The Birth Story

If you are into really long, boring, poorly written birth stories read the captions, if not, just look at the beautiful pictures of our baby girl caught by the talented Laura Montgomery. If you want to see my pregnancy photo shoot please read her blog here.

At 9:00 p.m. on the 25^th I started to feel some pains that we were a little worse than the Braxton Hicks I had for two days prior. I knew these pains were different and that our baby was on her way. Kyle had left at 7:00 p.m. for work that night so I had to call him at the ER and tell him to come home. By the time he got home my contractions were about 5 minutes apart and I was doing alright staying on top of them by just relaxing. I kept thinking with each contraction, “Ride the wave up and over this contraction let the contraction open your cervix, just relax and get ready for your baby.”

As the contractions went on they started to become more painful; I tried to coach Ky through each one telling him where to rub my back and I started to get sort of discouraged that I wouldn’t be able to make it through this delivery without an epidural.

 

baby girl meets the world

Because I was starting to feel defeated I called my sister K’Leena, who had been a huge support in my decision to deliver naturally and who was driving across the country to hopefully be here to coach me through this delivery. As I talked with her I started to cry because I just didn’t feel I could do it, she told me that I could do it and to go get in the tub, “I had labor pains with Emily for three days before I actually went into labor, and if nothing else it will at least relieve a lot of pain.” I am pretty sure we both knew this labor wasn’t going to stall for the three days that it would take for her to make it from Wyoming, but I did feel comforted to know that it was a possibility.

Ky started the tub for me and once I got in it felt soooooo good. All of the pressure was lifted off my back and I was able to completely relax through each intense contraction. After about 20 minutes my contractions were 3 minutes apart and 1-2 minutes long. I thought there was no way that things were progressing this rapidly. Kyle called my doctor and they said I should head to the hospital. But when I got up to walk around the contractions were much shorter and I thought that things were going to slow down again. As we were driving away from the house we actually talked about turning back around and waiting it out longer at home, thank goodness we just kept driving.

Kyle was hungry and because we thought we were in for a much longer night we decided to stop at McDonalds, it took us forever in the drive thru because their credit card machine was down and I had three contractions while we waited for our food. I scarfed down a bunch of fries and some spicy chicken bites, and they were sooo good.

We finally got into the hospital at 12:30 a.m. and they took me into triage. I kept having lots of contractions really close by and they were extremely painful, forgetting everything I knew about the stages of labor I didn’t realize I was hitting transition and that my baby was just around the corner. I didn’t see the markers of confusion as I was offered the epidural and unsure of what to choose, or the marker that I just felt like giving up, actually I just threw everything I had studied and practiced out the window with one little mention of pain relief and began to let the pain take over. Two contractions went by with my writhing in pain through each of them. The midwife (I will call Dr.) was coming in to check my cervix and I told the nurses if I am not ready to push I need the epidural. With the first check I was seven centimeters. She said they would try to get the epidural for me. Four minutes and two contractions later my water burst. Three minutes later I was fully dilated and ready to push for my baby.

When I heard this news I let joy take over realizing my decision about pain medication was made for me. With a smile on my face I told the midwife and nurses, “Ok this is so great! Let’s do this!” They quickly gathered my things; got the bed ready for transport and off we went towards the delivery room with my fearless husband pushing the bed as fast as he could. I just remember the walls going by quickly and the first contraction on the bed had me screaming, “I NEED TO PUSH.” The Dr. got in my face and said just breath quick burst of air. I managed to hold in the urge to push. Once inside the delivery room they wanted me to move myself onto the delivery bed, I don’t know if I did or how it happened I just remember thinking, “Are you crazy? I am gonna push this baby out now!” But somehow I went from lying on my side on the gurney to sitting up on the deliver bed.

With the next contraction they told me to push, and begged me to relax between the contractions. During each push I was screaming things like, “I can’t do it! This hurts so bad!” And each time I said something negative six people in the room would come back with positive affirmations. This was so lucky for Ky, he didn’t have to use one thing from our meager study time, all he had to do was repeat what the Dr. and nurses were saying, “You can do this! You are doing great! Your baby is right here.” After the second pushing contraction I finally relaxed and remembered what I had read once about laughter and love and kind feelings during labor and how they all increase your endorphins which allow you to relax and allow your perineum and cervix to open and stretch easily. So I told everyone in the room “You are so nice thank you so much, you are all doing so great and are so nice.” Then I tilted my head down and told my baby how much I loved her and that she could come out and see me. This had everyone laughing and telling me how sweet I was and just kept the feeling in the room light and filled with love. I also remember at one point someone asked if I wanted a mirror so I could witness her birth myself and I was just so overwhelmed that I said, “There’s no time for that.” Realizeing that obviously there was time if the nurses were offering it and I mustered out, “I can’t be bothered.”

But seriously everyone was so terrific. The Dr. was doing everything in her power to keep my tearing to a minimum and the encouragement I felt was overwhelming.

 

big yawn during the her bath

1:21 a.m. July 26, 2012: With the third and most painful push my little girls head emerged. The Dr. asked me to not push for a minute while she, the baby, wiggled herself in the best position. Isn’t that so neat that my baby wasn’t too fatigued or drugged and was able to take such an active role in her own delivery? One tiny push later her whole body was out and I was holding my second precious gift from heaven. A perfect little being ready for love.

 

babies first bath, she loved getting her hair washed

The nurses encouraged skin to skin contact with my baby and let us just be together while I nursed the wee one. They also let the cord go for a couple of minutes to give back all that precious cord blood and Ky cut the cord. Everyone in the room was amazed at her alertness. Her eyes were wide open and she was looking at me and taking everything in, it was a wonderful moment and experience. I was so exhausted from staying up through the night that when they took her to get her cleaned a little bit and check her out I just laid on the bed and kept drifting in and out of sleep.

Around 4:30 a.m. we were finally in a recovery room and ready to get some rest.

My wonderful friend Laura Montgomery was there to document the whole experience for us, we had hoped for some great labor pain photos however by the time she got there the staff told her she had to leave because the baby was coming out.

Our whole experience was so wonderful. I could not believe how fast it all went. It was so neat to have the experience of feeling every pain associated with child birth.

The next morning Kyle decided to name our baby girl Andi Danielle Conger. She was 6 lbs. 8 oz. 19.5 inches tall, dark brown hair, and healthy as an ox. 

Kyle’s parents and Madison came to visit, so did my dad and Christie Egbert. I really don’t mind the hospital I actually love the help and the alone time, the only thing that I didn’t like one bit was the uncomfortable bed.

4:30 a.m. about ready to get some sleep

My recovery has been so much better than it was with Kacen. I am up and walking and feel really quite well. That is of course after one horrible terrible day, Saturday. I had been released from the hospital and we finally got home and were ready to just relax. After an hour or two I started to feel ultra-tired, then I started to feel chilled all over, after the chills I would feel real hot. This went on for hours until I took my temperature and it was 102.5 the doctors said any fever over 100.4 for either me or the baby was too high. So we called the doctors and they told me to go to the hospital. After a round of testing they said I had mastitis and prescribed an antibiotic. And within one day I was feeling much better. Now we are doing great and getting adjusted to the sleeping and eating, luckily she is a pretty good sleeper (5 hours straight). 

Kacen is doing well, he is a pretty good big bro. I will try to write more about that later. I have actually been working on this post for days so just be patient my alone time is slim these days but I do love getting you all involved in our lives and hope to share more soon.