Friday, December 30, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
in which i hopefully end the story
the tornado was a wednesday. the following several days consisted of everyone able going into town to help clear debris, trees, and help people collect what belongings they could. it turned out that 4 families in our ward from church had lost their homes and belongings. the next 2 sundays we just had combined sacrament with the other ward and then everyone left to continue to help. but back to joseph. wednesday, then thursday through sunday brad helped with manual labor and i watched kids so that others could help too... not much a 9 month pregnant lady can lift...
monday, brad had a phone interview with a university from north carolina. the kids' and i went to a friends house during the interview so brad could pay attention... he said he thought it went ok... then tuesday they emailed him for a campus visit. This is where it gets funny. He emailed them back telling him how he would LOVE to come for a visit... HOWEVER, his wife (me;) was due in just 10 days and if he could somehow request it be before this day or after the 16th, (which was after my mom was to arrive). so they told him on thursday that they would fly him out on sunday (mother's day too) and have him home by monday night. so that's what happened. I was under strict instruction to lay on the couch and have a lazy day with the kids for monday... and thanks to another pregnant friend, the kids and i went over to her house and spent mother's day together since everyone was still out helping with clean up. however, I decided that since hobby lobby was taken out by the tornado, and the other cloth store wasn't opening due to electrical problems from the tornado, another friend and i and the kiddlets traveled to birmingham to try out joann fabrics and their hobby lobby. see, after having 3 kids, i wanted a diaper bag that fit MY criteria... and none that i was finding was fitting the description.... unless i wanted to pay oodles of noodles! so thanks to ali, we went on an adventure and had fun! Monday night brad came home and said he had had fun too, but he wasn't so sure how it went. Tuesday mid morning, they called and offered him the job! but he still wasn't sure if he would take it... it actually only amounted to the same as what brad made with his assistantship and student loans, plus we would have to pay out of state graduate tuition if we took it... (obviously you know we did end up taking the job... since this post is 7 months past...)
anyways, wednesday the plan was that my friend (who had just moved here) was going to watch my boys during my dr apt and then we were going to have a sewing party and get our craft on making baby things... most particularly my diaper bag that i designed and FINALLY had the fabric for. well i had been having contractions all morning, but nothing that was out of the ordinary. although there were some more intense ones in the waiting room... when my dr checked me i was at a 4 and she could feel my water. well with sb i was at a 4 for the last 7 weeks of pregnancy... i still felt like it wouldn't be until saturday for whatever reason. the dr didn't seem all that concerned either. so we said farewell and i got in the car and was on the phone and driving (i know i know...) when i had a contraction so intense while i was driving i couldn't even talk. i turned the car around and picked up brad. I told the baby he couldn't come yet... i still had my list of things i needed to finish before he was born.... my list was 4 pages long... anyways, we decided brad would drop me and my sewing stuff off with my friend and he would go home and work on my list at least til sb got off the bus.
well, i enjoyed a yummy lunch with my friend, all the while we timed my "surges". 6 minutes here, 5 there... going in between 4-6 minutes. i would just pause and breath then go back to cutting my fabric and ironing the seams and sewing until i had to sway and completely block everything out. i couldn't even have tj or k talk to me. i was like, uhm, i think it's time to call brad... i didn't want to wait too long because of the whole GBS thing we discussed earlier... so as soon as sb got home he got in the car with her and came to pick me and the boys up. it was at this point that we realized that our designated kid watcher couldn't take the kids but with in 15 minutes things worked out and our other friend was able to make it work. and it worked well, actually. we were borrowing our friend's car while they were out of town so we dropped off the van at the kid watcher's (confused yet?) and took our friend's car to the hospital (thanks again mays!!!!!)
