Lola Kai's Arrival Story
Krystal went on maternity leave a little early, hoping to have a few moments to herself and also the chance to sleep before little Lola finally arrived. But Lola took seemingly forever to come. (We were impatient for her, you see.) On Wednesday, 25 February, Saint Louis weather predicted sunny skies and highs in the upper 60s. Krystal celebrated the good weather by walking the Botanical Gardens and Tower Grove Park. She had a premonition that the baby would come that day so she was pleased when contractions started around 11 a.m. They were nice and regular and 10 minutes apart. Walking was a lovely distraction from them, too. Eric received fair warning at about 1 p.m. about the situation, and he hastily tried to tie up loose ends at work. Admittedly, Krystal had made this exact same call exactly a week earlier but no baby resulted from that day. So, who knew?
Krystal came home, watched a movie, talked with Mini, and, most of all, was happy that the contractions were not slowing down or stopping. She picked up Raina, spent time that evening coloring with her and reading books, and mostly hung around the house and verified the "what if this is the real thing?!?" plans with all adults involved. At 9 p.m., everyone attempted to go to sleep, but this was not destined to be. After an hour of contractions 5-7 minutes apart, Krystal and Eric decided to get up and act like this was the real thing. (We were trying to avoid the same mistake from Raina's birth, but we felt reasonably confident this was a go.) At 9:30, we had put together a whole hour of 5 minute separated contractions and, after multiple relatively useless calls to the doctor, we tallied forth to the hospital around 10:45 or so.
Eric flagrantly disobeyed traffic laws, which caused Krystal to panic, but we got there in good time. We impatiently waited through the check-in process, which took forever! (Later, we found out that 25 babies were born that night, so they were rather busy.) But we finally checked in and Krystal was checked out: 7 cm dilated, woohoo! Only 3 more to go before Lola would come, and, I'll be honest, it wasn't very painful to get to 7 cm. We planned on a quick and easy labor and delivery from there.
Boy were we ever wrong! First, the techs needed to install a "just in case" hep-lock into Krystal's vein. The tech stabbed her left hand, jabbed around for a while, and then pulled out. Then she stabbed her right arm, with the same consequences. They called in another nurse who was given orders to get it right this time, by goodness, or Krystal wouldn't have a hep-lock at all. That would mean no possibility for IVs, epidurals, or emergency c-sections. The stupid thing was very important, but no one could get it in! The third time worked on her right hand, thankfully, and Krystal was all set up. (She still has remarkable bruises five days later in all three locations.)
Then we did all the traditional natural labor things: we used the exercise ball, we walked, we squatted, we did pelvic tilts, we toured the hospital. But nothing moved us past 7 cm. Krystal's doctor ordered the amniotic sac broken at 4:30 a.m., hoping that would jump-start the process again. The on-staff doctor had real difficulty with it, eventually jabbing a small hole in it, but it did no good. Finally, at 5:15 a.m., Krystal evaluated the situation. The main problem was that her labor had stopped; she wasn't having contractions at all anymore and nothing seemed to be making them come back. Also, she had been awake for 24 hours, had labored at the hospital for 7 hours at this point, was quite tired, and wasn't confident she'd have the energy to deal with the rest of labor (assuming it ever returned). Finally, she knew that if nothing improved at all, she'd be forced into a lot of medical interventions, which both Krystal and Eric hoped to avoid. The logical next step was to use pitocin to stimulate contractions in the hopes of delivering vaginally, but pitocin causes very painful contractions and wasn't guaranteed to work. Yuck.
In the end, Krystal and Eric chose an epidural and pitocin, and crossed their fingers that, if nothing else, they'd both be able to sleep while Krystal was drugged. It was a very wise decision. They told the nurse to set everything up, an IV was administered, and they waited impatiently for half of the IV fluids to go in so that the epidural could begin. The IV fluids gave Krystal more energy and caused the contractions to return, which was a good thing. Unfortunately, they also caused Krystal suddenly to go weak and dizzy and nauseous -- she actually was sick a few times -- so Krystal and Eric were even more impatient for the IV to complete and the epidural to start.
Both Krystal and Eric sincerely worried about the risks of an epidual -- a definite reason that they didn't use one in Raina's birth -- and both were petrified about it. Stabbing needles into the spine just seemed risky business, and neither person was appeased by how many epidurals actually happen in Saint Louis. Both cried intensely when it was administered and Krystal panicked when her legs started twitching uncontrollably. (Apparently that is a common side-effect that we weren't told about!) Anyway, the epidural stopped almost all physical sensations and they added an anti-nausea drug to the mix, so Krystal started to feel really good. Eric was dead tired. Both tried to sleep; Eric was much more successful at it, but Krystal felt so much better than he did!
And the labor progressed nicely and we waited for time to pass. They broke Krystal's water again (a seemingly strange thing, but there you are). The pitocin slowly increased the frequency and force of the contractions, but Krystal only knew because she watched the monitor. At 9 a.m., Krystal felt some pressure, which meant that Lola was low in the birth canal and possibly ready to be born. Krystal was ready at 10 cm, but unfortunately her doctor was across town so we waited 1.5 hours for him to arrive. The nurses were rather upset about this -- one kept chanting "I'm going to kill him!" -- but it was okay. Dr. Biest finally arrived, and at 10:58 a.m., Lola was born.
Lola was delivered, we were ecstatic, and then we panicked again. She was absolutely purple, the umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around her neck, and no amount of suctioning and slapping was making her cry. They put her on oxygen and eventually -- seemingly forever to us -- she started crying.
