The Williams

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Makenna's birth story

Makenna Blake Williams
February 16, 2018
5lbs 15oz
20in

Makenna's birth story:

I feel like part of her birth story is how i felt the whole pregnancy. I never felt like she was comfortable inside me. I kinda felt she would come early, maybe thats because she terrified me in the womb or maybe that was supposed be be my warning to prepare for her to come early! I made them do an ultrasound at 32 weeks cuz i needed to make sure she was ok. Then at 35 weeks i got the stomach flu and she tried to come out early. I was super dehydrated, they gave me 5 bags of fluids and then finally a shot in the arm to stop contractions completely and all was well. Then at my 37 week appt my midwife gave her the ok to come out, trying to be funny and also reassure me she would be ok if she came out and i guess she listened haha.

So the evening i went into labor i was sitting on the couch and scottie and i were talking and Makenna was going nuts inside me. I wish i got a video of it but i didn't. She seriously had never moved so crazy and so much my stomach was shifting side to side and all over the place. Scottie was like holy cow i think she is trying to escape haha. So prob 15 min later we head upstairs to bed. We had just got into bed and scottie was reading me some funny article he had found when bam water broke. I get this odd pressure and kinda a pinch feeling and then goosh. Warm water haha. I was shocked and said “um babe i think my water just broke". The look on his face was priceless. He sat straight up in bed and was like “um ok we gotta go, call your mom I'll call mine" he is saying this as he is already up and in the closet getting a bag together for the both of us. (3 for 3 having no hospital bag packed when i went into labor, what the heck ha). My mom wasn't answering but alisabeth answered right away. She answered like she already knew what i was gonna say haha but she was so excited and said she would keep trying to call my mom. My water broke at 11pm and we were leaving the house at 11:30. My in-laws showed up and we were already in the car. (Side note: my other labors went super quick after my water broke so the only thing scottie was thinking after i told him it broke was, i am not delivering this baby in the car haha.) So anyway i only had a couple contractions so i felt like we were gonna be just fine. We get to the hospital and end up having to wait before getting checked into triage. Finally get checked in at 12:30 meanwhile alisabeth and my mom had showed up and were waiting with us in the waiting room. So they had to confirm my water broke before getting us a room, it was a super busy night so everything was taking a while, and that was just funny to me cuz i was soaked haha. I had a bath towel in between my legs and it was soaked, i told them they could just ring out the towel to test it but they didn't go for that. They checked me while she was trying to get fluid to test and i was a 1. A 1!!!! I have never checked into the hospital at less than a 6 so this was really kinda sad haha. We knew this one would take a while. So finally at like 1:45 they came back and said yes your water did break…. obviously haha and we were in a room by 2am.

At that point my midwife came in and told me i had a premature rupture which means my water broke before i was in active labor. So now i needed to try and get my body to get into active labor cuz she couldn't stay in there forever. She said we could start some pitocin or i could try and get things going on my own.So we started walking….. scottie got comfy on the couch and my mom alisabeth and i went walking. We did literally millions of laps, chatted, laughed, squated, high knees, everything we could think of. I maybe had a contraction like every 12ish min, and a lame contraction at that. So at like 4:30 i was so tired. Hadn't slept and nothing was happening so i took a nap until 6am. Then i got up and walked some more, did some ball bouncing, took a shower, and more walking. Then my midwife came in and said we better start some pitocin just to help my body know its in labor and then she said it would probably remember and we could turn it off. So at 10am she started me on pit. also side note: i never got to get my mani pedi and my nails were naked hahah i was so worried about it ha. i kept asking everyone if they had nail polish, no one did. but my sweet mother-in-law and mom both went out and got me some haha. so my mom painted my nails and toes while i was having contractins haha it was so nice!!

