Are you guys ready for this one? I've only just started typing and already I know this is going to be a long one!
Monday morning I could not sleep. I woke up at about 2:30 and laid in bed. As I was laying there I got the feeling that my baby was going to come today. At about 3:30 I was still awake and I felt a little trickle down below and thought maybe I just needed to go to the bathroom. (Sorry if this is TMI) I got up and went potty and thought I was just having a little extra discharge and thought maybe my body really was getting ready for labor and went back to bed and didn't think too much of it. As I laid there I thought of all the things I could be doing instead but I just stayed in bed and snuggled with Jacob. I had a few contraction, nothing major or consistent. I stayed awake until about 6:00 when I was able to drift back off for about an hour. When I woke up for the day I went on a cleaning frenzy. Not necessarily because I was nesting, but more because I knew my parents were coming down on Wednesday and I wanted my house to be ready for them.
Through out the morning as I cleaned I kept having little trickles that I just chalked up to extra discharge. Mostly I felt them when I was changing positions, like going from sitting to standing or something like that. I didn't really have many more contractions though so I thought maybe I would have to wait another day for this baby to come, but when I had been in bed that morning I was sure my baby was going to come that day! At about 2:30 in the afternoon though I went to the bathroom and when I stood up and walked out of the bathroom and I felt a trickle again. So I went back in to take care of it and every time I stood up I would get another trickle. Pretty soon it wasn't just a little trickle anymore. It started running down my legs and I knew that what I had thought was extra discharge was actually amniotic fluid and that my water had broken early that morning.
I felt a little silly for not realizing what had happened sooner, but when you think of water breaking you think of this big dramatic experience where you have a big gush flowing out of you at the grocery store or what not. Anyway I jumped in the shower and had Jacob start getting stuff ready. Seriously I was not quite prepared for it to happen that day. I was 5 days late with Rachel and was fully expecting to be late this time too, so I didn't have a bag packed for either me or Rachel and I just had a few more things that had to be done around the house before we could leave.
We told Rachel what was going on and told her we needed her to stay with a friend while Mommy and Daddy went to the hospital to get baby Kent. She was totally okay with it and super excited to play with her friend Sam.
Here is one last family picture of the three of us.
At the hospital
We got to the hospital at about 5:30 in the evening and they sent us to triage. They checked me and said my water had indeed broken and I was dilated to 3 cm and 80% effaced and I was going to be staying the night. By about this time my contractions were finally starting to kick in on their own, coming about every 2 minutes, but because it had been so long since my water had broke the doctor ordered that I be put on pitocin (even though that was totally against what I wanted). They also put me on antibiotics because it had been over 12 hours since my water had broke.
With Rachel I went into labor on my own and didn't have anything to augment my labor. It was just my body doing what it needed to do to get my baby out, and I loved it. This time with the pitocin and with my membranes ruptured was so different. The contractions much more intense and harder to focus through. After about 5 hours I asked the nurse to come in and check me to see how far along I was so that I would know how much longer I would have to deal with the contractions. She checked me and said I was only about a 6 maybe 7 centimeters dilated. I was so disappointed. I was sure that I had to be further along then that! She left the room and I had maybe another 3 contractions and I felt like I needed to push. I called the nurse back in and I told her, "I know you just checked me but I'm feeling really pushy!" She checked me again and said, "You are an 8 but let me still feel while you have a contraction." I had one more contraction and she said "Actually you are complete and this baby is coming out now!" The doctor was in the hall and only had time to quickly put his gown and gloves on because I was already pushing that baby out. I pushed through 2 maybe 3 contractions and he was out. I did have to stop in the middle though because his arm was positioned in such a way that if I had pushed right then he would have torn me open pretty badly, but once they gave me the go ahead, he was out. I only had a few very small tears and only had to get one stitch which was so nice and different than with Rachel. He was born just before midnight at 11:46 pm. I thought for sure he was going to wait til the 21st so he could share a birthday with President Monson, but he just couldn't wait another minute!
He weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces (3 more ounces than Rachel) and was 20 inches long (a half inch shorter than his sister).
The proud daddy!
Jacob was so awesome! He sat by me and held my hand the whole time. He was super cute and snuck me a few pretzels and chips when the nurse was out of the room because I was starving!
I am so in love with my little man! He is so sweet and so perfect! It is amazing to see the little wiggly baby that I have been growing inside me for the last 9 months! He has these bright little eyes that like to just look around and take everything in.
Meeting the sister!
Jacob picked Rachel up from my friends house very first thing in the morning and took her home and got her ready for the day. As soon as they were ready, he brought her in to meet the little guy. As they were driving to the hospital Jacob was telling her how Baby Kent came out of mama's tummy and she said to him, "And born too!" I'm not sure where she learned the word born, but it made me laugh when he told me. She is such a smart little girl.
She like her baby brother right off. She came right in and climbed on my bed with me and I let her hold him. I asked her what she thought of Baby Kent and she said, "Yike it!"
She was especially glad to see her mama though, and I was so glad to see her too. I had never been away from my Rachel girl for so long, and I missed her so much!
My parents were planning on coming down on Wednesday (my due date) to help with Rachel and stuff while I had my baby. My mom also likes to go into the births of her grandchildren and she does a lot to help out the laboring moms. Well because it took me so long to realize my water had broke, they weren't able to get there in time for the actual birth, but they drove all night long anyway to get here to see Kent and to help out with Rachel.
Here they are after driving the 9 1/2 hours. They were pretty excited to see this new little guy.
His hair
During the hearing test
The hospital policy is such that we had to stay at least 24 hours after Kent was born and since they don't do discharges in the middle of the night we had to wait til Wednesday morning to go home. I couldn't wait to get out of there! I just wanted to get to my own home where I didn't have nurses coming in at all hours of the night waking me and my baby up and where I could be with my family. I was missing my husband and little girl something awful!
Rachel was missing me pretty bad too! Jacob said every time they left the hospital with out me she would just bawl. :( It's nice to know that she needs me!
It was a long crazy adventure, and now the real adventure at home begins!
