It’s been 3 weeks with out little guy and I’m finally getting a brief moment to sit down, collect my thoughts, and write this post. I absolutely LOVE reading birth stories. Every single one is unique and a woman’s journey into motherhood (be it the first or fifth time) is beautiful! I shared Kate’s birth story about 3 weeks after she was born and received an outpouring of love and support from other women regarding my experience and so I knew I wanted to share Max’s as well. Not to mention, my blog tends to be an online, public diary where I can share my thoughts and experiences. I often revisit post just to remember the feelings I had in those moments!
If you want to read Kate’s eventful, emotion story, here’s the link!
As I said above, Kate’s labor and delivery was wild. My family was 9 hours away, I labored forever, and it ended in a c-section. Max’s was a bit more chill, though not without it’s drama. Keep reading below!!
First, I must start by reminding you all that my pregnancy with Max was completely unplanned. I think this had a lot of affect on how I reacted to my pregnancy and how I felt going into delivery. Here is the full post on how we found out we were expecting this little guy. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I feel like I enjoyed this pregnancy much less being that I didn’t plan on it happening (even though I didn’t love being pregnant with Kate either) but I was much calmer and a bit more nonchalant about the whole delivery process. That’s not to say that we weren’t VERY excited to meet our boy, but the whole thing felt a bit more low key. I guess maybe there was less anticipation – but equally as much love, I promise!
At 34 weeks pregnant, I had a little scare that sent me to the Hospital for monitoring. I had cramping and irritable contractions for 8+ hours and nothing I was doing was making them stop. Even after 3 doses of medication made to stop/slow contractions, the irritability didn’t subside. Obviously, everything ended up being just fine in the end, but that first episode of braxton hicks was JUST THE BEGINNING. I ended up having BH contractions pretty regularly for the remainder of my pregnancy.
This was miserable, honestly. I didn’t have a single pre-labor contraction with Kate. The first contraction that I had was the start of labor. This time around I felt like every few days I could be in labor. It was exhausting. Plus, I just wanted this little guy out!
By 38 weeks, I was DONE! But we had a c-section already scheduled for 39 weeks 1 day, so I knew the end was near. At my 38 week appointment, I hadn’t dilated even a sliver and my cervix wasn’t soft or effaced at all. BUMMER! So by then, I just knew that we’d be having the baby on the 13th of January as planned by scheduled C-section.
I’ll take a quick second to touch on the schedule c-section. I got a lot of questions about whether or not I’d be trying for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). I honestly never even thought about it. With the complications with my pelvis during Kate’s delivery, and the fact that it had only been 18 months since my last section, my doctor and I both agreed that another c-section was the right way to go. I know TONS of women (my mom included) who have had successful VBAC deliveries and I think that’s AWESOME! I truly believe that you should do WHATEVER is right for you and your baby. And finding a doctor that you trust is the key to insuring that your wants and your needs align.
Also, after having a section, I was super comfortable with this. I knew what to expect and a vaginal delivery kind of scared me a bit! Just being honest.
Back to the story. Here we are, 38 weeks 5 days pregnant and I had completely given up all hope of going into labor naturally. I went into labor at 38 weeks 5 days with Kate, so I had held out a bit of hope that maybe I’d do the same with Max. But as that Friday drew to a close, I felt good about the fact that everything would happen as scheduled on Monday morning!
In fact, that night before I went to bed, I told Keith that I was totally good with our Monday plan. Then I joked that because I was fine with it, I would likely wake up in labor in the middle of the night. He said, “I hope not” and we went to sleep.
And like clockwork, I woke up at 1 am from a contraction that felt BIG! It was deeper (weird way to describe it, but it was) and more intense that any of the false labor cramps that I’d had in the weeks previous. So from that point on, I’d laid awake in my bed waiting for the next one. An hour passed and I figured I had dreamt the contraction up and decided to go back to sleep. Before I could, the second one came!
I knew in my heart this was it – but I wanted to be sure before I woke anyone up. The bad news was that we were schedule to have some REALLY bad weather later that morning around 7am. This was only a problem because my mom was still at home 2.5 hours away and I didn’t want anyone driving in the storm. So I figured that I’d have to let her know between 3 & 4 am if she needed to head this way.
The contractions came about 15 minutes apart for the next hour and a half. I still didn’t wake anyone up but by 3:30, I knew I needed to call mom. So I quietly left the room where Keith was still sound asleep and called mom. I told her my next plan was to take a hot bath and see if the contractions went away or not. She said she was going to throw some stuff in a bag and wait for me to call at 4 am.
The bath did slow them down a little bit but they were still happening. When I called mom at 4, she was already on her way to Jackson! My dad encouraged her to go ahead and leave to avoid the weather and she was honestly too anxious to wait. Worst case scenario: she was a couple days early for the delivery that would for sure take place on Monday anyway!
I then woke up Keith just to let him know what was going on but told him he could sleep – since it would likely be a while. I put on self tanner (lol. might as well be tan)- Loving Tan 2 hour express – and crawled back in bed to see if I could get some rest. Spoiler alert – I totally didn’t.
