He's here - the Labor

Meet Kollin Alexander Kirkman! 9lbs 6oz, 21 inches long. Birthday: September 15, 2010.

I know you are all dying for details so I am going to do this in a few different blogs. First, the labor. Ken and I decided early in the pregnancy that we wanted to have the baby naturally (no drugs). So, we took a 12 week course and did as much preparation as we could to make this happen.

We went to our 41 week visit on the 14th and my Doctor basically told us we were going to be induced on Thursday (the 16th of September). I was not too happy about it but understood the reasoning behind it. That night I went home and started making proper arrangements for the dog to be boarded etc.

Around 1:00 in the morning, I woke up with labor pains. This is not new for me. I had been having false labor pains on and off for about 2 weeks. They were always at night between Midnight and 3am. So, I assumed this was the same thing. I went into the front room and waited them out. By 4am, they hadn't stopped, in fact,they seemed to be intensifying. I thought, well our class instructor said taking a bath could make them stop if they are really false. I drew a bath and stepped in. That didn't work. In fact, they got worse. A LOT worse. It was now 5:07am. Time to wake up Ken and see if my coach could help me.

Ken timed the next few contractions and worked on the pressure points we did in class. That was heaven! Those pressure points helped more than I ever thought possible. Turns out, the contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 and a half minutes. Time to go to the hospital - NOW! Ken went into super man mode. He got extra water for the cat, finished packing our hospital bags, got the car seat in the car, put a towel down on my chair (just in case my water broke. Who wants to clean that mess up?), and helped me with every contraction. He was amazing! I joked with him on the wait out the door, "watch, we will get there and they will send us home because we are still dilated to a 2."

By 5:45 we were on our way to the hospital. It felt like he was going warp speed. He claims he never went more than 10 over the speed limit but I thought he was going so fast I was going to get car sick. Ken did a great job getting us there safely. We were checked into our room by 6:30. The poor nurses barely had time to do all their paper/computer work while helping us through the contractions. While Ken was pushing on my back, one of the nurses would push on my knees doing counter pressure. WOW that was great. Between Ken and the nurses, each contraction was manageable.

Dr Rappleye was able to make it to the hospital by 7:30 or so. Honestly I lost track of time. All I know was that the nurses told me not to push when I wanted to because he wasn't here yet. My water broke mid contraction somewhere right after he arrived. He got me in position and told me to push shortly after that. I was on the bed and pushing by 8:00 and was able to have Kollin in my arms by 8:44. I only know this time frame because I would look at the clock after a few pushing contractions. In class, one of our videos showed a woman pushing for over 2 hours so I kept that in the back of my mind. "OK, 15 minutes down, you can do this Angie." Hooray for only 45 minutes!!!

I did yell at the doctor once. He told me to stop pushing mid contraction with no explanation. No one should tell a laboring woman to stop without telling her why. They hurt like a son of a gun if I don't push, I am pushing darn it!

Kollin's cord had already stopped pulsing so Dr Rappleye clamped it and asked Kenny to cut it almost immediately. Kenny cut the cord as the nurses did a little clean up and Dr Rappleye got to work cleaning me up. They let us keep Kollin in the room and on my chest nursing for about an hour before they weighed, measured etc in the room. He never left us until we told the nurses it was OK. Even then, he was in the delivery room so we were a part of everything.

I love the Intermountain Medical Center! We couldn't have asked for a better birthing experience. My only regret was not waking Ken up earlier. The poor guy. No one deserves to be woken up at 5 am and have to go into super man mode.

Thanks sweetie pie for all you did. You are such a wonderful partner. I could not have gone through the pregnancy, the delivery or the past few days without you. I love you!!!! You are so cute with Kollin. I love to watch you with him. You are a great, hands on Daddy already. You amaze me.