Happy Birthday Karis

I've been wanting to write up Karis's birthday story ever since she was born.  I thought, "I need to hurry and do this before I forget it all."  Trust me; I still remember every detail of those traumatic few days...

On Friday morning (July 15th), around 10:30, I was sitting on the couch being my usual lazy self, watching trashy MTV shows.  I ignored what I thought was "Braxton Hicks Contractions," because I've had them for the past 3 months.  But when I had 3 in one hour, I thought something might be up.  I started timing them.  The contractions were inconsistent and 20 minutes or less apart.  I texted Michael, just to let him know, but I thought for sure they'd space out and we'd meet Karis in a couple more weeks as planned. 

It was so hot outside, and I really wanted to go for a walk.  So, I went to Wal-Mart.  I walked around for about an hour, gripping the shopping cart as my contractions became closer and more intense. 

When I returned home, I decided to time the contractions again.  Now they were a consistent 5-10 minutes apart.  I was still in denial that this was the real deal.  When Michael got home from work we made dinner plans (we had a groupon that was about to expire).  Then, we packed up the car just in case we had to go to the hospital.  During dinner and dessert, my contractions continued to be regular, but I could still walk and talk during them.  We decided to head on home and get some rest.  I probably slept an hour that night.  The contractions got more and more intense.  I kept waking Michael up, "I need you."  He coached me through each one.  Finally, they got so bad that I was crying, couldn't walk, couldn't talk, and I definitely couldn't focus well enough to do the breathing techniques we'd practiced.  I kept asking, "Do we need to go?"  Finally at 4:30 in the morning, Michael very decisively said, "Let's go."  On the ride there, Michael made a few phone calls, and I had to cut some of his calls short.

We arrived at the hospital and had to go through all these dumb procedures.  I was mad, and told the nurse, "I already took care of registration. I was told we'd only have to fill out one form when we got here for delivery."  I can't imagine why I was so cranky!  Seriously?  I was collapsing to the floor, in so much pain, and having to initial a bunch of consent forms.  I have NO idea what I consented to that morning.  By the way, it was now Saturday, July 16th.  I had only slept one hour since Thursday night.

In the triage, we handed the nurse our birth plan.  She opened my cute file folder and said, "No, I don't need this.  Where's the form from your doctor."  How rude.  She began hooking me up to monitors and checked dilation.  I was at 4cm and 100% effaced.  The nurse then (finally!) quickly moved me into a delivery room.  Another nurse came in to give me my IV.  I told her, “No.  My doctor agreed that we could hydrate with water.”  The nurse put up a big stink.  I asked for a Heparin Lock, and she still didn't like my idea.  Michael explained that in our birth plan, we requested no IV.  When we toured the hospital and spoke with our doctor, everyone agreed that this was fine.  The nurse, in terrible Sign Language finger spelled "N-O."  This lady was pissing me off.  I decided to ignore her and just let my Michael deal with her.  Another nurse said she'd call and ask the doc.  Luckily, our doctor agreed to a Hep Lock for 2 hours.  Whenever the room was free of nurses, Michael snuck me Gatorade, water, and Jelly Belly energy shots (yum!). 

By 8am I had been suffering from 3 hours of pain worse than I could have ever imagined.  I was losing energy and will power.  I told the nurse, "Get the epidural, now."  I tried really hard to do this all natural.  Now, I reached my limit; I could not do this anymore.  I was afraid I'd run out of energy to push, and then I'd have to have a C-section.  Who knew when this kid was coming?  At 9cm, my epidural was administered.  It kicked in right away, and I could feel nothing below my waist.  Then, I was able to get some MUCH needed sleep. 

Around 10:30 am the meds were wearing off and I could feel the contractions slightly.  I was glad to be a part of my baby's delivery again.  The nurse said we can start pushing if we want, or we can wait till Doc gets here.  I asked if the doctor would want to break my water, and the nurse said, "Yes."  So, quite scared of what was about to happen, and not so sure of my answer, I said, "Ok, I... guess... we'll... start... pushing."  Soon after the pushing began, my water broke on its own.  Michael, the nurse, and I all giggled with excitement because we knew that Karis was protected by that bag of waters for a long time.  We also knew that we were going to see her soon.  Soon was right!  Michael got to see the top of her head numerous times.  For about 2 hours I pushed during contractions.  When the doc arrived, things started moving much more quickly. 

I worked hard to push Karis out, screaming, “Ou! Get her out.”   Finally, she was out at 1:39pm.  I was exhausted and delirious.  The room was frantic with a crowd of nurses.  Michael tried to control the whole situation.  I couldn’t believe all the commotion during this joyous occasion in my life.  Nurses tried to take Karis away to clean her and do all her tests.  As Michael was telling them, “No! Put her on her Mommy’s chest.  She needs to nurse.” the doctor immediately clamped Karis’s umbilical cord.  We had told our doctor in advance that we wanted it to pulse for a while.  Too late.  Ugh!  So, Michael tried to ignore what just happened.  Confused, I held Karis, and Michael cut the cord. 

After that, things seemed to calm down quickly.  The lights were turned down low (the way I wanted them during my labor, but who cares what I want), the nurses left the room, and Michael and I finally got to spend some time with our baby.  *Deep Breaths* I’m exhausted from telling the story! 

Lots of people came to visit our sweet girl that afternoon and on Sunday.  She was so perfect and cute!  Karis weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and she was 20 and ¼ inches long.  We love our precious angel!