on the way i thought i should call the dr's office just to let them know. well when i called and spoke with the nurse i said, "hi, i'm in labor and heading to the hospital, i just thought i should let you know." she actually told me to wait at home to make sure i was "really" in labor and they'd have a nurse call me back, then i told her this is baby #4, my labors have been 5-6 hrs in the past, i'm gbs +, and was at a 4 this morning... she told me to hold on and so i was put on hold. then i started having another contraction so i passed the phone to brad. all i heard was him saying "uhm no, this is her husband. i'm pretty sure she's serious, i have the phone cause she can't talk through the contractions... well, either way we're on our way." and that was that.
silly silly nurse.
didn't she know that of all people... I... ME.... I would be the one trying to postpone this????
anways, we were having a good laugh about that when i started to have another contraction... well we were laughing too much that i couldn't concentrate and breathe so it really hurt and there i was going back and forth between HAHAH, OWOWOWOW HAHAHA OWOWOW... then we walked into the hospital and up to the nurses' station. Can we help you? they ask... sure, i said, i'm in labor.
... then i got "that" look... of yeah, we'll see. "did your water break sweetie?", "nope, but this is baby #4, i have "fast" labors, i'm gbs + and was at a 4 just before lunch at my appt." So they took us to the triage room and told us to wait for our nurse, but to change... sadly i never got a "real" just before going to the hospital picture, but i did get this :)
anyways, so i get on the bed and they hook me up to the monitors and watch for a little bit, and are like yes, well you ARE having consistent contractions (DUH...) and then when she checked me she was super suprised... she goes WOW, your at a 6 1/2 (really... how can you tell it's 1/2???) almost 7 and your water is bulging... she said you're not going anywhere. (i really felt entitled to a great big I TOLD YA SO moment...)
so they were getting the other room ready (just so happened to be the same exact room we had kempton in!) and brad was calling my family. he had called my sisters' phone and our nephew, ashton answered... i had started to have another contraction during this and my bags were still in the car so i didn't have my mp3 player to use my scripts yet, but i hear brad say "no ashton, not uncle DAD, uncle BRAD... BRAD... BRAD?" and i started laughing again... but then we were back to me "hahahah... owowowowow-ing"... that was the only time i was mean and said GET OUT to brad... but he understood :) after we got back to our room and iv stuff started and i had my mp3 player everything was great! the nurse was trying to get paperwork done so whe would talk and ask questions and when i felt one coming i would pause, put my other earpiece in and press play, close my eyes and relax. then when it was over, i'd take a deep breath and open my eyes and smile! i was so excited after each one! and it really wasn't hurting AT ALL... as long as i could relax. but if i was distracted it really was painful. that's kind of the way it went till i felt nauseous. the nurse decided to check me and i was at a 9 1/2. the dr came in about then too (we'd only been back in the room for about 45 minutes and at the hospital for a total of almost 2.5 hours.) it was obvious we wouldn't make it the whole 4 hours for a second dose of antibiotics, and he wanted to be sure that there wasn't any meconium in the waters, so he broke my water...
(side note... if we have anymore, i will NOT be letting them break my water!)
water was clear! and the next 2 or 3 contractions were fine but then after that i just couldn't get a handle on them and the next 1/2 hour or so were seriously agonizing. the position i was most "comfortable" in was on my knees, bum in the air and my head seriously like rammed into the headboard. i did some weird noise breathing thing through the contractions that i'm sure sounded super bizarre, but they helped. But i was soooooo weak i couldn't hold my body up to change positions and was getting super dizzy and lightheaded. the nurse had me get on my back to start some "practice pushes"... yeah right... i did one and she had me stop... STOP??? sure i can stop... NOT... actually i did stop pushing but my stomach didn't... i actually was trying to hold things in but do you know how seriously IMPOSSIBLE that it? she hurried to get everything ready and just about delivered joseph herself... the dr came in and then said to push.
