Our daughter, Kaleia Lou-Anne, was born on Saturday, September 7th, at 5:15 am.
Note: This is a long post that contains details about labor and delivery. This post also talks about Kaleia’s short stay in the NICU.
After having a c-section with Kanoa and my medical history/status, I had a 27% chance of having a successful VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Because the likelihood of success was so low, we decided to schedule a c-section. But throughout my pregnancy, I discussed the possibility of having a VBAC with my midwives and the surgeon. The game plan was to see if I go into labor before my c-section, and if I did, we would continue to evaluate to see if a VBAC would be a safe option.
Well, Kaleia decided to wait until the last minute before the scheduled c-section to get labor going! I had a surgical birth planned for Friday, September 6th, at 10:30 am. Friday morning, I woke up around 4 am experiencing some minor contractions. All week leading up to Friday, I had some little contractions, especially at night, but they were pretty irregular. When I woke up on Friday, the contractions were strong enough that I couldn’t go back to sleep and coming at a more consistent interval (about 6-7 minutes apart).
Seth woke up and asked if we should head over to the hospital. I said no because we were supposed to be at the hospital at 8:30 am anyways, and these contractions were so minor that I knew I wasn’t very far along in labor. Since I couldn’t go back to sleep, I decided to shower, put on some make-up, and do my hair. I did the same thing when I went into labor with Kanoa. I figured I needed to kill time and if I was going to get a c-section, I might as well try to look nice for the photos 😉
By 6:30 am, the contractions were more uncomfortable but nothing too painful. So I decided to call over to my midwifery to check-in with them and see if I should come into the hospital early. I left a message with the on-call service. My midwife called back, and I missed the call! I was going to call back but decided just to head into the hospital anyways since it was getting close to the time we were supposed to leave for the c-section.
Right before we left for the hospital, I stopped having contractions. I kind of thought maybe that meant I wasn’t actually in labor and was okay with the plan to get a c-section. I went into Kaleia’s labor with an open mind about how things would go. I had the opposite mindset with Kanoa and didn’t have a great experience.
We arrived at the hospital and went to check-in for the c-section. I had two small contractions between the car and getting to the Labor & Delivery floor. After I got checked in, the nurses prepped me for a c-section, and we waited to get an evaluation to determine the next steps.
A midwife examined me, and I was dilated to 4 cm. We decided to see if we could get labor going! The plan was to see how things go, but also be ready for a c-section if needed.
So I called my doula and started pacing the Labor & Delivery floor!
Before long, my room was filled with people. My husband, parents, sisters, mother and father-in-law and doula were all there to support me. Contractions still were pretty mild. I paced the hallway, did squats, and bounced on a pregnancy ball to try to get labor moving.
My doula, Bryna, guided me in different techniques to get the labor to progress. She did some massage along my spine and ankles with essential oils. The massage was supposed to activate trigger points associated with contractions. And it felt great, so I enjoyed it!
Around 2 pm, my midwife came back to check in on me. I think at this time I was 5 or 6 cm. Things were moving, but slower than I was hoping. We talked about manually breaking my water but decided to do a membrane sweep instead.
The sweep kicked labor up a notch!
I started having more painful and regular contractions. And by this time, my dad and father-in-law decided to head out to the waiting room.
I was so thankful to have Bryna around! Not only did she coach me through contractions, but she coached all of my support people as well. Bryna guided me into different positions and had my support team do things like push on my hips or massage my low back to help lessen the pain of contractions. Not only did the positioning help, but I felt like having people around me doing something helped me feel like I wasn’t having the contraction alone. It gave me a lot of emotional support. I’m very appreciative.
After laboring for a bit more, maybe an hour or two (at this point, my memory is a little fuzzy on the spacing between events), my midwife was ending her shift. She came by to check me, and I was dilated to 7 cm, yay!
7 cm was when some excruciating contractions started to happen. Contractions were coming close together and very strong. I labored in different positions. I also started to get nervous that I wouldn’t be able to progress past 7 cm. When I was in labor with Kanoa, I got to 9 cm and stayed there for 4 hours. I didn’t realize that I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to progress in labor until I was actually in labor. I had no idea that this was a fear I was holding.
Bryna and my family provided lots of words of encouragement. I remember I was feeling pretty mentally drained but so happy to have them around. I continued to labor with intense contractions and started to feel a little bit of downward pressure.
At some point, I moved to laboring in a tub, which provided some relaxation (if you can believe it!). The contractions were still painful but more tolerable. And it was nice to be in water where I could take some pressure off of my body. It gave me a minute to catch my breath (between contractions) and try to get some energy back.
I started to feel some more downward pressure and a little urge to push. So I got out of the tub, and the midwife rechecked me — still 7cm.
This news was so hard to hear. It was like confirming my fear that I wouldn’t ever get to 10 cm.
I think I wasn’t in mental space that I was able to deal with that news. Plus, the contractions were so painful. I remember being very upset and debating whether or not I wanted to get an epidural. We talked about breaking my water to see if that helped, and I was going to do that. But then a forceful contraction happened, and I remember yelling, “I can’t do this anymore!”. I wanted the epidural.
