{Warning... This is crazy long and for Journaling purposes, don't feel obligated to read this whole novel :)}
I have only had one of my kiddos surprise me as far as labor goes. All the other boys were induced and while that is so nice as far as scheduling goes, its also so much fun to have a surprise. I wanted the surprise with this little guy SO much! The plan was NOT to be induced. I was seeing Dr. Ott (AMAZING DR.!!) and told him what I wanted and he was so great. He said he would basically let me do whatever I wanted with the labor and he would only step in if he thought the baby or I were in danger. I loved that.
I decided I wanted to try the Hypnobabies method of childbirth, I had been looking online for different methods and talking to friends about what they had done and this sounded the best to me. My cute friend taught Hypnobabies where she used to live and was going to let me use her kit, unfortunately, it went M.I.A. and I didn't have the budget or time left in the pregnancy to order the kit online. My most wonderful friend Jade had loned her Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way book. So even though I didn't go to classes, I went with the Bradley method. It was really good and taught me a lot about childbirth that I didn't really understand before. There are some not so desirable 70's labor pics, so prepare yourself for that if you ever read it. I am so glad I read it because it made a huge difference in my labor.
Saturday, Aug. 28th was Casen's 2nd birthday (i will post his party someday).
Tuesday, August 31 was my last Dr. appointment. The baby was due Sept. 8, but I was already 5 cm dilated. After the dr. checked me he said, "Why don't you come over to the Hospital today and lets have this baby today." I told him there was no way I could do that because Keagan's birthday party was scheduled for Wednesday and I really didn't want to be induced. He just shook his head and smiled. He said that was fine, but would I please come in Thursday morning to be induced. I again told him I couldn't. He just smiled and told me that was fine too, but if I wanted Kelly to be at the labor he strongly recommended that I get induced because at 5cm and this being my 5th baby Kelly might not have time to drive the 1 1/2 hrs home from Vegas if I went into labor on my own. I told him I would think about it and call the office later.
Wednesday, September 1st was Keagan's 8th birthday and pokemon party (I will also post pics of this someday).
After talking to Kelly on the phone we decided that I really should be induced because as much as I wanted to be surprised when I went into labor, I wanted Kelly to be there more. Wednesday night after the birthday party we went to work. Jade came over and we looked up everything we could find about inducing labor. Jade rubbed my feet for a long time trying to make me start contracting. She is amazing!! My cute sister MaKell was there helping out too. Kelly also rubbed my feet and joined in the lets start labor party. No luck.
Thursday September 2 I woke up around 6 am so disappointed that I wasn't having contractions. I told Kelly that I was going to go to the gym and see if that would help. Just then the phone rang and it was the hospital. They wanted me to be there at 7. We got ready and left. My wonderful sister got the kiddos off to school for us.
We got to the hospital and got settled in. I was feeling slight cramping but I had to really pay attention to it or I couldn't even notice. I told the nurse that I wanted to do labor naturally and didn't want pitocin. I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to do it if I had the pitocin. She called the dr. and told him that I didn't want pitocin, he said as long as I was contracting on my own I didn't have to have it and that he would be in around 8. They hooked me up to the machines and my cute nurse said I was contracting so she didn't give me the pitocin. At 8am Dr. Ott came in to check me and broke my water. I was 6 cm so I had high hopes that with my water broken I would start contracting and this would be super fast. Jade and MaKell dropped the kids off at my awesome friends Lacey and Josh's house and then came to the hospital to be my labor cheerleaders along with coach Kelly.
