Walker's Birth Story

Monday May 14th, 2018:

Monday morning I had an appt with my OB to sweep my membranes and talk about an induction. I was nervous about going over my due date again and having a really big baby and needing a c-section. My Dr was willing to induce me before my due date, but after 39 weeks. But she wanted to sweep my membranes to give my body a chance to go into labor on its own. 

Welp, between 37-39.5 weeks, I had my membranes swept a total of 5 times, and still did not go into labor. 

That morning we came in for the 5th sweep. I was dilated to 5 and having some contractions, but they were mild Braxton Hicks, so I didn't think much of them. My Dr told us to not go home just yet and to walk around for about an hour and if I have more contractions, then I needed to go up to labor and delivery triage.

After walking around the hospital, up and down stairs, trying everything to help get me into labor, I did have more contractions and I thought my water broke a little bit, so we headed up to triage. They put monitors on me, gave me some water, and called my Dr in. She said my water wasn't broken, but they noticed Walker's heart rate dropped when I was having contractions. They said that alone was enough to admit me. So the induction began, we were admitted and having a baby!

By this time it was around 9:30 in the morning. They first they started an IV of fluids to help with Walker's heart rate. We waited another 2-3 hours and then they got me started on Pitocin to help regulate my contractions. My Dr wanted to break my water to help things progress quicker and I wanted the epidural before she did that. So we waited for what seemed like forever to get an epidural. Once the epidural was in and working, my Dr came in and broke my water around 2pm. There was so much fluid that came out my Dr said "Well, that's why your belly looked so big. You had all that fluid in there. Yep, you're definitely gonna have about an 8.5 lb baby." 

That's what they told me with Waylon too, and he was 9 lbs 6 oz.

I could tell the hormones were getting to me, and having the epidural and not being able to move around, things get to you. Cameron came back from getting food at the galley and I was crying haha I wanted our other son, Waylon, with us. I missed him. That was the longest I've ever been away from him, and I just wanted our little family together.

Once I gathered myself together again. The nurses brought in the peanut yoga ball to help with dilation. My OB had already ended her shift, so another Dr would be delivering Walker. We were getting close to the end of the day and they had upped my pitocin. My contractions were much stronger and about 2 minutes apart. It didn't take long and I was finally at a 10. 

This time around I was determined to not spend 3 hours pushing, again. My hope and goal was to push for an hour or less. This time Cameron and I had a plan to help me push. I could barely get my shoulders off the bed, so I asked him to put an arm behind me and lift me while I pushed.

At 11:45pm, we started pushes. I asked the nurse to bring in the mirror because it helps me to see my progress and I can push myself more. And just like with Waylon's delivery, I threw up right before we started pushes. While pushing, I noticed some pain near my tailbone. The nurse said that Walker was face up and facing my left hip, so the back of his head was on my tail bone. But once I pushed him down some more, the pain was gone. At midnight, the Dr came in ready to catch Walker. During the next few pushes I threw up some more. I pushed a few more times and I finally had Walker crowning. When I got his head out Amniotic fluid shot across the room haha I actually had no idea this even happened, Cameron told me about it later. 

The nurse told me to take a break and breathe in more oxygen, but I didn't want to, my body just wanted to push. I did stop for a second to get some air to prep for the next push. The Dr started taking off the end of the bed ready to catch Walker. I remember thinking "At this point with Waylon, I had one push left. So that's it Chels, one more push and he's here." So I gave it my all, I pushed and pushed and pushed. During this push, Walker pulled a 360 move and he went from face up to face down. He still wasn't out yet. His shoulders were barely through. His shoulders never got stuck, they were just a little snug. Everyone kept telling me "Almost there, one more push, he's almost there, just give it one more push." I gave one last big push, and he was out! at 12:33am our little Walker was here. A total of 45 minutes of pushing. I remember telling Cameron, "I didn't even break a sweat this time!" haha

They laid Walker on my belly, Cameron cut the cord and Walker's hand clasped around my finger. He was crying, of course, so I started talking to him and he instantly stopped. I felt his legs and they felt smaller than Waylon's, so I thought, "Maybe my Dr was right, maybe he will only be 8 lbs.". They let me hold Walker as long as I wanted before they weighed and measured him. I was very curious about his weight, so I let them take him and weigh him. As I'm laying in the bed, Cameron is standing in front of the scale so I couldn't see the numbers, so I just waited patiently for them to say the weight out loud. Except the only words out of anyone's mouth was "Oh my gosh!" Gasps were everywhere, The nurse looked at me with her hands over her mouth in shock. I looked around and kept saying "What? What is it??" But nobody answered! So I said "Somebody needs to say something now! What? What is it??" And the nurse just said "Look!" Cameron stepped back to reveal the scale. 10lbs, 3 oz. I was FLOORED! I was so shocked! I was so terrified of having a 10 lb baby and not being able to delivery that baby vaginally. I could not believe I had just delivered a baby that big, and how easy it was to get him out! 

I truly underestimated the capability of what our bodies can do. 

We spent the next 38 hours in the hospital before we were finally discharged. Luckily, everyone is healthy and doing well. I can't believe how quickly my body is recovering. I feel like I've bounced back quicker this time.