Mom arrived around 7 am, and we all (excluding Kelsey who slept through all of it) got up! By then, my contractions were around 10 minutes apart. Over the next few hours they slowly. but surely. got closer and more intense. At around 9:30 am, we woke Kelsey up and we all started to get ready to go to the hospital. We alerted our family friend who volunteered to watch Kate if something like this happened and let her know we’d be calling when the time came.
At 11:30, my contractions were 5-7 minutes apart and I decided to call the hospital to let the know I was coming. So we called Carol to keep Kate, loaded up the car, and headed to the hospital.
I was having contractions the whole way there (though the adrenaline made them feel a little less painful) and even had a super long, very intense one as I was standing at the check in desk waiting for them to open the doors.
BUT JUST MY LUCK… I got undressed, hooked up to all the monitors, and didn’t have a single contraction for an entire hour and a half. When I say I was frustrated, I mean I was LIVID. When you go to the hospital in active labor, they always have to confirm it by monitoring your contractions and checking your cervix for dilation. And if they don’t see contractions, they’ll send you home.
I WAS NOT ABOUT TO GO HOME. I had been experiencing false labor pains for several weeks and I had experienced real labor with Kate so I KNEW this was it. My body was just betraying me. Hilarious, uterus, just hilarious! So after 1.5 hours of trying to will a contraction to happen, I basically begged the nurse to check my cervix. I said a silent prayer for progress and sure enough, I was 3 cm dilated. This still didn’t mean that they wouldn’t send me home, though. I still wasn’t actively contracting. The nurse said she would chat with the on call doctor (it was a Saturday and my doctor was not on call – bummer) and he would come in and let me know his thoughts. He might send me home or he might want to monitor me a bit longer.
In the next little while, Dr. Cook came in. He said that since I wasn’t dilated at ALL at my last appointment and I was already 3 cm today, he agreed that it was true labor. And it’s not completely uncommon for women to have a stall in their labor when adrenaline and excitement hits. This was all music to my ears but he truly became my best friend when he said, “So since you’re already schedule for a C on Monday, we might as well go ahead and have a baby right now. No use in waiting for a labor that is likely to start back up at any time! So if you’re ready, we’ll get everything going. You wanna have a baby today?” To which I replied, “Oh. I wasn’t leaving this hospital without one!”
I was a little sassy, maybe, but that’s ok!
The best part? The second he left the room, I had a contraction. A SUPER PAINFUL, really intense, looonnnggg contraction. It was so intense, the nurse had to come back in and adjust Max’s heart rate monitor because he apparently jumped out of the way during the contraction. And just like that, my labor restarted! It’s honestly the funniest, most annoying thing ever.
Over the next hour, I met with the anesthesiologist, whom I ADORE. He was so informative and since I’d had some trouble in recovery and bad referred pain after my last section, he made a few adjustments and assured me that it wouldn’t happen again this time.
They did a spinal block this time around instead of an epidural. The difference (and I’m not a doctor) is that with an epidural, you have a small catheter in your back that can continue to administer meds when needed. It lasts as long as necessary. A spinal block is one injection (smaller needle) and it last around 1.5 hours. I am a BELIEVER in the spinal block, my friends.
I thought my first section was fine. I was out of it, but aware. In pain but numbed. And the recovery was exhausting. I needed lots of help feeding Kate, and I couldn’t stop shaking. Keith still talks about how pale and frail I was after that experience. I know it probably has a lot to do with the fact that I labored for 12 hours before and the surgery was more emergent.
This time, they were able to give me all of the meds that I needed ahead of time (for gas, nausea, and referred pain) and we took our time. I was totally alert and responsive during the whole thing. We chatted with the doctors about the National Championship, joked about Max’s name (which is not JOE BURROW), and heard all about their families and lives. We laughed and joked – being two LSU grads in a room full of Mississippi State Alum who had mine and Max’s life in their hands!! Max was out in about 15 minutes and the surgery was over in an hour (maybe less).
Keith and I had a bet about his weight. I didn’t think he’d break 8lbs and Keith thought he’d be just over. We were both wrong. He was 8lbs 11oz and just a chubby as they come! I was in disbelief and couldn’t stop laughing about it! I also got to watch on a monitor as Keith brought Max out to meet the family. Watching (in silence since there was no sound) as he told them how much he weighed and watching them gasp was hilarious!!
In no time at all, I was in the recovery room and sitting up! I felt like a million bucks. At one point I did get super nauseous, but they quickly gave me some meds for it and I felt better very quickly. I was able to breastfeed Max easily and tell Keith that I just REALLY wanted a Dr. Pepper as soon as they would let me have one!
All in all, this delivery was almost enjoyable. I’ll look back on that surgery fondly. The recover this time has been good, but maybe a bit harder than with Kate. That’s probably because I have a 20 month old running around and a newborn who just wants to be cuddled all the time! But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
No delivery is without a little drama, but all in all, this one was fantastic! After the whole stalled labor debacle, I felt good about every little thing. Max came out ready to eat and has been a great eater with a good latch ever since. And he stole this Mama’s heart from the first moment I saw him.
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel having baby #2. I certainly didn’t feel as bonded to him in the womb as I did Kate, but I can already tell he’s going to be the sweetest little mama’s boy and I’m not even a little mad about it!
Max Timothy, you are the BEST surprise we’ve ever gotten! We love you SO VERY MUCH!
