Kirby Winston Miller
Born: October 27, 2009 at 4:36pm
Stats: 9 lbs 1 oz, 21" long, and 14.5" head
I was scheduled to be induced at 8pm on Monday, Oct 26. That day definitely went by SLOWLY! We mostly watched TV and played a little Rock Band until family started arriving around 3:30pm. Dinner for me was rather light - broth soup and jello - b/c they didn't want anything heavy in my stomach in case emergency surgery was needed.
We all drove to Duke Hospital around 7:30 and I was set up in the birthing room (it was actually the room that we stayed in the entire 3 days). We waited around a bit while the hospital staff set everything up, and the pitocin drip was started around 9:45pm. I think I was 3 cm dilated at that time.
Here I am, hooked up and waiting for the labor to progress. You can see that it's early on b/c I'm still smiling.
It wasn't easy for me to move around since I was hooked up to a lot of wires: pitocin drip through an IV, baby's heart rate monitor around my waist, contraction monitor around my waist, blood pressure cuff and heart rate monitor for me. I didn't really get out of bed much b/c of the wires and it was definitely difficult to go to the bathroom since everything (except the pitocin) had to be unhooked. And let me tell you..... a 9 month pregnant lady always has to go to the bathroom!
I had a false sense of how long it would take since Gary's sister was induced 2 times and both labors lasted less than 5 hours, but apparently, that's not how it's done at Duke Hospital. They prefer that labor happens slowly so that it's less likely that a c-section will be needed. The nurse said that moving around would help the labor progress more quickly, but as I mentioned above, it was difficult to move around much. At some point, I was tired of sitting in bed the whole time (especially since I couldn't sleep) so I just stood a bit next to the bed and sometimes used the birthing ball.
That was a LONG night! It was difficult to get any sleep b/c people kept coming in to check on my progress and frankly, I was too uncomfortable to sleep. Gary also didn't get much sleep b/c of the interruptions, so at least he was around to keep me company and help out when I needed to go to the bathroom.
At some point, things progressed enough for me to get the epidural. I was TERRIFIED of getting a needle in the spine, but it really wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. The hardest part of the procedure was when I tried to scoot up high enough on the bed so I could bend over a pillow to give them maximum view of my spine. I was nervous b/c I have scoliosis in the exact spot that they wanted to poke me, but I had previously scheduled a consultation with an anesthesiologist to make sure that everything would be ok. The person I met with suggested that I request someone with more experience (ie: not a resident) and I made sure to tell them as soon as they came in to discuss my options during the induction.
Throughout the next day (Tuesday) labor continued to progress slowly. Gary & I slept a little off and on and just waited. After lunch, I felt like I had been drugged and couldn't keep my eyes open - even after people came in to check my vitals. Later in the day, I realized that I started feeling the contractions. At first, I just noticed them more but it wasn't painful, but after a while they started to hurt. I ended up getting another epidural, but I'm not sure why the first one stopped working. My legs were still numb from the first epidural, but I felt everything from the waist up. I felt full on contractions while they were putting in the second epidural and HOLY CRAP they hurt! I don't see how people can go through labor with no pain meds!
Around 2:30-3:00 I began feeling the urge to have a bowel movement (which is actually the urge to push). I called the nurse, but she was on break. The "sub" nurse said that she'd let my nurse know once she was back from lunch. As soon as the "sub" walked out of the door, my water broke. The dr came in and had to break the sac again (he said they sometimes close) and thankfully that didn't hurt. At that time, I was dilated "10 cm with a lip" so he said that it would be just a while longer before I needed to push.
There was a bet amongst the staff about Kirby's weight. The midwife guessed 7.5-8 and others guessed around 7.5. Boy, were they wrong!
A female dr came in a while later and asked if I wanted to practice pushing so that I would know what to do when it came time. During this time, I had a dr, a dr in training, a midwife and a nurse helping. After 5 practice pushes, I asked if that was enough for practice and the dr said that I was in active labor and that I should keep going! Everyone was really great about being encouraging - apparently, I'm a rock star at pushing. :) Pushing was definitely the hardest part of the whole process! I tried several positions (all while on the bed since my legs were completely numb) and after 1 hour and 15 minutes I finally pushed him out! Even though I had an epidural I still felt him crowning and coming out and it wasn't pleasant. Again, I couldn't imagine anyone going through it without pain meds!
The main thing I remember about his birth was that I saw him pee as soon as he came out. :) They suctioned everything out of his head holes and placed him on my chest (pre-clean up).
While I was holding him, the dr and the nurse were pushing on my stomach - trying to massage my uterus (to help the passing of the placenta). Almost as soon as they took Kirby away to clean him up, I started to feel odd. My vision was hazy and I felt like I needed to close my eyes. However, when I closed my eyes, I still didn't feel right, so I'd open them again. I did this a few times before I decided to just leave them closed. After about a minute, I opened my eyes and realized that there were more people in the room and there was an urgency in people's voices. The IV came out of my right hand and they had trouble getting another one in my left hand b/c my hands were clammy.
During this time, my mom was next to me wiping my brow. Once I realized something was wrong, I asked my mom to find out what was going on. No one really answered - I guess b/c they were busy. :P Shortly after, I started feeling them sewing me up (from tearing the perineum). Ugh - that was gross! I begged my mom to push on the button to give me an extra dose of epidural meds, but for some reason the button wasn't dispensing the meds. Mom kept pushing the button until it released a dose, but I felt the needle go in twice before I went numb again!
They finally got everything under control and I was able to rest a bit. I found out later that I had a uterine hemorrhage and that's why I felt like I wanted to pass out. All I could think afterward was how lucky I was that I had a hospital birth instead of being at home b/c I could have died from the loss of blood!
Kirby, thankfully, was perfect! :) Gary stayed with me for most of the time b/c it scared him to see me with the drs working frantically to stop the blood loss (he said that I looked yellow like a Simpson character and my dad said I was pale white which made my freckles stick out).
Duke doesn't keep the babies in the nursery so we had no option but to have him room with us at night. Looking back, I really wish that we were able to send him to the nursery b/c we were both so tired from not sleeping the night before and I was trying to recover from labor. However, we managed. Gary did most of the work b/c my legs were still numb so I wasn't moving much. When I finally got out of bed to go to the bathroom, I left a huge blood trail like someone was killed in that room! When I finished going to the bathroom, I had to be helped back to bed b/c I almost passed out again. My blood test came back and I had lost a LOT of blood - enough that the dr asked me multiple times if I wanted a blood transfusion. He said that even if I took 2 bags of blood, it would still only get me to 28 (the blood test said 21 and 38 is normal). Since I was feeling ok (I didn't get dizzy again after that first trip to the bathroom), I said no. Instead, I got a prescription for iron pills (which worked b/c I was back to normal after 6 weeks).
Now that I look back on it, I was really lucky with breastfeeding. I was able to produce milk quickly and Kirby picked up sucking like a pro. We didn't have a lot of the issues that a lot of mom's have in the beginning and I'm very thankful for that! It was hard enough for both of us to learn - I couldn't imagine having issues!
Those are pretty much the highlights! It wasn't easy in the hospital b/c we'd never had to deal with a newborn and I was in bed most of the time b/c of the recovery. Both sets of grandparents were there for Kirby's birth and thankfully, my mom stayed with us for the first 2 weeks to help us out at home. Kirby's lucky that he's so cute b/c it made the difficult times worth it. :)
Here's Kirby - getting ready for his first car ride home.
