Happy Birthday Kiale- Part 1 a Birth Story

In exactly 55minutes my sweet oldest child will be a year older. Kiale turns 6 today!! Happy Birthday Kiale!! So in honor of Birthdays, here is his birth story!

>September 20^th 2003 was spent like any other Saturday for KS and I. Pack up grab the dog and head to the cabin for the weekend. Little did we know this was going to be far from any normal weekend. That Saturday was spent with KS fishing and me floating around in the tube in the lake out the cabin. We decided to go have dinner in Gainesville and grab a movie from Wal-Mart while we were out. We ate dinner at Captain D’s and proceeded to get the Gangs from New York movie and head back to the cabin. By the time we got back it was 11:00, and after watching the movie it was right around 1:00am. While at the shop with my husband the week before an older lady, had seen me and told KS and I how to get the baby here sooner. She said that if we really wanted him to come out soon to go home and “have some fun” before we went to bed…well KS and I decided to try out her advice, and needless to say it worked… well! At 3:30am I woke up with some pain and looked at the clock to see what time it was (an annoying habit of mine….) it happened again at 4:30, and then at 5:00. By the time I woke up at 5:00 I was having severe back pain, with intense pressure. I kept thinking I had to go to the bathroom… boy was I wrong. It took me about another 15 min to realize that hey I am in labor… and severe back labor at that. I finally got KS out of bed, not an easy task considering I think we got to sleep around 2:00… By the time we realized that it was real labor we had to decide what to do, leave the dog there at the cabin or take the 30min ride home and leave the dog there. Well me being stubborn and thinking well the contractions are only 10min apart we will have plenty of time to make it home and to the hospital, not realizing just how close we would actually be cutting it. We called my mom to have her meet us at the house by that time it was right around 6:00. Once we got to the house at right around 6:30 my contractions were 5min apart and getting stronger and way more painful with all of the back labor. Mom met us there and we called the Dr. the contractions jumped to 3min apart, and imagine that they told us to come on in!! By the time we reached the hospital at 7:45 my contractions were 2min. apart. The nurse checked me and I was already 7 cent. dilated, but there was a slight problem. I hadn’t preregistered with the hospital; I was planning on doing during my next appointment since I still had a week before my due date of September 27^th. So my mom had to run down stairs and register at 7:45ish on a Sunday morning. Once the Dr. finally got there and checked me he broke my water. All the while they are trying to fill out all of my paper work that I was supposed to have finished. Well about 8:40 rolled around and I had to push, they were still trying to fill out my epidural paperwork b/c of the horrible pain I was in. Needless to say the epidural never happened and Kiale made his grand appearance at 8:55am September 21^st 2003, after 5 hours of labor. He was 7lbs 15oz and 201/2 in. long, and looked just like his daddy. He even had strawberry blonde hair. He was perfect.

Happy Birthday Colin Hunter!!

Happy Birthday Colin Hunter!

Colin's Birth Story

March 15th 2005 started off with me on a mission, I was going to have Colin that day, no and ifs or buts about it I was not going to let Dr. Bailey send me home from my appt. without a baby. You see I was due to be induced on the 17th because of Colin's size. His actual due date was March 28th, the day after my birthday. But I didn't even want to wait that long. I was finished being pregnant; I had spent the entire day before shampooing my carpets and making sure that I was on my feet the entire time hoping to dilate faster. Well it worked. When I arrived at my 38 week appt. I was already 4 cent. dilated and 80% effaced, so I asked if I could just stay and have the baby that day. I was so happy when he agreed and said for me to go ahead downstairs and he would just break my water and see where that took me. Well he came down and broke my water at 11:50 my mom and I started walking the halls while Kiale stayed in my room with my dad little Kiale, and Kiale’s mom. It took an hour to even start feeling the contractions, but once they started they were about 10min apart. Mom and I continued to walk the halls until the contractions grew so strong that I would loose feeling in my legs from them. The pain went from being comfortable at 2:50 to totally unbearable at 3:00. Our nurse Liz came in and checked me at 3:00 and I was 8 cent. dilated, unfortunately before she could pull her had out from checking me I immediately skipped 9 and went to 10 cent. dilated and I had to push right then. Liz yelled to page Dr. Bailey immediately, but I had to push I could not stop. So after 4 more pages Dr. Bailey finally made it into the room. He got there right around 3:10 and at 3:18 Colin Hunter made his grand appearance after just 3 hours of drug free labor. He was 8lbs 15oz and 19 1/2 in long, with a head full of black hair.

I cannot believe that my baby boy turned 4 today. Time goes by so fast, and he is such a little man now. The things that he says never seems to amaze me. He is such a blessing and an all around wonderful little boy.