My contractions were like nothing. I could hardly feel them and I was getting really impatient. I wanted to see my baby! Then my nurse made the comment that I had such a great dr. She said that he was just hanging out in the dr. lounge waiting for me, and that he was already on vacation and just waiting for me to have the baby before he went on his family trip to Tahoe. After that I asked for some pitocin to get things moving faster. The nurse assured me that we could always turn it down if I wanted, but she only turned it up to a 2. I still couldn't really feel it. I asked to be checked and I was 7cm. I asked her to turn it up more to see if I would dialate faster and she did. Holy smokes, this is when I REALLY started feeling it! Yikes! Jade had taught Kelly and I this awesome trick of pushing really really hard on some points on my knees to help contraction pain. Best trick ever!! I was trying to stay relaxed and roll with the contractions, but I was hurting. Poor Kelly was pushing his entire body weight on my knees, MaKellie and Jade even jumped in. If I could have had a mac truck pushing my knees I would have asked for it. The more pressure the better. That was such a help. Thank you Jade! The contractions were still killer but the knee thing really took the edge off. At one point I was hurting so bad, I got all sweaty and felt pretty crappy. Jade got me a rag to put on my forehead and Makell played mom to me since my mom was in Nauvoo and couldn't be there. Natural childbirth was on my bucket list and this was my last chance. I couldn't have done it without Kelly, Jade, and MaKellie. They were incredible! The book I had read said that when you get to the point where you don't think you can do it anymore, you are almost done. My contractions were so long and painful and one on top of the next. I asked my nurse to check me and she said I was 8 1/2 cm. She called the dr in and he checked me and asked me if I wanted to push. I was all for it! As soon as I started pushing the pain of the contractions would leave. It was awesome! Then Dr. Ott said, "Ok Mary, the baby is coming down. Just before he comes out you are going to feel what is called The Ring Of Fire, it is going to hurt and this is when most women lose control, if you need to scream it's ok. Not what I wanted to hear, but I knew it was coming. Ring of Fire was right. Yikes! That was not comfortable but so fast. It was less than 10 min. from when the Dr. checked me to Krew laying on my chest. It was such an awesome feeling to meet my baby and to have accomplished one of my goals. He was so sweet and beautiful! Jade was filming, Kelly was being such a sweet and helpful husband and MaKell was taking pictures and holding the phone so my mom could hear everything. Krew looked great, except his whole face was purple! I was afraid he wasn't breathing. They said he was, then I thought maybe his face was covered in a purple birthmark. The nurse said it was just a bruise. I had never heard of that happening before, but apparently when babies come out fast they can get bruised. He was healthy, and happy and doing great! The nurses were so great. I told them I wanted him skin to skin when he was born and they said that was great. After he was born they asked me if they could put that stuff in his eyes and I said yes. They let me hold him as long as I wanted and told me they would weight him whenever I wanted. They were so accommodating. I loved it! They finally weighed him and he was 8lbs 3oz and 21 inches long. :) He looked so much smaller and Angie still doesn't believe he was that big.
Just after Krew was born I was sore for a few minutes, but then they gave me a frozen diaper, wierd, but incredible effective! After that I really wasn't sore. It was awesome! If that is the result of not having an epidural, then I highly recommend it! I recovered faster with this birth than any other birth. I really had almost no pain after he was born, with the exception of some cramping. Awesome! Thank you Krew.
It was so much fun to have my beautiful little guy. It was so much fun when Kellie brought the rest of the boys to see Krew. For the first time I had my whole family together. Knowing that we are done having kiddos is bittersweet but it was really cool to see all my kids faces and know that we are complete. I have to admit, I do wish I had one wearing a cute flower in their hair and a dress, but I LOVE my boys and I feel so blessed to have them.
I was thinking of going home Friday, but last minute I decided to stay. MaKell had come to spend the day with me and it was early day for the kiddos at school so Kelly brought the boys to see me. Kaiden threw up in the parking lot when they arrived at the hospital and that night they ALL got sick. Luckily Adam and Megan came to visit and see the baby and they came to pick me up from the hospital Saturday morning while Kelly (who was also sick) took care of all the sick kids the millions of loads of sick kid laundry. Adam and Megan took me to their hotel room and let me stay with them. MaKell had offered to let me stay with her, but she ended up getting sick saturday as well. Later Saturday my wonderful in laws came into town and stayed at the same hotel in the next room and helped us out too. I felt so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful family members and friends when my mom and dad weren't able to be there in person.
My in laws invited me to sleep at the hotel with them again Sunday night, but Krew's biliruben levels were so high they had to bring over the bili lights and I didn't want to tote bili lights from the hotel back to the house. Sandra and I picked up a life time supply of Lysol at costco (along with a ton of food!) and we sanitized everything! Krew was under the bili lights for 8 nights, poor little guy. He really didn't seem to mind them at all. I just felt like he was deserted back in the bedroom. At his 2 week apt. he was still pooping meconium and his bili level was at 16 so they gave him a prescription and it helped a lot.
Krew is super loved by all his brothers, especially Casen and Kaiden. Casen is always saying, "Ku is so cute" and as soon as he starts crying Kaiden is always right there to pick him up and give him loves.
On the 18th of September Angie and Dominic flew in from Texas to take care of us. How lucky am I!! Lori also came to help us too. I was so excited to have my sisters there with me. They were amazing! They just jumped in and did everything for me! Poor MaKell had been my right had woman since Krew's birth and I was so glad she could have a little help with us. Kelly was so great when Krew was born, but Kelly had to go back to Vegas to work on Monday after the birth, so I was so thankful for all the help! Jade jumped in and did so much to help as usual. We had a blast and again I felt so blessed!
Now Krew is 2 1/2 months old and we are having so much fun with him. He is such a wonderful blessing to our family and I love that we are now complete!