The pitocin was set at 3 and i started feeling contractions at 10:15. At 10:50 they upped it to 5 and then contractions were consistently 5 min apart!! We were so excited things were finally getting going!! Also we had the cutest nicest nurse named Joan. She was amazing. So during this time there were occasions where makennas heart rate would drop during the contractions and then go right back up, but i didn't like it. I prob asked like 500 times if that was ok. Joan kept saying she is just getting ready to come out, and i guess i believed her. My mom and sister left to get us food at like 10:45 and at 11:30 i had scottie call to see how close they were cuz i was super hungry but also feeling some serious pain and i wanted to eat before the epidural. But didn't want to wait too long cuz pain isn't to fun when you can do something about it haha. They came like 2 min later. I scarfed some food but felt kinda nauseous so i couldn't eat everything i ordered. And then immediately asked joan to get the epidural person!

So i got my epidural around 1 and they checked me and i was a 5! meanwhile having scottie squeeze my feet super hard during contractions, for some reason it made then feel better. Then i suffered through contractions for another hour cuz it wasn't working on my whole stomach. The back half of me was numb but i could still feel the whole front half. That was pretty lame ha but scottie just squeezed and i kept asking the lady to add more meds haha. Finally it was all numb around 2:00!! The nurse checked me again cuz she thought i may be progressing fast and maybe that's why the epidural had a hard time keeping up and i was a 7!! So backing up to like 12:00 makennas heart rate was dropping during most of the contractions, going back up quick but still totally freaked me out. They had me switch sides or positions to try and help but nothing really did. Everyone was being so calm about it but i kept making alisabeth go get joan everytime she left cuz i didn't want to be without her when i had a contraction cuz i hated hearing her heartbeat go down so low, and she was so good at reassuring me it was just cuz she was getting so close to coming! Anyway after my epidural finally took all the way they decided to do an amnioinfusion (my midwife put fluid back into the amniotic sac with a catheter) because babys heart rate was just going so low during contractions and they thought this may help it not dip. Low as in it would normally be like 130’s and during a contraction it would dip to like 90 or 50 or somewhere inbetween, totally freaky low and hearing it so slow on the monitor was horrible. I dreaded every contraction cuz i knew this was gonna happen and during each one i would close my eyes and just pray with everything in me her heart rate would go back up. So because the midwife was down there already and everyone was getting ancy for me to be dilated all the way they checked me frequently at this point. At 2:30 i was an 8 and they started me on oxygen to try and help her some more. (These things may not be too freaky to everyone but i didnt have any of this with my other 2 kids so it stressed me out.)

I knew that if i was stressed it could stress out my baby so i tried really hard to remain calm, but once they put the oxygen on me it hit me that this was not a totally uncomplicated birth and something could go wrong if we didn't hurry and get her out. So i started to cry. With my eyes closed while praying she would be ok. Just had a little moment and then i refocused! I breathed so hard into the oxygen mask just hoping it would help makenna not freak out during the contractions. As she held the catheter in there with the fluid she kept feeling around pushing back the cervix and helping me be complete. Finally at 3:17 she said i was a 10 and needed to start pushing.

At this point like 4 new nurses came in and they also called in the NICU nurses just as a precaution cuz she was having such irregular heart rates. This is freaky too. Im glad they were being cautions but i couldn't help but think there must be something they aren't telling me. And i was sooo sad joan wasnt going to be there. She was seriously so amazing and comforting and to not have her at the most important/scary part i was so sad. They said it was cuz she had too many hours and needed to leave but come on, there had to be another reason different nurses had to come in and she couldn't stay for another 10 min. So ya i was ready to get this baby out.

They took the oxygen off and wasted no time letting her come down like they did with my other kids, i started pushing immediately after being complete. At this point we were so close and i wanted her out so bad. She was not liking it in there. So each contraction i pushed and it was pretty quick. She started crowning, i reached down to feel her slippery bald head and then the midwife looked at the nurse and said “i can't hear the heart tones” the nurse looked at her and said “um those are the heart tones" this was a time they dipped to 50 and i wasn't even having a contraction and also a big gush of blood came. Mahshid my midwife looked at me and said “ok Brenee we need to get this baby out now, so push as hard as you can for me". And if that isn't motivating i don't know what is. So i pushed with everything in me and out she came. I helped grab her out but not much cuz as i reached down to grab her she was pretty much all the way out hahha. She came out facing up so i got to see her face as she was coming on my chest. She was so blue and so tiny but started crying so good! I asked 50 times if she was ok and everyone reassured me she was doing great! She was so calm. Cried on and off a couple times but tried opening her eyes and was so content laying on me. I think she was just as relieved to be out as i was to have her laying on my chest. She was born at 3:36pm.

