Kimball's All Naturel Birth Story!

Well, after I came home from the hospital I decided that I wasn't going to share Kimball's birth story.  I'm not sure why.  I just didn't want to.  It didn't seem that amazing and I just didn't really feel like posting.  I wrote it in my journal and moved on.

Yesterday Holly asked if I was going to share the story.  After thinking about it, I decided - why not?!   I reread what I wrote in my journal and thought it works and it really is quiet amazing!  So here it is in all of it's somewhat gory and personal details, straight from my journal.  Enjoy!

If you are my dad or grandpa you might want to skip this post :)  Love you Grandpa!

June 15, 2011

Well Mr. Kimball finally came on Thursday May 26, 2011 at 6:16 pm.  4 days late did him good, he was a beautiful 9 pounds and 4 ounces.

Here’s how the day went down.

I had an appointment scheduled to see my midwife, Laurie Hansen, in Cedar City.  The plan was to strip my membranes and hopefully have a baby that day.  I was mentally prepared to have a baby.  Thomas came with me, we brought the kids, we made plans as if he were coming.

Let’s start with how I was feeling.  Writing this 3 weeks later I can now see how depressed I was.  This pregnancy was hard, physically and emotionally.  I gained 55 pounds, got my first hemrroids, and my first stretch marks.  We moved when I was 35 weeks pregnant.  I have no friends in Richfield and my kids also have no friends in Richfield, and Thomas was working 65+ hours a week at his new job and doing well permits for Aquaveo.  I was lonely and in a lot of pain.  I had terrible pain in my hips and nerves in my legs and back.  It was hard.  I didn’t want to do anything or go anywhere but the kids still needed me.  I also felt like I couldn’t buy too many perishable things, I had to keep the laundry and house clean, and I needed to be ready to go at any time.  It was mentally exhausting to be waiting to go into labor.

I feel like all of that “being super ready to have the baby”ness was a tool that I used in labor.

We woke up at  6am to be out of the house by 6:30 to make it to an 8am appointment in Cedar.  The drive is an hour and half.  I had everything packed for the kids to go to Grandma Lucy’s for the night, our things for the hospital, and things for a new baby to come home with us!  It was so exciting.

We loaded the sleeping babies in the car, headed to Cedar, stopped in Beaver for breakfast.  I was having mild contractions all during the ride.  They were 6 to 10 minuets apart for the whole ride.  It was exciting to feel like I started labor on my own, because now any augmentation would be more successful! 

I went to my appointment right at 8 and Thomas stayed in the waiting room with the kids.  Laurie stripped my membranes which is basically pushing the bag of waters away from the cervix with releases some kind of hormone related to labor.  Doing this we hoped it would help to quicken/ jump start labor.  I told her about my contractions though and she considered me to have “spontaneous labor” which is good!  So the membrane thing hurt!  I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced before she did it. 

We took the kids over to Ebbony’s house (Thomas’ cousin) that lives in Cedar.  They watched a show while I walked around the block some.  Contracts did pick up!  Lucy met us at her house and picked up Macey and Henry.  She took them to Orderville to stay the night with her.  Thomas and I went back to the hospital with contracts 3 to 5 minutes apart.  We got there around 11:30 am and checked right into labor and delivery. 

The nurse check me and I was at a 5 and 80 % effaced!  The check- in process took forever!  I’m not kidding.  They asked me 5,000 questions and then couldn’t get an IV in.  It took an hour and 45 minutes for them to get an IV in my arm!  It was crazy and it hurt a lot to boot!  So 3pm rolled around and I was just getting settled into labor-  I’d been having contracts the whole time, but things slow down a lot for me when I’m not in the zone or thinking about labor.  At 3 Laurie came and checked me.  I was only a 6… she restripped me membranes which hurt a lot since I was already soar from her doing it in the morning.  She said she’d come back in an hour and a half to see where I was.

