Let's start at the very beginning, a wonderful place to start. Kellen and I wanted our kids to be 2 years apart, so started trying to get pregnant after Ainsley turned a year old. Kellen had a work trip to Amsterdam and London in June and we thought it would be a great family vacation (for less than half the price!). I was set to get my period on our first day in London. I packed a pregnancy test and tampons. After our first day in London, I took a pregnancy test and it was positive! It was pretty exciting to find out we were pregnant overseas. Each time I was pregnant, I had cold symptoms in the middle of summer, I should know now that a baby is coming!
Kaine's pregnancy was a little harder than Ainsley's. With Ainsley I did not have any morning sickness or Braxton Hick's contractions. With Kaine, the morning sickness was not too bad, just nausea about a half hour after I ate, every time I ate. I never threw up though! During the entire pregnancy, I knew Kaine was a big baby. Second babies are most of the time bigger and I was feeling large. With Ainsley I gained 36 pounds and with Kaine I gained 49. At the end of both pregnancies I was the exact same weight!
At 37 weeks, I thought I was going into labor. I had been having Braxton Hick's contractions but then woke up Monday morning and could hardly walk. I had shooting pain very low on my belly and couldn't lift anything. Kellen and I worked from home on Monday and were glad I had a doctor's appointment that day. The pain went away when I sat down and relaxed, so I did that all morning. At my appointment, the doctor said it was probably ligament pain and I was only dilated 1.5cm, no contractions yet. Errrr. The pain went away that night and I immediately started upping all natural labor inducing methods. I walked around as much as I could (although I was humongous and it took a lot of effort to move), did 10 squats every time I went to the bathroom, ate spicy food at every meal and at least a pineapple a week.
Ainsley was 3 days early, so I thought with the second baby there was no way I would make it to my due date. My due date was Feb. 19th, a Wednesday. I had planned to work through Feb. 21st and then work from home until the baby came. Everyone at work was VERY nervous around me after I stayed home that one day at 37 weeks. Well my due date came and went. The day after my due date I had a doctor's appointment. I drove Kellen's new car to work (we carpool to work and normally he drives, but since I had to leave for the doctor I drove. New car = Cadillac CTS V-Sport, super fast super fun). I had an Ultrasound and they guessed 9lb (+/- 1 lb), definitely boy. Induction scheduled for Friday the 28th. Back at work that day I got blurry vision and it was hard to breathe. My fingers and feet swelled a little but everything went away in a half hour. I was just about to leave work at 4:15pm and we had a tornado warning. Had to wait around nervously hoping I did not go into labor for the first time in weeks. I made it through and went to pick up Kellen. No action Friday. Monday I started working from home.
On Tuesday after my due date, I had another doctor's appointment. Another Ultrasound said everything was still ok. Only dilated 2cm and baby still up really high.
I was getting restless. After I got home, I started using pressure points to induce labor. I searched "labor inducing yoga" and found this. At this point, anything was worth a try. On Tuesday, I did the belly rub and squat walk for a half hour around 4pm. My husband was mad that I started so late. He didn't want me to go into labor at night if we didn't have to (with Ainsley we went to the hospital at 10pm and I delivered her at 3:49am so we ended up not sleeping that night). No labor that night. Lost my mucus plug at 7am Wednesday morning. Still no timeable contractions. My parents came over to help with the pressure points. I thought my dad could press harder than I could and they were excited to help any way they could. At 8:30am we tried the pressure points and 9am did the belly rub/squat walk for another half hour. My mom and dad alternated who did the squat walk with me because it is super tiring. I worked a little more and then did the pressure points and belly rub/squat walk again around 10:30am. I had my first contraction at 11:30am. I can hardly feel when I am in early labor, just feels like super light cramps. I never believe that it is really happening, even though I have been doing everything possible to make it happen for weeks! My mom is always on top of things and convinces me that I am truly in labor. Contractions were a half hour apart. I decided to wait until they were 15 minutes apart for Kellen to come home and to have Kellen's parents get on the road. They live in Illinois about 6 hours away and wanted to try and make it to Memphis for the birth. My dad went and got McDonald's for lunch (another terrible pre-birth meal) and around 12:15pm my mom and I went on a walk to keep things moving. Of course the entire week it had been in the 60s in Memphis but then the polar vortex hit again and it dropped to the 30s. Our walk was frigid. Contractions were every 15 minutes. I called Kellen at 12:30pm to come home and we'd go to the hospital. We called his parents and told them to hit the road.
Kellen got home around 1pm and we headed to the hospital. Contractions were now every 5 minutes apart. Ainsley's birth was very quick (2 hours of hard labor), so we wanted to make sure we were at the hospital if the second one was faster. We were in the hospital waiting room for awhile, they lost my paperwork. Kellen was getting angry. The hospital was having a blood drive and people were trying to make conversation with me. I tried to answer questions between contractions. Finally at 2pm we were moved to a triage room so they could make sure I was in labor. Contractions were now 3 minutes apart but I was only dilated 3cm. The nurse said she was going to call the doctor to see if we could stay. The doctor was in surgery so it took awhile to get a response. The doctor on call (both during the day and that night) was not my normal doctor but another one from the practice. Luckily it was not the one that delivered Ainsley (she was not nice or helpful at all). Finally the nurse came back and said the doctor wanted me to stay for another hour and see if I progressed any. This was the same thing that happened with Ainsley so I immediately started walking around the best I could while being hooked up to the baby heart beat and contraction monitors. Around 4pm the nurse came back and checked and I was at 4cm! She left and went to talk to the doctor to make sure that was enough and it was! We got to move to a room and officially get checked in.
