Kennedy’s Birth Story

I cannot believe Kennedy is two weeks old today! Newborn life is seriously a time warp. You’re up at random times of the night, sleep at random times throughout the day, and before you know it, the days have flown by! Everyone warned me about this- you’ll blink and it will be over- so I’ve been very intentional to soak up all of it! The anthem playing in my head is “it won’t be like this for long” so I have stayed off of social media for the most part to truly enjoy life with my girl. And as I’m over here looking at her, I can’t imagine life without her.

The pregnancy back story…

To start the birth story, I want to back up a little bit in time to my 20 week anatomy scan. They determined that my umbilical cord was slightly off centered (there’s a medical term for this but I can’t think of the name.) It’s fairly common and most of the time doesn’t pose any issues but it CAN result in a slower flow of nutrition through the cord and cause your baby to not grow. So they determined that I needed to get an ultrasound at every appointment from there on out. Side note- it’s exciting to get to see your baby all the time but also expensive to have to do an ultrasound at every appointment lol! At my 34 week appointment, Kennedy was measuring very small. She went from the 80th percentile at our first visit, the the 48% at the 20 week anatomy scan, to the 28% at the 30 week, to then the 20% at the 34 week. My doctor said that with her growth slowing, we may need to induce me early. The reason is, babies who aren’t growing in the womb can often times have a better chance of growth outside the womb with oxygen, milk, etc. I was to come back at the 36 week appointment and get the verdict of what will happen with our sweet baby. Oh and another thing, at the time, Kennedy was not yet head down so she was considered breeched. If she had to be taken at 36 weeks, it would have to be by C-section if she didn’t flip.

The 36 week appointment was a weird feeling. I packed our hospital bags and wrote full report on all my projects for work. We didn’t really tell many people that it could be “the day” because it was still so up in the air. Luckily, the appointment went well and Kennedy maintained her weight and her fluid levels (which signifies the nutrient flow) were great! We scheduled weekly appointments for the next 4 weeks of the pregnancy to make sure she was still on track. We determined at the 38 week appointment that she was finally head down and we scheduled an induction for the night of September 1st which would be right at the 39 week mark. Again, I didn’t announce to many people that I was being induced because I wanted the space to enjoy the delivery and our time as a family without my phone blowing up. I would highly recommend it 🙂

The day of the induction…

Our induction was scheduled for midnight between September 1st and 2nd. I left work at 4:00 that day instead of 5:00. For those who don’t know, I was let go back in May but told I could stay on until I had my baby. It was a weird feeling saying goodbye to the job forever. But also a relief to know that none of that burden was coming with me. That same day I received an offer letter for a role I had been interviewing for. It was like God’s way of telling me it was all going to be okay. I had been stressing/crying/praying about having a baby and not having an income. I had so many feelings being let go of a job I had worked SO incredibly hard at for the past 3 years, and also the defeat of being told no while interviewing at 9+ months pregnant. It took a toll on me emotionally and I finally felt relief driving home that day and calling my future supervisor with questions and to let her know that I would accept the new role. After I got off the phone, I cried the rest of the way home. It was just A LOT. Although I knew in my heart it was all good, it just seemed like everything came to head that day. Being let go, getting a new job, and having a baby… all on the same day. I printed and signed the offer letter as soon as I got home and tried to turn off my “work brain” and said okay now time to focus on baby. Cody and I went out to dinner at my choice, Texas Roadhouse, then came home and finished some last minute packing, charging devices, etc. before trying to take a nap. I was full of excitement and didn’t sleep a second of it lol. I ate another meal of oatmeal at 11:00 before heading to the hospital because I was so scared of not being able to eat until dinner the next day!

Starting the induction…

My best friend since elementary school, Valerie, is a labor and delivery nurse. We’ve been talking about the day she could deliver my baby for years and the time finally was here. I was SO beyond excited to have her there. Especially with the Covid restrictions, it was like I could have 2 people in the hospital room instead of just one! I know she has the best intentions for me and I told her I’d go with the flow and be the best patient because I know that she will ensure that baby and I are healthy.

She set me up with the best nurses for the night until she would arrive for her shift at 5:00AM the next morning. We checked in at midnight but nothing truly got moving until about 2:30AM. I had to wash myself off with a special cloth (in case of an emergency C-section for sanitary purposes), change into the hospital gown, had the heart rate monitors placed on my belly, got a series of wristbands, answered questions, etc before the medicine began. They drew a few viles of blood and I received an IV on the top of my left forearm. Everything was painless. The hardest part- I had to let the entire bag of fluids drip before I was allowed to get up to use the restroom! Haha pregnancy bladder + and IV full of fluids, I literally counted down the minutes until I could get up to pee. they said to try to get some sleep during that hour but I was shaking too badly trying to hold in my pee that there was no chance of sleep.

The first induction medicine was not Pitocin. It was what looked like a sandpaper covered shoe lace that is inserted like a tampon. It’s covered in a topical medicine that I can’t think of the name of. It’s placed BEHIND your cervix so lets just say that insertion is NOT very comfortable. It is supposed to start mild contractions until later in the morning when full on Pitocin will be given. It was placed around 3:00AM and I began to feel cramping as if on my period around 4:00. I was able to take a tiny nap somewhere before the cramping got too intense but I say TINY because there is a blood pressure monitor that goes off every 15 minutes so, if anything I maybe slept 15-30 minutes. Because of the cramps and my need for another bathroom break I was up from then on out.

