...Kalli's Birth Story...

Kalli
~ Most beautiful
~ Fairest
~ Lark

Eden
~ Bible. The garden of God and the first home of Adam and Eve. Also called Garden of Eden
~ A delightful place; a paradise
~ A state of innocence, bliss, or ultimate happiness

(August 11th)
Throughout the day I had quite a few braxton hicks but nothing painful or consistent. I had a Dr's appt with a fill in Dr in the afternoon and everything checked out good. NST was good too.
Around supper time the contractions were starting to get a bit painful so I was wondering (hoping!) that things were actually starting. And by bedtime they were pretty consistent, and I had a feeling that 'bedtime' wasn't going to happen.
I started timing them and at 11pm they were every 3-5 minutes lasting 60-90 seconds. So a quick call to the hospital to give them a heads up and we were on our way at 11:30.

(August 12th)
We were admitted straight to the L & D room and they hooked me up to the monitor to see what was up. Lying down slowed my contractions down - or at least the intensity so I wasn't too sure how far along I was. The nurse checked me and I was only 2 cm but suprisingly that didn't upset me too much. I was pretty sure we weren't going to see the sunshine before the baby was born - or least that's what I was hoping ;)

They took the monitor off and let me labour how I wanted. I quickly found the labouring ball and sat on it during contractions and walked around inbetween. I'm a 'hands-off' kinda labouring girl so Brian did an awesome job of keeping me company, coaching and encouraging me. Oh, and making me laugh :)

(This is me journaling the 'play-by-play' as I labour...)

After about an hour of labouring that way, I decided to get into the shower. The warm water felt great, especially since I was getting cold, and squatting down with each contraction helped the process along.
At 2 am I decided to crawl into bed just for a little break but the contractions seemed to intensify. The nurse came in and checked me and I was 7-8 cm so she went to call the Dr. He came in 15 minutes later and decided to break my water.
So much for my 'break' as things picked up in intensity & the contractions were piggy backing. I remember thinking a few time, "ok, I must be in transition" as I was comparing my labour to Kellan's. But they kept getting worse and never fully letting up.
At about 3 am I had a huge contraction where I felt the baby totally move down and I wanted to push. I told Brian to go get the Dr & nurses and when he checked me to see if I could push I still wasn't fully dilated so he said in 5 minutes I could push.
That was a VERY long 5 minutes...
Finally I was fully dilated and the nurse set me up to push but it was a really awkward position and I couldn't get the hang of pushing. Looking back now I think I was sitting up too high - where I would have rather been laying back with my knees up. Anyways, after 15 minutes of pushing, sweet little Kalli Eden was born.



After we all got cleaned up and sewed back up (just a teeny tear - yay no episiotomy!) I fed Kalli who latched on like a pro and fed for quite a while.
Since all the hospital beds were full they kept us in the L&D room where we all caught a few minutes of sleep and made the announcing phone calls.

Mid morning we finally were given our own room so we settled in, showered and showed off our new little girl to our visitors.

Late morning our Dr. came to check in on us and he said if we felt up to it we were able to go home! We were not expecting this because they kept us in with Kellan for 3 days. Knowing we had lots of help at home (and comfier beds) we jumped at that offer. So after getting all the paper work done we packed up and made it home in time for coffee...and a nap:)