She's here!!! (with birth story and photos)

When we were pregnant with Finley, we were planning a natural birth where we labored at home as long as possible with a doula, and had minimal interventions once we got to the hospital. Unfortunately, my doctor ended up requiring me to be induced the day after my due date because of slightly elevated blood pressure - so we spent my entire labor in the hospital. I was still able to go through labor with no pain medications, but we had a lot of interventions that we didn't want. Read about it here if you don't remember.

We went into this pregnancy with the same original plan, and this time we chose doctors that we felt would be more likely to allow us to go along with our plan. We also hired a doula again (birth coach), to help us get through the natural labor. I definitely got my wish :)

Background... Our Birth Plan:

We are planning a natural, drug-free birth and would like to go into labor on our own. We hope to avoid any induction or augmentation, particularly Pitocin. Jessica wishes to be free to walk around and change positions during labor, and does not wish to be asked about intravenous narcotics or an epidural for pain relief, we will ask for pain relief if needed. We would rather use breathing,position changes, birth ball, tub, massage and other coping measures. I would also prefer not to be asked to rate pain level. I intend to keep myself well hydrated and would prefer not to have IV fluids administered or be attached to an IV pole, and would prefer a hep lock if an IV is necessary. We would prefer to have intermittent fetal monitoring every hour by mobile telemetry rather than continuous monitoring if possible.

39 - 40 Weeks:
If you recall from my last few weekly posts, I had been having contractions for a long time (several weeks at least), baby Boo seemed to have dropped, and everyone was telling me that she was going to come early.

On Thursday, May 3rd at 39 weeks, I was checked and was still at only 1cm and I had my membranes stripped. She said that it often causes labor within 24 to 48 hours. I had lots of contractions that night and cramping, and was very crampy the next day, but it didn't put me into labor. Every night after this, I had timeable contractions around 8 to 10 minutes apart, sometimes more often, and a LOT more contractions when I walked a lot.

The following Tuesday, May 8th at almost 40 weeks, I saw the doctor again. I was checked and was 2cm this week - yay for progress! Dr. Wall stretched my cervix to 3cm and also stripped my membranes again - he seemed very confident that I would be going into labor that night or the next day! We had our hopes up and spent the evening eating spicy food and trying to walk the baby out! No such luck.

On Thursday, May 10th, I lost my mucous plug (yuck!), and hoped that was a sign of things to come... but we were still waiting.

Saturday, May 12, I woke up in a lot of pain - sore and had an awful headache from my TMJ. I was afraid that I would go into labor being so sore, so I scheduled a massage. It was awesome! She helped me really relax, and she worked on my pressure points a lot. She guessed that by the same time on Sunday, I would be holding my baby :) Again, lots of contractions that night, but still nothing that got "longer, stronger, and closer together."

Sunday, May 13, 2012:
Happy Mothers Day to me! I was having some contractions early in the day, which seemed a little abnormal, but nothing strong. We decided to take Fin and go down to the Museum Center to try again to walk this baby out, but also hopefully enjoy our last day as a family of three. I was having a lot of contractions while walking around, and starting around 1:30, they were jumping around, but nothing longer than 8.5 minutes apart. They were sticking around 5 - 7 minutes, although sometimes as close together as 2 or 3 minutes while on my feet. I was also having lots of bloody show.

After getting home, I decided to meet my mom at Walmart to grab a few last minute things for baby. I started thinking that maybe I really was in labor, but I still wasn't convinced. When I got back from the store, I decided to take a nap. The contractions didn't go away when I laid down, and they were strong enough to keep me from sleeping. This was my first real clue that I was in for the long haul. I also was feeling pretty nauseaous. I ended up sending Brett and Finley to go have Mother's Day dinner with his mom and family, and I stayed home to eat buttered noodles and rest. Nothing else sounded good to eat, but I knew that if I was in labor, that I should eat something so I would have energy.

By 7pm or so, my contractions were getting closer together (about 3 to 5 minutes, and lasting a minute long), but didn't seem to be getting much stronger or longer. At 8pm, I finally was convinced that this was the real deal and sent a text to our doula. I told her that I was managing just fine, and she suggested that I rest as much as possible.

At 11pm, my contractions started feeling a lot more intense. I was still talking through them, but they stopped me and I had to think about getting through them. They were cycling though - they would be 6 or 7 minutes apart and then get shorter and shorter in between, down to 2 minutes apart, and then would jump back to longer intervals. I decided to try to take a shower and lay down, and suggested that Brett try to get some sleep.

Monday, May 14, 2012:
I got in the shower, which brought my contractions down to a steady 3 minutes apart, but then when I laid down in bed, they got further apart again (4 to 6 minutes), although they were really strong. I couldn't stay on my side during them, and had to sit up and rock through them. At 12:30, Jenni (my doula) asked if she should come over, and I said that I was managing okay, and since the last contraction was 5 minutes from the last, I thought it would be a while. Brett got a little bit of sleep while I was showering, but at this point he got up and called him mom to have her come over to sleep at our house so that we wouldn't have to wake her or wait for her to come watch Finley when we were ready to go to the hospital. I wasn't convinced that it would happen before morning though.

