Labor and Delivery - Jude McKirgan Kemp

**Note:  This post is mostly for me to remember details of my labor and delivery's.

Although my pregnancies were very similar, labor and delivery were very different.  Let's reflect on my labor and delivery with Jude first.

Welcoming Jude McKirgan Kemp:
My due date with Jude was October 22.  On Friday October 29th, he was still making no signs of wanting to come out.  My in-laws were coming down for the weekend.  Chad and I decided to go for our nightly one-mile walk with Rhyme and Tempest.  In an attempt to convince the little one to come out, we decided to walk two miles.  Fortunately, we were only walking around our neighborhood twice (each lap is one mile) so I could stop to use the restroom after the first lap.  My in-laws arrived rather late that evening.  I still felt great.  No contractions...not even Braxton Hicks contractions (that I was aware of anyway).  The next morning would prove to be a different story.

We all got up and got ready.  At 10:00 a.m. we headed to Bob Evans for breakfast.  On the way there, I had my first contraction.  Out of excitement for feeling some progress, I mentally noted the time and had another contraction about 14 minutes later.  Cheri immediately noticed that I was having a contraction by the grimace on my face.  I can't hide much... my face gives away everything!  During "breakfast", I ordered something very light.  I remember ordering green beans.  My appetite was quickly fading, maybe due to nerves.  I ate as well as I could while everyone chitchatted and made comments about how I was in labor.  After breakfast, Chad and Terry dropped Cheri and I off at our house.  Chad and Terry headed out to some home improvement stores. Cheri and I planned to go buy ceramic pumpkins at Hobby Lobby.  However, I wanted to wait a bit and see how I felt.  I ended up taking a final self-portrait (blurry) and continued to time my contractions.  Marvin came by to visit.  When he arrived, my contractions were between 7 to 8 minutes apart.  I called and let my parents know but told them not to head up just yet.  I wanted to wait for a while to make sure this was true labor.  Cheri and Marvin finally convinced me to let Cheri call Chad when my contractions were about 4 and a half minutes apart.  The guys had just pulled into Menards.  They were home in no time.  I also called my parents and they headed for Bloomington.  Chad and I headed to BroMenn.  By the time we arrived around 4:00 my contractions were just over 2 minutes apart. 

The nurse checked me and I was dilated... to a 1.  SIGH!  Over the next couple of hours, I was not making any progress.  Although my contractions were very close and seemed to be very painful, I barely made it to a 2.  The nurses said that they might have to send me home if I didn't start dilating.  I asked how I would know when to come back.  They told me that I would come back when I couldn't talk through my contractions.  The thought of that scared me.  Finally, I slowly started making progress.  The progress included vomiting.  I tried the labor ball.  Hated it.  I tried the birthing tub.  It was worse.  Looking back, I didn't give either of them a fair chance.  I was nervous and hated the pain.  Around 9:00 p.m., I gave in and asked for an epidural.  That proved to be a bad idea.

The 18 year old looking anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural.  Although he said it woud take 15 minutes, it took about 1 minute.  Everything went great, until they laid me down.  That is when my blood pressure dropped, Jude's heart rate dropped, I passed out, and woke up with the urge to throw up.  Since I had no where to vomit (they put an oxygen mask on me), I had to swallow it.  GROSS!  After a big scare and a request for an ER doctor, they got everything under control.  I had to keep the oxygen mask on for the rest of labor and delivery though.  Later, my mom kept coming in to check on me and was wondering why I wasn't sleeping.  I couldn't sleep.  The oxygen was keeping me up!  Chad napped, barely, on what appeared to be a very uncomfortable chair.  

Because my stomach was so round, the heart rate monitors for Jude would not stay on my belly  They had to do an internal monitor where they iserted a tiny monitor into the skin of Jude's head.  Another monitor on my leg was kicked off twice by me.  However, due to the epidural, I had no idea.  I just knew alarms were going off.

Finally at 1 something on Halloween morning, I had hit a 10 and was ready to push.  The nurses said that Jude's head was "right there" so they went ahead and called Dr. Santiago.  He came in but didn't come in the room.  I was pushing.  Chad's goal was to stay right by my head.  Instead, he ended up at the other end playing a tug of war game with me.  They used a sheet to help me push.  Chad had one end, I had the other.  The problem was, I couldn't feel anything.  I didn't know what was right or wrong.  I pushed for 3 hours.  I was so exhausted.  Dr. Santiago came in and I think he "helped" Jude out. 

Once he came out, I remember Dr. Santiago saying to Chad "Alright Daddy, what is it?" and Chad said "It's a BOY!!!"  Then I heard Jude cry.  I saw Chad spinning around out of pure joy and then he reached down and kissed me.  The cry was the most beautiful sound in the world.  I had a son.  I was a Mommy.  My world just changed dramatically and we were the happiest parents in the world.

Post pardum was rough.  I was very sore.  I could barely walk.  Chad had to get Jude and bring him to me.  Nursing was very painful.  Everything was painful.  I expected this but didn't enjoy it.  I even felt like I ripped my stitches open at one point.  I had a lot of stitches... internal and external.  Eventually I got better and by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I was starting to feel a lot better. Jude was perfect.  He still is. 

At two and a half, I can't imagine my life without him.  He is adorable, sweet, and very smart.  He does act like a two year old at times, but that is what he is.  He is working on his independence and he is teaching Chad and I just as much as we are teaching him.  I love that kid sooooooooooooo much.