Kaysen James

Kaysen James was born on July 13, 2009 at 11:21 a.m. He weighed 9 pounds 13.9 ounces. Yes, you read right, 9 pounds 13.9 ounces.

I had been having contractions that continued to get closer and harder the night of the July 12th. By morning, they were about 5 minutes apart. We called Grandma to come and watch the kids so we could get ready to go to the hospital. I decided to take a last minute shower. As I am in the shower, I have a really hard contraction and literally feel Kaysen move down. I got out of the shower and Shaun said my stomach was definitely lower.

After the shower the contractions stopped...and were spread out more like every 30 minutes. Grandma came and we decided to go for a walk. Shaunton and I walked around Fiesta Mall with all the old people and new mothers trying to get into shape. I think I was the only one stopping every now in then trying to get through a contraction. We were deciding whether or not we were going to go to the hospital or just wait to see if things picked up.

I had thought my water might be broken (just a tear), so by 3, we decided to go and get it checked out, just because we didn't want to wait and have a stalled labor with an empty sack.

We get there and get checked. Yes, my water is broken and they are going to keep me. At this point it is 3:30 and I am fully effaced and two centimeters dilated.

Lots of walking and talking and laboring later, and my labor stalls at 7 centimeters for quite a few hours. The nurse comes in and talks about getting an epi to help me (and my body) relax so it can open the rest of the way. At this point, I had been doing well with the contractions, but decided to go ahead with the epi in an effort to avoid a c-section at any cost.

At about 6 am I am checked and I am only a 7. My bag of water is bulging out and his head is against it, so hence the stall. The doctor breaks the part that is hanging out. There is a little meconium in it. We continue with the labor.

Two hours later the nurse checks, I am at an 8. This time, the bulb from the catheter is blocking. They push it behind his head.

A few hours later, I am at a 9. A few minutes later I have a trial push and it was decreed that I was ready and the doctor was called.

The doctor comes in and we start with the pushing. I had an epi, but by the time we were ready to push, I could feel contractions and the urge to push.

I pushed for about 20 minutes before little man was born. As he was being born the doctor told me to look at his head. At first I couldn't see past my stomach, but then I was able to see his head, and was able to watch his shoulders come out along with the rest of his body. It was a neat experience. He was immediately laid on my chest. I mentioned out loud how heavy he was. The doctor said I hid him well. The nurses took him to do all the vital about 15 minutes later and they actually weighed him twice to verify. I think more because I am "small" then because he didn't look that big. I guess he dropped a big one before he got weighed, because they were sure if he waited to go, he might have been a 10 pounder.Late babies are like lizards, and shed lots of skin. LOL

He is a hefty one. He has taken to breastfeeding and I have to wake him up right now because he likes to sleep.I have a second degree tear and pretty much feel fine, it not just a little sore. So, even though I ended up with a medicated birth, it was still ok with me because my ultimate goal was to avoid another c-section.