Krissa Anne Rodgers' Birth Story

She is here!!!! (The above picture is her hospital photo.) Yes, the name we chose all of those months ago was Krissa :-) Anne is after my mom's middle name; we used Joe's dad's first name (James) for Logan's middle name.

In I Give I Up, I wrote about how my two pregnancies have been almost night & day so I wondered about the childbirth experience. Yep, totally opposite! I feel, shall we say, well rounded, LOL.

It all began on Friday, July 15 at 1:37 am when I was sleeping peacefully and thought, oh there's some warm water running down my legs, but I'm comfortable so I'm going to keep sleeping.

WAIT - WHAT?!

With Logan it had been a huge gush, as if someone had poured a gallon of water out of me. So I'd been prepared this time with a couple bed pads that I had saved from my hospital stay with Logan. But this time it was more like when you are going pee.

I jumped out of bed and ran to the toilet. The amniotic fluid continued to come out of me but it was at a slow pace, so I put on a pad and then went back into the bedroom and whispered, "Joe, my water broke." With Logan I had yelled the second it'd happened and Joe had flown out of bed. This time there was a minute of a pause and then he sat up, and didn't act surprised, since we have been going to bed every night for the past month asking, "Will this be the night?"

I was a week over getting my hopes up, but unlike on July 8th when I had my membranes stripped and felt normal the rest of the day/night, this time I hadn't even pulled out of the parking lot of my doctor's office when I felt menstrual-like cramps. When I got home, I told Joe I was going to go for a short walk, but that was the only thing I was going to do this weekend. I had accepted that I'd be induced on Monday.

During my walk, my cramps stopped but instead my pelvis felt very tight. Also, my lower back hurt slightly. Well I've now learned these were mild contractions! I just didn't know this at the time because I never had them with Logan or prior in this pregnancy (I'd only had menstrual-like cramps). They never had a pattern nor were painful, though, so when telling our parents about it there was no reason to think that labor was a sure thing comin'. Yet, Joe's mom said she felt she should come over, and arrived an hour after we went to bed. Just an hour and a half after that is when my water broke!!!!

Unlike my labor with Logan, this time we weren't in a panic rush to go to the hospital, so we slowly got things ready and I waited for some sort of something to accompany my water breaking. With Logan, cramps had started an hour afterward (the same time we'd arrived to the hospital). This time an hour came and went and I felt perfectly normal (not even the cramps or the tight-pelvis feeling that I'd had earlier on my walk)! My water continued to trickle out so that I was soon soaked (I gave up trying to keep myself dry after three pads, and I didn't bother changing my clothes again -- I'd already put on some sweats -- because I knew it was going to keep happening!)

I walked around my house, up and down the stairs, even did the eliptical for a few minutes! I tried every position -- squatting, hands and knees, side laying, etc. but nothing changed. Technically you can wait 24 hrs (doctors say to come immediately, but those who want to have minimal intervention suggest waiting up to a day) but that is easier said than done. There was no way I could just wait around with my water coming out every hour til the next night!!! So, after four hours (and a walk with Joe around the neighborhood) I told Joe, "let's just go."

The drive was very uneventful. . .just like when I was in labor with Logan, it was pitch black outside and not many other cars on the road since it was the middle of the night. It was a calm and relaxed ride. I had thought maybe I would be nervous knowing NOW was the day we'd been worried about having the shoulder dystocia, but just like my labor with Logan, a peace came over me and I was completely at ease.

By the way, this was the day of the full moon! (Logan was born the day before the full moon of April 2008.) (Also, apparently there has been a heatwave as of Friday that is not supposed to stop for the rest of the summer so it was the perfect date to stop being pregnant as this summer had had only a handful of unbearable days so far.)

When the hospital had called me on Thursday they had said that if I went into labor in the middle of the night then to go to the ER because their regular doors are locked during overnight hours. So, we pulled in the ER parking lot and when we got out of the car we saw another pregnant couple walking out of the building. The girl and I smiled at each other; I learned later that Labor & Delivery had sent home 3 couples that night! But they told me I wouldn't be going anywhere, LOL. . .it's a different story when your water breaks!

They put me in a wheel chair and took me to the second floor. My nurse was Erica, a nice, easy-going black woman who put in my hep loc/IV, did my blood work, and asked me questions. When she was done, Joe and I walked. . .and walked. . .and walked around the floor. Unlike my stay for Logan, I was able to take full advantage of the hospital and my room - #2027 (with Logan I had been in active labor when I'd arrived so I'd just laid in bed, then afterward we were moved to another room where I didn't come out until I was discharged!)