Lola seemed so small, but turned out 7 lbs, 4 oz, and 20.5 inches, perfectly respectable stats. Eric photographed and videoed like crazy, the nurses cleaned up Lola, and Krystal waited patiently and watched everything happen. (When you're immobile from mid-back down, you don't participate much!)
Lola is a cuddler and immediately took to Eric and to nursing, which are great things. She actively sucks on everything; she discovered sucking on her thumb at 5 hours and happily throws her hand at her face in the hopes of landing a body part in the mouth.
Krystal came home, watched a movie, talked with Mini, and, most of all, was happy that the contractions were not slowing down or stopping. She picked up Raina, spent time that evening coloring with her and reading books, and mostly hung around the house and verified the "what if this is the real thing?!?" plans with all adults involved. At 9 p.m., everyone attempted to go to sleep, but this was not destined to be. After an hour of contractions 5-7 minutes apart, Krystal and Eric decided to get up and act like this was the real thing. (We were trying to avoid the same mistake from Raina's birth, but we felt reasonably confident this was a go.) At 9:30, we had put together a whole hour of 5 minute separated contractions and, after multiple relatively useless calls to the doctor, we tallied forth to the hospital around 10:45 or so.
Eric flagrantly disobeyed traffic laws, which caused Krystal to panic, but we got there in good time. We impatiently waited through the check-in process, which took forever! (Later, we found out that 25 babies were born that night, so they were rather busy.) But we finally checked in and Krystal was checked out: 7 cm dilated, woohoo! Only 3 more to go before Lola would come, and, I'll be honest, it wasn't very painful to get to 7 cm. We planned on a quick and easy labor and delivery from there.
Boy were we ever wrong! First, the techs needed to install a "just in case" hep-lock into Krystal's vein. The tech stabbed her left hand, jabbed around for a while, and then pulled out. Then she stabbed her right arm, with the same consequences. They called in another nurse who was given orders to get it right this time, by goodness, or Krystal wouldn't have a hep-lock at all. That would mean no possibility for IVs, epidurals, or emergency c-sections. The stupid thing was very important, but no one could get it in! The third time worked on her right hand, thankfully, and Krystal was all set up. (She still has remarkable bruises five days later in all three locations.)
Then we did all the traditional natural labor things: we used the exercise ball, we walked, we squatted, we did pelvic tilts, we toured the hospital. But nothing moved us past 7 cm. Krystal's doctor ordered the amniotic sac broken at 4:30 a.m., hoping that would jump-start the process again. The on-staff doctor had real difficulty with it, eventually jabbing a small hole in it, but it did no good. Finally, at 5:15 a.m., Krystal evaluated the situation. The main problem was that her labor had stopped; she wasn't having contractions at all anymore and nothing seemed to be making them come back. Also, she had been awake for 24 hours, had labored at the hospital for 7 hours at this point, was quite tired, and wasn't confident she'd have the energy to deal with the rest of labor (assuming it ever returned). Finally, she knew that if nothing improved at all, she'd be forced into a lot of medical interventions, which both Krystal and Eric hoped to avoid. The logical next step was to use pitocin to stimulate contractions in the hopes of delivering vaginally, but pitocin causes very painful contractions and wasn't guaranteed to work. Yuck.
In the end, Krystal and Eric chose an epidural and pitocin, and crossed their fingers that, if nothing else, they'd both be able to sleep while Krystal was drugged. It was a very wise decision. They told the nurse to set everything up, an IV was administered, and they waited impatiently for half of the IV fluids to go in so that the epidural could begin. The IV fluids gave Krystal more energy and caused the contractions to return, which was a good thing. Unfortunately, they also caused Krystal suddenly to go weak and dizzy and nauseous -- she actually was sick a few times -- so Krystal and Eric were even more impatient for the IV to complete and the epidural to start.
Both Krystal and Eric sincerely worried about the risks of an epidual -- a definite reason that they didn't use one in Raina's birth -- and both were petrified about it. Stabbing needles into the spine just seemed risky business, and neither person was appeased by how many epidurals actually happen in Saint Louis. Both cried intensely when it was administered and Krystal panicked when her legs started twitching uncontrollably. (Apparently that is a common side-effect that we weren't told about!) Anyway, the epidural stopped almost all physical sensations and they added an anti-nausea drug to the mix, so Krystal started to feel really good. Eric was dead tired. Both tried to sleep; Eric was much more successful at it, but Krystal felt so much better than he did!
And the labor progressed nicely and we waited for time to pass. They broke Krystal's water again (a seemingly strange thing, but there you are). The pitocin slowly increased the frequency and force of the contractions, but Krystal only knew because she watched the monitor. At 9 a.m., Krystal felt some pressure, which meant that Lola was low in the birth canal and possibly ready to be born. Krystal was ready at 10 cm, but unfortunately her doctor was across town so we waited 1.5 hours for him to arrive. The nurses were rather upset about this -- one kept chanting "I'm going to kill him!" -- but it was okay. Dr. Biest finally arrived, and at 10:58 a.m., Lola was born.
Lola was delivered, we were ecstatic, and then we panicked again. She was absolutely purple, the umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around her neck, and no amount of suctioning and slapping was making her cry. They put her on oxygen and eventually -- seemingly forever to us -- she started crying.
Lola seemed so small, but turned out 7 lbs, 4 oz, and 20.5 inches, perfectly respectable stats. Eric photographed and videoed like crazy, the nurses cleaned up Lola, and Krystal waited patiently and watched everything happen. (When you're immobile from mid-back down, you don't participate much!)
Lola is a cuddler and immediately took to Eric and to nursing, which are great things. She actively sucks on everything; she discovered sucking on her thumb at 5 hours and happily throws her hand at her face in the hopes of landing a body part in the mouth.
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