Mobile Pics

I went through my phone today to free up some memory and came upon these pictures from the day Kendall was born.  I forgot to include these in the birth story posts, so I'm sharing them now.

We got Carter a special shirt for the day - he's quite fond of his new status.

 In triage.

 My last hours being pregnant.

 An hour after she was born.

 In recovery, making sure we were all a-okay.

 In the wee hours of the morning.  4:33 a.m. to be exact. Up for a feeding.

The Birth of Kendall - Part 2

Day 2 in the hospital with Kendall was much different than day 2 with Carter.  With Carter, I was still very much bed-ridden.  With Kendall, those nurses came in first thing and announced their plan for me for the day, and made me list of some goals for the day as well.  Um, rest?  Resting sounded like the best plan.  And sure, that was on their agenda too.  But so was getting my IV out (thank god), taking the catheter out, removing the calf massagers (to prevent blood clots), having me get up to pee and shower, and then walking laps around the nurses' station.  Sounded like a tall order to me!  But we made it work.  The IV coming out was the best part - that sucker is 100% uncomfortable.

 We had lots of visitors, too.

 And in between the visitors, I got to take a shower......it was great.  All the tubes were gone and the hot water felt wonderful.  I also ditched the hospital gowns.  I hate those things.  I made a point of grabbing some loose, comfy jammies the week before.

By the time Saturday rolled around, Eric was going pretty stir crazy.  We discussed with my doctor the possibility of going home Saturday versus Sunday.  I actually wanted to stay the extra day simply because I needed all the help I could get at the hospital. 

But Carter was being juggled around and that made me feel guilty, so we finally packed it all up Saturday afternoon and headed home.

The Birth of Kendall - Part 1

As we all know, Thursday was the big day.  We dropped Carter off at daycare on our way to the hospital.  Surgery was scheduled for noon, so we had to report in between 10:00 and 10:30.  Once we arrived, we went straight to triage so they could get my hooked up to a bunch of monitors to make sure everything was ok with me and the baby.  This is also when we finally decided on a name......thanks to some key advertising, lol!  Kendall was the name we had picked out not too long ago, but Eric kept going back and forth on whether or not he was 100% committed to it.  Well, the pee cup they gave me was manufactured by a company called "Kendall", so I took the cup out to Eric and told him that it was a clear sign.  So from then on, it was Kendall.  ;)

They also established my IV, which always hurts like crazy.  I hate those things.  We spent a while monitoring my heart and the baby's heart.  The nurse anesthetist came in and we discussed the game plan with the spinal.  Eric wouldn't be allowed in for the administration of the spinal, so I had to mentally prepare to go that part alone.  I wasn't pleased.

Once they did the spinal (ouch) and got me all situated on the table, they brought Eric back in and they got to work.  There were some interesting discussions over the music that would be played - they started out with Toni Braxton, but my doc quickly put the kabosh on that.  We ended up with some Aerosmith and other various artists that I was happy with.  There was a lot of banter between the surgical staff, so that kept us entertained for most of the surgery.  Before we knew it, the doc was telling Eric that they were about to pull the baby out, so be camera ready! 

**warning:  the below pic is a little bloody and messy.....so if you just ate lunch, might want to come back later**

 Once they had the cord clipped, they passed the baby on to NICU (standard procedure with c-sections) just to make sure all the vitals were looking good.  Of course, they were.

 And I was shocked then they put her down on the scale..... only 6 lbs 4 oz??  That can't be right!  I could have sworn she weighed more than that, just based on how she felt inside me, especially when she would move around.  But 6 lbs 4 oz was all that baby girl weighed, and she was 18.5 inches long.  Quite a petite little thing!

 So we got a quick snap for a family picture (something we missed with Carter due to forgetting the camera in the rush to the OR), and then Eric took Kendall off to recovery while the doctors finished up with me.

 Once in recovery, I was reunited with Eric and Kendall.  We got to spend quite a bit of time together, due to some better planning on our part.

 Then Eric went to pick up Carter from daycare so he could meet his baby sister.  He was so sweet and excited!  He wanted to pull off her blankets immediately - he needed to see all of her.  And he kissed her non-stop.  I was so proud of him!

 After a while, our families started showing up to see our new addition.

 It was a great experience and thanks to everyone for stopping by to see us!

I will have another post coming soon, with more pictures from the following days at the hospital.

Carter Ryan Davis

Born: September 15, 2007 @ 9:22 a.m.
7 lbs. 1 oz.
20 in.
My life.

