Berkeley's Birth Story

Where oh where to begin! It's been such a fast few weeks! I hope this isn't too long, but I don't want to miss anything.

I'll start back at my 36 week OB appointment. Dr. Moore checked me and told me I was a loose 3 and that baby girl was super low. "Like so low, she's in your vagina." (I love Dr. Moore, she cracks me up.) To compare (and it's a good thing I've blogged all these years because I've been telling people the wrong info the last few weeks...sorry) With Brighton I wasn't dilated at all at 36 weeks, I was a 3 at 38, and closer to a 4 at 39. She wasn't super low until 39 weeks. (I had it in my head that I was dilated to a 3-4 and she was super low at 36 weeks...big difference. Oops!) With Boston, I was a 1 at 36 weeks, a 2-3 at 37 and she was kind of low. Boston was born at 37 weeks 4 days. Brighton was 4 days late.

Okay, so anyway, since I had it in my head that I was dilated so early with Brighton, and with her coming so fast, I was really nervous about having a freeway or home birth. I took it easy during that week so that I would at least make it full term. Once I was 37 weeks I resumed normal activity. I would die if I ever got put on bed rest. I had contractions on and off, but nothing that was painful enough to make me think it was labor time.

At my 37 week appointment, Dr. Moore checked me and said, "You're a good 4...more like a 5". But then proceeded to tell me that because I was still only 37 weeks and since I wasn't having contractions at the moment that I would just have to go home and wait. She told me if I had any contractions, painful or not to come right in. And that she expected I would deliver in the next 24-48 hours.

Well of course because she checked me, I immediately started contracting. I had 3 contractions on the way home. (About 2pm) I hung out on the couch and kept on having contractions. After another 4 or 5 in an hour, I decided to go lay down... I was so torn about what to do! I knew I was just contracting because she had checked me, and again, they weren't super painful. But I was terrified of having another Brighton experience. It just seemed like Heavenly Father was watching out for us. Braden was home from work, Linda was over to babysit the girls for my appointment, and I was contracting pretty regularly. So around 3:45 we decided to go back to the hospital. I went to the bathroom before we left and it looked like I was losing my mucus plug. So I was pretty sure we were making the right choice.

I didn't want to get sent home. I figured if we're going to do this, let's do this. So I decided to hike up the stairs to the top of the parking structure and then walk around the hospital before going and checking in.

I was settled in my room around 4:15 and feeling mild contractions about every 5 minutes. The biggest thing with this labor was the pressure. I had soooooo much pressure. The Nurse checked me around 4:45 and I was a 6. She called Dr. Moore to see if I should walk the halls since my contractions weren't really that strong. She said yes, and that she knew there was no way she would make it back to the hospital to deliver me. Dr. Bustillo (who delivered Brighton) was already there, so he stayed to deliver our sweet girl.

We talked about pain medication and since I was still feeling good I opted to wait. I felt that I rushed the epidural with Boston and I wanted to experience labor more with this one. So up I got to walk the halls.

I thought I should take one last belly shot. I took this at 6:04, right before Dr. Bustillo came in.

I walked for about 40 minutes I guess and then Dr. Bustillo came to check on me. I was definitely feeling contractions more, and having to slow my walking when they came, but still nothing crazy. Had I been at home, I would have just barely had the thought, "we should probably go in". Dr. B checked me and said, "you're a good 8!" Danielle, my awesome nurse, said, "see, she surprised you huh?" All the nurses the whole time just kept telling me that I needed to have a much more serious look on my face to be so far dilated.

At that point we revisited the pain medication. Braden supported me in saying no to an epidural, and then Dr. Bustillo broke my water. Instantly the pain got real. This is about 6:10. My contractions started coming quick, short and strong. I kept saying, "This is what I wanted, this is what I wanted, this is what I wanted..." 

