Hi everyone, my name is Amanda from the blog Raising Miss Mommy. I am so excited to be a part of the labor and delivery series here at The Grant Life {and to be on the mommy panel}. Kelley is such a nice bloggy friend and I just adore her blog. I have enjoyed reading the labor and delivery stories so far, I hope you enjoy mine 🙂
I was very fortunate to have a complication free pregnancy. The worst thing I had to deal with was bad migraines and sometimes elevated blood pressure. From the moment I found out I was pregnant I was certain I would go into labor well before 40 weeks. I was born 5 weeks early and my fiancé {Matt} was born early as well so I thought our baby would want out early too. Before I get into the actual labor I feel like I should give you a little more info to really “paint the picture”.
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| I must point out my awesome polka dot pants |
I became quite the planner while I was pregnant. We had a boy and girl name ready to go before we knew the sex and once we found out the sex we immediately started using her name {Kenley}. Being the planner that I had turned into, I decided that I wanted a completely natural birth. No drugs, no epidural, nothing. I didn’t care what anyone said, I was going to be able to go natural. When it came to epidurals I was more terrified of how they give you an epidural, I couldn’t fathom that size of a needle going into my back. I mean how bad can contractions really be??
Since I turned into this planner and became convinced that Kenley was coming early, at around 36 weeks I began to literally wait around each day thinking “This is the day, I’m going to go into labor today”. The days kept going by and still no baby. It got to be three days before my due date {my due date was May 8th, Mother’s Day} and I had one of my routine appointments. My fiancé and I hopped in the car for my appointment {on a side note I have to say how amazing he was through the whole pregnancy, he put up with my craziness and came to every appointment he could} and were both secretly hoping we’d get there and I’d magically be dilated to a point where I would need to go to the hospital.
We get there only to find out I’m only very slightly dilated {picture a major bummed out faces}. Thinking we were about to get sent home for more waiting my doctor said she wanted to send me to the hospital to be induced since my blood pressure had been consistently on the high end for my last few appointments and my new date was just a few days away.WE WERE SO EXCITED!
We stopped home super quick to get our hospital bags {they had been packed for over a month} then we hopped in the car and started calling all of our family and loved ones to let me know baby Kenley would be here shortly {or so we thought}.I get all checked in and they give me a medication to help soften my cervix since I had been having some contractions naturally. The goal was to avoid the use of pitocin. This seemed to be doing the trick at first but after a couple of hours they weren’t seeing the progression they wanted so they decided to start the pitocin. This is also when our Doulas showed up. We were excited to have them there to help keep me on my quest to go through labor and delivery with out pain killers.
Things started out great, I had heard that pitocin was the drug from he** but I still of course thought that these horror tales of being induced via pitocin were fictional and a tactic to scare me into getting an epidural. I was even enjoying myself, each contraction made me feel a little bit closer to meeting our little Kenley. We also found out during the early stages of labor that I developed preeclampsia {which would make the days after Kenley’s birth a little more uncomfortable}.
This happy face quickly changed. After a few hours of being on pitocin things got bad and I mean really bad. My contractions started to over take me. My water ended up breaking on it’s own which was good {I had thought I peed myself}. I was going back and forth from the labor ball to sitting on the toilet since these seemed to be the only two places where I could tolerate my contractions. Matt was wonderful, supporting and helping me better than I ever expected. The Doulas were great too, helping Matt when he needed it and doing their best to help me tolerate my contractions.
Things just kept getting more difficult and painful. Matt would later tell me that he thought I looked like Emily Rose at one point, apparently my head was spinning.27 hours into a very intense labor the doctor came in to check my progress. I could barely lay on the bed I was in so much pain. I politely {well maybe very harshly} asked the doctor if I was ready to push. 3 centimeters is what comes out of her mouth… 3!!! I flipped out. I started crying and told Matt I couldn’t do it anymore, I needed something to help with the pain. Still too scared to get an epidural I demanded for them to very quickly bring me some pain meds.
They bring them in and start scanning them into the computer before they can put them in my IV, naturally this irritates me. I yell and plead at the nurse to hurry it up already and give me the drugs! She gets them going in my IV and then proceeds to tell me that it might take about 15 minutes for me to feel them if at all. This does not sit well with me. I twist my head in her direction, give her a very evil stare and tell her to go get me the epidural man {yep that’s what I called him}.
They bring them in and start scanning them into the computer before they can put them in my IV, naturally this irritates me. I yell and plead at the nurse to hurry it up already and give me the drugs! She gets them going in my IV and then proceeds to tell me that it might take about 15 minutes for me to feel them if at all. This does not sit well with me. I twist my head in her direction, give her a very evil stare and tell her to go get me the epidural man {yep that’s what I called him}.
Epidural man shows up and starts going through normal protocol with me before he can actually administer it. I tell him to shut it, hurry up and just give it to me. I think I scared him because he quickly got his cart and hurried to get things ready. I leaned up against Matt and got my epidural. Relief. I even got a nifty button where I could give myself more if I needed it. It was awesome, I don’t know what I had been so afraid of. I felt so glorious that I was able to take a nap {Matt and the Doulas did too, it had been an exhausting 27 hours}.
Two hours later we are awakened by the phone ringing in our room. It was my mom, she was flying in from Minnesota {did I mention we were living in San Diego at the time?} and was calling from Chicago before she caught her second flight to California. She was happy to hear that she might actually make it there for the birth and that I had finally seen the light and gotten an epidural. Since we were awake now the doctor came in to check my progress. I was at 10 centimeters! It was time to push! A lot of pushing, a queezy fiancé, some oxygen assistance, and helpful Doulas… two hours later our precious Kenley came into this world!It was an amazing moment. They immediately put her on my chest and we fell in love. I was crying, Matt was crying, it was amazing. We were also very thankful to have the Doulas there because they were able to take pictures for us so Matt could just be a part of the moment.
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| Our new little family. Our beautiful daughter Kenley, born May 6, 2011. 7 pounds 13 ounces and 19 inches long. |
My mom showed up pretty quick after she was born and was such an amazing help to us while she visited. After a couple of days in the hospital we got to go home as a family on May 8th, Mother’s Day. We’ve been a happy family ever since.
Thank you so much for reading my labor and delivery story!
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How precious is baby Kenley?! Thank you Amanda for sharing your Labor of Love!
Ps.. want to share your story? Or join the Mommy Panel? Great! Send me an email .. thegrantlife(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Ps.. want to share your story? Or join the Mommy Panel? Great! Send me an email .. thegrantlife(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Hey y'all!I'm Kelley. I'm a recipe making, picture taking, coffee drinking momma to 4 crazy kiddos. Join me as I share our family favorite dinners and my copycat coffee drinks too!
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Lo says
Oh Amanda. I get chills when I hear this story every time…. so proud of you, Mama. Gonna' need you next year!!!! xoxo
Rachel says
Yay for doulas! Kenley is adorable. You are a funny writer, I'm still chuckling at “epidural man”. I like how you pointed out that we all have “plans” but then life happens. 🙂 The pictures are great.
folkhaven says
She is so incredibly cute! Thank you for sharing your story. I am amazed you made it as long as you did without the pain meds!
PPL training says
very nice pics of her….she is very cute thanks for sharing the pics