I was GBS positive and wanted to get on the antibiotic ASAP since I assumed the labor would be quick. In order to get a full dose, I had to be on the antibiotic for 4 hours (2 doses, each dose takes 30-60 minutes but they can only give them every 3 hours). I started the first dose at 5pm. Contractions were still not too bad, still feeling like cramps and 3 minutes apart. Since now I wanted to get the full dose of antibiotics, I stayed in the hospital bed on my side (Bradley Method positioning), breathing through the contractions. At 7pm the Survivor premiere came on, so I started watching. At 8pm I got the second dose of antibiotics as the contractions got a little worse. This dose really burned going in. The nurse didn't have the IV fast enough to give the right cooling sensation, but fixed that right away and put some ice on my arm. I really had to start concentrating and breathing through the contractions around 8:30pm.
The doctor had said earlier that if I wanted to he could break my water, but I wanted to wait and try and get the full doses of antibiotics. Soon after I got the full second dose, I requested he come in and break my water. When he broke my water it was not what I expected. I thought it would come gushing out, but it was more of just a constant leaking. Right after my water broke the contractions got much more intense. I was still laying on my side and breathing through them, getting up to go to the bathroom a lot. Around 9:30pm the contractions got really hard to breathe through. I tried different positions - side, back, squatting, standing and nothing helped. It felt a lot different than it did with Ainsley with a lot of pain in my back. The best position ended up being sitting against Kellen and applying some pressure to the end of the bed with my feet to counteract what I was feeling in my back. There was a lot of pressure so I kept thinking it was time to push. The nurse checked me and I was still at a 6, ugh. Now after the fact, I know Kaine was posterior. I wish the doctor or a nurse would have said something and suggested getting on all fours to try and get him to turn around, but I guess they don't have a lot of natural child births so probably don't know what to do to make it easier. Around 10:30pm I told Kellen I couldn't do it anymore. It was way worse than with Ainsley and I just wasn't going to make it. I still felt the pressure and could hardly tell when the contractions were starting and stopping, it felt like one constant contraction. Kellen was a great birthing partner (again) and encouraged me that I could do it, that we were almost there. Soon after, the nurse checked again and I was at an 8, ugh again. Still not there.
Finally after struggling through countless contractions, I was at a 9.5 and they brought the doctor in. I said I still had pressure and they said I could try and push. Kaine was still up really high so they thought the pushing would help bring him down. I had hoped the pushing would give me some relief, but no luck there. The doctor was stretching me down there the entire time and I still felt like it was one constant contraction. Everyone kept asking when the next contraction was so they could help me push and encourage me on, but I couldn't tell. I had to let the monitor tell me when was the best time to push. I was in a lot of pain and still not thinking I could do it. They gave me oxygen and kept moving the baby heart rate monitor to keep track of what was going on. I felt the ring of fire and knew that we had to be getting close. The doctor said there was a lot of hair, so that was another sign that the end was in site. I was exhausted from the contractions and still didn't think I could do it. I think every laboring woman gets to a point of no return while pushing. For me that came when my husband said we had 13 minutes left to have this baby on the 26th (Ainsley was born on January 26th). In my head I had one more push and I just needed to get it over with. I pushed with everything I had and out he came. I felt the doctor spin his head around so his body could come out. Kaine was born at 11:51pm on Feb. 26th.
I was relieved to be done with the birth and went to reach for my new baby. He was completely grey.... and not crying. The doctor was saying how big he was and I asked why he wasn't crying. The doctor said to give him a minute. He didn't cry in a minute. Panic set in very quickly. NICU nurses were called. Kaine was taken over to the bassinet and nurses surrounded him trying to get him to breathe. We heard three little whines, but not consistent crying. I had to push to deliver the placenta and had a little tear from the birth. The doctor stitched me up while the nurses were working on Kaine. His APGAR scores were 1 at 1 minute, 2 at 5 minutes and 2 at 10 minutes. He was still not breathing so they gave him a ventilator and sent him to the NICU after I got to see him one more time.
Kellen's parents had just made it into town and were in the waiting room with my dad. My mom was watching Ainsley at home waiting for a phone call of the good news. We invited everyone back to the room while we waited for an update from the NICU. Waiting is always the hardest part. After an hour we had to call and see what was going on. The nurse had good news! She said she was just about to call us and that we had a miracle baby. They did not think he was going to breathe on his own when he suddenly woke up, pulled out the ventilator and IV and was perfectly fine! Since he was in the NICU, he had to stay there for 48 hours but we could go and see him. I was not cleared to leave the room yet, so Kellen, his parents and my dad went and saw Kaine. He was back hooked up to the IV and they couldn't hold him but they took pictures for me to see.
Finally around 2 or 3 am I was cleared to leave the room. Kellen pushed me in a wheelchair to the NICU and the nurses let me hold my new baby. Finally just what I needed!
Kaine had to stay in the NICU on antibiotics for 48 hours. I got to nurse him at 2pm the next day and they slowly took him off the IV after that. I nursed him every 3 hours while he was in the NICU, if I could get him to wake up! The hospital let us stay an extra day in the hospital in a room next to the NICU so I could be close to Kaine to feed him. We went home on Saturday afternoon with a happy healthy baby boy.
It was a rough experience for both baby and mama but we made it through. We decided to name him Kaine - a strong boy name meaning little battler. After the birth experience we think it definitely fits him. He was 9lb 13 oz and 23 inches at birth. At 6.5 weeks he is already 13lb 13oz and 25 inches, I think we are going to have a big boy!
