Labor and Delivery

*This will be a long post

Monday, July 19: Went to my 39 week appointment. Mike was able to go with me which was wonderful. We listened to the heartbeat and the doctor checked my progress; dilated to a 1.5, 50% effaced. I asked him to strip my membranes to see if it would help speed up the process. He was willing, but skeptical that it would do anything. I guess it's basically a 50/50 chance that the procedure helps induce labor. Went home and cleaned the apartment top to bottom. I felt crampier, but nothing significantly different. Mike tried some acupressure on my feet. No change.  

Tuesday, July 20: No change during the day. Mike and I went on a long walk that night after spending quality time together, and I started having regular contractions and pretty painful lower back pain. It started around 10pm and continued all night. I couldn't sleep but kept telling myself it wasn't bad enough to go to the hospital. I expected the pain to be worse (I was right...it would be worse!) Contractions and cramps stopped around 9am. Nothing the rest of the day. 

Wednesday, July 21: No change during the day. I began to be discouraged. I wasn't late, but I felt frustrated that things had stopped. Mike and I had some more quality time together, and went on another walk around 10:30pm. Maybe 2 minutes after starting the walk the contractions started. We walked for over an hour and the contractions were regular the whole time (1 minute long, 2-4 minutes apart). They were much more painful than the previous night; so much so that I had to stop and breathe through each one. We got home and they continued. I tried to sleep through them, and was actually successful until about 4am when they got too painful and woke me up. I showered, did my hair, and continued to time them. They were still regular, and getting longer/stronger. Finally we decided to go to the hospital. This was at 6am. 

Thursday, July 22: We arrived at Timpanogos Hospital at 6:15am. They took us into a delivery room and I changed into the fabulous hospital gown. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor and a contraction monitor. After a few minutes the nurse came in and checked my progress; 3.5 centimeters, 80% effaced. They said they couldn't keep us if I wasn't dilated to a 5 in an hour. We waited anxiously. I was in too much pain to go home again. An hour later, at about 7:55am, the same nurse came in to check me; 4.5 centimeters (only 1/2 a centimeter short!) I was so discouraged, and the nurse didn't seem very positive. She left to call our doctor to see if they would keep us. We waited probably 20 minutes. Finally a different nurse came in with the IV equipment and a big smile! They were keeping us! Baby Kitto was on his way! I called my mom and let her know we were staying and to come on over. What a surreal experience! It was finally happening. 

They put in the IV and the doctor came to break my water and get things moving. They wanted me to start pitocin to keep up my contractions. I decided to have an epidural right after starting the pitocin, and only waited maybe 10 minutes for the anesthesiologist to come. He gave me the epidural (which I was very nervous about) around 10:30am. After that I was in heaven. I hardly felt anything while getting the epidural. I was so grateful. The nurse checked my progress; 6 centimeters, fully effaced. 

We waited probably another hour, and then the nurse came to check my progress; 10 centimeters, ready to go! She was very surprised. Most first time moms progress a centimeter an hour. Things were definitely moving quickly. They debated letting me "labor down" for an hour, but the doctor wanted me to start pushing. 

At 12:00pm I started pushing with a nurse. They expected me to push for 2-3 hours. At 12:20pm the doctor came and the real pushing began. Things were going well until the very last few minutes when baby's heart rate dropped significantly. After a few more desperate pushes he was out! Needless to say I did not expect things to move so quickly. 

Baby Kitto was pretty swollen and gray. He was doing fine, but his color wasn't coming very quickly. After an hour or so he was doing much better. They cleaned him up, sewed me up (had some pretty bad tearing), and put my beautiful baby in my arms. We had family members in the room very soon after, and I was quite emotional. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life! 

We weren't sure of Baby's name, but after visitors left Mike asked me what I thought. Curtis. When I saw him that is the name that came first to my mind. Mike said he had the same experience. Good thing we agreed!

Curtis James Kitto

After a couple hours the nurse moved us to the post partum room (#126). From then on things blurred together. I want to remember these things:

-We had many wonderful visitors and support

-The days flew by

-Nursing was hard! Curtis didn't want to latch, and I was so stressed having a nurse ask if he'd eaten every 2 hours. He was sleepy and wasn't interested, and I was so discouraged. I definitely cried a lot. 

-I couldn't stand to not hold him at night. I stayed up all night long (both nights) just holding him and looking at him. I was afraid he's stop breathing if I put him down.

-The pain was miserable. Using the restroom was a nightmare. I never want to sit on a hard ice pack again. 

-Mike was so wonderful. He was so helpful and so supportive. I'm so grateful I had him with me. 

-I've never seen such a cute baby (obviously every mom feels this way about her baby). I still spend hours a day just looking at him. 

-Going home was hard, but it felt great to walk around and get out of that room.

Having a baby has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I went to the hospital with so many fears and uncertainties, and I know that Heavenly Father truly blessed me and helped calm all of my fears. I'm so grateful to have a beautiful, healthy baby boy. He is so perfect, so calm, so trusting, so innocent, and so dependent on us. I would do anything for him. I love being a mother. I already feel such a different purpose in my life. Trivial things just don't matter as much anymore. I feel like I have a greater knowledge of what's truly important in life. I hope I can be a good mother to Curtis. I hope I can be a good wife to Mike.

I love my little family!