'm not going to lie I was ready to give up. I was going to tell her to do the c-section if there was no progress, and I'm not going to lie...it shattered my heart. My doctor came back to check on me and she told me that I was almost past the point where he needed to be for it to be much easier for me but not quite there. I asked her if there was anything we could try and do to get him out vaginally before calling it and having a c-section. She told me we could try a vacuum or forceps. I told her "okay, let's do that then." She ultimately decided forceps was the better choice for the situation but that I could only do two contractions with them and if nothing was happening then I'd definitely have to have a c-section. I agreed and they started to prep the forceps. Two other women who were patients of my doctor were also delivering at the same time so she went to help them during the preparations so I got another hour break. I actually fell asleep during that break and when I woke up my doctor wanted to check me one more time to make sure the forceps were possible. When she checked me I lost some more fluid and she said with determination, it's go time, we can do it! So she inserted the forceps and they hurt so much, but I was willing to do anything to birth Kai vaginally. I pushed as hard as I could with the first contraction, but it didn't seem like much was happening. We waited for the next contraction to come I knew it was now or never and I pushed harder than I ever thought possible. The forceps slipped and everyone in the room was cheering me on saying "he's coming!!! push!!!" and I just kept pushing and all of a sudden this huge relief happened and Kai was born at 11:46pm. I just started crying and thanking everyone in the room for helping me, especially my doctor, nurse, and Caleb. They placed Kai on my chest and it was the most amazing moment of my entire life. I'm crying just thinking about it now.

After a few minutes they took him to check his weight and length and my doctor kept working on me. She easily got my placenta out but I tore internally and externally and had to get stitches. I could actually hear it on my last couple pushes popping but I didn't even care. Kai was healthy and safe and that's all that mattered to me.

I can honestly say, too, I truly believe God answered our prayers that Caleb and I said together during the pushing breaks is what made Kai's birth possible vaginally. I want to thank all of you though for your well wishes and prayers during my entire pregnancy and these first couple weeks of Kai's life. We love you all so very much and can't wait to share this next phase of life with you all!