Sweet Potato's birth story

So here is the short and sweet version of Sweet potato’s birth for those that don’t want much detail. Kaycee Lynn was born Feb 20^th at 11:55am. She was 9lbs 2oz 20.5 inches long and was born at home. 

Now for those that like all the details, I’ll do my very best.

Tuesday, (the 19^th) I had my appointment and while there I had my membranes swept. At that exam I was dilated to a 2 and was 75% effaced. In other words, labor was predicted to take some time.

After getting home I had a little bit of cramping which wasn’t surprising since  I had been having a lot of random inconsistent  birth waves for a couple of weeks. I ended up spending the afternoon with a friend and the evening at birthing class.

I woke up at 5:30 the next morning for my usual pee and First breakfast.  While going to the bathroom I found that I had a lot of spotting and it freaked me out. I was trying to decide if I should call my midwife, Launa, to make sure everything was ok, but husband persuaded me that it was probably normal and I should take a shower to calm down and to get some rest. We concluded that if we were still concerned when we woke up, we would call Launa. After my shower, I started to get more consistent birth waves. I decided to spend some time on the birth ball before climbing back into bed since my birth waves were getting more intense.  While I was laying on the ball, Husband was buying the song by the Piano Guys that I had fallen in love with on V-day, “Begin Again.” Also he was put in charge of timing my birth waves for the next little bit.  When I started to fall asleep between birth waves, we decided to lay in bed and gets some sleep, especially since Bug was still asleep.  

We went to sleep for an hour at 7am. During that hour I woke up frequently moaning through birth waves. Through each birth wave, husband would snuggle close to me and whisper word of encouragement, reminding me how much he loved and that I was strong and I could do this.  

At 8am I had a birth wave that went the same as most of the others except in the middle of this one I had a pop and a gush of liquid. At this point, I decided I couldn’t hold off on calling Launa which I was really trying to do until 9 am since she had something she needed to drop off at that time in Idaho. When explaining to Launa what was going on, I downplayed a lot of what my body was doing because I didn’t want to be the reason to have her miss dropping her stuff off (silly me). I told her that I wasn’t sure if my water had broke even though my subconscious new it had. She asked me how close the contractions were and this is where things really got us all messed up! I asked Husband how close they were and I heard him say four in an hour, so that’s what I told Launa. (After labor I looked at husband’s paper that was keeping track of them and it actually said 4 in a half hour, huge game changer there). With the info I gave Launa, she decided that labor would be a while and she would have time to run her errand and then leave to come down to attend the birth.

 After getting off the phone, the birth waves got a lot more intense. I decided hot water would help me handle the birth waves so I jumped into the shower to relax my body.  While in the shower, Bug had awakened. Husband found breakfast for her and set her up with the movie Tangled.  When I got out of the shower, I returned to the birth ball post and sent Husband to the kitchen to make me scrambled eggs and toast since I knew it would probably be the last item of food I would want for a long time.

While husband was in the kitchen, I was in the front room with Bug. I was lying on my ball moaning through the contractions, which were about a minute thirty apart lasting at least 30 seconds some lasting a minute. Bug kept looking at me with concern in her eyes and was trying to figure out the best way to help me. An idea came to her, she gave me a little hug and ran down the hall to her room and grabbed her favorite blanket. She opened it up and draped it over me and gave me another hug. This was one of the most special moments I’ve ever shared with my little girl and it made me cry. My little Bug loves me more than I realized!

After Bug put the blanket over me, I also realized that I needed to send Bug to my friend’s house. I didn’t want Bug to worry about me and I was starting to need Husbands full attention. This was at about 9 am. My friend didn’t get our message until about 10 am. While we waited for our friend to get our message, I tried to stay in a different room than Bug so I wouldn’t freak her out. Husband was busy taking care of his two girls. He would help bug between contractions and while I was experiencing a contraction he would run in and hold me.

At about 10:20 Bug got picked up. Shortly after she left, I started to have really uncomfortable birthwaves. I got to the point if I sat or laid down, I would start to push. We decided to give Launa a call to figure out what was going on. When we told her this and informing her how much water I had drank, she figured that the urge to push I was having was the need to go potty. Launa told me to push to relive my bladder. Doing this took a lot of the discomfort out of the birthwaves, but they were still uncomfortable.  