The Birth

Upon arriving at the hospital, we were checked into triage. Triage basically runs some tests to make sure my water did, in fact, break. Of course it did. You don't continually pee yourself for three hours. The nurse stuck me with an IV (after blowing a vein in one arm, the left arm finally got the IV) and we waddled our way up to the labor/delivery room. Extremely nice room......nice, jacuzzi tub in the bathroom, big screen TV mounted on the wall, very spacious, very nice. So, as true diehard baseball fans do, I turned on the TV because the Red Sox and the Yankees were playing. Contractions hadn't even started yet, so I was very into the game. Hardly paying attention to the nurses when they came in - don't they know how important baseball is?! Contractions starting setting in.......ow. Ow ow ow. I tried to last as long as I could, and I think I did make it a couple hours (midnight?) before asking for the epidural. Eric was extremely helpful with telling me how wonderful I was doing, helping me to breathe, etc. There were a couple times where I told him (maybe not so nicely) to get out of my face - he had been drinking coffee, and I can't stand the smell of coffee. So it was distracting me during the whole process. The anesthesiologist came in with the epidural and holy moly, PAIN. I swore at the nurse.....a nice little four letter word beginning with "f", and immediately apologized. I wasn't really sorry, but it was the polite thing to do. Why am I being polite during labor? The anesthesiologist decided that it was hurting too much, and it shouldn't be, so he pulled the catheter and needle out and said he was going to try again. I'm sorry. TRY AGAIN? Try sitting completely still while having contractions? Seriously? I have no clue how it got done, but it got done. Immediate relief. However, it seemed to be only numbing the left side of my body because I could freely move my right leg around. We tried different positions to progress the labor along. Nothing was really working. So we ended up trying Pitocin (sp?), which is a drug used to speed up contractions. Speed up, and intensify. A LOT. I started feeling the contractions again, so I got another dose of the epidural. Then the nurse started to notice that, as she was increasing the contractions, the baby was having some heart problems. With each contraction, his heart rate would plummet. No one was sure why this was happening, so we had to put a screw monitor in the baby's head. I had ever cord imaginable hanging out of me. It was extremely uncomfortable. But hey, who says labor is fun? So it was decided that we were going to spend a couple hours just lying there, trying to establish a baseline heart rhythm for the baby. So I read a book, Eric fell asleep. I think I was texting/making a couple phone calls. My mom called every hour or so to check in and see what the progress was. At 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, my doctor came in and we had a chat. Basically, I wasn't progressing past 7.5 cm. And it was starting to really stress out the baby. So they were going to give it another two hours and then we basically needed to decide if we were going to start pushing, or if we were going to do a c-section. I called my mother bawling. The nurse came in and basically told me that I wouldn't be delivering the baby, so I needed to just prepare for a c-section. Um, ok. I'm prepared. I'm here, I'm already lying in bed. What else could be done? The doc came back in at 9:00 a.m. and told me that my pelvis was too narrow and there's no way the baby could fit. And by that point, the baby was really starting to be in distress, so they were basically calling for an emergency c-section. They tossed some scrubs at Eric and told him to get ready. I signed all the papers, hands shaking horribly, and the wheeled us down to the surgery room. I didn't get to see any of my family before hand.Surgery was unreal. I was given a triple dose of the epidural - which numbed me completely. Even my fingers started tingling as I was lying there on the table, arms out. Eric sat up by my head. And it really was like TV surgeries.....the doctors/staff were listening to music, singing along, talking about their children riding bikes for the first time, etc. There was a period of time where I couldn't understand what was being said. It was alien language to me, and I started to freak out. I leaned my head over to Eric and asked him why they weren't speaking English anymore, what was going wrong. To this day, Eric insists that this conversation never took place, but I remember it vividly. I swear!! At 9:22 a.m., they held up my son for too short of a period of time, and then whisked him over to the table to check him out. Eric got to cut the umbilical cord, and they took him and the baby out to recovery while I was left lying there on the table, by myself, to be sewn back up. It all happened so fast, but it's definitely a day I will never, ever forget.

In the Moments Before.....

On Friday, September 14, 2007, Eric and I went to TGIFridays for a late lunch. I was having a "feeling", so Eric advised that I eat as much as I can, because once I go into labor, no more food. The lunch was uneventful, I ate every last bite.

After lunch, we went to Home Depot in search of a new drain cover for the shower. I was feeling a little "trickle" down in the womanly area, so I asked Eric to see if I had a spot on the back of my pants. He got down on his hands and knees to scope it out. Completely mortified, I told him I would go to the bathroom and check it out for myself. There was a little spot, but I figured maybe I just had to pee. So I peed and went back out to find Eric. Seemingly uneventful.

We got home and Eric went outside to mow the lawn. I called my mother to tell her that I think my water might have broken, but I wasn't sure. She told me to let her know what happens. The second I hung up the phone, I got up off the couch and the floodgates opened, lol! I ran to the bathroom and sat on the toilet......just letting it go. "Oh shit" ran through my mind several times.....sitting there, alone, in my moment of panic, thinking "it's going to happen" with feelings of excitement and, again, complete panic. Was I ready for this? Could I do it? I opened the bathroom window and told Eric that my water broke. He asked if I was sure. feeling the liquid continue to run down my legs, I told him "uh, yes, I'm sure." He wanted to finish mowing the lawn (!!!) so I made my phone calls....back to my mom, water broke for sure this time, my aunts, my friends, etc. Finally, I called the hospital (I know, nice priorities, huh?) and again was asked if I was sure the water had broken. Hello people - I'm not calling to listen to myself speak. So they told me to come on in. So I packed my bags....then realized I had no pads. I called my friend, Jenny, and had her take Eric to Wal-Mart, because I wasn't letting him pick out pads for me. I would have ended up with Depends.....which, thinking back on it now, might not have been a bad idea! I went through two pairs of pants, and soaked a blanket, just on the drive down to the hospital. But we made it to the hospital...I changed my pants again, even though they were soaked before I even stepped out of the car. And we made our way in..........