The epidural turned out to be its own adventure. For the epidural, everyone was asked to leave the room except for Seth, the nurse, and me. A woman came in to administer the epidural. When you get an epidural, you sit on the edge of the bed and round your back like a cat. Then you are asked to hold still while they prep your back, give you a numbing shot, and then give you the epidural.
After getting prepped, I got the numbing shot. Then the woman gave me the epidural. For some reason, this wasn’t right because she said she needed to try again. On the second try, when she inserted the epidural, it felt like I had gotten a strong kick from the inside of my spine. Not comfortable. After two more tries (for a total of 4 attempts!), the epidural was in and working — kind of.
They had me lay back in bed in a reclined position. At this point, I thought I felt my water break. So the nurse put me back to check me out and see if my water actually did break. When I was laying down, I started to feel light-headed. I also noticed that my top half was feeling numb instead of my lower half. My tummy was numb, and my hips were a little numb. I could still move my legs and had feeling in them. I mentioned this to the nurse and the anesthesiologist. The nurse said my blood pressure was dropping and sat me up in the bed. The anesthesiologist said that she must have sent the medicine up, but it should have gone down. I don’t know much about epidurals, but I knew that the medication wasn’t supposed to go up.
It felt scary having my chest be numb. It felt heavy. In addition to feeling light-headed, I started to get pretty scared. Seth was looking very worried by this point too.
The anesthesiologist brought another woman into the room to discuss the situation. The nurse told them my blood pressure was still low, and I think they administered some medicine for that. The anesthesiologist and the other woman talked for a while about what to do. I’m not sure exactly what they were saying. It sounded a lot like, “Should I try …?” “Hmm, maybe…”. I also heard the “I think I sent the medicine up when it should have gone down” line again.
In the end, they told me that the first bit of medicine given for the epidural is strong, and maybe that once it wears off a little, my chest won’t feel as numb. Then they said at that point if I’m not feeling numb in my legs, they could try something else. The contractions were much less painful, so I was happy to let things be.
My support team came back into the room, and I was glad to have them around. I labored more in bed. My doula and nurse team helped me into different positions to assist in progressing labor. I think I laid on my side, sat up in squatting like position, and then back to my side. Since my epidural didn’t numb my bottom half, I still had a lot of mobility.
I think during this time, I was checked for progression twice. On the second check, the midwife said I was at 10cm. I couldn’t believe it. I think I even asked my sister, “What did she say?”. I thought for sure I’d be at 9cm forever again.
I thought I’d made it to the finish line, but I was wrong, haha!
I pushed for 3 hours. It felt like a long time, but it was to hard to tell how long anything took in the moment. After Kaleia was born, one of the nurses told me I pushed for 3 hours. Anyways, during pushing, it was a lot of teamwork. Each person in my support team had a limb, and Seth counted for me during each push. It was incredibly exhausting.
My sisters kept the mood light and comedic by playing music like “Push It” by Salt N Peppa. I remember the atmosphere in the room was comforting and enjoyable. If I wasn’t so tired, I could have thought we were just a big group hanging out and catching up.
We welcomed Kaleia to the world just after 5am. I was instantly overcome with emotions and in a lot of pain. The midwife put Kaleia on my chest immediately, but I was crying so much it was hard to be aware of her.
I had only a few moments with her. Kaleia had to be checked by the NICU team (who had already been standing by because of how Kaleia was handling labor). Kaleia had inhaled some meconium. As she was being passed to the NICU nurses in the room, she stopped breathing for a short time. The NICU team was on it so fast, and she started breathing again right away.
After that, Kaleia was admitted to NICU. Seth was able to travel with her, but because he was on the back-end of a cold, he wasn’t able to stay with her long. They placed her on a CPAP and other assistive devices. It was definitely so scary to see our new baby girl in the NICU hooked up to a bunch of cords. I visited with her and then went back to the recovery room to be examined and to get a little rest. Our parents took shifts staying with her so that she wouldn’t be alone. I went down to the NICU in between my own exams.
While she was in the NICU, my doula helped me to get started with pumping so that I could send milk along to the baby and be ready to breastfeed. I’m so grateful for my doula. She truly helped make the whole experience so beautiful. If you’re in the Portland area and looking for a doula, I highly recommend Bryna from @doulamysoul. Having her there made a huge difference in the experience!
Our very short NICU stay was stressful and scary. I know many families go through much longer stays. I’m so grateful for all of the medical staff that helped to bring our baby girl into the world and that helped her once she arrived.
Kaleia proved herself to be quick the feisty little girl! In less than 24 hrs she was able to leave the NICU. It was such a relief to have her with us! Seth hadn’t gotten to hold her at all. He was in heaven getting to see her. He held her for 5 hours straight — only taking a break when she needed to eat.Â
Seeing Kaliea and Kanoa meet was such a beautiful experience. Seth and I feel very blessed. I didn’t really know what people meant when they described labor and delivery as a “beautiful experience,” but now I understand. Even though it was a long labor, and there were stressful times, it was such a positive overall experience to labor surrounded by so many people that I love.
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