So as i was holding her they delivered the placenta like usual but it was kinda crazy. She showed it to us and it was so small ( she wasn't big so that made sense) but she said the placenta had marks on it showing that there was a placenta abruption at some point. She said likely during labor. She also showed us the cord. It was super skinny, prob like half the width of my other kids, and it was completely white. She said there was no blood left in the cord. Basically she said we are lucky that she decided to come when she did cuz she would not have lasted inside much longer.

At my 6 week appt Mashid explained more of what happened and what she found out. She said she sent my placenta into pathology, and turns out it was infected. She called it chorioamnionitis. She said prob in the early stages because i wasn't showing any outward symptoms and neither was baby. But she is sure that is the reason i had a premature rupture of membranes ( my water broke before i was in active labor). She also said i had a placenta abruption right before makenna came out. There was a huge gush of blood and she knew baby needed to come out right then. That is why she looked at me and told me to push her out immediately. She said if i would have abrupted any min earlier it would have been an emergency c-section. She said mom and baby can bleed out quickly so if she wasn't going to come out in 1 push then i wouldn't have been able to do it vaginally. They quickly started me on pitocin after delivery to stop the bleeding. She said these factors were prob the reason baby wasn’t handling labor very well.

I am always amazed when i am holding my baby on my stomach for the first time after they were just inside of me. But i have to say i was soooooo extra grateful to be holding my healthy baby girl at the end of this labor. She has had no complications and is just perfect. After reading up on all of this stuff and everything that could have resulted because of it I know without a doubt that we were being watched over. That my Heavenly Father’s hand was guiding my body this whole time. He knows me and by His divine design both Makenna and I are safe and healthy!!! Scottie had given me a blessing that everything would be ok and we would feel comforted as we waited to meet our baby. Now that it's over it’s cool to look back and remember that blessing. He did not bless me that it would be a perfect uncomplicated labor, he said everything would be ok. I am so grateful that we were watched over and everything turned out perfect.

We love our sweet Makenna girl. She is the perfect addition to our family. She is adored by her brother and sister and handles all the snuggles like a champ. We don't know how we lived without her! We love you baby girl!!!

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Jade's birth story

Jade Brooklynn Williams 2/26/16

So let me first start with a couple weeks leading up to the birthday! at my 36 week dr appt my midwife had mentioned that they would like to induce me at 39ish weeks. That was totally not something i was expecting and i actually assumed she would be late since keton was a week late. so i had scheduled clients up until 2 days before my due date which was March 5th! So this kinda shocked me but i was also totally sold on the idea that she would not be coming late. The reason behind the inducing was because she had a 2 vessel cord. I guess it can cause more complications as the baby gets bigger so they like babies with 2 vessel cords to come around 39 weeks. Thankfully this hadn't caused us any complications throughout the pregnancy and she was thriving and growing right on schedule but that is why they wanted her to come sometime around 39 weeks. so i said ok and scheduled to be induced on March 1st (since my in laws were going to be in Hawaii until the 28th and i didn't really want to have a leap year baby and they were ok with waiting a could days after 39 weeks). So the following day i called all my clients that i had scheduled into the 39th week and told them it wasn't going to happen, but assumed i would be fine until March 1st, so i was booked and overbooked super solid until Feb 27th giving myself 2 days to prepare before her birthday on the 1st.

