Kylie Cecilia Washington!

Kylie was born 1-30-14 at 6:11pm, 20 hours after my water broke. She was 6lbs 13oz and 20in long. She has passed all her tests and is really good at nursing =)

Ready to go home

Early Labor

I was in early/stalled labor for 21 days! Almost every morning I woke up to painful, regular contractions. I would take pain meds and they would eventually go away until I got up to walk or stand, then they were back again. I was in the Labor and Delivery department of the hospital a lot to make sure things were still going well. Over the 21 days I lost my mucous plug, became 3cm dilated, and 50% effaced. I was getting pretty fed up with the process. Who is in labor for that long!? It hurt, and I felt miserable, but there was nothing to be done about it until her due date. George stayed home from work most days to be with me, as neither of us wanted me to be alone is early labor. It was nice having a lot of time together as a family of 2 =)

My last belly picture! 1-25-14

Water Breaking

On Wednesday, 1-29-14, I was really sleepy. I also had a bit of an anxiety issue that morning about feeling like it would never be over. My doula suggested I stop making pain meds when the contractions start, as that might be stalling them. So I didn't take any that afternoon. I took a nap from 7pm-10pm, and I woke up to my water leaking. It was not really a gushing break, just a slow constant leak. So exciting! Finally almost over! I was hungry, so I asked George to make spaghetti so I could eat one last meal at home before going into the hospital. I was hanging out in the shower since everything was hurting, while George made food. I didn't want to get out of the shower, so he turned the water off and I just ate sitting in there. It looked a bit silly, but it was comfy =) After that, George started packing last minute things into the hospital bag. We were out of nutter butters! I have basically lived off of those for the last few weeks of pregnancy. I need snacks for my hypoglycemia and those are the only things that ever sounded good. So I got out of the shower and we walked to the store, since I needed to be walking to progress labor anyways. Contractions started to get worse, so we headed to the hospital.

Spaghetti in the shower!

Hospital

We got there at 2am. The nurses were trying to be really pushy about giving me pitocin to progress faster, but I wanted to at least try on my own. They kept saying how much of a risk of infection there is if Kylie is not born within 24 hours of my water breaking. I kept telling them that it was only 4 hours so far, and there was a ways to go before talking induction. I was entirely pain-med free for a LONG time. I layed in the shower, (in my room!) walked around, bounced on the birth ball, and talked a lot. I let George and Liza get some sleep in the wee hours of the morning while my doula and I went into the hallway for massage and birth ball bouncing. I had on a wireless monitor the whole time so they could keep track of Kylie's heart and my contractions. I even wore it in the shower! It was super awesome. At one point I asked the OB about pain meds, and he said they would have to be through IV, so I decided to tough it out some more. Now is where time gets a bit fuzzy, I have on idea when things happened exactly. The contractions were getting really painful, and time was running out, so I got an IV with pitocin and pain meds. The pain meds worked, but they were short-lived and I as told each dose is less effective. Once the first one was wearing off, I was so exhausted that I was sleeping between contractions. Waking up to THAT evry few mites was getting unbearable very fast. I noticed I was clenching up when one would start, and I would try to relax, but it was really hard. It that rate, I would never progress, so I decided to get the epidural. My main argument against an epidural was that it can cause issues when it's cold outside. I have determined that it was/is TOTALLY worth it for me. Everything was so much more pleasant after it was put in. Rather than dreading contractions when they would wake me up, I didn't feel them much at all and I could sleep. I slept for a bit, and talked for a bit. Eventually a nurse checked me and said I was complete! They gave me an hour for her to drop more before pushing. The doula and Liza left and let George and I have our last time together as just a couple. =)

Ready for walking around at the hospital

The Birth

Right before we started pushing, my room FILLED with people and everyone was moving me and putting things on me and it was quite overwelming. I didn't really know what was going on, and I was trying not to think about how many people were around so I could stay calm. I later found out what happened was that Kylie's cord was wrapped around her neck so her heart rate was dropping. Once they put me on my other side and put an oxygen mask on with deep breaths it came back up. Then it was pushing time! Pushing felt... weird. I don't really know how to explain it. It's a weird sensation, and quite uncomfortable, but with the epidural it was not painful. Towards the end they had to use something to help get her out, because of the cord issue. But she came out and started screaming. They put her on my chest all very slimy and purple and screaming. I was just crying. I don't even know why, I think everything was just really overwhelming. George was crying too =) After a good long while they took her off me and cleaned both of us up and weighed her. They took out the epidural, and we got transferred to the Mother-Baby unit.

Skin-to-skin right after she came out

Mother-Baby Unit

In general our stay was good. I was thinking about trying to go home right away, but I am glad we stayed. I had a bit of a meltdown one of the nights when Kylie was really hungry and really sleepy at the same time. This resulted in her being too sleepy to eat, but too hungry to sleep, which just resulted in inconsolable screaming. The nurse helped me manually pump "milk" into a spoon and feed it to her so she could sleep. Apparently this issue occurred because I was just letting her sleep until she woke up, which was too long between feedings. I was tired too! Anyways, we got that worked out and now we wake up every 3 hours to eat and it works MUCH better. =)

Eyes open!

My birth experience thoughts

My birth plan was pretty simple and flexible. I wanted delayed cord clamping, which became a mostly moot point with a cord issue as we had, immediate skin-to-skin, which I got, and I wanted to labor naturally as long as possible, which I did. I was pretty adamant about not wanting an epidural, but I had considered it in the case of no progression due to the pain. That is why I ended up getting it in the end, and I am happy with my choice. I was getting to the point that I was dreading contractions and the thought of pushing sounded miserable, which I decided was not a good state of mind to be in for birthing a baby. I was much happier and George was much less stressed after I got the epidural put in. I also didn't really want an IV because I was worried it would ruin my experience. When they did end up wanting to give me one (for pain meds and pitocin) they wanted to put it in my hand, to which I said "NO NO NO!" I knew if it was anywhere that is not the "normal" place for an IV it would seriously gross me out and I would be unhappy. That seems to be the only place the nurses really didn't want to put it, and they went and fetched the anesthesiologist to put it in for them. Once it was in I barley noticed it, so that went over well. Overall I got everything I wanted, even if it seems like I gave things up in the end. All of it was my choice, and I don't regret any of it. =)

There are a TON of pictures still on the camera. I am working on starting to sort through and upload them. Kylie's Flikr set can be found here.

Home and happy =)

Rachael