(Just texting my sister in law at 6:22) 

Within minutes I was feeling extreme pain and pressure, and cursing my no medication choice. I got a hot flash and asked my nurse for some ice. Before she was back I was yelling, "The baby's coming out!" (It wouldn't be an exciting story unless I yelled something at someone, right?) She said I had a little cervix left, and after one more contraction I really wanted to push. I don't think they really understood how fast my babies come. All of a sudden it was a mad scramble to get the bed set up right, and whatever else they did. I was just trying really hard to take deep breaths and relax. For those that haven't experienced it, pushing a baby out is actually a relief to the pain of the contractions (for me anyway). So as soon as they said to push, I PUSHED. I kept up my 2 push tradition, and Berkeley was out screaming at 6:33 pm. I thank Dr. Bustillo for telling me to "look at your baby" during my second push so I could see her come into this world. She looked so much bigger than Boston did and I was sure she would be closer to 7 pounds. But nope, just 6 lbs, 4 ounces, 19 inches. (3 ounces bigger than Bos).

 

So had I waited at home until I thought things were painful enough, I would have been dilated to an 8 and it would have been rush hour. Without my water being broken, maybe I would have labored for a few more hours, but I highly doubt it. I'm never really sure when to say my labor started... If you count it from the first contractions, it was 4 and 1/2 hours. If you count from when I would have gone to the hospital? It was roughly 30 minutes. 8 months of nausea, stabbing vagina pain, back aches and heartburn and 23 minutes of gnarly contractions and pushing. All so worth it.

I have seriously been blessed with an awesome uterus. And am so grateful to have another healthy baby girl in our lives!

She is my blondest baby by far! No red in sight.

 

Brighton's Birth: The Extended Version

I've been wanting to do this for awhile. Add in more details to Brighton's birth story. I wrote it up the same day she was born, and I was still so hopped up on natural drugs I left out a lot of the crazy that happened. I didn't want to redo the original because you (or at least I) can tell how happy I was. So I'm just doing another, extended version.  With 20 seconds of never before seen footage! Just kidding.

Here I am blogging it the first time. Oh how awesome I look. With my bangs.

Okay, here we go...

I woke up with a pain in my stomach at about 5:50 that morning. Totally thought I had some major gas going on. I went to the bathroom and then laid back down. A few minutes later the pain was back, so I headed back to the bathroom. Then, again, back to lay down. The third time the "gas" pain came, I thought, "hmmm, maybe these are contractions." It was definitely painful, but for some reason I didn't just "know" like everyone said I would. I got my laptop out and started charting the pains. Here is my contraction list.  The first number is the time they started, and the second is how many seconds they lasted.

1. 606 – 60
2. 614 – 60
3. 619 – 60
4. 623 – 75
5. I had one in between here while I was on the phone with my mom.
6. 630 – 60
7. 633 – 30
8. 636 – 30

They weren't long, but they went from 7 minutes down to 3 in 30 minutes. Um, hello? Not sure how I didn't realize things were moving fast!

I called my Mom (@ 6:26am to be exact) to confirm I was really having contractions (again, um, hello?), and she told me that she could hear in my voice that I was more than likely in labor. I was struggling to talk normal, and definitely couldn't stand straight. I woke up Braden and told him I thought I was in labor. I told him I was going to shower and then we would go from there. While I was in the shower, I was doubled over in pain. I honestly can't remember what I even did in there. I just remember frantically hurry to get out. From the shower on, everything is a bit fuzzy. After I was out I, for some reason, told Braden he could shower if he hurried. I got dressed, and am pretty sure I yelled at Braden to hurry even faster. By this time, I couldn't walk during contractions, and wasn't even trying to time them. I just knew we needed to get to the hospital and get there now!  We walked down to the car shortly after 7am. My car was parked too close to the carport wall for me to get in, and I hysterically told Braden to hurry and back the car out so I could sit down.

During the car ride, I was gripping the arm rests, Braden's arm, anything I could get my hands on to bare the excruciating pain. About 1/2 way to the hospital, I was screaming at Braden  to call 911, because I was sure I wasn't going to make it. He called around to friends and family, and got the Labor and Delivery number (So mad I wasn't prepared with that!). He told them we were coming, and told them contractions had started around 6am. Being that it was like 7:15, and I was a first time mom, they told him we had plenty of time, and not to worry.

