Labor & Delivery

A bit of a back story:

Zach and I found out in December 2012 that we were expecting a baby. That same night we spent sleeping in the living room taking care of a very sick puppy, Josie, that we had just adopted from a shelter. Oh, the memories. 

We found out in March 2013 that we were expecting a little girl. 

I had a fairly easy pregnancy. Lots of nausea and morning sickness in the beginning, so much that I actually lost a bit of weight. Not much swelling. I think I ended up gaining 20 lbs the whole time (wait til you hear how much she weighed). I never had to deal with anything too terrible (I did have to take the gestational diabetes test twice, pure hell). 

Anyways on to the main event. 

On August 14, 2013 at 11:50 pm I was tossing and turning in bed. I figured that I would be awake at least another hour or so, so I picked up my phone and started scrolling through Pinterest. At 12:05 am on August 15 (my due date!), I decided I actually was tired. So I put my phone down and rolled over. I got a weird feeling. I thought to myself "That couldn't have been my water breaking". You always hear these stories of women who thought their water broke and they rushed to the hospital, only to find they had peed themselves. This thought crossed my mind as I waddled to the bathroom. It seemed like nothing was really happening. I wasn't having any pain or feeling weird, so back to bed I went. I went to turn onto my left side again. ANOTHER weird feeling. I figured that my water had in fact broken, and on my due date of all days. At 12:30 am I decided to wake Zach up and tell him the big news. "No way!", was his reaction. The same reaction I had when it actually happened. We are made for each other. I explained to him our plan (which had been our plan the whole time, I just figured I would remind him). We were going to wait for contractions to be 5 minutes apart and then we would leave for the hospital (30 minutes from our house). I told him that I hadn't even felt any contractions yet, so it may be awhile. He went back to sleep and I went to the living room and started to watch Father of the Bride. At 1:00 am, I started having some serious cramps. From what I understood, contractions would feel like Braxton Hicks+Pain. So I had no idea that these cramps were actually contractions. It didn't take me long to figure it out though. As I walked down the hallway to tell Zach that it was probably time to load up the car, I doubled over in pain. When I got into the bedroom to tell him, I was doubled over again. Thankfully, our bags were mostly packed and I had written the last minute items on our bathroom mirror with an Expo marker (Pinterest worthy idea). We were on our way out the door at 1:50 am. Two steps out the door, I remembered two items: my insurance card and a trash bag (wait for it...). At 1:54 am I text my mom and step dad to tell them we were on our way to the hospital. Between home and the hospital, I threw up 3 times (hence the trash bag) and my contractions were measuring about 4 minutes apart. When we pulled into the hospital parking lot, my last timed contractions were 1 minute and 33 seconds apart. We had to check in through the ER and you'd think when a pregnant woman tells you her contractions are about a minute apart and her boyfriend is standing next to her holding a trash bag full of lasagna throw up that you would type a little faster, nope. A nurse finally brought a wheel chair in and wheeled me over to the labor and delivery unit. I walked from the doors of labor and delivery to my room, with contractions that were a minute apart...this fact still fascinates me to this very day. When we got all settled in our room it was about 3:00 am. My time stamps from here on out might be a little iffy, since I was a little busy and all. The nurse confirmed that my water had broken (this was a big shock to us, please note the sarcasm) and that I was dilated to 6 cm. She asked if I wanted Stadol to take the edge off the pain. I had fully planned on having no epidural, but was open to other pain medicines IF need be. I told her that I would take the Stadol. Funny thing about Stadol, it is given intravenously and can only be given at 6 cm or before, once you hit 7 cm you cannot receive it. The nurse could not find a vein, I told her not to let that hurt her feelings...I'm a hard stick. The second nurse came in to find a vein and when she got the IV all set up I was 8 cm. So no Stadol (which I was perfectly fine with, God definitely had my back in Labor & Delivery, he knew I could go pain med free). Labor was obviously going very quickly. Some time in all of the action, my mom showed up and my doctor had made it. Once I was dilated to a 10 and got permission to push, it took her about 10 minutes (and took me about 3 full pushes) for her to make her arrival. At 4:49 am on August 15th 2013 Kinnley Taylor made her arrival, weighing in at 9 lbs. 11 oz and 21 inches long.

I am beyond thrilled that my mom was able to make it in time for the delivery. The original plan was that during the delivery it would only be Zach and I, but I am so glad that we let the plans change naturally. My mom was there to watch her first grandchild come into this world and I know that will be a special memory for her for the rest of her life. Plus we wouldn't have had all of these amazing pictures of Kinnley and Zach and I :) 

We were so blessed with such an amazing labor and delivery and we couldn't have been happier that our baby girl had arrived safely and was so healthy. Since both of us were healthy, we were able to leave on August 16th around 11 am. 

Kinnley Taylor happens to be named after my sister, her Aunt Taylor. We hope that Kinnley will grow up to be amazing and beautiful just like her Aunt :)