Cayleigh-Grace's Birth Story

3:18 am… September 3, 2008… Two days past one due date and on another due date I am awake, and not with the laying in bed too uncomfortable to sleep type of awake. No it’s the, I am having contractions and there is no way I will be able to go back to sleep, type of awake. I decided to get out of bed and see if these were just more of the Braxton Hicks that I had been having for the six weeks prior to this day. So I decided to make my sons lunches for school that day, since I had refused to make them the night before (I just love being stubborn.) As I was making their lunches I couldn’t help but notice that the contractions were 5 minutes apart… that cannot be right I kept thinking… they don’t start out that fast… (oh sweet denial…) so I finished the boys lunches and noticed that my microwave was dirty, might as well clean that while I am up I thought. So there I was having contractions every 5 minutes that were lasting 40 seconds or so and I was cleaning my microwave… go figure. Once I had finished that I thought maybe I should see what Kiale thinks, by this time it was about 4:10, so I wake him up…

Me- “Kiale, I think I am having contractions, they are 5 minutes apart…”

Kiale- “Go ahead and call the midwife I am getting up.”

Me- “But what if it is just Braxton Hicks again…”

Kiale- “Charity, call her now.”

So needless to say I called her, and who to my total delight answered the phone, Mary Anne!! I could not have been happier to hear her voice. I explained to her what was going on and I told her that the contractions didn’t even hurt that bad at all and that I thought they were just false labor… and what did she say “Charity come on in, this is not false labor, how soon can you be here?” And then it hit… what I had yet to accept the whole 9 months prior to that moment, I was going to have my third child. I was fixing to bring another sweet life into this world, oh the sweet life of denial that I live in…

After several other phone calls to my parents and Kiale’s mom, we were stuck at the house waiting on my sisters to arrive and watch our boys while we went to the Birth Center of Gainesville. By the time they got to my house it is about 4:40 and were are finally on our way. During that period of time my contractions were getting closer together but they still weren’t hurting all that bad. Once my sisters pulled into the driveway my water began to break, it would leak a little and then stop. This whole time I am humming and sort of singing (I don’t know how else to describe it) to get through the contractions. Did I ever mention how much I hate having contractions, and going through transition in a vehicle!! It is horrible. Needless to say my humming transferred into humming and taping my foot on the floorboard… as well as frequently grabbing Kiale’s hand for support. I hate that 45 minute drive to Gainesville…

Finally there it was… that wonderful Birth Center. We had made it, those of you who are aware of the fast labors that I have (5 hours with KJ, and 3 hours with CH) will understand how relieved I was to see that building. It was 5:20… two hours since I had first woken up with contractions, and we were there. By this time my contractions were about a minute apart and still lasting 40 seconds. They never did get any longer than that for some reason. The pain still (Thank you God) was still quite manageable. I could not talk through them but it wasn’t excruciating. I just kept humming and tapping my toe on the floor. My Mom and Dad arrived at about this time, Kiale’s Mom went straight to our house to trade off with my sisters who had to go to school, there is no way she would have made it for the birth anyway because it takes her two hours to get from Jax to Gainesville. Mary Anne then got to water going for me in the tub, and Zoe walked in. I was so happy I had my two favorite midwifes there, what were the odds of that. I couldn’t have felt more safe or been more happy. Once I got into the tub, which by the way I highly recommend if you want the pain of contractions cut literally in half, my contractions were about 30-40 seconds apart and still lasting about 40 seconds. Mary Anne checked me and I was already 8 centimeters, granted I had been 4 centimeters for a whole month before this day. Mary Anne said that the only thing keeping the baby inside was my bag of water that had not fully broken yet, so I had her go ahead and break my water… that was at about 5:40, and then the fun began.

As soon as she broke my water I started pushing, I went from 8 to 10 centimeters within seconds… again (did the same thing with CH). I could not believe how long it was taking me to push this baby out. It took 10 minutes to push Kiale Jr. out, and 15 to push Colin Hunter out… and I was going on 20 minutes with this baby… I was also very scared and panicky. I do not do well during the pushing stage; I freak out… a lot. We knew that this baby was going to be big, I had measured 2 weeks ahead the entire pregnancy, although I was convinced that she was going to be about 8lbs because I was so comfortable during the entire pregnancy… boys was I wrong (once again DENIAL) As any woman who has given birth naturally or with a patchy or weak epidural you can feel when the baby slips through the cervix, and when I felt her slip through mine I totally freaked. This started my “I cannot do this” stage of my labors… I had my eyes closed tight, and one hand tearing up Kiale’s hand and one hand around my Mom’s hand. Once I was able to get her head out I looked down… bad idea… very bad idea. I panicked severely once I saw how big she was (she was huge!!!) and I refused to push any more. I flat out refused; I was not going to budge anymore. So I had my Mom and Mary Anne in my ear…

Mom- “Charity you have to push her out”

Me- “No! I cant do it!”

Mom- “Charity you are going to hurt her you have to get her out”

Me- “No I cant!”

Mary Anne- “Charity listen to me your body will not make a baby to big for you and you have to push her out now or you really will hurt her”

Me- “but I cant”

Mom-“Charity, yes you can no push her out now.”

Mary Anne- “Come on Charity she is almost here now push”

Finally I had done it my precious sweet baby girl was born at 6:18am three hours after I had felt my first contraction, and after 30 minutes of pushing; 10lbs 7oz & 21.5inches long. She was huge, beautiful, but huge!! Way bigger than anyone had expected. She was everything we had asked God for, and total mix of Kiale and I and she had dimples… she was perfect; our sweet Cayleigh-Grace. You know its funny... I remember looking at the clock as soon as I got into the tub and thinking to myself that she would be born at 6:18...

Her Birth Video