now, i've delivered with epidurals before... 2 that have "worn off" or so i thought. even still i felt quite a bit more with the ones that wore off than with the one that didn't... but when i pushed with drugs it was super easy. 5 minutes for sarahbeth, 3 pushes for tj and not even a full push for kempton. and as soon as the baby slid out... like seriously as soon as their feet were out it was like this amazing rush of adrenaline and i felt great! This was way different. I couldn't even get a full breath to push. so i think it was like 2 pushes this time for joseph to get all the way out...i just closed my eyes and laid there. i opened my eyes for a split second to see oh, he looks just like kempton... and then i waited.... and waited... no energy... eventually i felt the need to push the afterbirth out which was obviously easier, but felt very odd indeed.
and then, i got cold.
and weaker.
and shaky.
i couldn't even hold him until after i had showered because i was so shaky and weak. so brad did. i remembered later that one of the times that i opened my eyes, brad was crying. he did that when sb was born too... but they did his first bath while i still hadn't held him yet, and took him to the nursery to do what they do in the nursery. while they did that brad ran out to wendy's to get us some food because the cafeteria had closed and i got into the shower all by myself! it felt much better as far as that went after with out an epidural but i still was wondering what happened to that burst of energy?!?!?
Joseph Kambak Holley was born at 8:05 pm only 3 hours after arriving at the hospital and measuring 7 pounds 6 oz and 20 3/4 inches long. it was almost 10:30 by the time i was able to hold him for the first time... and it was so sweet! i just loved him... and at that point was not so sure i ever wanted to do that again.
now when we had our other kids, we kept them in the hospital room with us. but with kempton, the first night he choked on his spit or something and we woke up to him gasping for air and then couldn't sleep the rest of the night. so the nurses kept him so we could get some rest. i realized that was the awesomest thing ever! so that's what we decided to do with this baby from the bat.
unfortunately i didn't sleep. yah, i found my adrenaline... i layed there like it was christmas eve waiting for them to bring him in for me to nurse :) i didn't sleep the entire night. the recovery after that was fantastic. and after the first day i asked brad about the noises i made... he said they were fine... and then the further we got from it he truthfully said they were kinda weird but it worked so not to worry about it...:) and me..... after the first couple days i didn't want to think about childbirth...but by the end of the week i was really excited to try it again... just not sure when that will be.
so just to recap... wed, 4/27 tornado/almost baby day. monday 5/2 phone interview, tues 5/3 campus visit offer, sunday 5/8 mother's day, brad leaves for campus visit, monday 5/9 late night he returns, tuesday 5/10 he gets the job offer, wed 5/11 new baby! in a quick, mostly painless labor... except for the last 1/2 hour, 1/2 cm...
wow... uhm where'd i leave off...
ah yes. so i had a new "birthing buddy" sorta..
I think I have to back my story up to april 26th, just to give a little back story to help understand the craziness of the next 2 weeks. Tuesday, April 26th I had one of me weekly appointments where i was checked... maybe a fingertip dilated... nothing big even with this being baby #4. so again to add to my angst of not going into labor naturally.
Then, Wednesday happened. It began as a muggy yucky day with several small tornadoes around Alabama... already not a good day. we (me and the kiddos) had some good friends over to play for the morning and possibly to last through the day with the hopes that the university would just cancel classes and that brad would bring friend's hubby home with him since their home was an older, less structurally sound one and just to be on the safe side we could all squeeze into our bathroom :) kind of a weird party plan no?
anyways, kiddos got tired so plans changed and my friend and her son went home... then brad came home... actually he was going to stop at hobby lobby for me and Barnes and Nobel for sb's birthday present, but i told him to just come straight home (thank goodness because the timing would have been perfect... perfectly awful!)
The weather was getting pretty intense and the last that we got from the weather man before the electricity went out was that there was a HUGE tornado, about a mile wide up top? was coming through... originally directed straight for moundville (our house) but then shifting up to tuscaloosa (they all seem to shift around the river by our house... thank goodness for us) and heading basically towards my friend's house. so i called her and let her know just in case she hadn't heard yet... then the power was out and all our neighbors gathered on our porch. we lived on the hill and looked directly at the tornado... (i do have a couple of pictures and video that i might add later...idk) it was crazy...
