3 Years Ago.... My Birth Story

3 YEARS ago I birthed my sweet baby girl and here is the blog posts to prove it... 

haha. Check out my birth story of my Cara. "Nugs" is referred to as my oldest daughter Ryann and CK is my Cara Kay.

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2009

Contractions started

I posted on my facebook at 4:15 pm that contractions had started, but nothing regular. I mean, I had been contracting for weeks, but these ones were starting to change a little. I was feeling them in my back too.

So at 5:30 I felt them regular. This is when I decided to get into the tub- Nugs really wanted to join me- so this lasted for awhile until I had to start breathing and working hard through contractions. I kicked her out and told Rich to call our friends who were going to watch her- and let them know we would bring her before she had to go to bed at 7.

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2009

The birth story continues

Sorry for the delay of postings and of pictures- I have had really good intentions to at least put up pictures- but I will get there- I promise. So here is (hopefully) the rest of the birth story with some pictures. (this all happened Wednesday 4/29/09)

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After I got out of the tub with Nugs, Rich was home from work and having dinner with my parents and Nugs. She was kind of fussy and I was trying to stay hidden and let my body do it's own thing. I relaxed in between contractions with my "hypnobirthing" CD and relaxing music and that helped a ton. I started having the "toe-curling" contractions and I started to think I was a sissy- so I told Rich I needed his help.

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At one point during this all I remember hearing Nugs screaming so I yelled, "Just get her out of here!" and my parents were out the door in a flash to drop her off with KJ (thanks again you guys!)

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At this point Rich was a little nervous. We had taken hypnobirthing classes and one of the predominant ideas is that if you are in a relaxed enough state you don't always feel pain during labor. I am a firm believer that this is true- however, I wasn't in this relaxed enough state. :) So Rich was starting to get nervous because I was hurting. But he did a fabulous job of keeping me straight with my hypnobirthing ideas and he helped me breathe through each contraction and relax in between them all. Occasionally I would make other noises during contractions but he quickly helped me refocus and kept me looking towards the goal.

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I was on the birthing ball while my parents were gone and when they got back I had my dad check my cervix. I was 5cm. This was 7:00pm.

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I thought, "great, now I am in active labor- 5 more hours at the most."

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I had Rich text our midwife, doula, and labor nurse who would meet us at the hospital. Just an update- just to let them know I was going to hang out at home for another hour or so.

.My midwife.

2 minutes later we get a phone call from the midwife and here is the conversation:

Midwife: "Rich, does Brittani want a home birth or a hospital birth?"

Rich (looking at me): "Brit- do you want a home birth or a hospital birth?"

Me: "hospital birth?!" somewhat confused

Rich to midwife: "Hospital birth"

Midwife: "well, get in the car and get her to the hospital now!"

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Sorry- breastfeeding break! to be continued...

Sorry!

There isn't much more... so this has got to be the last segment of the birth story... cause I am dying to post pictures of CK!

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Rich drives very safely to the hospital because I told him I was in no rush to get there. I was breathing well through my contractions and Rich would occasionally remind me to relax and he would count my breathing for me. During this entire thing I never had anyone time my contractions nor did I care how close or far apart they were. I didn't think about how much the next one would hurt, I just relaxed in between.

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When we got to the hospital my midwife and doula were there. My labor and delivery nurse who was coming in to help with the birth was stuck in traffic, but no worries. I never felt nauseated, but when I was walking into the hospital I let out some huge burps (like girls camp burps from high school-wow!). I like to think I was more calm than my midwife, who was ordering people around to get a room ready for me.

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Before I got to my room where they could listen to CK's heartbeat I stopped in the bathroom twice. I kept feeling like I needed to have a bowel movement (uh- you think I would have put two and two together) but it wasn't until I actually started to push sitting on the toilet when I realized I better get into the bed and let someone know what was going on.

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At 8:05 my midwife checked my cervix and let me know I was 9 1/2 cm dilated. She also broke my water. After that next contraction I smiled and said, "I am so happy". I obviously had many reasons to be happy, but mostly that it was about to be over and I would be able to hold little CK in my arms.