I was ready to have the baby so the mentality for me was “no pain, no gain”.    If something hurt more than something else, I did what hurt.  I took a break at 3 to collect my thoughts.  I put on my hypnobabies CD for a half an hour and I had another pain free laboring experience.  After a half and hour though I decided I didn’t want to be pain free and slow, I wanted a baby.  So Thomas and I buckled down and I stood up, turned off the CD and did what I could to make labor go faster.  Around 4:30 Laurie came back in and I hadn’t changed.  She suggested breaking my water to keep things moving.  She explained that it would hurt more for a shorter period of time because there would be no water cushioning the babies head.  With the head against the cervix though, it makes labor faster.  So I let her break my water!  At this point she also told me that the baby’s face was up (he should have been face down…).  That explained why my back labor was so bad!  I was having horrible back labor.  It felt like a horrible pain in my lower back and hips.  Thomas did a lot of counter pressure by pushing on my back or pushing my knees while I had a contraction.  He did a great job and it helped a lot.  The problem with the back labor is that it doesn’t let up!  With a contraction I had time to rest and regroup in between them, but back labor hurts and doesn’t ebb and flow like contractions!  Not fun.  So I began to transition (which is the point where you go from a 7 to a 10).  It’s normally a pretty quick process, but the baby in the wrong positions was slowing things up. Laurie told me that she wanted to try to move the baby.  I hated when anyone checked me or came anywhere near me there because I was super soar, so it took some convincing to let her try.  It hurt a lot but she turned the baby half way.  That helped a little but didn’t quiet do the trick.  After a while I was throwing up pile in the middle of labor (super not fun). I had Thomas get the tub ready for me to get in, but once it was ready I was afraid I would never get back out of the water so I couldn’t even convince myself to get in!

After more time passed and things weren’t as quick as I wanted, Laurie told me she could finish moving the baby.  I was in a weird state of mind - really in the thick of labor at this point so it took a lot of convincing to let her.  I was on my side and she turned the baby.  My body let the rest of the water out and she told me that I could push.  I didn’t feel pushy, but she said if I would try I would have the baby!  I didn’t want to but that was motivation enough, so I started to push while on my side and his head came out after just a few little pushes through one contraction.  Laurie realized that I wasn’t open enough and that the baby was big so she quickly had me move to my back and I pushed the baby out on the next contraction.  His shoulders were wide and I tore as he came out.  She quickly placed him on my tummy.  So from the time she finished turning him to the time he was born was just a few minutes… I’m so glad she turned him!

The baby wiggled on my tummy while I delivered the placenta and then Laurie sewed me up.  It was a second degree tear.  I was so tired of having my legs open and I would literally jump every time she touched me to sew.  I kept telling her I was done.  Over and over again… I felt like the stitching took forever and I hated the feeling, but it had to be done.  When she was finally done I was so relieved to sit back and have it over.  I kept thinking that what had just happened was literally crazy and that no sane person would choose to do that.  Isn’t that funny.  Of course I’ll do it again, but it’s still a very intense event.  Thomas cut the umbilical cord after while and the baby was just on my tummy.  When everything was over I put him to my breast and he nursed right away.  He nursed for about an hour.  Finally Thomas got to hold him after almost 2 hours!  We weighed him and things after Thomas held him.

It was nice that no one took him from me to wash and weigh him right away.  It’s not like it really matters if they get weighed 2 seconds after birth...  I also like how we kept labor happening.   I was glad that Laurie did all that she did.  It was what I wanted.  I’m not sure it would have been the same if I were only 39 weeks.  I wouldn’t have had my membranes stripped and I doubt I would have let her break my water, but for this delivery it was what I wanted and it worked well.  I liked how all of it went.  I could have had another pain free experience that was 25 hours long, but that wasn’t what I wanted… I was ready to be done and have a baby and that motivated me to get through the hard parts and choose what would make that a reality the fastest.

I think that this birth was somewhat less spiritual than Henry’s.  I knew a little of what to except, having done it once before, so I was a lot less scared.  I don’t actually think I ever felt scared.  I knew it would all work out and there were no “scary” moments like when the Dr. came in and told me I might have another c-section with Henry.  Thomas was also a huge support this time around.  With things being more intense I needed him and used him every contraction.  Laurie and the nurses were great about helping him to know what might help me.  He’s not a labor coach, but with a few suggestions he was amazing.  Laurie showed him that rubbing my face and hair during a contraction lessened the intensity because I wasn’t so focused on the pain and she also showed him the counter pressure.  He being taught those really helped me, but I wouldn’t have thought of them myself and neither would he.  A little coaching went a long way!  The Lord and his angel helpers where still very much a part of this birth.  I prayed after an hour and a half of being poked with a needle (when they were trying to get the IV in) and just a short while later it went in.  I also prayed for support during the back labor and it let up for a while which was the break that I needed.

All in all I loved the experience again.  It is just such an amazing thing to push a baby out of your body.  A living, breathing person was created inside of me and I went through a lot of pain to get him into the world.  All that pain makes you love them even more I think.