So I'd better start writing out our "birth story" before I forget anything interesting. Actually, Thursday I was feeling like things would start happening soon, just because it was a strange day. I slept through the night without waking up to contractions or to go to the bathroom, which hasn't happened in FOREVER. Honestly, I couldn't believe it when I saw the time! And then I had zero contractions all morning and afternoon. I kept thinking, "This must be some kind of 'calm before the storm.'"
Erik, Lyla and I had a fun evening at the beach and went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant. I had been having contractions sporadically at this point. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Later on I had some regular ones, but as soon as I thought maybe I'd call in, they stopped. Story of my life of the past month.
Friday morning, I woke up at 4:00 with a contraction. Nothing painful, but enough to wake me. It didn't take me long to realize that this was the real deal. Contractions kept coming regularly, then closer together, and with increasing pain. My back just ached the whole time. I woke up Erik at 5 and we were at the hospital at 5:30 am. I was checked at 7 cm dilation. The nurses assumed my water would break and then things would progress pretty quickly from there. So Erik and I walked the unit for awhile. At about 7:30, I asked the nurse when would be too long to wait for the epidural. I was in a decent amount of pain, but the contractions were still about 5-6 minutes apart, and I thought I'd wait it out a bit longer. But she thought that the doctor would likely come in and break my water soon, and then things would go really fast, and if I wanted it for sure, then I probably shouldn't wait too much more. I definitely knew I wanted one, I remembered how it saved me from horrible back labor the first time around... so at 8:00 the anesthesiologist arrived. Turns out he was a friend of mine's brother! Small world! By the way, I also ran into a girl I played volleyball with in high school who was doing her clinical at the birth center. And a student was shadowing our nurse that day, and it turned out she was a friend of a friend!! Like I said.. small world!
Anyway. So I got the epidural, and I could still feel a lot of pressure from contractions but no pain, so that was fine by me. So we waited for awhile and at about 10, I got a small dose of pitocin to help "nudge" things along. We hadn't progressed much since we arrived, and the nurse said our contractions were sort of 'dysfunctional.' Is that a medical term? I'm not sure. The nurse thought that it might help break my water if contractions were a bit stronger. Things definitely got a lot more regular and intense after that. Still no broken water. At noon, the nurse checked my cervix again and I was almost fully dilated. But my water would still not break on its own. Apparently, some women just have a bag of waters that is like steel and takes forever to break. So finally the doctor came in, broke my water, and we were basically ready to go. Kallan arrived after three good pushes in one contraction.
I got skin to skin time right away with her. She is so beautiful and perfect and tiny! I could not believe how small she was when I first saw her! I can only imagine how small she might've been at 32 weeks. We had a successful first feeding, which was amazing! Lyla and I really struggled with feeding in the hospital, and I had been kind of dreading getting started again. Definitely helps to have one breastfed baby experience in your belt going into it! But Kallan is just a determined little eating champ!
Lyla came to see her baby sister Friday afternoon. We put Kallan in the bassinet so we could give Lyla some big hugs and kisses before she saw her sister. We had also made a build-a-bear to give to Lyla as a gift from Kallan. You know, encourage sisterly affection right from the start. :) Lyla came in, and we asked her if she wanted to see the baby. We lifted her up and she looked in... there was momentary confusion as to why baby was not in mommy's belly, but then she said, "She came out!" She gave Kallan many hugs and kisses and loved the gift! Since then, she was been so sweet to her, loves to hold her, but wants her to wake up all the time. Sorry, Lyla, not time to play yet! I'm so proud of the way Lyla is handling everything so far! She just loves her sister! When Kallan cries, Lyla gets worried. Or she'll say, "uh oh!"
Hospital time was filled with snuggles, skin to skin time, and.. a bit of sleeping. Then the nurses said we may be able to come home Saturday night instead of Sunday, if everything continued to go well. We were SO excited! We were home Saturday evening at around 6:30. I took a nap at about 8 ... felt so good to be in our own bed! Good thing I had that nap, because we got very little sleep the first night. Kallan just would not be put down at all, so we took turns holding her while she slept. Night #2 went a lot better! She sleeps in her pack 'n play now, and for 2 hour stretches at a time. WOO HOO!
Some hospital pics.
We are so happy to be home with our little family. And we are so thankful to have made it to full term with our pregnancy. I was counting down the days with so much anxiety, imagining being separated from Kallan for any time she needed in the NICU... and I was SO relieved to hit the 37 weeks mark! We are so grateful for the extra growing time we got for our little girl and for our perfectly healthy baby! Beautiful in every way! What do you think? Does she look like her big sister?!
We love our baby Kallan!
This is such a beautiful story! I love every bit of it!!!!! I'm so glad things are going well!!! See you soon!
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