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I decided to try and push with the next contraction but that hurt even more. I finally realized that I better just listen to my body. I only pushed once or twice with the next two contractions and then finally I felt like I needed to push the entire contractions. Both my parents and Rich were there by my side and my dad was video taping- this is when I started to get a little vocal- my dad thought it was funny that I was so quiet during labor and then pushing is when I got loud and that is the only part he got on video! LAME.

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I was vocal because while I absolutely love my midwife she was bugging the crap out of me! She kept saying things like, "you are feeling a lot of rectal pressure" and "She is crowning now- you will feel a lot of burning." And I in turn would reply, "I KNOW!!! I CAN FEEL IT!"

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8:21 pm, on April 29, 2009 CK was born. 7lbs 8oz. 18 inches long. Slightly bigger and a little shorter than Nugs. They look almost exactly the same and CK has beautiful blond hair. She has some newborn rash and is a little peely- but she is absolutely amazing.

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I was able to breastfeed immediately after she was born and I breastfed for the first hour. I never had an IV, never needed pitocin, and I felt amazing after she was born. It was a perfect labor and delivery and I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Welcome Baby

Ashley and I grew up not even a half mile away from each other so of course when I heard she was expecting I was so excited to see her wear a Laborlooks gown.

Hazel Elizabeth was born 3/24/12 at 7lbs 2 oz.

Here is what she had to say:

I wore the gown on and off the whole time I was in the hospital. I delivered in the gown from the hospital ans saved the cute one for right after when I had visitors. I also walked the halls in it while laboring because it provided more coverage I got so many compliments on it from staff and friends! It was perfect, thank you.

Birth Story Of Hazel

Here is the birth story from my little sister...

The Birth Story

DISCLAIMER: LONG and detailed and from the best of my memory
Thursday Dec 16th was my last doctors apt and my cervix was completely closed.. my sister arrived on saturday the 18th and we started doing all kinds of crazy things to get my labor started.. jalapenos, hula-hooping, crab walking, hiking, up and down the stairs, scrubbing the floor..i had pretty regular contractions that saturday night but nothing real- she then checked me on monday morning and i was dilated to a 2.5. she strippped my membranes on monday and that started some bad contractions that evening but again nothing regular. so at that point i was over trying to do anything i could- i mean nothing i had tried had worked besides i think people just tell others the very last thing they did before they went into labor and blame it on that! so It all REALLY started on wednesday night december 21st. My mom and I went to go hang out with my sister at her house. I was sitting on her living room floor doing some butterfly stretches when all of a suddden I felt like i wet my pants.. i had not wet my pants the entire pregnancy so i thought this was super weird.. so i ran to the bathroom and kinda was freaking out.. uhhhh britt, ash, someone come here... so they both ran in the bathroom and there was this green fluid all over my underwear... "what is it?!" both britt and ash started screaming and jumping and very excited and then told me it was my water with thin meconium in it. This was at 9:25 PM- we needed to go to the hospital right then. I called Jason (he was at my house with my dad) and told him my water broke and he needed to get my hospital bag and go with my dad and meet us at the hospital. On our drive down to Kaiser in Vallejo, ash called down and they were super busy(but they saved me a room)! we got there and i got all hooked up to the monitors and then they needed to start my IV.. but i was very swollen. It was AWFUL- 3 different people had to try and finally on the 4th try they got an IV in.
my battle wounds
They started antibiotics and let me chose whether i wanted to try to let contractions start on their own or start pitocin right away. we decided to try to let contractions start and maybe get some sleep but start pitocin in the morning. i slept on and off from 12-430 and no contractions were starting so we started pitocin at 5 am. i didn't feel any regular contractions until about 6 am. slowly they started to get more and more painful. i tried and tried to breath through them but by about 7 there was no way and i was in tears through everyone. i called the nurse and she told me to try to wait longer. so i called my dad- he came in and told me there is no point in waiting if i wanted an epidural. so he checked and i was still 2.5 cm dilated but called to get the anesthesiologist. they were on shift change but as soon as they could they would come give me and epidural. in the mean time the nurse gave me some IV fentanyl but right before i got up one last time to go to the bathroom- the fentanyl helped some but made me feel so loopy and out of it. Finally by about 8 am they started to get ready for my epidural- everyone had to leave the room but I had this wonderful nurse who held my hand and talked me through it all. The anesthesiologist was amazing. I did not feel a thing and it she got it in right away. I was expecting this immediate relief from the pain of contractions but then she said she hadn't given me the loading dose yet.... she then gave me the dose but told me it would take about 5 contractions for me to really feel relief. those were the longest 5 contractions ever. finally i was feeling great by about 8:30 and then they placed my catheter and checked me again and i was at a 4. everyone came back in and decided that my dad would head back to work and my sister would go to her apt she had. they left and i was able to fall asleep. Ashley arrived at the hospital at about 9:45 and saw that baby girl was having some decels. I was waking up at this point and she went to find a nurse to check me. the nurse came in and said "well (long pause) you are 100% effaced and about a 8, no a 9. yep a 9." that had happened a lot quicker than anyone had expected. ashley quickly called my dad and sister to get back asap. They hurried and got back to the hospital by about 10:45. by this time i was complete and just waiting. i started slowly pushing about 11:15 then about 11:30 i really started pushing- while i was pushing her heart rate kept dropping- everyone looked worried but whenever i would ask everyone would tell me nothing was wrong (until after when my dad admitted that he was a little nervous) i think about 11:45 my dad had to use the vacuum. he vacuumed her a couple of times and then she was born at 11:57! They had previously warned me that since there was meconium in my water they may have to take her right away if she didn't start crying so they could prevent her from swallowing meconium- well my little girl started squealing right away . They immediately placed her on my chest skin to skin. It was the most amazing experience to have my sweet baby Hazel right there with me on the outside they dried her off and put blankets over us all while she kept pooping so they continued to clean her up while Jason and I enjoyed and cried and cried.. That moment didn't seem to last long enough. I delivered the placenta and got a few stitches. I didn't tear in the front or back but to the side(?) i kept asking what degree of a tear but apparently it is no degree when you tear like that(? i'm still confused about it all haha) and then my umbilical cord was crazy weird. check out THIS post about it- SO crazy! the body is truly AMAZING. Then my sisters helped her latch for a little and then I just got to snuggle and kiss her they did her assessment all while she stayed right on my chest. An hour or two later Ashley was able to give her her first bath and did her footprints! They then gave her vitamin k hep b and aquamephyton eye drops and then she got passed around. Then I was moved to a post partum room about 3. We were discharged the next morning about 11 am. Hazel is now a week old and we are adjusting as well as we can. As much as my breasts have been so sore it is such a fun bonding time to be able to be breast feeding. We have our first pediatrician appointment next thursday and then head back home a few days after that. It is so much fun to see Jason with Hazel. He watches her like a hawk. he always wants to hold her and always wants to make sure he watches everyone who is holding her. It is so sweet

Baby Hazel

Pictures soon to come, but we would like to welcome our newest niece.

Hazel Cathleen was born this morning at 11:57am.

7lbs 5oz

20 inches long

Congratulations to Devyn and Jason. We are so over the moon for you!

I Can't Help It....

We have been getting so many gorgeous pictures of our Laborlooks moms that I can't help but share them!!Baby Hope is so lucky to have you as her Mama!

Congratulations Kacie, your girls are every bit as beautiful as you are.

Welcome Isla

My little sister is days away from being a perfectly content mother, just like this sweet mom and her new little one, Isla.

Send us your photos to ashley@laborlooks.com

VBAC x2, Laborlooks Mom x2

Welcome to the world sweet baby boy #3!!

We are so proud of your hard working mama who wore her laborlooks gown for a second birth and a second VBAC!

I know she is glad you are here too!