As I blogged back in January when I had the tour of Lakeside Hospital, this hospital was much quieter and less busy than Bergan (where I delivered Logan). So, it was more comfortable to walk around -- there was only one other couple on the entire floor and they'd already had their baby. The guy told us good luck; Joe ran into him later and swapped stories.

At 7 am the shifts changed, so I had my next nurse -- Gwen. Gwen was friendly and quirky. She was all about my birth plan and wanting to help me have it perfectly. She even offered things that I hadn't mentioned but were totally align with what I wanted. (Erica had really wanted me to have it to a T, as well.) Gwen brought me a birth ball (which I hadn't liked during labor with Logan, but loved with Krissa) so I did that in between walking the halls, trying different standing positions, and using my breast pump to hopefully cause contractions.

Unfortunately, by 9:30 8 hrs had gone by since my water broke and I still wasn't considered to be in labor. Dr. Sullivan came over to say hello and she suggested what I already knew was coming: pitocin. I felt it was the right thing to do, as it didn't seem like labor was going to start otherwise -- I felt 100% normal! They said they would start it on a 1-2 (the lowest dose; the highest dose is 20) which would not be pain that I could not handle, and if my body looked like it could take over on its own then they would take me off. I liked that plan, especially since I was still able to walk and do anything else I wanted.

At 10 am contractions finally started on the monitor; they were 5 min apart (but I could not feel them at all; I wasn't even uncomfortable -- I still felt GREAT. I'd been admitted in at almost 5 cm (yes, STILL) but at 10 am (20 min after pitocin had started -- that's how long it takes for pitocin to kick in) I was at 6 cm and the head had descended for the first time since I'd been at the hospital! At 10:30 I was checked again and was 7 cm! So we were excited by how fast things were suddenly going, and I still didn't have any pain or discomfort. I was texting and emailing as usual. :-) An hour after that (11:30 am) I was at 8 cm!

Then, in a cruel twist of fate, everything stopped! My contractions went back to no pattern whatsoever on the monitor and when they asked my pain level on a scale of 1 to 10, I said "1." So, they upped the pitocin to a 4. This put contractions at 3 min apart during the noon hour; I was relieved that it wasn't any more painful than when pitocin was on 1-2; I still had not experienced any pain and I felt as normal as I do any day. As I walked the halls with Joe (I'd literally been moving since 1:30 am -- the only times I was ever in bed were the seconds it took to check me for dilation), I told him that if I got to 10 like this then this was going to be super easy! But I knew that was too good to be true, LOL.

At 1 pm the shift changed to my nurse Mary. Unlike Gwen who had been chatty and teased me for being the most cheerful woman she'd ever seen in labor -- so clearly I'd been a cheerleader in HS (to which I'm sure my face turned red as I admitted I had been), Mary had a much tougher/harder personality. She checked me for her first time and it hurt horribly (I've never thought being checked hurt before) and she gave me the worst possible news EVER. She said I'd gone backward to a FIVE! (At 1:05 pm.) I couldn't help it, I began sobbing!!!!! Apparently if the baby changes position and moves its head off the cervix then you can go backwards!

She was like, "Girl, you haven't started labor yet." She upped the pitocin to an 8. I seriously was about to request a different nurse but Mary softened after my sobbing mess and left me alone with Joe -- but I could not get a hold of myself, I was choking on my tears. I just had not been expecting to reverse! I suddenly wondered how long this was going to last.

A few minutes later Mary came back in with some Kleenex and said, "How about you get some rest." She turned off the lights and closed the shades and turned off the TV. I was definitely tired and felt defeated. Not to mention hungry since I hadn't eaten since supper the day before. I should have listened to all of the people who told me to sneak food in (since they don't let you eat once you come to the hospital in labor). (I hadn't felt like eating before we came in because I threw up shortly after my water broke!)

Anyway, I'd hardly had a chance to lay down when a horrible shooting pain with a bunch of amniotic fluid gushed out of me! It hadn't been enough time for the higher level of pitocin to kick in yet so I gasped, "What was that? What happened?" Mary was like, "She probably changed position." I suddenly had to pee so I got up and went to the bathroom and when I sat on the toilet (after I'd finished going), the same pain -- only even worse -- took over my entire body. I could neither stand up up nor sit back on the toilet. I started crying, "Owe! Owe! Owe!"

