Giving Birth is Not For Wussies

I still cannot believe what just happened! I knew labor and delivery would be hard, but I was totally not prepared for the utter exhaustion of the whole process. So, here is the story of how Reese Kendrick came into this world. I will try not to be too graphic, but some things just can't be avoided.

I was scheduled at 8pm Sunday the 27th to have my labor induced. At about 2 am early Sunday morning I started having fairly regular, but not too intense contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. I immediately noticed the pain would start up high on my abdomen and move down and around my lower back. They were just a little uncomfortable! So, Cameron and I did not get a lot sleep that night. We thought maybe I would just go ahead and go into active labor before my scheduled induction. Well, the contractions kinda subsided, so no luck on getting started early. Cameron and I headed to the hospital at the appropriate time to get the party started.

We got back to the labor and delivery room and the nurses got my IV going right away. I was only 1cm dilated so we had to do something called Cervadil which helps prepare the cervix. The kicker is it has to stay in for 12 hours before they could start the Pitocin to really get things going. My first thought was "oh my gosh it's gonna be a looooooong night and day and this bed is so uncomfortable!" I started having really good contractions maybe around 2am. They started getting pretty intense so I asked for some pain medicine. The nurse told me she would have to call the doctor and probably check me which might mess up the cervadil so I tried to stick it out a little longer. About 3:30am I was trying to rest and took in a deep breath and my water broke when I exhaled. It was totally gross and totally unexpected. However, it was a blessing because that meant the nurse had to check my progress which meant I got some pain medicine...yay! Once I got the stadol I was good to go for a little while. Around 8 the nurse checked me again and I had progressed enough for her to call Dr. Paul to get the go ahead for the epidural. Once I got the epidural I could not feel anything and was able to get some rest. I did experience a pretty weird side effect of the epidural where I had uncontrollable shaking with slurred speech and chills. It did not scare me, but everyone else was kinda freaked out about it.

I started progressing really quickly going from 3cm to 7 cm in about 3.5 hours. Dr. Paul pedicted I would deliver between 12 and 1. That's when I stalled out for about 2 hours. My contractions started to wane and my dilation slowed considerably. Dr. Paul was a little concerned he might just not come on down. After a little while longer things picked up and Reese entered the world at 4:42 pm, 20 hours and 45 minutes after my labor was induced. He did not weigh quite as much as we were thinking, which was a blessing. He was a good 7lbs 14ozs and 20 inches long! I could not have done this without the help of my husband and my family and of course, Dr. Paul.

We are all very tired, but Reese has been a good baby. He really only cries when he's hungry, wet, or gassy. He does have his days and nights confused, but we're working on it. We had our first pediatrician visit yesterday and everything checked out perfectly! He weighed 7lbs 7ozs when left the hospital and was back up to 7lbs 11ozs at his doctor's visit. We go back in 2 weeks! Here are pictures of the whole experience!

Yay for the epidural!

Oh my goodness, give me some clothes!!

Dr. Paul and Reese

I love my Daddy!
Look at those cheeks!