At 1:30am, I was getting nervous, and texted Jenni to let her know that I changed my mind and I wanted her to come. The contractions were much stronger and were lasting a full minute and a half, and were about 4 minutes apart (although not completely consistent). She suggested I call the doctor - he said that I should plan on heading to the hospital before I hit transition, and I would probably know because I would be having contractions 2-3 minutes apart for over an hour. I again thought I had a while, since my contractions were 3 to 4 minutes apart still. I was mostly standing to rock through my contractions, with my hands on the counter.

While waiting for Jenni to arrive, I told Brett that I was getting really nervous about the ride to the hospital. I was starting to think that we should head there now, even if we were way too early. I just didn't know how I was going to ride in the car to get there. Brett said that we could do whatever I wanted, but I thought we should at least wait for the doula to arrive. Brett got to work loading everything into the car.

Jenni arrived around 2am, and by this time I was sitting in the living room - I was trying to get through my contractions by being on hands and knees, and by sitting or laying on my yoga ball, but those positions weren't helping much, so I settled into sitting cross legged and rocking through them. Jenni helped me get through several contractions, and then suggested that whenever we were ready it would probably be a good idea to head to the hospital.

At 2:20, we were in the car ready to go. I couldn't sit all the way down in my seat, and couldn't put my seatbelt on. I was trying all different positions in the car, but mostly when I had a contraction I had to get on my knees and hold on to the back of the seat. I was talking to Brett the whole way though, and posted to Facebook from my phone to say that we were heading to the hospital "Jessica Samblanet is en route to the hospital. Come on baby Boo, let's make this quick and easy! — with Brett Samblanet." I also was texting my mom. I told her that she shouldn't worry about coming to the hospital yet, and should get a few more hours of sleep, and I would call her when baby Boo arrived.

At 2:33am, I sent my mom a text that we were walking through the ER doors of the hospital. I couldn't go more than a few steps without grabbing onto Brett to rock through a contraction, and I really had to pee! The walk was SO long, and I wanted to stop and go to the bathroom, but decided to wait until we got to the Labor and Delivery floor. I started bending my knees more during the contractions, and during a pretty intense one, I heard Jenni say to Brett that he needed to be my advocate when we got to the floor, and to make sure they knew that I was pretty far along, and maybe even close to pushing, and that maybe we should bypass triage and go straight to a room, but at least have me get checked right away if nothing else. We finally made it to the elevator, and headed up to the floor.

Elevator dings, doors open, and we get ready to walk out - right then I had an awful contraction and grabbed onto Brett's shoulders to try and get through it. Standing right in the open door of the elevator, I felt a pop as my water broke all over the floor. So glad that happened at the hospital, and not at the museum or Walmart earlier in the day - ha! The next contraction, which came right away, I said to Brett and Jenni that I needed to push.

At 2:43, Jenni yells to the admin person "I have Jessica Samblanet here - she is having a baby. Now! Get Dr. Wall" (or something along these lines). She told Brett and I to keep walking and pointed in the way of the rooms. She said "The rooms are that way, just keep walking until they tell us what room to go to."

Two nurses appear and Jenni tells them that I am ready to push. So glad that they believed us! They made me get into a wheel chair, although I stayed on my knees because I couldn't sit down, and quickly wheeled me into a room. Tons of nurses started coming.

When we got to the room, the nurse asked me to get onto the bed, because she said she wasn't comfortable catching a baby standing up. They somehow got the monitors around my belly. I got into the bed on my hands and knees (because there was no way I could lay down), and they checked me. They said that I was complete, and they could feel the baby's head. Another nurse said that she couldn't get the baby's heartbeat on the monitor, but they quickly determined it was because she was too far down.

I felt the urge to push again, and said "She's coming!" They tell me that I'm right, she is crowning already! The next contraction, I push hard and hear them say that the head is out. I push one more time, and there she was at 2:55am! They handed her up to me like a football, and helped me lay down in the bed!

Wow! We barely made it, and didn't have time to get a doctor in the room! The resident showed up a few minutes later, and my doctor didn't make it there for about 20 more minutes. Oops :)

Kendall Marie

8lbs 9.9oz, 21.5 inches
5/14/2012 at 2:55am

Kendall was almost a full pound bigger than Finley was at birth!

Things got even more exciting a few hours later, when I got up to go to the bathroom for the second time and passed out - 3 times! Luckily there were nurses with me to wake me right back up, and they got me back in bed and got me an IV to get me fluids. They checked lots of things, and it must've just been a reaction to losing too much blood in a short amount of time, or being dehydrated, and luckily it didn't happen again.

The week since:

We have been adjusting as well as can be expected! We are all tired, and Finley is having a lot more tantrums than normal, but he just loves "baby Boo Kendall" so much!

We had her one week appointment today... The doctor said they like to see them return to their birth weight by at least two weeks old. Our little champion eater is already 8bs 15.5oz at only one week!