.: September 2014

Keslie Lisa

born Saturday, August 16th 2014, 8:39am

7 lbs, 19.5" long

I love to blog our babies birth stories so I can always look back on them. There are always little details you forget over time! Sorry if I give too much detail…don't say I didn't warn you. ;)

It all started on friday, August 15th. I had my 39 week check up with my OBGYN that day at 3pm. I went in, got weighed, the usual fun stuff... I went alone to this appointment because the doctor said she could strip the membranes if I wanted to go ahead with that. I agreed! I got that done with Kaden at 38 weeks and I had him exactly two weeks later (on his due date). I'm not sure if it even did anything with him but I was willing to try it again for this baby! So she went ahead and did it….if you've had that done well you know how that goes. anyways…she told me right then that I was 3cm dilated! I was surprised but of course that's good news. she said I could experience some cramping/spotting afterwards which is normal and I did have some cramping start pretty much right after I left my appointment. I decided to go grab something fun for dinner since it was a friday night and I had a feeling that baby was coming that weekend. I went and grabbed some Korean BBQ (Ryan's fav). Everything seemed the same when I got home... just a little bit of cramping but no spotting. We were just relaxing at home not doing much. I was texting with my mom trying to figure out when she should fly out. We needed her here for the babies' arrival so she could be with Kaden when we went in to the hospital. She said she had a feeling she should fly out to Calgary that night! Thank goodness she did because Little did we know those tiny cramps I was having was the beginning of my labour!

Mom's flight arrived around 11:00 pm that night….I went to pick her up at the airport and no joke that's when I had my first contraction. I remember thinking…yup that wasn't a cramp…something is going on here. So I picked up mom and told her I think I was starting to have contractions. We started to pay more attention to them…especially after getting my membranes stripped that day. they were pretty random at first, very irregular so we thought it was just cramping. We got back to the house, had something to eat and were just visiting. by this time it was like 12:30. All of a sudden I felt like the cramping was getting a little stronger so we decided to start timing. Within the hour I was having regular contractions, not too painful yet at this point so I decided to shower! Who knew when I was going to get a shower next!? haha. They started to get more painful and regular after I got out of the shower. I tried laying down in bed but honestly felt like laying down felt so much worse! I stood through every contraction just holding my stomach. It was just mom and I awake when this is going on…the boys were sleeping of course. I went in our room and woke up Ryan around 4am…told him to wake up I was having real contractions. his response: "I'm tired." LOL I told him to get up we probably had to head to the hospital pretty soon…

Contractions were pretty full force by 5am so we went in and were checked in around 5:30am. The doctor checked me and I was only at 4cm dilated. She made us walk around for a bit. We were only walking around for about 15 minutes before I couldn't even stand anymore. The nurse asked what I wanted to do for pain relief…I told her no to an epidural but was willing to try the laughing gas. She had me sit on the ball and breathe in the laughing gas. Well, nothing was happening! I felt like it was doing nothing! sitting made my contractions more painful I hated it so I said forget the laughing gas I'm going to do this natural! That was my goal anyways. I had an epidural with Kaden which made my labour 17 hours long so I didn't' want to go through that again. Then I decided I wanted to sit in the shower. I was only in there for a few minutes before I decided to come out. The doctor checked me again and I was 6cm dilated. She said they were getting a bed ready for me. Right after that I started feeling very nauseous and told Ryan I was going to be sick and to find me a bucket asap! Poor Ryan…finds me a bucket just in time and I start puking. I was throwing up so hard that my water broke! I was hoping it would break on it's own so they wouldn't have to break it, haha. They immediately moved me into the delivery room after that and was getting everything ready. Doctor checked me again and I was at 8cm. Everything was happening SO fast! next thing I remember is feeling like she was coming out and I just needed to push! It felt so different because with Kaden I was so numb from the epidural all the way up to my chest! Couldn't feel much with him but this time I could feel absolutely EVERYTHING. I remember saying "I can't do this" over and over again and Ryan just kept telling me it was going to be okay I can do it! He was so amazing through the entire thing. I couldn't have done it without him! Not to mention…I worked out throughout my entire pregnancy to prepare my body so I owed it to myself to do it natural! I didn't work hard for nothin'.

I wasn't pushing very long, only about 9 minutes…she came so quickly! the doctor that delivered her couldn't have been older than me! anyways..they took her away for a few minutes so they could roll my stomach (push the blood clots out), then they brought her back to me and put her on my chest. I just remember thinking…what an angel! she is so perfect and i'm SO HAPPY all of that was over! I was just so happy she was here safe. After feeding her I handed her off to daddy so they could stitch me. I only had a 2nd degree tear which wasn't as bad as my third degree tear with Kaden! My recovery from Kaden was brutal..he was 8 lbs, 13 oz, Keslie was only 7 lbs. I feel like my recovery this time has been a lot better and I could actually be up walking around! I was in the hospital for the first night and everything was going so well until I started feeling really sick. The doctor came in to check on me in the middle of the night. I didn't have a fever or anything but I felt so sick for some reason!? turns out they kept my IV in (antibiotics) in for TOO LONG! I was positive for the strep B so I needed the antibiotics when I first got to the hospital. I was so ticked as you can imagine! So I had to stay another night at the hospital because I was pretty sick but the next day they finally let me go home. Kaden and Nana were waiting outside to greet us when we got home and they even had a welcome home party for us…balloons and gifts waiting for Keslie in the house :)

What an amazing experience it all was….everything you go through during pregnancy and labour is so worth it in the end because you get to hold your little miracle! I am so thankful that God has trusted her to Ryan and I to be her parents. She is such a sweet little spirit! What a blessing!!!

Keslie…just a few hours old. I couldn't believe it... all the names we had picked out before hand just didn't fit her. It took us like two days to name her. We had to be in love with it and I wasn't in love with the names we had ready. We heard Keslie and it just sang to us! We also couldn't decide on a middle either but Ryan wanted her to be named after her mommy and of course I was okay with that :)