Labor & Delivery

I'm finally finding time to sit down and write about my C-R-A-Z-Y labor and delivery.  I chose to write the long story for journaling purposes so bare with me :)
Friday morning on June 10th at about 6:30 AM I was awoken by a strange little cramping feeling in my lower abdomen. Now..having had a baby before I DO know what the difference is between a little cramping and a full on contraction, and this wasn't a contraction. I almost just drifted back to sleep but decided I should get up and get a drink of water. As I was standing in the kitchen I got this little feeling that something just wasn't normal about this cramp. I woke Scott up and told him that I thought there was a possibility that "something is beginning to happen" (my exact words) but not to get too excited. I decided to hop in the shower in case it was going to be Kennedy's birthday that day. Not even two minutes into my shower the contractions began...10 minutes into my usual 20 minute shower my contractions were now 2 minutes apart...yes TWO MINUTES!! Silly me, continued on with my nice hot shower, breathing heavily now through my contractions. When I got out I told Scott this was the real deal, Kennedy was coming.
Ok...a normal person at this point would've grabbed their bags and headed out quickly to the hospital. But what do I insist on doing? oh...drying and straightening my hair, ill explain why in a few minutes..
I decided to call my mom and let her know I was in labor and that I'd call her on my way to the hospital. I started blow drying my hair and by this time contractions were a minute apart lasting a minute. Did that stop me from doing my hair? nope...
I'm now hunched over in pain with the blow dryer in my hand, practicing my "he he he whooooo's". By the time I was done I knew I was pushing my luck. My contractions were getting pretty intense and a minute apart, lasting a minute is code for "this baby is coming VERY soon!". I ran the straightener through my hair, I couldn't have a lions mane for pictures :) Scott was rushing around trying to get a very worried little Trent ready to go to his mom's house. Poor thing kept looking at me as I was breathing through my painful contractions with a fake "mommy's ok, but not really ok" smile. He kept asking Scott if I was ok and if today was the day I was going to "pop Kennedy out" haha...yes today was the day Kennedy was going to POP OUT!
Ok so the reason why I took my time getting ready is because with Trent I started having contractions at 7pm and didn't have him til 4am. It was an easy smooth delivery but I had a lot of time between checking into the hospital and having him. So I figured I had equally the same amount of time with Kennedy so I wanted to do a lot of my laboring at home before having to sit in a hospital bed.
Back to my story..
Luckily my mother in law lives right around the corner from us, this truly was a blessing. As we were heading down Herndon on our way to St. Agnes I looked at the clock and realized OH CRAP! IT'S 8:00 TRAFFIC!!! It was just before 8 and I was growing more and more irritable at the SLOW MOVING cars..MOVE OUT OF OUR WAY, PREGNANT LADY HERE ABOUT TO HAVE A BABY ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!!! Truly..this was how I was feeling. I was having pressure "down there" and was having the urge to push, totally not good considering we were stuck in traffic..and once again having had a baby already I definitely knew what this pushing sensation was. NOT GOOD AT ALL! I decided to leave this information to myself and not stress Scott out any more. I called my mom and quickly said "can't talk, almost to the hospital, call you soon" and hung up. Scott called the Dr. on the way to there and told him about my contractions being a minute apart and he said with urgency in his voice "you're on your way to the hospital right? I'll meet you there!"
After what seemed like an hour, really only 15 minutes..we finally got to the hospital. I walked to the 6th floor where they wanted to register me. This was the annoying part considering I had already registered online a month ago and they were asking me the same dumb questions again. I kept having to stop and breathe through contractions, and after about 5 minutes the lady realized I was in hard labor and had a nurse come get me...THANK YOU!
They had me try and put a hospital gown on, which I couldn't hardly do and the nurse just decided to help take my clothes off for me, haha she was wonderful.
This is where the panic sort of set in. The nurse had me lay on a bed real quick so she could "check me" and assess where I was in my labor. As she did her checking an "Oh crap" look came across her face by which she followed up with telling a nurse they needed to get me into a delivery room right away. I looked at her and asked "so I don't get my epidural?" Her response "oh no honey, you're complete and ready to have this baby!" SO LADY, YOU'RE TELLING ME I HAVE NO RELIEF AT ALL FROM THIS PAIN AND IT'S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE? ugh...worst news ever!
I looked at Scott with panic and told him I couldn't do this without an epidural. He kept rubbing my forehead telling me I could do it with such a calm voice. Scott was truly amazing during this entire ordeal. He was my cheerleader, thank goodness he was calm and had so much faith in me, because I sure didn't at that time. I was in the worst pain in my life! All I kept thinking is "women actually CHOOSE this? They CHOOSE to feel this pain and not have epidurals? THEY'RE ALL CRAZY!"
They rushed me down the hall to a delivery room, meanwhile I passed a laboring first time mom in the hallway and made her cry. Why was she crying you ask? oh because I was about to push a baby out without any pain medication, and she heard and saw my pain and it scared her haha, poor thing..I'm sorry lady I hope you had a wonderful experience yourself!
My Dr. had just arrived to the hospital, broke my water..yep I was sitting there, dilated to a 10 and my water hadn't broken. My water didn't break with Trent til I was at a 10 as well. Scott said with our next baby if my water breaks before we get to the hospital, that means we're in BIG trouble, because that baby is coming out right then and there.