so skipping forward to Wednesday the 24th i went in for my appointment that morning and had my last ultrasound (which is crazy when they get that big cuz you literally cant see anything really, they are so squished in there) everything looked good. She checked me and said i was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. i thought that was great but nothing too concerning considering i was dilated to a 4 with keton for a couple weeks and he was still late. she asked if i wanted my membranes stripped and i agreed only because she said the thinner we make me before getting induced the easier it would be so i thought well then heck i better do it, i don't want that to be to crazy of a process. so she does it and she goes o ok now id say your about a 4.5. i was thinking woah don't do too good of a job lady i still have to finish out the work week im booked solid till Saturday afternoon hahah. but anyway i left and all was good the rest of the day. The next morning i woke up about 6:30 a felt some contractions that were a little harder than Braxton hicks but nothing bad so i went to the bathroom did my normal morning stuff. got keton when he woke up and i was noticing a lot of contractions so as we sat in bed watching some shows i noticed they were 10 min apart, very consistently 10 min apart. i was like hmmm i dont think these are Braxton hicks. i told scottie and he was like ya babe you are having this baby today, your not making it to Saturday. i was like o no its fine, they will go away! so i went about my morning. keton really wanted to go for a stroller ride, he had been asking for days, but i was trying to not do anything that could induce labor so i kept telling him no. this morning i asked sarah if she would take him on a little stroller ride cuz i was having consistent contractions and i needed to lay low until they stopped. so she came over and took him up and down the street a couple times and then alisabeth came over to watch him while i went to work. when i got to work i told the girls that i thought i was maybe in labor but i wasn't sure but id been having contractions all morning and they all freaked that i was there and didn't want to deliver any babies at the salon haha. i told them if they got serious i would leave haha i would make them deliver my baby at work i needed the drugs so i would make sure to leave in time to get those hahh. the whole day i kept my phone in my pocket so i could keep timing my contractions to make sure they didn't get any closer together. it make for a fun work day for the girls and our clients haha. it was cute every time i would look at my phone my client would be like o man you had another one... that was a close one, i would reassure them i was still fine. i was in denial all day that i was actually in labor. about halfway through my clients my contractions were about 7 min apart and getting stronger but nothing i couldn't walk or talk through so i thought for sure i could make it through them all. Nicole at work kept asking me if she should call my friday clients and tell them not to come and i kept telling her no i would be ok to work the next day. i told her to call my sat clients cuz i didn't think i was making it to Saturday. Finally about 4:00 i realized i wasn't going to make it for my clients on friday and i had her call them. by about 5:00 my contractions were 3-5 min apart and strong enough that i didn't want to walk through them but i could still talk through them. thats when i texted scottie and told him i think i was really in labor and he should probably gather some stuff together considering i didn't have anything packed. ( thats the denial part, i really was trying to hold off having this baby until my clients were finished and my in-laws were back from Hawaii haha) i also then asked Nicole to call my 6:00 client and let her know i was in labor and she would have to reschedule. The thought that kept crossing my mind is.. i have to get to the hospital in time to get my epidural but i also dont want to get there and have them tell me im not in labor and i need to go home. so i was conflicted. but anyway i finished up at work and got home, packed up, tried to have a sentimental moment with keton ( i was super emotional about him not being my only baby anymore. once i left i knew it wasn't going to be the 3 of us anymore so i was trying to soak in the moment. he was being a 2 yr old and really didn't care that i was leaving and was just really happy that sissy was coming over to play with him) and we were off. Scottie had to stop and get pizza on the way so we did that and i was just kinda nauseous so i couldn't eat anything. my contractions got a little more spaced out in the car like 5-7 min. still nothing super intense or anything tho so i was still just praying they would not send me home once i got to the hospital. we parked at the hospital, scottie ate his pizza in the car, and i got out and started walking and squatting in the parking garage. i was not getting sent home. i had a couple good contractions waiting for scottie to eat so i got back in the car and said babe i dont think they are going to send us home. i think we are for sure going home with a baby in the next couple days. so he finished up and then gave me a blessing and we went in. we checked in at 7:45 and the nurse in triage was soooo nice like super awesome i really liked her. she checked me and said i was at a 6! i was like yay does that mean i get to stay ha she said yes you are staying and having your baby today ha.

