Kolton James' story..LONG
The birth story of Kolton James Koller:
It all started on Thursday, January 31st, 2008. (This also happened to be my father?s 60th birthday.) My doctor was afraid that Kolton was getting too large (ultrasound a week before put him at 8.5lbs) and wanted to do an amniocentesis to see if his lungs were mature enough to deliver him early? that is where we start this story!
THURSDAY, JANUARY 31
12:00pm ? arrived at the hospital for scheduled amnio. So nervous. Couldn?t eat or drink anything 8 hours prior. Couldn?t sleep the whole night. Dreaming of giant needles!!! I was hooked up to fetal monitors and found out I was having contractions 4-6 minutes apart. I could feel them, but not painful. After being monitored for an hour the dr. gave me a shot to stop the contractions and performed the amnio. The shot hurt, whereas the amnio I could barely feel. It was only uncomfortable as they pulled the needle out. The ultrasound tech said Kolton scored a 10 out of 10 for fetal maturity and the amniotic fluid was sent to the lab. I remained in the hospital for another 3 hours to watch contractions. I was then sent home and told to wait for the phone call to come in that night for the induction.
3:30pm ? went to Olive Garden for what would be my final meal! Although I was starving my nerves wouldn?t let me eat. Tried to force some salad and minestrone soup down myself.
9:45pm ? couldn?t wait any longer and called the hospital to see if the results were in. Yep! His lungs were mature and they wanted me to come in for an induction soon! They would call me when a bed opened up!
FRIDAY, FEBUARY 1
1:00am ? after waiting, waiting, and more waiting Ben called the hospital to see if we could just go to bed or if there was still a chance I would be going in. They said, ?Come in now!? I started to cry!
2:00am ? filled out paperwork, hooked up to the monitors, started the first round of Cervadil (sp?). Didn?t hurt. Still having small contractions on my own, but nothing significant. Laid around for an hour, and then was told to walk around for an hour?.
4:00am ? checked, no real progress, fingertip dilated and 80% effaced. 2nd round of cervadil administered??laid around and walked. (Thank god for all of those little babies in the nursery to make my walks a little more joyful!)
6:00am ? My dad and sister show up!!! They look more stressed and tired then me and we were just getting started! Checked, dilated to 1cm, 90% effaced, Cervix VERY soft. J Not good enough though, 3rd round of gel administered?laid around, but contractions becoming painful. Walked for an hour and knew I looked like one of those ladies in a movie, grasping the wall with every contraction as I swayed and moaned!
8:00am ? Ben?s parents show up and my best friend. Checked, still 1cm, but now 100% effaced. Contractions becoming very frequent, but Kolton?s heart rate is dipping every time the contraction peaks. They start flipping me from side to side to see what will happen.
At 9:00am my mom showed up!
From this point on my concept of time and what happens when starts mushing together. I was contracting strongly every 4 minutes. The dr. and nurses were really concerned with Kolton, though. They had started me on pitocin, but kept having to turn it back down to let Kolton have a break. Sometime around noon the dr. checked me and it was the most painful experience of my life. While the nurse (Kim) held one hand and Ben held the other I screamed in pain. Dr. McKernan sounded excited (but kept apologizing for hurting me) because I was a couple cm?s and he could feel the head. Before I knew it, through my tears of pain, he had broken my water. It gushed out everywhere, nice and warm, and would gush out with every contraction. Immediately my contractions became so painful it took everything in me to breathe through them. About an hour later I received my epidural which really saved the day! Uncomfortable for a minute, but totally worth it! After the epidural started working they checked me again. I was 4cm. I stalled here for about 2 hours and became frustrated. However, when they checked me again I was 7cm! I could feel the contractions, but felt no pain. They increased the pitocin every hour after that.
By the nighttime I had finally reached 10cm, but had some cervix left. Unfortunately Kolton was not taking the labor well. I was put on oxygen and told no more water, just in case I would need an emergency c-section. They started to have me push around 9pm, but kept having to take an hour off and back off the pitocin for Kolton. I basically had to sit Indian Style for a while and ?labor down?, trying to let gravity help Kolton move through.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2 (Groundhog?s Day)
1:00am- Dr. McKernan decided it was time to get him out. They prepped me and we began to push for real! I couldn?t stop shaking, and couldn?t believe how painful the contractions still were, even with the epidural. Ben held a leg and the best nurse in the world (Jessica) held the other. All my family was waiting outside the door! I pushed and pushed and made good progress, but Kolton was in distress and they wanted to get him out ? NOW! Dr. McKernan decided to use a vacuum. The vacuum popped off of his head, twice, flinging blood all over poor Ben and Jessica. I pushed as hard as I could, and at 2:15am Kolton was born! 22inches and 8.1lbs (AT 3 WEEKS EARLY!) He had his hand up by his head (which, the head by itself, measured 14cm) and had the cord wrapped around his neck ? twice! He also had a lot of liquid in his lungs. Because of this he was quickly whisked away to be checked out. He made the cutest little grunting noises and then finally started crying. Ben went with him to the nursery and I received over 40 stitches from my tears!!! UGH!
24 hours and 15 minutes was totally worth it. He is a miracle and joy, and other then the circular bruise on his head from the vacuum, absolutely perfect! AND I would totally do it again!!!
Re: Kolton James' story..LONG
Thank you for your story, I have to admit, I winced when I read 40 stitches! Ouch!