Waylon is so in love with his baby brother, and he has made this transition much easier on us. we're so excited to be a family of 4 now and I can't wait to see Walker grow and develop his little personality.

Labor and Delivery

Tuesday July 28th:

I had a Dr's appointment to check on my progress. At this point I was 40 weeks and 3 days. The first thing my Dr said when she came in the room was " I can't believe you're still pregnant". So we talked to her about getting induced and she was more than happy to help us out with that! She cautioned that we could schedule an induction date, but if other girls come in and there are no rooms available, then we would get bumped to another time or day. One of the nurses was calling the hospital to see when we could be induced. To our surprise, they scheduled us for 6:00 AM the next morning!!! We were beyond excited because the 29th happens to be Cameron's Dad's and Grandad's birthday!! That night we hardly slept because we were so excited to meet our little boy.

Wednesday July 29th:

We were up by 4:00 AM and at the hospital by 5:30 AM. We were waiting to see if they had a room available and they did! We were so excited because we were officially admitted to the hospital to have our baby! We were lucky we got there when we did because within a few hours every delivery room was full! We got set up in our room and they start me with an IV. When they tried to put the needle in my left wrist, they hit a valve in my vein and I had started to pass out. They let me calm down and they put the IV in my right hand. They immediately started me on Pitocin to help regulate and speed up my contractions. I was dilated to 3 and 80% effaced, which they said was a good start because most women that get induced start at 0. Luckily my mom was able to fly in from Arizona in time to be there whenever Waylon decided to make his arrival.
By 8:00 AM I was dilated to 6, and Dr Cook, my OB, said that we would most likely have Waylon here before the end of the day. 

The contractions started to get more intense and more painful, so they had the anesthesiologist come in and give me the epidural, which honestly wasn't painful to get at all. Soon my legs went numb, and I could still feel the pressure of my contractions but they weren't nearly as painful as they were. Once I was numb, they broke my water. At 11:00 PM I was finally dilated to 9 with just a small part of my cervix still in the way. 

Thursday July 30th:

Around 12:15 AM it was time to start pushing! An hour later the nurse noticed Waylon's heartbeat started to drop and she had me turn on my side to help calm him down, luckily it helped and we were able to keep pushing. Another hour later I was still pushing. I was starting to get frustrated and I was extremely tired. I was falling asleep in-between pushes and I was thinking I didn't have the strength or endurance to get our little man here. That's when the nurse brought in the mirror. I didn't want it because it was just another thing to think about, but it honestly helped to see my progress and to see Waylon starting to crown. Once his head had crowned my body just took over and kept pushing. I felt a pop, which I thought was my hip, and I remember looking at the Dr and asking if my hip had just broke, but she just looked at me and said 'Keep Pushing'. I gave one last push and I felt the Dr pull him out. I had my eyes closed while pushing and when I felt him come out I was so shocked by the feeling I opened my eyes really quickly to see our big baby boy, and my first thought was " He is so big, there is no way I just pushed him out!" Luckily, I only had to get one stitch because I hardly tore.

During the pushes the nurses noticed some Meconium coming out and knew that there was a chance that Waylon had some in his lungs. So as soon as he came out they placed him on my stomach, Cameron cut the cord, and they whisked him away to have his lungs vacuumed out. It all happened so fast, I didn't get to see Cameron cut the cord. They cleaned up Waylon and weighed him and when they announced that he was 9 lbs 6 oz, everyone in the room was shocked and couldn't believe that I had just delivered a 9 lb, almost 9.5 lb baby! After that, they quickly did skin to skin with Waylon and I, and then they took him off to the nursery to be observed. 

The nurses noticed that Waylon's breathing would pick up very quickly if anyone moved him. He would have 120 Breaths Per Min, instead of the normal 60 BPM. So even when we did go see him in the nursery a few moments later, we weren't allowed to hold him. This was a very hard time for Cameron and I because we just wanted to be with our baby boy. They kept Waylon in the nursery for 30 hours, and every 3 hours I was in there to nurse him, the rest of the time I was supposed to be resting, but that was extremely difficult to do knowing we couldn't be with Waylon.

All day Thursday any nurse we saw would say "You delivered that 9 pounder?" , "You're the one with the toddler in the nursery??" , "That baby came out of you??". I was pretty famous on the labor and delivery floor for having the biggest baby in the nursery.

Friday July 31st:

I knew I was getting discharged the next morning, but we weren't sure if Waylon would be. But he had been making such great progress, that they let him stay in our room with us for 24 hours to see how he did. We finally had our little guy with us, but every few hours someone would come in the rom to either take my vitals or Waylon's, and Cameron and I felt like we weren't able to have that family bonding time. But Waylon did extremely well being in our room with us, and we took in every moment with him.

Saturday August 1st:

We pretty much knew we had the green light to take Waylon home with us, but they were still checking his vitals and making sure his breathing was ok. He passed the tests and both mine and Waylon's discharge papers were being worked on by 8 AM. By 10 AM we had my papers done and ready to go. But we had to wait another 2 hours for Waylon's. We signed his discharge papers and we were finally leaving the hospital with our sweet Waylon. It was such a relief to be home where we could finally be a family and not worry about being bombarded with nurses and doctors. It was a very long and tiring 4 days, but we are loving every minute of having our little guy with us.