once we got there everything slowed way down. contractions spaced out between 10-12 min apart. they admitted me and started an iv around 9:15. my family came up and we all thought for sure she would be here sometime in the next couple hours! wrong. the midwife came in and told me that i was in labor but not active labor and that she couldn't do anything to help me along "inducing" labor until i was 39 weeks which was not until midnight. so i said great so you can come back at midnight and break my water and she will be out soon after cuz that worked really good with keton. she said she wanted me to sleep and she would come back in the morning and break my water. at first i was bugged, i was already at the hospital and i was ready to meet my baby. but it was really nice to sleep so i guess that was a good idea! so we sent the fam home and told them we would let them know if anything was happening but if not they could just come in the morning! so we slept that night as best as we could, i probably only woke up for like 4 contractions throughout the night cuz they were so painless, but i continued having them all night about 10-12 min apart. I woke up about 6:30 in the morn and the nurse came in and told me that Kelly my midwife would be making her rounds between 7 and 8. she said i could walk around or get in the tub or whatever until she got there. i decided what the heck ill take a nice relaxing soak in the tub until she gets here since contractions were so easy at this point i thought it would feel nice before things really got moving. so i did.

i soaked for a good like 45 min, until Scottie came in and said Kelly came in but they told her i was in the tub so she said she would come back when i got out. i immediately got out of the tub (i was starting to get sweaty and not comfortable in there anymore anyway) and told scottie to tell the nurse i was getting out so kelly could come back and break my water! i was so ready to get things going. Kelly and Lisa ( the midwife on-call the night before) came in and they said i was still a 6 but baby was engaged and i was more effaced so that was good. She broke my water at around 8:15 and they needed to monitor baby for 45 min before i could get up and try and get things going on my own. so i sat there in bed. contractions got about 7 min apart and started getting not so enjoyable, still tolerable but close your eyes and breath kind of contractions, so that was good. i was thinking yay the water breaking worked again! so at 9ish my family got there and brought keton so that was so fun to see him again before baby sister came to the fam. he was being his regular 2yr old self but we sat and watched a couple shows together on the bed so that was nice. they also brought mcdonalds breakfast which was sooooo good. i was starving. the midwives said i could eat so i didn't mess around with that nasty jello they think is food. it was great! at about 9:15 they said i could get up and do whatever i wanted to get things going until i wanted my epidural. ( side note. they said i could have my epidural anytime. before they broke my water up until she came out basically. for some reason i thought i needed to feel some pain before i got it... big mistake. i am writing this here to remind myself next time. i do not need to feel pain. just get the epidural before they break my water and i will be much happier !!) so at that time i got up to use the bathroom one last time and then i thought i would prob call in the epidural person. so i got up went to the bathroom and while i was in there i had like 3 hard contractions, then i got done and walking back to the bed i had a couple more. i knew it was not going to be long so i sat on the ball that i had tried bouncing on earlier and looked at scottie and told him that we needed to get the nurse to call in for the epidural. she came right in and called them and hooked me back up to the monitors. contractions were coming like 2 min apart and they were intense. i didn't feel any regular contractions with keton cuz i had back labor so bad, all i could feel was constant intense back pain, so this was a whole new experience. i didn't love the feeling but i have to say it still beats back labor 100%! so anyway i was on this ball which was actually really uncomfortable to sit on during contractions and in between but it was so hard to get off it after i was on it cuz they were coming so fast i could move fast enough to change positions haha.