Not sure if my water broke before or after the call, but it broke in the car. My contractions were back to back and fluid just kept gushing (or so it felt) out. Our hospital is right off of the freeway, but there is a left hand turn light to get into it. Wouldn't you know, the car in front of us didn't turn quick enough and we missed the light, having to wait through a whole cycle! I seriously contemplated getting out and walking. Once in the hospital parking, I strictly instructed Braden he had better go slow over the speed bumps.

The labor and delivery building has a loading circle, so we parked there and went waddling in at about 7:25am. I held my soaking wet skirt in between my legs and walked as quickly as I could. Now the pain was just constant, and I had some crazy adrenal going on. I was on a mission.

I walked straight passed the check-in nurse towards the L&D nurses station.  I remember her looking at me and saying, "Oh uh, we'll take care of paperwork later."

We passed anther nurses station and a nurse said, "Do you want a wheel chair!?" I said, "No! I don't know? Whatever!" For a half second I thought I might get in trouble if I didn't follow their protocol or something. We rounded the corner to the L&D nurses. Again I walked passed them on my way to the delivery rooms, snapped my fingers like a military Sargent, and said, "It's go time!" (A nurse reminded me of this after Brighton was born, and I busted up laughing).

They told me all of their rooms were full at the moment, but that they had a few extra beds in a spare room they were using for storage. They said they would just have me change in there and check me and then they would move me when it was time to deliver. When I was in labor with Boston I went and took a picture of it.... I remember it having a few more boxes, but you get the idea. 

My nurse (who I think was pretty new) told me I needed to change into a gown. Before she was finished with her sentence, I was tearing off my clothes. Door open and all. I'm sure she thought I was crazy. Everyone was just talking to me so calmly and seemed to be moving entirely too slow. I'm sure they were all thinking all sorts of, "Oh my gosh, is this girl serious?" thoughts at this point.

I got on the bed, and she began to strap a heart rate monitor on me. She asked, "Do you want an epidural?" and I said, "YES PLEASE!" She couldn't find the heartbeat for a minute, and while she was fiddling with the monitor I said, "I need to push, is that bad?" She quickly "checked" me (and by quick, I mean she barely touched me) and said, "Oh! the babies heads right there! No time for an epidural, and try not to push!" FINALLY, the nurses started moving!  I was a 10 and the baby was coming NOW! Of course I started freaking out, hyperventilating even, and saying, "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Luckily, a veteran nurse quickly told me, "Don't worry sweetie, you'll probably push twice and be done".

Until that point, I still thought I was going to be pushing and laboring for hours. So seriously thank goodness for that nurse or I'm sure I would have had a heart attack.

My doctor was still in route, and I over heard the nurses talking saying, "Dr. Moore is still 15 minutes away, what about Dr. Bustillo? Maybe we should get a ER doctor..." Something along those lines. While we were waiting, and I was trying not to push or die, a receptionist person came in with paperwork for me to sign. I just started scribbling my signature wherever I saw a line. A nurse saw me frantically writing, and told me I could just do those later. I said, "Thank goodness!" and literally chucked the clipboard like a frisbee. I can vaguely remember seeing stunned looks on peoples faces.

Sometime during all of the craziness, Braden went and moved the car. I remember freaking out that he was going to leave, and a nice nurse held my hand the whole time. Notice I just refer to them all as "nurse". I want to say there were 4 or 5 of them, but like I said, things are a bit blurry.  A few minutes later, Dr. Bustillo came in to deliver Brighton. I'll never forget. He said, "Uh, I've never delivered in here before!"