Joe heard me but the nurse didn't, so he was about to say something to her when Mary heard me and rushed to open the door. I was STILL having the pain, it hadn't subsided, so I could not move!!! Mary called for assistance. Tracy, another nurse, helped her move me back to the bed. The pain subsided for a couple of minutes, then it hit again. They were like, "You are having a really strong contraction and she's probably on a nerve at the same time."

Mary told me to take a deep breath every time I had one and then breathe "hee hee hee whew!" followed by another deep breath -- otherwise I was going to hyperventilate and stop getting oxygen to my baby and the birthing process. This turned out to be the best advice, as I know I would have passed out from the severity of the pain without it! (So, amazingly, I ended up loving Mary at the end because I think she was exactly what I needed.) Hypnobirthing worked for my last labor, but this pain was sooooo different, I could not follow the same things that worked for me last time. So, thinking that I might still have a way to go, I said, "I'm going to need the epidural."

Mary checked me again (at 1:15 pm) and I was back at 8 cm! It had been only 10 min since she'd given me the news that I was a five! She was like, "You are so close, I know you wanted a natural labor and I really think you can do it." She immediately turned off the pitocin completely -- and this is the point when I have to go to Joe for information because things hurt so bad that I was in a daze from that point on.

By the time another ten minutes had passed (1:25 pm), the contractions were a minute apart. Mary checked me again and I was 9 1/2 cm. She told me to turn on my right side so as to get the rest of the way to a 10. OMG...THE PAIN WAS SOOOOOO BADDDDDD!!!! It was a hundred times worse than with Logan!!!! I've said here more than once that natural labor with Logan wasn't intolerable or as bad as childbirth is usually portrayed. Well. . .okay, so this time it was a different story -- the pain was DEFINITELY intolerable. It was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. . .like, enough to kill somebody! I was drenched in sweat just from the severity of the pain, so the nurses brought me washcloths and wiped my face.

I looked at Joe and whimpered, "I need the epidural." He nodded and asked Mary & Tracy why I couldn't get it now. Knowing what we went through last time, we were both thinking it could be another 4 hrs before Krissa came out! I couldn't have survived that! Mary's like, "Okay, I'll ask Dr. Sullivan."

So she called her and apparently Dr. Sullivan recommended some other thing instead of the epidural, but when the anesthesiologist came in he was like, "No, I don't agree." So there my nurses were arguing with the anesthesiologist when I felt "the urge to push." It was 1:35 pm. They were telling me to hold off because Dr Sullivan wasn't there yet! Mary checked me again and I was 10 cm. (Yes, I went from a 5 to a 10 in a half an hour!) The anesthesiologist happened to be at the end of my bed (as my legs were spread open for the dilation check) and the nurses were like, "The baby is coming out!!!!!"

I'd had my eyes closed for fifteen minutes but opened them enough to see the anesthesiologist fly out of the room as he jokingly hollered, "this isn't my area!"

The nurses were like, "Andrea, it's too late for an epidural, Dr Sullivan needs to get here now!" I could actually feel Krissa slip farther down the birth canal -- I had never felt Logan move, so at least that was a positive feeling, as it seemed like the way things were supposed to be. Boy did that hurt even more, though!!!!

Dr. Sullivan arrived at 1:45 and put on her scrubs while the nurses turned me from my side to my back (but they had me in a sitting up position which was way better than with Logan when I was lying flat). I had spent those ten minutes crying and breathing and grunting with my eyes closed, so I never even looked or said hello to Dr Sullivan. They put my legs up on top of stir-up-things and at 1:50 Dr Sullivan said, "Alright, Andrea, push."

She had called in a ton of people in case I had shoulder dystocia again, along with step stools and other equipment to get ready for that type of delivery. (Each nurse had talked to me about Logan's delivery that day and all were super positive that it wasn't going to happen with this baby. They all said "the first paves the way!") So I had a whole group cheering me on, and Mary was like "Push from your butt!" something that I'd wished my nurses with Logan had told me (I hadn't realized that until two hours of pushing with him; I'd thought otherwise I would poop, LOL, but I didn't in either labor!)

There was also no "one, two, three" pushes like my previous doctor had instructed with my last delivery -- I just simply pushed during the horrible contractions and liked that a lot better. I was not at all dignified or refined. I was LOUD. Hopefully I didn't scare any other women who'd come in, in labor! :p (I later learned that by the end of the day there'd been 8 of us!)

Krissa's head fully came out after that first push and Dr Sullivan told me to hold off for a second and then I pushed again. During that second push Dr. Sullivan did an episiotomy because, guess what?! Krissa had turned posterior! The nurses had been checking constantly throughout the day on her position and even a half an hour prior to her birth she was anterior!!! So my previous doctor WAS right -- my pelvis only fits babies out face up!