finally i had scottie put pressure on my back during a few contractions and then help me off the ball and after that i just stood by the bed holding on to the hand rail. kinda swaying back and forth and that was better. the epidural lady came in like 9:50 and i was soooo happy to see her! i was not comfortable and kinda wanted to cry so it was such a relief to see her. so i sat down on the bed and told them i was feeling nauseous. i kept thinking brenee don't throw up you'll be pain free soon and then you'll feel great! i think there might have been a couple tears during the epidural not from the needle but sitting during those contractions takes some serious concentration and it hurts haha. the anesthesiologist asked my nurse if i could be going through transition and she said i dont think so cuz i just checked her before you came in and she was at a 6 so i dont think so. so she got done and immediately i looked at scottie and said babe im gonna throw up. they got the bowl in front of me and bam, all my delicious breakfast. but i felt much better after that and i was already starting to tell they weren't as intense and i was feeling better. i thanked her and she left. the nurse was like on let me just check you to see how your doing. she checked and i was a 9!! transition during the epidural every time haha but you better believe i am still so happy i got one even if i was super close cuz that was enough pain feeling for me. i felt great now that i was getting numb ha. i could still feel the contractions in my left butt cheek it was so weird haha but after we rotated and got the happy meds running through me i was numb everywhere! at this point it was 10:15. nurse said the midwife would be back around lunchtime and we would start pushing! the fam came back in and all was right in the world once again. she told me to let her know if i was feeling any pressure in my bum i was confused cuz i couldn't feel anything so how was i supposed to know if i was feeling pressure but i was like um ok ill let you know haha. at about 12 i had a contraction and all of a sudden i was like um mom i def feel some pressure in my bum all of a sudden i hope she isn't coming out haha. so my mom went out in the hall right away to get the nurse. she checked me and was like woah ya you are a 10 and baby is right here. i can see her head and she has lots of hair! i was like what the heck you can see her head. i needed to see all this hair she was talking about so i asked for a mirror. something i never thought i would do but she had me so interested in the hair i just had to see. i told her i just wanted to look for a min and then they needed to take the mirror away, they agreed. so i looked and sure enough a little bit of her head was showing a lots of hair i could see! so i did one practice push with the nurse and she was like whoa ok thats enough, i can tell you are going to have no problem getting this baby out so we will wait for the midwifes. she called for all the labor set up people and i looked at scottie and said this is my favorite part and its all going so fast hahha. i had to soak it in for a min cuz it was going to fast. he just laughed at me! timeline from there 12:22 at a 10 head showing 12:25 practice push 12:35 midwifes showed up and the real pushing started. i pushed like 3 or 5 sets of 3 hard pushes and then they kept telling me ok soft push soft push ( whatever that means i basically just did a little sneeze kind of push ) this whole time i kept the mirror and actually ended up really liking it. i could see the progress of my pushing and that was super helpful and awesome to see. so when she was crowning they told me to hold off pushing to prevent tearing and wow that didn't feel that great. i think that spot didn't get a good enough dose of the epidural cuz i could feel the burning. but it worked it really helped me not tear that much! and then after her head was out they let me pull her out and bring her to my tummy! as soon as i saw her head come out the waterworks started and i couldn't help the tears. i was so happy! so i pulled her onto my tummy which was much harder than it was for keton cuz she was so small there was nothing substantial to grab onto. her little arms and shoulders were so little! she was so blue too i kept asking to make sure she was ok but they reassured me she was just fine!!! it was the best. it always is! holding my sweet baby girl and looking at her for the first time, those are moments you cant get back and ones i will cherish forever. she was so little but still had some great cheeks that made her look bigger than she really was. it was really nice after that they let me hold her for like an hour before they took her to be weighed and stuff and that was so nice! we nursed and she did amazing the first time. takes after her brother with that. they took her to get weighed and she was 6lbs 13 oz. i looked over and saw a 6 on the scale and was like no way. i just had a 6lb baby and she has hair!! 2 things i didn't think were possible after keton! our time after that was amazing and it continues to be!

Lisa the midwife that was assisting Kelly

kelly the midwife that delivered jade

keton was happy to see me but mostly cuz i had chips that he wanted.

our labor an delivery nurse Jo. she was amazing!

keton needed to scope her out, every part of her.

She is the best baby. she eats well. sleeps well. is happy when she is awake which isn't often but its great when she is. she doesn't like to nurse to sleep or get rocked to sleep. she just drifts off in your arms while walking around its pretty amazing. she also will stay asleep when you put her down also something we haven't ever experienced and it is so nice!!! of course i still cuddle her all night cuz i cant bare the thought of her being all alone in her crib when i have a perfectly good arm for her to sleep on! we cant imagine our life without our Jade Brooklynn! She makes us so happy and we cant wait to see the woman she will become!!!