I had to switch beds, and again started freaking out because I was sure if I moved I would die. But as a contraction let up, my adrenaline moved my huge pregnant self over to another bed. They got me into position; with Braden on my right side, and told me to push when I felt a contraction.  They never had time to get anything on me besides the heart rate monitor. No IV, no contraction monitor, no monitor on the babies head. So I gripped Braden's hand as hard as I could (sideways so I was crushing his fingers, because that is the only way it seemed to help) and gave my all.  I screamed as Dr. Bustillo instructed me to, "ease up a little... okay push...ease up... okay push" while he helped so I wouldn't tear. I wanted to yell at him to stop doing what he was doing because it flippin' hurt! But with one push her head was out. He then told me to channel my screaming into stronger pushing and with another, quieter push she was out. It was exhilarating. After so much pain, she was here and the pain was finally gone! Talk about an adrenalin rush. Brighton was born at 7:52am.  About 27 minutes after walking into the hospital.  Dr. Moore arrived within minutes of her delivery and was so sad she missed it. 

Looking back I realize I was most likely having back labor the night before. But nothing woke me up throughout the night...not until 5:50am anyway. I went into labor with Boston with the same back pain. So at 6:36am I was timing my contractions, and holding my baby at 7:52am. They brought us breakfast in that same room, and I tried to nurse Brighton while we waited to be moved to our recovery room. When they came to move us, they asked if I wanted a wheel chair and I said, "What for? I think I can just walk". And I did. My body was so shaky, but I seriously felt amazing. Especially for just having a baby!   So crazy, but it makes for a great story!

I'm one of the lucky few that doesn't tear, and because of all of the adrenaline, I never even took an advil. I was sore for a few days, but because it was so quick, it wasn't too bad.

Brighton still making my life crazy. Her personality matches the way she came into the world. I think it's funny how labors mirror personalities a lot of the time. But even with all of the drama she brings, I sure love her and wouldn't trade her for anything!

Boston's Story

Where to begin!

With this pregnancy there was just a lot more pain on a daily basis. Back pain, stomach pain, hip pain, heart burn... needless to say I didn't enjoy this pregnancy as much.

So Thursday started out like a normal achy day. Brighton and I headed over to the Long Beach Town Center so she could run around, with me moving as minimal as possible. After walking around Carters, and playing on the playground for about an hour, we decided to go order some Super Mex and head home to Daddy for some lunch. On our way out we saw Amy and Audrey and stopped to chat for a bit and let our girls eat since they were starving. While we were chatting, I started getting a stomach ache... just kind of like my whole stomach just hurt. Which, like I said, really wasn't anything new. It was pretty hot out, and between the heat and being hungry I decided to say goodbye to the Thompsons and head to the car to get the A/C going.

We ate the rest of our lunch at home with Braden around noon, and then I went upstairs to put Brighton down for her nap. My stomach still really hurt, and it hadn't gone away... and eating 3 tacos, beans and rice sure didn't help anything. After Brighton was in her crib, I went and laid down for a few minutes before I had to leave to teach piano hoping it would subside.

The pain was constant, and just a little worse than other days but nothing too crazy. Braden left for work about 1:15, and my mother-in-law came over to babysit so I could go teach. I had been thinking for the last hour, "I don't know if I can teach through this pain!" but it was my last day of lessons before my "maternity leave" so I kept going back and forth in my mind whether or not I thought I could handle it. I told my mother-in-law that I was considering canceling piano and going to the hospital instead just to be safe. She said, "Every labor is different!" That got me a little nervous so I decided to go to the hospital.

I was so sure I wasn't in labor, but I really hadn't felt the baby move since the stomach ache started, so I thought, "better be safe than sorry".

I called Braden to tell him I was going in to get checked out, but assured him I wasn't in labor and that I'd call him later.

I got to the hospital about 2:20. I told them about my pains, and that Dr. Moore said to come in if I had anything significant going on. I guess Dr. Moore saw me walk in or something, because she called right then and asked the nurse, "Did my patient Jodee Christensen just come in? Check her really fast, because if she's in labor I don't want to go home and I'm just on my way out."

They settled me into Labor Room 5, got me wrapped up with the heart rate and contraction monitors and then checked me for dilation. I was a 3.

Dr. Moore then called my room and said she would like to keep me just to monitor things, maybe have me walk the halls a bit... She wanted to make sure I wasn't really in labor before sending me home and having a repeat of Brighton.

