Birth story

It has been two weeks since our little boy arrived on May 8th and I figured it was high time I post the details of his birth story. I was due on May 5th, but that date came and went. Justin took these pics of me on my due date:

A few of my friends were telling me that I didn't even look pregnant from behind. I just figured they were trying to be nice about my size, but it was actually true: On May 7th (which happens to be the birthday of both my sister Stephanie and my brother-in-law Jeff) I headed to work as usual, even though I was having slight contractions. After a few hours at work my contractions were about ten minutes apart and getting a little stronger, so I decided to head home and see if this was the real thing. I ended up having to call Justin a few times at his work because he was away from his desk. That figures, right? On my drive home I had three contractions pretty close together so I started to get excited, thinking this was really it! Justin and I arrived home about the same time and decided to just relax for a bit at home and time the contractions, but within an hour they were fading away. Needless to say, I was pretty upset and told Justin we needed to take a walk. We took about a half mile stroll and I was still feeling next to nothing. I told Justin there was no way I was going back to work (it was a little after noon), but he was considering logging on to work from home so he could still be productive. We camped out in the living room for awhile, just watching TV, and within an hour or so my contractions were picking up again. By 3pm they were about 5-8 minutes apart. Even though they weren't very strong and weren't painful at all, I decided to go ahead and call my doctor to notify him and ask what we should do. Since we live half an hour away from the hospital in Moscow they instructed us to go ahead and come up so they could check me out and see if I was making any progress. Here I am right before we headed to the hospital (of course I am making our bed so we didn't come home to an untidy house):We arrived at Gritman Medical Center in Moscow between 4 and 4:30pm and they hooked me up to a monitor to see how things were going. I was having pretty long contractions, but I still wasn't all that uncomfortable. My doctor came and talked to us and basically told me that while I was contracting and was at 3 centimeters, I didn't really look like I was in labor. He told us we could head home, but since we lived a half hour away he was willing to go ahead and get things going by breaking my water. At this point we just decided to go with that option. We were too excited to head home without a baby. So, Dr. Minudri broke my water around 5pm and we were ready to go. I promptly called my mom to let her know what was going on.

And then things got interesting... :) The doctor had told me that things could go quickly once he broke my water, or it could take awhile. Let me tell you, it did not take long AT ALL! Within a half hour I was having steady, hard contractions and could hardly move. I figured that the contractions would be spaced a little apart so I could regroup in between, but they weren't. So, my plans for a natural birth went quickly out the window. I told Justin that they should probably get the epidural coming ASAP. Of course, I think that about two hours passed between when I initially asked for the epi and when it was actually given to me. Grrr! I was at 5 centimeters right before the epi and at 7 centimeters once they got it in. Talk about intense, trying to hold still while they stick that in your back and you're having contraction upon contraction! Not to mention that the anesthesiologist had to stick me about six times to get it in. Apparently the bones in my spine are very tight so he finally had to stick it in from the side. It did not occur to me that this might be due to my scoliosis. But, it was worth it. By 9pm I was relaxing in bed and still making great progress, I just wasn't in any pain. Whew!

We relaxed and watched a little TV. Before we knew it, it was 11pm and my doctor decided it was time to start pushing. They told me for a first baby it could take about two hours, and sure enough, it did. I had hoped to get him pushed out before midnight so he could share his birthday with family members, but that just wasn't happening. Our little Kendry Dru emerged at 1:15am on May 8, 2009. The last few minutes of pushing got a little scary because Kendry had his hand lodged up under his chin, so his shoulders weren't coming out properly. All I know is that the doctor quickly told the nurses to push my legs back and they were all telling me to just keep pushing. The doctor ended up having to give Kendry a little tug, but he came out alright.
Right when they gave him to me the doctor and nurses all commented on how big of a baby he was. Of course, Justin and I really had no point of reference at this point - we just thought he was absolutely beautiful. They let me hold Kendry for about fifteen minutes on my tummy, where he did a great job at his first nursing attempt. Finally the nurse took him over to the scale to get a weight. She asked for guesses and since they were telling me he was big I guessed 9 lbs 2 oz. Boy was I wrong! The nurse started chuckling and said "How about 10 lbs 5 oz?" I was shocked! In hindsight, I am not sure that I could have pushed him out if I hadn't had the epi. This picture was actually taken after Kendry's first feeding, so the scale shows 6 oz instead of 5 oz.

Since Kendry was so big they did a glucose test on him right away to make sure his levels were okay. In fact, they were a little low so he had to do a feeding of sugar water. Daddy got to do the honors on that. They repeated the test a few hours later and he was back within the normal range, thankfully. After that he took off eating like a champ...and hasn't stopped.Today we had Kendry's two week doctor's visit and he is already weighing in at 11 lbs. We have quite the healthy baby boy on our hands. Here he is at two weeks: