Kroy's Birth in Pictures

Here are some pictures from our birth experience both before and after Kroy was born.  Enjoy!

Baby's heart rate (top line) and Contraction Monitor

Trying to "rest" after getting my epidural

Kroy's baby warmer where he'd go after being born

Happy and anxious!

Someone isn't resting either!

Our birth suite room number

Kroy is here!!  Getting his first bottle.

Proud Grandma & Grandpa coming to see Kroy at the hospital

Grandma helping put Kroy's footprints in his baby book

First bath!  Grandma got to help with the bath :)

Beautiful flowers

Passing the time after his birth playing Cribbage

First day home with Grandma rocking him to sleep

She's so smitten with him.  He's a loved little boy. So blessed!

Grandpa adores him equally as much!

First sponge bath at home given by Mom & Grandma

The Birth of Our Son

We can't believe it has been one week since we welcomed our son into this world.  When everyone says "time flies once you have children" you never know the truth to that statement until you actually have a child of your own.  In one short week we have fallen more in love with this little guy and each other than we ever thought possible.  Before the beautiful memory of bringing our son into the world becomes a bit faded I wanted to tell the story of his birth from start to finish so we will always remember the tiny details leading up to bringing him into this world.  I will warn you...this is a birth story.  There will be details in there that some might not want to read (blood, amniotic fluid, IV, etc), but I want them included in our story. 

November 4th started out as any other day does for me.  I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions since about 36 weeks so it wasn't anything new that I was having them that day as well.  Wesley went to work (cell phone in hand just in case) and I went about my day cleaning the house and getting last minute things ready before his arrival.  That afternoon we went to vote in town in Colstrip, then I rode home with Moo Moo while Wesley & David went to pick up a yearling of ours that was in the neighbors pasture.  I noticed I was a bit more tired than normal after we got home that evening and by 8:30 p.m. we were in bed (good thing too).  I tossed & turned trying to get comfortable and finally fell asleep about 10 p.m. that night.  At 10:56 p.m. I noticed I was having menstrual like cramps and needed to go to the bathroom.  When got up to go to the bathroom I noticed what I thought was amniotic fluid.  I didn't want to wake Wesley yet because I wasn't sure that my water had in fact broke, so I tip-toed to the living room to call the Birth Center to ask them what their opinion was.  After explaining my symptoms they confirmed that it was in fact my water breaking and that we needed to head straight in to the birth center since we had a 2 hour drive.  So, I walked back to the room to wake my sleeping  husband and tell him it was time to meet our son.  I sat on his side of the bed and whispered "babe, its time...its time to go".  I've never seen him pop up so fast ever.  He was like a tornado getting dressed and throwing shoes on so we could head out the door.  I remembered my sister telling me she wished she had taken a shower before heading to the hospital so I hopped in the shower right quick before we headed to Billings.

It was 11:15 when we were walking out the door of our house.  We called his parents to come get our dogs and away we went.  By this time my contractions were getting stronger.  They always said that you'd know the difference between Braxton Hicks & the real thing and they were right (although when its your first baby you often wonder if you will know the difference or not...It scared me for the longest time that I wouldn't know I was in labor)!  My husband went the speed limit on the creek road due to the deer, but once we got onto the interstate headed east towards Billings I believe he topped out at about 90 MPH heading that way.  An hour into our drive my contractions were getting even stronger.  Reminding myself to breathe, and holding my husbands hands I powered through them (like a boss as my adorable husband told me).  We made it to Billings in about an hour and 40 minutes thanks to the amazing driving skills of my nervous husband.  We were lucky to find a parking spot right in front of the birth center at the hospital and I insisted on walking so that labor would be sped along even faster versus riding in a wheel chair.  We grabbed our suitcase and camera and hauled butt up to the second floor of the Family Birth Center (FBC).  Since they knew we were coming they had all our paperwork done and all I had to do was sign my admission rights & responsibilities sheet and we were in. 

We were officially admitted at 1:30 AM on Wednesday, November 5th.  We were escorted to Suite 2 in the FBC and at this point my contractions were every 3 minutes apart and lasting about 60 seconds each.  I remember my sister telling me she had to grab onto the railing along the walls of her hospital when in labor & walking to her room, and I had to do the same thing.  In fact, as I grabbed the railing on the wall to breathe through an intense contraction the thought of her doing the same thing 6 months prior ran through my head.  My husband massaged my back as I breathed through the intensity of the contraction. 

Upon arriving in my room they immediately checked my cervix.  I was dilated to a 4 and my cervix was 90% thinned out.  The doctor came in to help thin my cervix along, and I was immediately given an IV.  I also requested an epidural right away, and to my surprise within an hour of being admitted and given an IV the anesthesiologist was in my room and prepping me for the epidural.  They put my IV on the fast track to emptying 1 bag (because you have to have 1 bag of fluids in you before they'll administer your epidural) and in no time I was sitting up slumped over getting prepared for my epidural.  Of all the things about labor that I was worried about most, this was it.  I was facing my fear of needles and receiving the numbing medicine that would help my labor be less painful.  I had a wonder anesthesiologist and I do mean wonderful.  He was kind, gentle, and always let me know what was going on.  To my surprise and amazement, the IV catheter hurt about 10 times worse than my epidural did.  He did warn me that the numbing medicine he would inject in me before administering my epidural might sting some, but I didn't hardly feel a thing.  From start to finish it took him all of 5 minutes and he had administered my epidural and was taping the epidural catheter down.  What an amazing thing epidurals are!  While I know there are women out there that do it completely natural and pain relieving medication free, I was not one of them nor did I want to be.  I wanted to be able to experience the beauty of the laboring and delivery process and not be so focused on the intense pain that I didn't get to have special moments with my husband.  At about 2:30 AM the doctor came in and checked me again.  I was a 5 this time, and she told us that we should try to rest if we could so that I wasn't warn out for the pushing that was to come.  Try as we might we could not go to sleep at all.  So, my husband put on some music on his iPhone, sat next to my bed, held my hand, and we talked.

By 6:00 AM my contractions had become a bit more spaced out, so the doctor started me on some Pitocin to help my contractions along.  I never felt any more pain with the Pitocin, and really no more pressure.  Wesley loved watching the contraction monitor because he'd tell me that I was having a "big contraction" yet I wouldn't feel a thing.  It was pretty cool to watch.  By 7:30 it was shift change at the hospital so we got a new set of nurses and a new OB doctor as well.  When I first met Dr. Osborn (not my regular OB doctor) I thought she was quite intense, and a bit "in your face".  As it would turn out later, that is exactly what God had ordered for us and she was a blessing.  By 9:00 AM I was dilated to a 7 and Dr. Osborn told me that she was going to make her rounds and the nurses would call her when I was ready to push.  She figured it would be around Noon when we would start pushing.  By 9:45 AM I was feeling lots of pressure and the urge to push.  The nurse came in and checked me and sure enough I was a 10 and ready to push.  The baby had a little bit of descending to do so they had me push with each contraction to help move him down the birth canal.  I was able to get 4 good pushes out of each contraction which the nurses were extremely happy with.  By 10:15 I had intense pressure to push, and the doctor wasn't in the FBC yet.  She ran from the other side of the hospital to be in the room for the birth.  While waiting for her I couldn't push through the contractions I just had to breathe through them so he wasn't born without her, and that had to be the worst pain yet.  All I wanted to do was push, yet I had to wait for her to come back.  Dr. Osborn flew through the door of our room around 10:30 and after 3 good pushes at 10:49 AM our son was born.

Kroy Wesley was born at 10:49 a.m. and weighed 8 lbs. even.  He was 20.5 inches long.  As soon as Dr. Osborn pulled Kroy out of my body and placed him on my chest I was in love.  He was absolutely perfect.  I looked over at my husband who had tears streaming down his face.  He had to walk away because he was overcome with emotion at the sight of our beautiful baby boy, and so was I.  We had done it.  Our hard work, waiting, and preparation had paid off and we had a beautiful, healthy baby boy in our arms.  After I got to hold him for a minute the nurses took him away to weigh him, dry him off, and hand him to his Daddy.  The sight of my husband holding our son for the very first time is a memory that I will forever hold on to.

After delivering my placenta the doctor got a bit concerned because she could not get me to quit bleeding.  The concerned look on my husband's face said it all to me as well.  Something wasn't right.  My uterus had given out and stopped contracting therefore the bleeding wasn't getting any better.  I had nurses massaging (rather roughly) my uterus to try to get it to contract and help control the bleeding, and the doctor removing clots the size of my husband's fist out of me.  After about 2 hours of working on me they inserted a balloon into my uterus to help control the bleeding.  With the good Lord on our side it worked.  The doctor was able to stop the bleeding with the help of the balloon, and I was not clotting anymore.  Thank God.  Remember how I mentioned that when I first met the OB that would be delivering Kroy that day that I was a bit taken back?  All of those concerns flew out the window when I saw how intently she was working to control the bleeding.  She was amazing.  Although I believe almost every nurse in that room got her butt chewed for not moving fast enough (and there were about 15 nurses in the room with us at that time), Dr. Osborn was absolutely fantastic.  Because of her we were able to avoid a lot of other medical complications, and we have thanked her over and over for all the hard work she did to stop the bleeding.  I was very fortunate that I did not need a blood transfusion.  I was borderline with my levels, but since I never lost consciousness, got lightheaded, dizzy, saw stars, etc. I didn't have to have one.  I was on bed rest for 24 hours after the delivery because of the balloon in my uterus and the multiple catheters they had inserted to monitor blood loss, clots, etc. 

My amazing husband was such a trooper through the entire thing.  And on top of it, the first night Kroy was born he had to take care of everything from feeding to diaper changing since I could not get out of bed and my stomach was so bruised and sore from them working on my uterus.  Kroy doesn't know it yet but he has the best father and role model out there and we are both so lucky to have Wesley in our lives.  He was amazing that night.  He would change Kroy, feed him, rock him, swaddle him, and put him back to bed.  And he did this every 2 hours.  I was able to capture a few pictures on my phone of him with Kroy after he was first born, and then a photography company came in to the hospital and took professional pictures of us as a family.  Those are pictures I will cherish forever.  Kroy looks just like his Daddy and I couldn't be more proud of the both of them.  I'm also quite proud of myself because I am normally not tolerant of pain at all.  It is an amazing thing for your body to give birth to another human being.  My husband is constantly telling me how proud he is of me because of how tolerant I was of the pain, the contractions, and how awesome I did when it was time to push.  For a first time mom to push for right at an hour is not common.  The doctor told me to be prepared to push for 2 hours because as a general rule that's about average for a first time mom.  So I was pretty proud of myself for only pushing for an hour.  The miracle of life is indescribable and I am so blessed to have my husband and child here with me today.  I love them more than anything in this world and I would do absolutely anything for either of them.