Monday night/Tuesday morning I got the biggest chunk of sleep I had gotten since Wednesday night- about 2 full hours. I don't know what time I woke up from my little nap but I was just laying there in the dark listening to Mike sleep. I had some contractions since Sunday but nothing too crazy. On Monday I had a lot of very strong braxton hicks contractions. Nothing painful but very very strong. Then I had a contraction. It wasn't anything too painful but I knew it was a real one. I got so excited! I looked at the time and it was 4:35 am. Woo hoo! A starting point. I tried waking Mike up but my voice was very raspy so it didn't work. So I just hung out, playing around on my phone. The contractions were not regular and really...they never got regular. Just like with Logan. So I just waited. About 5:30 I had to page the nurse to help me unhook all my fun wires, tubes and monitors so I could use the bathroom. I told her that I thought it was baby day and she asked me when I was due. I told her in three days. She looked at the computer and saw that I had been having contractions. After I was unhooked I went and woke Mike up and told him in a sing song voice, "It's baby day! It's baby day! You were right!". Mike had been saying for months that this baby would be born on February 15th. I asked him if he would wake up and hook up my dvd player from home to watch Gilmore Girls (lol) and then he could go back to sleep. So he did and went back to sleep. I am nice to him! I have let him sleep through parts of all three of my labors. So I had contractions here and there. They were a little uncomfortable but I was nicely distracted by my Gilmore Girls! Around 7 they brought in breakfast. I did not touch it. I wasn't feeling that great. Food would have been an excellent idea.. I did need energy but I was not feeling like eating. I said something to the nurse about not feeling very well and she asked me if I wanted some anti nausea meds. Heck yes I did. Mike woke up around that point and ate some breakfast for me. Then the nurse checked me. I was dilated 4 cm. Woo hoo! Progress from Sunday! She called and let my midwife know. It looked like, yep, I really am in labor! I was gonna meet this little one who had been so lovingly beating on me! I asked the nurse if she would be the one present for my delivery because I liked her. She was chatty and joking and just fun. She said she didn't know but if she wasn't going to be there she would find me someone like her.
Around 9 a new nurse came in, ready to move me to a delivery room. She was very nice. We moved into a room with a lot of natural light. I got to chat a little with my nurse and told her that when I had Logan and was pushing, I had a nurse yelling at me, counting and it totally distracted me. She assured me that we would just take it easy when it came to pushing. No yelling and no counting at me. I loved her. She was so so nice. Contractions were getting stronger and I decided it was time to start taking showers to manage the pain. Mike was helping me through contractions like a pro (but it IS our third child so he has been there before...he should be good at it!). And we were watching Gilmore Girls to help distract me. The contractions started getting very very intense around 12:30. I told Mike that I was going to ask a nurse to check me for dilation because I was hoping that these contractions were doing something otherwise I was going to give in to the epidural. I really didn't want to. But I had slept around 7 hours in 5 days. I was more than exhausted. I didn't have a specific birth plan but in my head I had imagined that I would be able to do things like walk around and use a birthing ball to help me through the pain. But with being sick and having breathing issues, those things just weren't possible. I was mostly laboring in bed and taking showers, which was fine but just not how I imagined. Mike was a rockstar. Through my whole pregnancy I was telling him how to talk me out of pain medication through labor. He said everything I wanted him to. He fought me on it, just as I had asked. Well, I was checked and I was still at only 4 cm. I gave in. I caved to the epidural. The nurse called in the anesthesiologist. I think he got there around 1pm? I'm not sure. Mike tells me he was funny. I don't really remember. I remember him putting the needle in my back. Ouch. I remember thinking though, what the heck! I am done with this pain! Why isn't it going away!??? It feels like right before I pushed Logan out. I was laying down in the bed and the anesthesiologist asked me if I was feeling my contractions. I told him that I was feeling everything. Around that point my midwife made her way in. She decided to break my water. Meanwhile I am still feeling every contraction, trying to work my way through it, still thinking, why am I feeling everything!!! When my midwife broke my water we found out that there was meconium. Mike didn't really understand what that meant so my midwife and I explained it to him. That the baby could have meconium in her lungs. My midwife told us that she would have the nicu team come in, just to assess the baby after birth to make sure everything was ok. Well, while all this was going on, I pretty much went from 4cm to 8cm. I am still thinking why am I feeling all of this!!! It was 1:36pm. I told the nurses and my midwife it felt like I needed to push. I was laying down.. the bed was almost flat. They didn't even have time to put my legs up into stirrups, nothing. My midwife was going to go change her clothes and didn't have time. She just had time to throw a gown on. Mike says it was pretty crazy because it instantly went from my midwife and my nurse to my midwife and about 7 nurses. And I started pushing. I don't know what time I started pushing. I know it was after 1:36 because we talked about how Mike thought the baby would be born at 1:34 and it was past that time. I remember pushing and thinking, "oh my god, oh my god! This hurts! Wait. That's the ring of fire! Wait.. I can feel the baby.. that's the head coming out! OH MY GOD!! The baby is coming out. The head is out! Oh my goodness and the whole body is out. She is out, she is out, OH MY GOD!" And out she came at 1:51pm! It was so fast! Even thinking back...I just cannot even begin to explain the feeling. It was like I was on another planet. It took three pushes for her to come out. Not three contractions. Just three pushes. I couldn't even believe I had just pushed my baby out. They took her over to the nicu nurses and they sucked the meconium out of her lungs, looked her over and said, "well, we are going to leave you here with this perfectly healthy baby" and they left. I hadn't even really seen Kelsey yet. I was just worried about her being ok because of the meconium. The nurses started cleaning me up and changed my gown. And then I was handed my beautiful little girl.
Looking back... the birth was amazing. I had no bright lights on me, just the natural light of the room. When I was pushing, the nurses were just saying, you can do it, you can do it Casey. No crazy counting in my face and yelling. In the end I did cave to the epidural. But the epidural never worked.. whether because I just progressed so fast or it just wasn't going to work. So I did get my natural birth. AND a needle in my back!
Everything is going so great now. I'm tired but sleeping more with a newborn than I was last week. I am breastfeeding Kelsey and it is going so well. I didn't breastfeed Riley or Logan. Kelsey is such a natural. It was me that needed some practice. I am so in love with her and have fallen in love with every member of my family once again. Mike really is so amazing! He is being run ragged by me while I take it easy and slowly become a normal person again. I am soaking up every moment with him home with us. Riley is obsessed with her little sister. When she wakes up she runs to her and tells her, "I missed ya baby girl!" She holds her as much as she possibly can and showers her with millions of kisses. Logan like to peak at her every once in awhile. He had to check and see if she was a doll or a real baby. I think anyway. He stuck his finger in her ear. Then her mouth. And then pulled at her hair. Poor Kelsey has such a bruiser brother. He has also snuck in a few kisses of his own. I am so so blessed. I love my little family!
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