Thankfully, I felt my three years of research was like studying for a major exam that I'd failed last time but this time I passed! I am confident that my following all of the tips for women with my kind of pelvis (especially the fact that I was active during this entire labor) is why I didn't have another 4 hr pushing phase. Also, of course, like the nurses said -- the first baby makes it a lot easier for the second to come out!

Anyway, I sort of felt the episiotomy but it wasn't as painful as everything else -- I could tell Krissa's shoulders were out and so I was just focused on pushing her the rest of the way! It only took one more push -- that's right, I only had a total of three pushes in three minutes!!!! At 1:53 pm I finally opened my eyes for good and there was Dr. Sullivan holding my baby girl! :-) Best of all, as soon as Krissa was suctioned out, she started screaming. She was wide-eyed and alert, something we had not experienced with Logan.

Joe surprised me by cutting the cord (something he hadn't wanted to do prior to Logan or even when Logan was born -- he also stood down at the bottom the entire time this time rather than up by my head like with Logan) and then they cleaned her up and weighed her; she was 7 lbs, 10 oz. So 4 ounces smaller than Logan despite my going two weeks longer! (She was the exact same height as him: 20.5 inches.) I'd had on my birth plan to hold her right away (I'd had it on there with Logan, too, but didn't get to hold him for 20 min due to his traumatic birth), but they didn't give her to me until my placenta came out and I was stitched up.

It was love at first sight. My maternal instinct kicked in immediately! I wanted to hold her and kiss her forever! I forgot how incredibly awesome newborns are! She is just the sweetest, most precious little thing. . .the sounds she makes, the way she moves. . .and she seems to have a peaceful personality which is the vibe I got when I was pregnant, too (maybe because she seemed so patient to come out, LOL). She's also a total mama's girl! Logan didn't care whether we held him or put him in his hospital bed -- or who held him. Krissa seems to mostly just want me to hold her. I think it is amazing that she knows I'm her mom. She looks at me with recognition when I talk or sing to her and she acts so content when she is in my arms. She has also been different than Logan who just slept the whole time we were in the hospital, and was cranky that first week until he recovered from jaundice. Krissa's jaundice level was great at discharge; she is very alert and all I have to do to make her happy is to hold her. (Although, there was one downside to her fast delivery - Joe said there was a burst of fluid when Krissa came out, which we later learned she'd inhaled including some blood so that had to be sunctioned out with a tube down her throat on Fri night. But otherwise, she's been great and so have I -- I feel back to normal and painfree today/Sunday!)

OMG, breastfeeding, too, is a BREEZE this time! Krissa is phenomenal at it! I just keep thanking God for answering all of my prayers!!! I didn't have to have a c-section, there was no shoulder dystocia, and breastfeeding has been a cinch! Mary said "She's the best nurser I've had all week!" My other nurses and a lactation consultant also observed throughout the weekend and said everything is ideal. She had six wet diapers on her second day of life! (The average is two; for the first week it's the amount of days old they are.) She had her first stool on her first day of life and her second today/her third day of life. Despite it being average to lose almost a pound during those fist 48 hrs, she was 7 lbs, 8 oz after 24 hrs and 7 lbs, 5 oz after 48. (So she's only lost 5 oz.) She just seems to know what she's doing and so my milk came in by Saturday afternoon! (Logan was born on a Friday, too, and it took until Tuesday for my milk to come in.)

The one thing that IS the same as with Logan is that I am super giddy and in total bliss-land!!!!!

Just like when I wrote about Logan's birth story (My Son's Birth Story), I will write about the rest of the weekend in my next post. . .that is, whenever I get the chance. :/

But I wanted to get Krissa's birth story written ASAP! She was born 13 days before her original due date; Logan was born 25 days before his original due date. I had thought Krissa's labor was going to be longer than Logan's since labor took awhile to actually begin this time, but it ended up being faster. With Logan, I'd dilated within three-and-a-half hours of contractions but there was pain for those hours. Then, of course, Logan's pushing phase lasted four additional hours. This time, I only felt contractions and pain for less than 45 minutes and went from 5 to 10 in less than that! Yes, it was way worse pain than with Logan, but it was followed by a three minute pushing phase so. . .to copy the cliche from Logan's birth story. . .just like with him, it was all worth it and I wouldn't have had my labor any other way!

But, copying another line: Would I do it again?

This time my answer is: Nope!

Haha!

Our family is complete :-)
Logan giving me a flower when he visited me at the hospital on Saturday