The nurse brought me 2 pitchers of water to drink to try and settle the baby down and make sure I was well hydrated. I had several contractions on the monitor and started feeling the pain coming and going more. After about 45 minutes of monitoring and 15 minutes of contractions 3 minutes apart, my nurse, Chi, checked me (which was seriously painful), and I was almost a 4. Chi told me she was sure I would have my baby that day because my contractions were regular and I had progressed almost a centimeter in an hour. Then she had me walk the halls. I had so much pain in my back I was shivering as I walked. I was talking to my mom as I walked and my voice was so shaky, but I couldn't help it! All I wanted to do was to lay down. I called Braden at 4:15 and told him we were going to have our baby and that he should leave work asap just in case my labor picked up. At 5pm, Dr. Moore called and told them to have me stop walking immediately because she wanted to make it back to the hospital to deliver me. I got back in bed and they started my IV. Chi checked me again, and I was a 5.

Chi asked if I wanted an epidural, to which I replied "yes please." I considered going natural again, but after being assured that it would not effect my chances of tearing and seeing that this labor was going to be a lot longer I opted for medication. She paged the anesthesiologist Dr. Tong a.k.a Drug Dealer, and then we waited.

Braden arrived at about 5:20. I had about 10 - 15 minutes of contractions 2 minutes apart that were really intense right before Dr. Tong came and I was really glad that he did! It was pretty weird to feel him stick the needle in my back, and I jerked just a little, but it really wasn't too bad. He was a super funny guy and did a great job. I was completely numb within 15 minutes.

Stacy came by to chat for a bit, and we just relaxed and watched the Laker game (not my idea... but I didn't really mind with the drugs :) Dr. Moore came a little before 8pm and broke my water. I was still a 5 so she ordered a "little shot of pitocin" to get things rolling. She said, "If history repeats itself, we'll have this baby out in 30 minutes".

They started the pitocin at about 8:50. I was waiting to start feeling pressure and the urge to push, but not much was happening. I could feel some pressure pretty high up, but nothing even close to wanting to push. About 15 minutes with the pitocin, I noticed the babies heart rate start to drop pretty regularly on the monitor. Dr. Moore and a few nurses came in to check on me, and said that either I was dehydrated, or the baby was ready to come out. Dr. Moore checked me and I was a 10 and the baby was +1. As the nurses were getting things ready I said, "Oh ya, I think I can feel that something wants to come out"... Dr. Moore told me to start pushing, so I closed my eyes and gave it all I had. One nurse said, "Wow! You're a great pusher!" I was really nervous I wouldn't push well not feeling anything, so I was happy to hear that. One more big push, and Dr. Moore put our sweet girl on my stomach at 9:19pm. (Almost 30 minutes exactly from the start of the pitocin)

All I could say was, "That's it! We're done?", "She's so TINY!" and "She sounds like a cat."

Braden cut the umbilical cord and they got precious Boston all cleaned up. She looked just like Brighton with her huge mouth wide open screaming. We are so in love with her!

It is crazy to me that I actually got exactly what I wanted with this labor. Since Brighton's labor, I've always said that I think a 4-6 hour labor with an epidural would be the way to go. But I'll take the 7 hours... or really I would have gone all day with that epidural and calm surrounding compared to Brighton's birth. It was such a different experience, and really a great one. (Not the most exciting story though ;). So for those who are wondering... Boston's labor was WAY "easier", if having a baby is really easy, compared to Brighton's.

We spent both nights in the hospital, and Boston was an angel. She's much more sleepy than her sister was, but I'm guessing that is contributed to the fact that she was early. Recovery has still been great since I am sans stitches, but my body and internal functions are much more sore. It's amazing how much work your body goes through to sustain a life and push it out. But really I can't complain.

I'm so happy she is here and healthy and we can start adjusting to life as a family of 4.

Brighton's first time seeing Boston
"Baby!"

Going home

First Bath

First Dr. Appt. She only lost 1 ounce! Still 6 pounds :)

Brighton sure loves to hold her baby sister and snuggle with her.

Precious Baby Boston