I am absolutely loving the newborn stage again. The snuggles and her soft head full of dark hair. She has been a natural at breastfeeding and latched on right away without any problems!
At her two week appointment she had already passed her birthweight at 7 lbs 5 oz! The girl knows how to eat and is a great eater. (plus my milk came in quickly and i've had plenty)
We are so in love with Baby Kenzie and I am loving everything about having a baby in our house again. I've definitely been bitten by the baby hunger bug now that she is here.
So, for the birth story.
We due date came and went with no real contractions. I stayed pretty active and we went on several long walks/hikes. I bounced on my birth ball almost everynight, and while it helped ease my tired, sore back, it did nothing to bring on contractions.
I continued to go Dr. Kurtzman's office each Monday and Thursday at 10:30am for NST's and doppler ultrasounds. The nurses got to know me really well and each time I came in they teased about me having the most active baby, and that the baby liked to show off on the monitors. She moved CONSTANTLY during monitoring and always looked absolutley perfect, as did her ultrasounds.
My due date was February 4th, and it came and went with no signs of baby coming. On Friday, the next day, I went to Dr. James' office in Laguna Beach. My mom came with me with the twins, who just waited in the waiting room. Dr. James discussed that our plan would be by the next Wednesday, if i hadn't gone into labor on my own, i'd come in for a Foley balloon to help dilate me. I wasn't dilated or effaced at all. He said I could choose between being induced or just going with the scheduled c-section. He was 100% confident that i could do a VBAC, but he explained all the risks and complications and left the choice up to me.
I told the front office to go ahead and schedule the induction for the following Thursday, but I left the office feeling very conflicted.
My mom and I took the kids to the beach again to play in the sand. While there I laid out all my concerns:
-recovery time from c-section
-possilibiluty of tearing from VBAC
We all got sick that following week. It started with Brayden who had a green, runny nose then Sydney got it. By Monday i had developed a lot of gunk in my chest and had a pretty nasty cough.
By the next Wednesday nothing had happened so Chris came home from work early on Wednesday. It was a hot day. 80+ degrees. We brought our hospital bags with us, just in case we needed to go to the hospital that night. (wishful thinking)
We drove down to my appointment early and stopped at the Rainbow sandals outlet so i could get a new pair of flip-flops and we picked up a new pair for the twins. We drove on PCH up to Dr. James' office in Laguna Beach and enjoyed the scenic drive because we were pretty early for the appointment. We still got there twenty minutes early but decided to head on in.
Dr. James came in to do the Foley, and said I still wasn't dilated at all. It was pretty painful as he tried to insert the balloon catheter. He only left it in for a minute, then said he's try again. But when he went to put it in, he said just from attempting it the first time and the pressure, i had already dilated to a 2. Thank heavens because I didn't want to walk around all night with that in! So we left the office with the plan to show up at the hospital at 7am the next morning to be induced.
We drove up the PCH to Newport Beach. We stopped at Fashion Island to do a few returns and walked around the mall. I was feeling a little crampy, and looking back i think I was having some mild contractions.
We stopped for dinner at Mama D's (our favorite italian restaurant) and enjoyed a delicious, quiet, peaceful meal together.
Before going to bed I curled my hair and finalized packing our hospital bags. I hardly slept that night between coughing fits, nerves, getting up to go to the bathroom, and "cramps".
I was already awake and sitting in the bathroom when my alarm went off at 6:15am. I put on a little bit of makeup and got dressed and ate 4 protein pancakes because I knew once i got to the hospital i wouldn't be able to eat.
We left a little bit before 7am and it was already sunny and warm. When we got to the hospital, we didnt' know where to check in (oops for never going to the hospital beforehand)
I got checked into my room and they had me change into my hospital gown and got started on the IV right away. They started me on the first dose of penicilin because i was strep b positive. They asked all sorts of questions then began the pitocin a little bit after 8am. Initially I hung out on the bed while I answered all the hospital questions. When I got the clear to stand up and get on the telemetry unit Chris and I went out for an exploratory walk down the halls. There was only one hallway we could walk down which wasn't very far. The first walk we went on I felt great. I could tell that some little contractions were starting but they weren't a big deal. We headed back to the room and I sat on the green birthing ball while Chris qued up a show to watch. It took him several minutes and the contractions became much more noticeable. I bounced away on my ball while we watched on episode of Limitless. The nurse came in and said Dr. James had called and requested that the on-call doc at the hospital come in and break my water. We finished the episode, but I had a hard time concentrated towards the end.
Around 10:30 the Dr came in and broke my water and said I was still dilated to just a 2. Bummer.
I got back on the birthing ball and bounced again for a while. Things definitely picked up after my water broke. I started swaying during a contraction then bouncing between. I was annoyed because the nurse said they kept losing the baby's heart rate while i bounced because the montior would move. She wanted me to hold it in place, and it distracted me from being able to deal with the pain of the contractions.
After several minutes of that I decided to try walking again. This time I was much slower than our first walk. The contractions hurt by this point and I was dreading each coming one. We got back to our room and I wanted to go sit on the toliet. The contractions were coming two minutes apart and were getting intense. In the brief 1-2 minutes that I had inbetween contractions, my stomach still felt crampy and I almost had the feeling of needing to poop. The idea of sitting on the toliet sounded good. I went in there and felt a little bit better sitting in that squat position, but the nurse came back in and said the monitors weren't able to pick up the baby's heart rate again. I was annoyed because another position that offered relieve, they didn't want me to be in. So I got up and left the bathroom. I had Chris try the "slow dance" position while I moaned through a couple contractions. I didn't really like that, so I tried kneeling on the bed and leaning over the birthing ball. This helped some, but I was getting worried because the contractions were starting to come so fast and intense together that I was worried I wouldn't be able to stay on top of them. I was still able to just make it through them, but the thought of doing this for hours exhausted and scared me. The nurse came in a little big after noon and could tell things had picked up. She suggested the epidural at this point. I initially protested and thought I could keep going a little bit longer, but between contractions I was so tired I just wanted to fall asleep. She mentioned that it could take up to an hour to get the anethisologist in to start the epidural. I asked several more questions, while moaning and rocking on the bed to get through the contractions. I dediced I'd better request it now.
When the anesthiologist came in it seemed to take forever to prep. I got into the "cat" position and curled into a ball the best I could. Right as he put in the numbing needle I had a big contraction. It took all my concentration to not move and to focus and breathe through the contraction that I didn't even notice the needle. Same with the actual epidural needle when the put it in. It was amazing, within second of it being in my legs began to feel warm and heavy. The aniesthiologist was my favorite person in the world at that moment.
I was so tired from hardly sleeping the night before that it feel so nice to be warm and heavy and relaxed. I laid down and felt so comfortable. It was heavenly!!
The nurse checked me then helped me get into a good position to sleep. 5 centimeters! I had progessed to a 5 on my own, so I felt happy about that. I sent Chris out to get some lunch at 1pm because i knew he was starving and I was ready to fall asleep/
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