Okay, be honest with me, was I the only one that expected Jessica to deliver shortly after her water broke? I mean, maybe 5, 7, or even 12 hours later would have been reasonable. Shoot, after what we went through, I would have taken 24 hours! But definitely NOT 44 hours later. Where oh where do I begin this saga…
Let’s see, after our first night of no sleep waiting for the labor to progress, we elected to stay at home the following day so Jessica could remain comfortable and labor at her own pace. I didn’t go to the office on Thursday fully expecting something major to happen at some point during the day. However, the entire day came and went and her contractions really never progressed beyond one hour apart. Concerned about the amount of time that had passed since Jessica’s water broke, we called our doula and asked for a little advice. After some thought and discussion, we decided to go ahead and try to get some rest at home rather than head to the hospital. We made our way to bed, watched an episode of “Lost” I had downloaded from Itunes, and then drifted off to sleep around 10:30pm. Well wouldn’t you know it, 1:00am rolls around and Jessica wakes me (yes, I heard her this time) and tells me the contractions had turned more severe. I fumbled in the dark to turn on a light and find my watch so I could help time the contractions. 24 hours later and it seemed things were finally progressing! The contractions were growing in intensity and they were averaging about six minutes apart. We decided it was time to call our doula Linda and ask her to come to the apartment. While we waited for Linda to arrive, I did my best to make the house feel comfortable by playing some soft music, lighting some candles, and trying to make it a soothing environment for Jessica. Linda arrived just after 2:00am and we all made our way to the living room to wait out the labor. Poor Jess paced, sat, leaned, groaned and basically agonized over the entire house for the next 6 hours while all I could do was offer an occasional back massage and words of comfort. Contractions were intense and now averaging about 4 minutes apart. Active labor had definitely started. By 11:00am, Jessica decided it was time to head to the hospital…surely Kaelan was about to arrive!
Wrong! I dropped Jessica and Linda off at the front door of the hospital and then proceeded to try and find a parking space for the car. I found a spot, ran in and couldn’t find Jessica or Linda anywhere. Fortunately, Jessica with her blonde hair sticks out here in Singapore so when people saw this Gwailo (Chinese word for Caucasians meaning “ghost man”) wandering aimlessly around, one man approached me and told me he saw two women head up to the second floor. I ran up the stairs, through a set of double doors in search of Jessica. One of the nurses knew who I was looking for and guided me to her room. By the time I had arrived, they had already administered a vaginal exam and determined she was only 3cm dilated. Only thought that ran through my head when I heard was, “Ughhhh, you must be kidding me!” Honestly, after more than 10 hours of active (for the men reading this, imagine getting a swift kick in the nuts every 4 -5 minutes) labor at home already, I was expecting at least 6 – 7cm dilated!
Jessica continued to labor for another three hours and fought back tears many times along the way. While I may not have had to go through anything nearly as painful as Jessica, I can’t tell you how broken up I was seeing my wife in so much distress for so many hours. By 1:30 in the afternoon, Jessica’s will was starting to break and she began asking for an epidural. Can you believe it? Jessica had been going on 12 hours of painful labor and no epidural. When Dr. Paul came in to administer another VE and shared that there had been no progress, it was the breaking point for Jess and she requested an epidural. Honestly speaking, while I supported Jessica’s desire to try and do everything as naturally as possible, I was relieved when she finally relented to some relief. My heart had been ripped out and stomped on for 12 hours and I couldn’t stand to see her in so much pain any longer.
While the epidural certainly helped relieve Jessica’s pain and my nerves, things still weren’t progressing well. As the hours passed by, the nurses started to express some concern about Kaelan showing signs of distress. They administered oxygen to Jessica to see if they could see a response in Kaelan’s heart rate. Nothing. While his heart rate maintained a steady 155 bpm, he was showing no signs of response to stimulation. Apparently, they want to see a little more volatility in the heart rate to demonstrate the baby is doing okay on not under distress. At this point, the nurses requested Dr. Paul to come urgently to examine Jessica and the baby; and of course, when the nurses starting to verbally express concern, I got concerned! After what felt like an eternity, Dr. Paul finally arrived and quickly administered another VE. The news was not good. Jessica was still only around 4cm dilated and her cervix had become agitated and swollen. I could see the concern in Dr. Paul’s face though he wouldn’t say anything directly. He understood how badly Jessica wanted to experience a natural birth and I suspect he didn’t want to disappoint her by telling her it was no longer an option. It was now almost 9:00pm and an emergency c-section was scheduled.
As this is getting long, I’ll skip to the chase. After a flurry of activity, they had Jessica prepped and ready to go within practically a matter of minutes. The nurse guided me to my “bunny suit” so I could enter the “operating theatre” as they call it here. Just as I was walking through the double doors, I saw Dr. Paul begin to draw the scalpel across her abdomen. Believe it or not, I watched the entire process from incision to the pulling out of the placenta. As they pulled Kaelan from her belly, he wasn’t crying and I could tell he wasn’t breathing properly. They rushed him to the table to quickly administer some oxygen. After a few long minutes, the oxygen worked and I heard the welcomed screams I had been anxiously waiting to hear. Kaelan had finally arrived after more than 44 hours after Jessica’s water breaking.