* now, before you all go thinking we're crazy tornado watchers... we lived 10 miles south of where the tornado was at... well in the "safety zone"... we barely got any rain even!
The next we heard on the radio was that krispy kremes was gone and i started bawling. brad of course gave me a hug and said all would be alright but it wasn't until later that he put 2 and 2 together... our friends from earlier lived RIGHT behind/kiddie corner(?) to the krispy kremes place... he just figured preggo wife who loves donuts was very distraught. this helped us laugh later that night.
As we were all (neighbors and us) just in shock over all of this and hearing from our radio what was going on, we learned our cell phones wouldn't work... we couldn't call out or txt out... BUT we could txt to facebook and receive calls... thank goodness annalie is a worry wort when it comes to tornadoes and was able to check in with us and make some calls for us and i was able to get messages to my family via facebook! but it was seriously one of those situations where panic sets in when you don't know what's really going on.
*side note (i know this doesn't seem to have to do with birth but i'll get there :) just a few months before in book club we read a book (my pick) called One Second After... later we all discussed how eerie we felt recalling events from the book and comparing them to our after-tornado experience.
anyways, as these things were happening my neighbors (awesome neighbors...) were taking turns rubbing my lower back and they realized there was kind of a pattern to my "aches"... and then we played the game of "am i in labor- no, i can't be in labor..." it wasn't until the weather man gave the all clear for our area that i had a contraction that brought me to my knees that i thought... well uhm maybe...the next problem was that we weren't sure how to get to the hospital... see the tornado crossed the 359/69 (which i'm sure to most of you means nothing) but that's the road that we need to take to get directly to the hospital that my doctor is at. somehow my neighbor got through to 911, we just wanted to see what the best way to get there was and they were misunderstanding us and trying to send out an ambulance... which we didn't need... especially since i'm SURE there was a greater need for them all over tuscalossa... not for me.
eventually brad and i made it into the car (my bag wasn't even ready yet!) and the neighbors kept the kids since we had no way to get in touch with our kid care friends... or our back up plans either... and thank goodness it was dark as we were getting into town. what we DID see was heartbreaking enough. and luckily for us, all the traffic was going the other way. What we did see were tons of cars just crumpled and dumped along side the highway... just as if someone crumples up a tissue when they're done... so weird. It was at this point when brad realized why i was so upset about krispy kremes...
when we got to the hospital, brad quickly gave me a blessing and then we hurried inside. it was eerily quiet, and dim. we told the nurses what had happened and they put us in a room on the other side since they had moved everyone closer to the one nurses' station. also, they were running off a generator and so there was no tv, no radio, no internet (of course)... and only dimly lit rooms. they hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough, contractions were regular and 3 minutes apart. when i was checked i had made it to just about a 2. compared to a fingertip the day before...
they decided to keep us for a while... brad and i talked and both decided we did NOT want to have this baby that night.. not that we get a say in it or anything, but there was just so much that was going to need to be done that having a baby right then would have made helping difficult. To pass the time, and hopefully help me relax, brad was able to borrow a book from the hospital's library :) it was a detective novel that reminded me of sherlock holmes... and a lot of the book coincided with what we were experiencing that day/evening... the description of the weather, the dimly lit room that the detective was led to... and so on. we amused at that for a bit...
then things began to slow down and i wasn't contracting all that much anymore... the dr said he was fine with keeping me there and admitting us to have a baby if we wanted, but we opted to go home. he said it was most likely the stress of the day and the pressure that started the labor process but that as we were able to come down from that and relax it would probably calm down too.
when we finally got home and got the kids from next door, brad set up "camp" in the living room with the kids and let me have the bed all to myself...
(this is a REALLLY long birth story no? is anyone still here????)
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