Baby Kaden's Birth Story

*WARNING* This is Baby Kaden's birth story and talks about child birth. It is not graphic, but if you do not want to read about childbirth, skip ahead to the pictures at the bottom.



Kaden’s birth story starts on Tuesday, August 19. We had a doctor’s appointment that morning and the doctor told us we were 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Our due date was Wednesday, August 20, so we discussed plans for how late past the due date we would go. We scheduled another ultrasound for Friday to check fluids and do a non-stress test, and if anything looked off we would go ahead and induce on Friday. If everything looked good, we would induce early the next week. So I went back to work and worked the rest of the day. I had cramps all day and was very uncomfortable, so at 4pm I got ready to go home. I had a contraction in the bathroom at work that was more intense than the Braxton Hicks contractions I had for several months and I had to lean against the wall until it passed- I couldn’t walk through it. I hurried home & laid down to rest for a while. Between 5 and 6 pm I had 2 more contractions similar to the one I had at work while Rob was at the gym.

Starting promptly at 6pm, I started having contractions on a regular basis and decided to start writing down the start time. They were consistently 9 minutes apart. Still, I didn’t think it was real labor & tried to go to sleep to get them to stop. I could not sleep and was rudely awakened with every new contraction. The contractions went to every 7 minutes, and by 9pm they were every 5 minutes and very intense. None of the yoga breathing exercises and meditation I had practiced helped me get through the pain. I couldn’t even stand to be on the soft bed and found myself headed to the solid floor every time one started. Rob took over tracking the timing and just sat on the floor with me. I held on to him and had my head pushed into his chest with each contraction- he did his best to keep me calm. I also discovered that when in pain I can be pretty noisy. By 10 pm he decided it was time to call the doctor.

One of the doctors that I really loved was on call that night and called us back within a minute of us leaving a message for her. She told me that with a first baby it was likely that I wasn’t far enough along to go to the hospital since I was likely only up to 2 cm. They would likely send us right back home & she said to stay home as long as possible. She said I should not be able to hold my breath during the contractions if they were real labor (I tried to hold my breath to keep from hyperventilating while on the phone with her) and told us to call back if I couldn’t stand the pain anymore. By 10:30, I reached that point & told Rob to call the doctor now. Rob got our stuff to the car and finally got me loaded. It was a rough ride with contractions right on top of each other, but still we thought we would get sent home with false labor. What babies are actually born on their due dates?!?

Since it was after regular hospital hours, Rob parked at the emergency room and the emergency room people took us upstairs to maternity. The labor and delivery nurse that got us, Heather, did an initial exam and discovered that I was 5 cm and 100% effaced. She started to move very quickly after that and told us she would get us back to a delivery room so we could get set up with an epidural. (Any doubt I had about getting an epidural was gone at that point!) This was at 11:45 pm- time to call the family and let them know the baby was on his way! Rob first called my mom, who was sleeping & didn’t get the call. Then he tried my sister, who thought he was joking. My sister got on the horn, got my mom up, and started calling people back home to let them know. They were on the road to make the 13 hour drive within the hour!

Once we were settled into the delivery room and had an IV hooked up, the nurse told us that we were at 9.5 cm! She then broke the news that we probably wouldn’t have time for an epidural. It was too close to delivery for any other drugs since those would cause the baby to be drowsy & have a lower heart rate at birth. But she would try to get an epidural if I wanted one. I WANTED ONE! The anesthesiologist came in and was very doubtful about getting any drugs in me to provide relief before birth. He very bluntly told me that I would most likely deliver the baby without any help from the epidural and the epidural would just help afterwards. He was going through all the consents and verifying my name and stats…with each question I tried to hurry things along and just grunted yes to everything. Then he got started. At that point, there was only a few seconds between contractions and I found it very difficult to hold still. Somehow, he got that epidural in my spine without paralyzing me or causing any spinal headache or anything. He gave me a boost of drugs and within a minute I started to feel some relief. If I could have stood up or focused on anything, I would have kissed him! The epidurals they do now are really good- I could still feel contractions starting and could still move my legs, but the sharpest pains were dulled. I stopped hyperventilating but still had the intense urge to push. They kept telling me to wait because I could hurt myself if I pushed to early, but I couldn’t keep myself from pushing. They checked again and discovered that I should indeed be pushing now! This was at 1:30 am.