Let’s see, after our first night of no sleep waiting for the labor to progress, we elected to stay at home the following day so Jessica could remain comfortable and labor at her own pace. I didn’t go to the office on Thursday fully expecting something major to happen at some point during the day. However, the entire day came and went and her contractions really never progressed beyond one hour apart. Concerned about the amount of time that had passed since Jessica’s water broke, we called our doula and asked for a little advice. After some thought and discussion, we decided to go ahead and try to get some rest at home rather than head to the hospital. We made our way to bed, watched an episode of “Lost” I had downloaded from Itunes, and then drifted off to sleep around 10:30pm. Well wouldn’t you know it, 1:00am rolls around and Jessica wakes me (yes, I heard her this time) and tells me the contractions had turned more severe. I fumbled in the dark to turn on a light and find my watch so I could help time the contractions. 24 hours later and it seemed things were finally progressing! The contractions were growing in intensity and they were averaging about six minutes apart. We decided it was time to call our doula Linda and ask her to come to the apartment. While we waited for Linda to arrive, I did my best to make the house feel comfortable by playing some soft music, lighting some candles, and trying to make it a soothing environment for Jessica. Linda arrived just after 2:00am and we all made our way to the living room to wait out the labor. Poor Jess paced, sat, leaned, groaned and basically agonized over the entire house for the next 6 hours while all I could do was offer an occasional back massage and words of comfort. Contractions were intense and now averaging about 4 minutes apart. Active labor had definitely started. By 11:00am, Jessica decided it was time to head to the hospital…surely Kaelan was about to arrive!
Wrong! I dropped Jessica and Linda off at the front door of the hospital and then proceeded to try and find a parking space for the car. I found a spot, ran in and couldn’t find Jessica or Linda anywhere. Fortunately, Jessica with her blonde hair sticks out here in Singapore so when people saw this Gwailo (Chinese word for Caucasians meaning “ghost man”) wandering aimlessly around, one man approached me and told me he saw two women head up to the second floor. I ran up the stairs, through a set of double doors in search of Jessica. One of the nurses knew who I was looking for and guided me to her room. By the time I had arrived, they had already administered a vaginal exam and determined she was only 3cm dilated. Only thought that ran through my head when I heard was, “Ughhhh, you must be kidding me!” Honestly, after more than 10 hours of active (for the men reading this, imagine getting a swift kick in the nuts every 4 -5 minutes) labor at home already, I was expecting at least 6 – 7cm dilated!
Jessica continued to labor for another three hours and fought back tears many times along the way. While I may not have had to go through anything nearly as painful as Jessica, I can’t tell you how broken up I was seeing my wife in so much distress for so many hours. By 1:30 in the afternoon, Jessica’s will was starting to break and she began asking for an epidural. Can you believe it? Jessica had been going on 12 hours of painful labor and no epidural. When Dr. Paul came in to administer another VE and shared that there had been no progress, it was the breaking point for Jess and she requested an epidural. Honestly speaking, while I supported Jessica’s desire to try and do everything as naturally as possible, I was relieved when she finally relented to some relief. My heart had been ripped out and stomped on for 12 hours and I couldn’t stand to see her in so much pain any longer.
While the epidural certainly helped relieve Jessica’s pain and my nerves, things still weren’t progressing well. As the hours passed by, the nurses started to express some concern about Kaelan showing signs of distress. They administered oxygen to Jessica to see if they could see a response in Kaelan’s heart rate. Nothing. While his heart rate maintained a steady 155 bpm, he was showing no signs of response to stimulation. Apparently, they want to see a little more volatility in the heart rate to demonstrate the baby is doing okay on not under distress. At this point, the nurses requested Dr. Paul to come urgently to examine Jessica and the baby; and of course, when the nurses starting to verbally express concern, I got concerned! After what felt like an eternity, Dr. Paul finally arrived and quickly administered another VE. The news was not good. Jessica was still only around 4cm dilated and her cervix had become agitated and swollen. I could see the concern in Dr. Paul’s face though he wouldn’t say anything directly. He understood how badly Jessica wanted to experience a natural birth and I suspect he didn’t want to disappoint her by telling her it was no longer an option. It was now almost 9:00pm and an emergency c-section was scheduled.
As this is getting long, I’ll skip to the chase. After a flurry of activity, they had Jessica prepped and ready to go within practically a matter of minutes. The nurse guided me to my “bunny suit” so I could enter the “operating theatre” as they call it here. Just as I was walking through the double doors, I saw Dr. Paul begin to draw the scalpel across her abdomen. Believe it or not, I watched the entire process from incision to the pulling out of the placenta. As they pulled Kaelan from her belly, he wasn’t crying and I could tell he wasn’t breathing properly. They rushed him to the table to quickly administer some oxygen. After a few long minutes, the oxygen worked and I heard the welcomed screams I had been anxiously waiting to hear. Kaelan had finally arrived after more than 44 hours after Jessica’s water breaking.
Born: December 5th, 9:36pm
Weight: 3.58kg (7lbs 14oz)
Length: 55cm
4 comments:
Travis & Jess,
This sounds very similar to Hannah's birth minus the doula. Congrats again.
Yeah, Congrats after that long, painful time. I can't even image. I am so Happy for you guys and am thankful mom and baby are doing well. He is so beautiful. Wish we were there to see him and hold him. You are in are thoughts and prayers. This is just the beginning of such a wonderful journey into parenthood. Congrats. Love you guys!!!
What a trooper you were Jess! I am so proud of you! So glad that everything is alright with him now..take care of yourself and get some rest when he does...:)
He looks beautiful BTW. I am excited to see more close up pics.:)
CONGRATULATIONS!! I was so excited to finally read of the birth. Up to thispoint, I thought he was born on the 4th. Jessica you look beautiful after the birth and Travis you are quite the blogger. I so enjoyed reading you blog and the emotions you described as you experienced your son's birth. His name is awesome but I'm wondering if it should be spelled "Kalen" after his Alaskan grandparents?? May God bless you, give you wisdom and strength as you raise your son for Him.
Kathe and Bernie
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