The scare…

Valerie showed up to work at 5:00AM and I was so excited to have her there. She brought breakfast for Cody (she’s so sweet) and we were able to chat for a while. She left the room and rushed back in at 6:00AM to move the monitors on my stomach. When she couldn’t get them to pick up a different reading she (very calmly) called for assistance and doctor. Only because I know her so well did I know that there was something wrong. About 10 people surrounded me within seconds of her call and they began to put me in a series of different positions. I went side to side, up on all 4’s, into a plank (all in a backless gown with my butt out to the world) and tried to remain as calm as possible. I kept asking what was wrong. I remember saying “I feel fine just cramps” as they strapped an oxygen mask to my face and also saying “is it me or is it her?” It’s her heart rate, they finally answered. Within seconds of the different positions not changing her declining hear rate, they grabbed my left arm and gave me a shot of something. Valerie ripped the tampon thing out of me so quickly (yep that thing that feels like sandpaper lol) and I remember thinking… I’m being put under! Except… I wasn’t fading… “What was that?” I tried to ask calmly? They answered its something that relaxes your cervix so my contractions would stop and baby could get her heart rate up. Within minutes of all of this happening, her heart rate began to rise and all was okay.

I remained super calm until everyone left the room then looked at Cody and began to cry. It was the scariest thing to imagine what could have happened if her heart rate did stop… I tried not to dwell on it and just focus on what will happen next. Valerie came back in and said that if her heart rate hadn’t gone back up, they would put me under and tried for an emergency C section. If it were to happen again, she wanted me to go ahead and get the epidural so I could be awake for the C section. The epidural requires another bag of fluids so I was given more fluids, AKA more bathroom runs with my “dancing partner” as they joked- the IV drip. The anesthesiologist arrived and I was a little nervous for the epidural but it was really not bad at all! I joked that the IV in my forearm was worse! The epidural took about 30-45 minutes to set in. It was about from my belly button down that I was numb. I weirdly kept feeling in my left leg throughout the entire day, but my right leg so so dead to the world that I literally had to look at it to see where it was located lol. At this point Valerie inserted the catheter so I wouldn’t have to take anymore bathroom trips, and began a small dose of Pitocin around 11:00AM.

Downtime/waiting game…

Here was the most down-time of the delivery. We sat and chatted, her, me, and Cody and a few times we’d get caught up in conversation that I would forget for a second that I was in labor. Anytime I began to feel cramping too strongly (only on my left side) I would tell Valerie and she would increase the epidural. It felt like a cold rush down my back. I was cold most of this time which is a side effect of the epidural and I shivered quite a bit too. My doctor allowed for clear liquids which was a total life saver because I was able to drink some vegetable broth and jello. I was definitely more hungry than that but it was enough to curb my hunger for a while. After eating the jello, and literally in mid conversation, I began to feel nauseous FAST. It was the weirdest thing to go from completely fine to completely sick. I had to use my barf bag for a few minutes but then was totally fine! It was the quickest “sick” I’ve ever been.

The second scare…

Around 3:00, Valerie checked my dilation and I was at 6 cm. Immediately after the check, we had another heart rate drop. This time I knew what was going on but I was numb so I couldn’t help flip myself into the weird positions. A team of nurses assisted throwing me into different positions, putting me on oxygen, and they cut the Pitocin. Her heart rate came back up again and I didn’t receive the cervix reducing shot. I again remained as calm as possible trying to be the best patient so we could have the best outcome. This was the last time, if it happened again I was told a C section would be necessary. I was completely fine with it. Like I said, as long as baby and I are healthy, I’ll do whatever it takes!

Pushing…

They slowly increased my Pitocin back, monitoring baby very carefully and trying to get me to 10 cm. I increased very quickly and by 4:00, it was time to start pushing! It was so exciting! My doctor was coming soon but I began the pushing with just Valerie and Cody by my side. It was so special having just the 3 of us there for a minute. It was almost a blessing in disguise that I could feel my left leg because I could feel the contractions, they weren’t painful at all, just could feel them, and I was able to push with them. I pushed holding my own thighs for a while, then had handles on the hospital bed that I pushed with. We would push for 10 straight seconds on one breath, with a few seconds in between to take in another breath, and would do that 3 times for a total of 30 seconds of pushing per contraction. About 20 minutes into pushing I could hear the heart rate monitor and it was declining again. Valerie called our doctor and she came pretty quickly ready to catch the baby. She coached me through pushing as hard as I possibly could to get Kennedy to come out. At some point, we began skipping contractions and only pushing on every other contraction to try to get Kennedy’s heart rate to come back up. When we couldn’t get it, the doctor called for a vacuum, which sounds much scarier than it is. It’s basically a suction cup that attaches to the top of babies head and a T bar to pull baby out.

Kennedy came out with the vacuum very rapidly at 4:56. Cody cut the umbilical cord and Kennedy was placed on my chest. It was the best moment of my life. She was happy, healthy, at a normal heart rate, and all of the stress of the day was gone. We had our baby girl.