Our labor and delivery nurse, Heather, talked us through pushing for a while with the help of a mirror so I could see the progress we were making. During the contractions, the baby’s heartbeat would drop very low. A couple of times, it took a very long time to get back up to an acceptable level. The contractions started coupling up- 2 at a time, then a few seconds break, then another pair would hit. Baby really didn’t like that and his heart beat couldn’t take all the pushing. We had to keep taking breaks from pushing to try to get him to recover. It was scary to hear his heartbeat stop, but Heather was AMAZING at keeping us calm and just helping us get through each contraction. She didn’t miss anything and I really credit her with the safe delivery of our baby. (Our doc was amazing, too, but Heather walked us through the whole thing and I was sad to see her go). At one point, she said one more push and it would be time for the doctor to come in. She was 100% right! After the next push the doctor came in and got ready to catch the baby. After the first push, she came at me with a pair of scissors and I figured out what she was doing- that’s when I turned my head, not really wanting to see what she was doing with those scissors!

A couple of more pushes was all it took. His head was out! After his head came out & they suctioned out his little nose, the doctor told me to get my hands down between my legs. She had to tell me a couple of times because I wasn’t processing what she was saying. She had me grab the baby under the arms and helped me carry him the rest of the way into this world and onto my chest. It was the most amazing, overwhelming, emotional moment of my life. I was holding my son for the first time! Mine were the first hands to hold him and mine was the first eyes to stare at his perfect little face! Rob cut through the umbilical cord and came up to share the view with me of our new little man. It was 2:55 am on Wednesday, August 20, 2008, his due date and my mother’s 50th birthday.

The nurses took Kaden over to the warmer to get him cleaned up, measured, & foot printed while the doctor stitched me up. At that point, Rob had to run down to the car to move it out of emergency parking and get the camera! We had expected to either get sent home or get settled in for a longer labor than we had. We were not prepared to have the baby so quickly! When running back through the emergency room the ER people were amazed that he had the baby already. He was back in time to see all the good stuff with the baby. Baby was 7 pounds 11 ounces, 21 ½ inches long. He had very healthy lungs and screamed his head off angrily the whole time he was being cleaned and foot printed. He was so strong he actually grabbed the side of the warmer with his hand and was pulling himself over on his side towards the side. He even kicked the bottom wall of the warmer open (it was on hinges). When they were done with both of us, I held him and Rob and I just stared at him. He calmed down and really seemed to be looking up at my face while I talked to him. It was so amazing! Rob called my mom’s phone and said “Hello Grandma” before the line went silent- I heard him say hello again to see if she was there and I knew she was crying. They had only made it a few hours away from home, so they stopped to catch a couple of hours sleep.

When everything calmed down, the nurse put Kaden in the bassinet by my bed and Rob stretched out on the cot they had in the delivery room (it was the type of room that you can stay in for the whole time- we eventually had to move to a smaller recovery room for our last night because they had so many babies being born & needed the delivery equipment). When she left, it hit me when I looked around the room at the 3 of us- this was our family. I cried yet again.
Later that day, when the nurses tried to get me up I was too dizzy when I stood up so they had me lay back down. When Heather tried again by herself before her shift was over, we almost made it. On the way back from the bathroom I apparently passed out and she had to carry me back to the bed. It was a while after that before the nurses would let me get up out of bed on my own. Thankfully I was at least able to take a shower before my mom & sister arrived that night. It was an amazing day and I will never be the same!




(He liked the shower and the swimming pool while in my belly, so maybe he will be the next Michael Phelps?!?)