He's Here!

Almost as soon as I entered my third trimester, my doctor said that I could have the baby at any time. Four weeks before my due date I was 1 cm dilated, 2 weeks before I was 3 cm dilated - we were all waiting on pins and needles for the time to come. The week of my due date I decided to do as much as possible to stimulate labor - we tried all the old wives tales, I ate spicy food, walked several miles, and I ate almost a whole pineapple. Something must have worked because on Tuesday morning (Feb. 2), three days before my due date, my labor began. The night before we stayed up until about 2:30am watching movies and hanging out with my parents, so I was feeling really tired that morning. I was having cramps, but they seemed to be consistent and not in any sort of pattern, so I decided to ignore them. Bradley went to work (he is doing a temp job with the census), and I hung out with my parents. When Bradley came home at lunch we went for a walk with paw and I mentioned that my Braxton Hicks contractions were stronger than normal. Later that afternoon, my parents went to Borders and I decided to try to take a nap. It didn't work so well - this is when I decided I might be in labor. I texted Bradley and he came home. Almost immediately the contractions got stronger - the weird thing was that they were already 2 minutes apart. We wanted to do as much of the labor at home as we could so we decided to stick it out for a while until they got stronger - which they did. After six hours of strong contractions 2 minutes apart, we decided it was time to head to the hospital.

Headed to the hospital:


When we got to the hospital, we thought for sure I would be around 6-8cm dilated - but unfortunately, I was only 3.5. This was very discouraging since I had only progressed .5cm during the 6hrs of active labor. So we labored some more. My contractions continued to be 2 to 1.5 minutes apart and strong (very strong). But little baby beast was not budging - after another 6hrs I only progressed 1 more cm. I was exhausted. Bradley and I wanted a natural delivery with no interventions, including pain medicine, but after the 12 hrs of labor we were worried my body was not going to be able to handle the duration of labor and most importantly, we did not want a c-section! So I got an epidural and pitocin - it was such a relief - but I was disappointed that I did not make it natural.

Some pictures of labor:


Post epidural (hence the smile!):

Once I got the epidural and pitocin, I was able to take a nap and rest. 10 hrs later, the epidural wore off. I was close to the end so we decided that I would do the rest without medicine. Waiting for my Dr. to arrive was the worst - it is hard to "hold the pushes in." Once she arrived, I began pushing - we pushed for about an hour. Khaim arrived at 11:08am on Wednesday, February 3. Bradley had previously asked my Dr. if he could deliver Khaim - he did and it was wonderful!

Khaim Christianson-Barker
02/03/2010 - 11:08am
6lbs 14 oz, 20 in