The Chronicles of Tadpole and Little Cub: Birth Story: Tadpole Enters the World

Contractions are a feeling women can compare to cramps during their menstrual cycle, but of course they get more intense than your average cramp. However, as women know, you can have this feeling in your front and in your back, and the same goes for contractions. Not all women experience this back pain during their period or during labor, and it tends to be more painful and uncomfortable if you do experiences it. I tend to have back cramps when I’m on my period, so this meant there was more of a chance of me having back labor. Let me tell you, it’s not fun.

And on top of that, Kayley was pushing against my sciatic nerve. Your sciatic nerve runs from your lower back (under your uterus) to your legs. It’s the largest nerve in the human body and controls the sensory and motor functions in your lower back, butt, and legs. So basically when Kayley was leaning against my sciatic nerve on the left my lower back, left butt cheek, and left leg all the way down to my left foot would have intense severe pain on and off. We tried to relieve the pain by having me lay on my right side, but sadly that didn’t work too much, and then the anesthesia from my Epidural mostly went to my right side instead of being even between my left and right. I was not a happy camper with this new pain.

At this time (3:40pm), Andrew was trying to take a nap in the waiting room so he could have energy for the big event yet to come. My sister was trying to help and massage the parts of my body that were having the pain from my sciatic nerve. I think my mom was going back and forth between helping and taking a walk in the hall. I don’t really remember…

At about 4:00pm I noticed a new sensation, so we called the nurse in to have me checked. My nephew, Derek, called at 4:02 to see how it was going and if his cousin had arrived yet. We say he was the lucky charm, and that Kayley was just waiting for her cousin to call before she decided to start really entering the world. The nurse was checking me at this time and informed us I had dilated to 10cm! It was time to start pushing! My mom went to get Andrew who was just finally almost asleep (poor guy didn’t get shut eye =(), and Andrew became my main coach again. ^_^

Just after 4:10pm I started pushing, and Doc. S arrived in his scrubs at 4:18. It was interesting to have the Epidural and push. Since I had the Epidural I wasn’t able to feel the contractions much, but I could feel the sensation of my uterus tightening, and Kayley’s head dropping. Whenever I though a contraction was starting I announced that I thought it was and then the nurse would check the read out from the monitors to check and see if I was right. I was ever time! Then I would wait for the nurse to tell me the contraction was at its peak and then push three times for each contraction.

Since the Epidural was helping me to relax at one point in between contractions I said “Gosh I feel like I could fall asleep like this right now.” It was nice to have a little bit of rest time in between contractions even though that time didn’t last long at all. One time when I was pushing there was a gush of amniotic fluid that came out and got all over Doc S. It was pretty funny and we all started laughing. I told Doc S that I just thought he needed another shower, which made everyone else laugh some more. But this made it so Doc S had to go change his scrubs really fast, so the nurse took over more. And remember, during all this time I was still dealing with my sciatic nerve and back labor. Andrew massages my back whenever I demanded “Back! Back! Back!” and my sister massaged my left leg while my mom waited with the camera for her granddaughter to arrive.

Kayely’s head started crowning at about 4:50 and people were telling me they could see peach fuzz. I just had to push a few more times with some effective pushes, and wa-la! Kayley Gianna arrived into the world at 5:03pm! She entered the world with one hand next to her face, causing her to give me a nice punch on the way out that bruised me really bad and tore me so I needed stitches. It ended up being a medium tear that they did a “running” stitch on. I ended up losing about 800ml of blood and became really light headed and my blood pressure became low (which I already have low-ish blood pressure). It took a while for them to stop the bleeding, which the nurse and Doc S said they tend to see more in redheads than other women, and they have no idea why. Redheads just like to bleed I guess.

Kayley also had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck loosely. Thank God she had a long umbilical cord so it wasn’t tight around her neck! Doc S caught her, waited for her umbilical cord to stop pulsing with blood, and then Andrew had the awesome pleasure of cutting her umbilical cord!

Kayely got 7 out of 10 for her first APGAR test. The APGAR test looks at the baby’s heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex response, and color. Since she had her umbilical cord around her neck she was a little blue. Plus she didn’t show off her lung capacity all the way at first. They had to give her a bit of oxygen, which helped her color change pretty quickly and then she showed off that God gave her some good lungs. Her score was a 9 when they checked her again.

I had my sweet baby girl handed to me right away after her cord was cut. I can’t even explain what it was like to see and hold her for the first time. I didn’t want to let her go. I just wanted to continue to gaze at her and study ever inch of her that God created. I thought, and still think, she’s the most precious little thing in the whole world. To me, to hold Kayley, was so real and yet surreal all at the same time. Andrew and I are so happy to have our little girl, and it was so wonderful to finally meet her in person even though it was a long process and a lot of work for me. Kayley is totally worth everything we went through! We are so thankful for this little bundle of joy that God knit together in my womb and blessed us with.