When he broke my water it was hell. That was the only thing keeping this baby in, I HAD TO GET THIS BABY OUT. In fact I was getting so mad because at one point after he broke my water he stepped out of the room real quick and  there wasn't anyone else in there with us. I kept telling Scott I had to push, this baby was coming and why wasn't anyone around. Everyone was in a panic it seemed like. No one was organized, nurses rushing around fumbling with stuff, trying to hold me off so they could get prepared. Finally they came back in and told me I could push, while another nurse was trying to get an IV into my arm. Oh and did she miss twice and pop a vein? yep..and then when they finally put it in my hand was the IV loosely hanging there? sure was..I didn't care though, I was focused on getting this baby out and not on the fluid gushing out of my IV. I was in a trance by now. I had my eyes closed, focusing on my breathing and pushing. Scott kept telling me to open my eyes and look, that Kennedy's head was right there, but I couldn't ...I couldn't open them til I knew she was out, it would break my concentration. The Dr. told me to stop pushing, I heard him squeegee out her mouth. I knew she was one more push away from being out of me. ONE LAST PUSH and out she came! I opened my eyes to a crying baby in between my legs being brought up onto my chest. I did it...I gave birth naturally..I really did it! I felt like a real woman. I just did something very few women do these days, I was so proud of myself.  Just like that, the pain was instantly gone. I looked over to Scott to see tears streaming down his face.  I fell more in love with him than I already was in that moment. He leaned over and kissed me and told me how good I did, the love between us was so strong. I tried so hard to cry myself...So hard..but I think my body was in shock. All I could do is just hold her and look at that sweet face, my heart was bursting with love. Our long infertility journey was over.  We now had something to show for all of the physical, emotional and spiritual pain we had been through, and here she was lying in my arms, our little (or should I say BIG?) Kennedy Kaye was perfect, absolutely perfect!
To top off the entire whirlwind of a labor story, she was put on the scale and weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 14 ounces!! The Dr and nurses were laughing and commenting at how amazed they were that she came out of me. I gained 18lbs with Kennedy and almost 9 of it was JUST her! That crazy girl must have been eating everything that went in my mouth, leaving nothing for myself lol.  I thought Trent was big at 8lbs 2oz. but gees louise almost 9 lbs is a little ridiculous!
When the nurses were monitoring Kennedy right after she was born, which by the way was at 8:46AM, I looked over at Scott and said "did that just happen?" We both just laughed and were in complete shock that 2 hours ago I had just woken up to a slight "cramping feeling" and now I was laying there staring out our perfect daughter. All I kept thinking AND saying to Scott was "what the heck just happened?!?". We still sit here and laugh to this day about those crazy 2 hours.  By about 9:00 I realized we hadn't told anyone she was born. I called my mom and the conversation went something like this:
Me: "hey mom!"
Mom: "hey hun, what's going on?"
Me: "oh nothing, I just had the baby"
Mom: "WHAT?!?! You're kidding me!! She's here? Oh my gosh! I just talked to you!!"
Me: "I know, we barely made it"
Mom: "so you did it naturally then?"
Me: "yep, I did it naturally"  WITH A HUGE SMILE on my face, and a big sense of accomplishment. I was now on her level, we both had kids pain med free.
I really wish I could have recorded this conversation, but I'm hoping all of the exclamation marks and question marks show the shock in her voice when she found out I had the baby less than an hour after talking to her.
I'd like to say now that the entire experience is over, that I really wouldn't mind having another baby naturally. I know I know..I just said earlier that women who CHOOSE this are crazy, I wouldn't CHOOSE it but now I know it's actually ok, ill be ok, the baby will be ok..everything will be just fine if I couldn't have an epidural ever again in my life.  With how fast this one came, I'm thinking I'll probably never have that opportunity again, and that's ok. I am a little nervous however with how fast the 3rd might come if this labor only lasted 2 hours.  I hope to at least make it to the hospital, and I'll probably skip the whole shower, blow drying my hair thing haha. I thought my recovery with Trent was amazing until I had Kennedy. I was able to get off the bed 45 minutes afterwards and walk on my own without having to wait for an epidural to wear off.  All around I just felt wonderful, truly like I hadn't even had a baby.  If they would've let me, I would've gone home an hour after having her I felt that good.
Kennedy has been such an amazing blessing in our life. I know I've said this before many times, but I just look at her in awe at how she was created.  Some lady took one of Scott's sperms and one of my eggs and combined them in a petri dish, let it grow for a few days, placed that embryo back in me and I just pushed out an almost 9lb baby girl 9 months later. It's just seriously amazing to me...REALLY amazing!
Trent has been a wonderful big brother. I think he's at the perfect age to know and understand what is all going on. He hasn't shown any jealousy over her and loves to hold her, sing lullabies to her and tell everyone proudly that he is a big brother.
Here's our sweet girl:

Kennedy Kaye Wilcox

Look at those thighs! haha

8lbs 14 ounces

Head: 14 1/2 inches

Chest: 14 inches

Length: 21 inches

Proud Proud daddy!

First picture with my daughter :)

The Love I felt was unreal

Kennedy's grandma Wells

Great pouty face already

Getting bathed

First time seeing his sister

He brought her presents

Love this

Trent and Kennedy with their grandpa Wells

Kennedy's Grandma Wilcox

Our first family of 4 picture

My loves!

Kennedy's Grandpa Wilcox

Kennedy's Great grandma and grandpa Wilcox

Waiting to go home

I have a ton more pictures that I've taken since coming home from the hospital that hopefully I'll get around to posting within the next few days...HOPEFULLY :)