Once that was finished, I felt my body change and the birth waves became more uncomfortable! I insisted on standing in the shower to try to make it through the next half hour of contractions. I think I hit my head a couple of times on the shower wall trying to prevent myself from focusing on the birth wave. I also remember looking at Husband and asking him “Why am I doing this!! Why was I so dumb to do this!!” I also remember thinking  “where is Launa, if I have the birth tub I can make it through another couple of hours of this”

At this point I was really uncomfortable, so I said a prayer pleading that Heavenly Father  ends this soon because I would not be able to go through contractions like that for another ten or so hours. As soon as I said that prayer my body decided it was time to push!!!! I turned to husband and told him “call Launa, I’m pushing.” In order to prevent me from pushing, during the next couple of contractions, Husband spent a lot of time talking to me about how we met and how he was too scared to get my number  the first time we talked . . . and so on. He was also holding me tight letting me know he was there for me. During most of these contractions I would yell at myself “STOP PUSHING.” This scared Husband because he thought I was yelling at him,  so when I could form words I would have to tell him, “not you, me”. I didn’t want to push until Launa got there. A few minutes before she got to our apartment, my body took over and I started pushing.  

When Launa walked in, she didn’t think I was as far as I was. She thought she would come in and see if my water had broke, HA HA HA, nope, Miss Kaycee had her forehead sticking out. I think Launa’s adrenaline was higher than mine! She ran out to grab her birth bag and I was willing myself to hold off on pushing until she got her birth bag.

 At this point I really don’t remember much. I remember being surprised that it burned as my body was stretching to let the baby out. I also remember stating this to Launa and Husband and starting to have anxiety about getting the baby here. Husband told me I was hyperventilating a little so he and Launa were trying to tell me to breathe. They were telling me to breathe and I thought they were telling me to shut up and stop pushing! Haha, the way a laboring mind interprets things!

It took some persuading, but  Launa had me squat down in the bathtub and it was one more push and baby was sliding down Launa’s arm, across my hands, slipped through daddy’s hands and slide down to the bathtub drain. To me, it looked like a game of softball where someone was sliding to home base! So, no one really caught the baby and we now know she is going to be the very best home run slider for soft ball (Yes, I better start working on my knowledge of that sport)!

Twenty minutes later I delivered the placenta and we clamped Kaycee’s cord and we moved our party to my bedroom where I breastfed Kaycee and Launa checked to see my tearing and make sure I was doing alright. I was SO tired!! I remember asking several times if I could go to sleep (the answer was always no since we wanted to make sure the bleeding slowed and things were functioning correctly with my body). Bri and Jess (the midwife assistance) made me strawberries in milk with brown sugar. Yummy first meal after having a baby!

After getting cleaned up and taking a short nap, I went into the front room. I had another bowl of strawberries and milk and had Jess braid my hair for me. We sent Husband out to get subway for me and to pick up some groceries.  During this time Bug was brought back over and we were able to introduce her to her new sister!

I’m so grateful for my midwife and her assistance! They were amazing! They made sure my house was clean before leaving and made sure that I felt like a woman again! (Make a mental note, get your hair done after you have a baby, it makes you feel so great afterwards!) So Thank you Launa, Bri, and Jess for making this experience so special for me!

The morning of Feb 20^th will always be remembered as a beautiful and spiritual experience for me. I am amazed at how much my love for my husband grew during the short time of labor. I thought my love for him was at the max, but my max love for him grew 100x! He was so supportive of me during labor and he was there for me every minute I needed him. I saw and felt how much he loves me during these hours. I knew he loved me, but I didn’t realize how much. I also didn’t realize how much I love him. He IS the love of my life and I’m so happy that I get to be at his side for eternity! I couldn’t have chosen a better man to be married to!

Here are some photos. These were taken after the birth, Things happened way to fast to take any during labor or catching the Sweet potato

Proud parents looking at our baby girl

proud daddy!!!

Look at my chunky monkey!!! I can't believe how big she is!

I'm not tired at all!!NOT!!

Weighing Kaycee . . . Daddy really has to work those arm muscles!

Mama Launa with Kaycee

Jess and Baby kaycee

Bri and Kaycee

Jess doing my hair! 

My birth team assistance! I realized we should have taken a picture of all of us and Launa!

My best friend who watched Bug while i was in labor. She dropped off Bug and got to hold baby Kaycee!

happy family!

Proud parents! Are you wondering why bug isn't in the photo its because she's on Mama Launa's lap helping take the photo 

BEST daddy daughter photo ever!!!! Looks like he has another princess that he wont be able to say no to!