Birth Story | Knox Darling

On September 24, 2017 at 4AM, I started feeling contractions. They started out painful but bearable. I felt like it was almost time so I got out of bed and did my hair (HAH!). I woke Daniel around 5:30AM because the contractions were starting to get really painful. The contractions were lasting almost a minute and they were every 3-5 minutes so Daniel called the hospital. They said to wait until they were every 2-3 minutes for at least an hour and I was like "WHAT! NO!" Hahaha. Daniel went back to sleep and I tried to as well buuuuut my body wasn't letting me. THEY WERE GETTING MORE PAINFUL. The contractions were finally getting closer to 2-3 minutes around 9AM so we started to get our bags ready! We called around 9:30AM and we got the OK to head to the hospital and were were out of the house by 10AM. I couldn't imagine the contractions being more painful than it was at that point! I wanted to go as long as I could without an epidural just to experience it a little but during the car ride there, I was like "I thought I could last longer but I'm getting an epidural ASAP!" Haha! We texted our friends and family on the way there but told them not to come yet because we still don't know if they'd send us home or not. I remember telling Daniel, "They better keep us because I can't deal with these contractions anymore!". We were put in a room once we got there and the nurse helping us took down our information. She said they usually do this after the doctor gives the okay for us to stay but she said she's doing it before because she's sure we're staying, haha! The doctor finally came, checked me, and said I was dilated to a 4 or 5 cm! WE WERE STAYING AND I WAS ALREADY HALFWAY! She also felt the baby by pushing onto my stomach and said, "I'm pretty sure this is going to be a small baby!" which was a surprise because Daniel and I were both 8 pounder babies so we thought we would be having a bigger baby! They put in the IV (which I was soooo scared of because I've heard it hurt more than the epidural BUT it wasn't even bad AT ALL! Just really cold haha). Also, our friend Jorge had already arrived at the hospital 15 minutes after we did. You're crazy, Jorge and we love you for that, haha!!

They brought us to the room where it would all happen around 11:20AM. I remember it being all so surreal. I was just going with the motion (probably because all I could think of was "OW CONTRACTIONS"). They told me I couldn't get an epidural until I've gone through one bag of IV fluid. It went by pretty quick though! It was 11:45AM when Daniel went out to get our bags from the car and that's when things started happening! I started to get a really painful contraction so I turned and held onto the railing of the hospital bed and out of nowhere I felt a gush of warm water between my legs. MY WATER BROKE! I completely forgot about my water breaking so it was a complete surprising, haha! I turned my head towards the nurse in the room and was like, "Umm.. I think my water just broke." really quietly, haha! She came to clean me and we found out that my baby pooped inside of me. They told me that he might've swallowed some so things could go two ways - if the baby doesn't cry once it's out then they would have to immediately bring the baby to the side and check on the baby but if it does cry, then everything is okay and they would immediately put the baby on me for skin to skin. I was praying that it didn't eat it's own poop, hah! The anesthesiologist then came in. I remember thinking, "Daniel's not here! He has to be here to hold my hand. I'm scared!!" Hahaha but the contractions hurt so bad, I couldn't wait. The nurse gave me a pillow to hug as they were prepping me for the epidural and they were going to start when Daniel walked in! I was sooooo relieved! A contraction was starting right when the anesthesiologist was starting so I was focused on the pain of the contraction instead of the epidural. It didn't hurt. I remember feeling a little pinch and then cold running down my back but that's it. The epidural didn't kick in all the way for about another 20 minutes but it definitely felt A LOT better! I noticed that the epidural worked everywhere except "down there". For some reason, I didn't mention that to the nurse. I wished I did later on, haha.

After the epidural, they said Daniel could get friends and family from the waiting room. It was 12:30PM and a lot of our loved ones were there already :') ! While he was gone, I felt a contraction more painful than the rest (and I knew it was more painful than the rest because I could feel it real bad with the epidural unlike the others!). The nurse that was in the room with me was looking at the monitor and said "Did you feel that?" and I nodded and she said "That was two back to back really long contractions." and then she started staring at the monitor with the baby's heartbeat and out of nowhere, there was a little alarm and 3 nurses rushed into the room saying "WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?!" I was SO confused because the nurse in the room was talking to me like nothing was wrong! They immediately started moving the device that was measuring the heartbeat and then inserted something in me and gave me an oxygen mask. Daniel tried to enter with his mom and my mom at that point but one of the nurses ran to the door and pushed Daniel back out of the room and told him that family has to go back to the waiting room and only he can enter. They finally explained to us that the baby's heart rate was dropping fast because of that back to back contraction and they inserted something onto the baby's head to measure the heartbeat that way instead. OH AND ALSO, THEY SAID I WAS DILATED TO A 9. WHAT!?? That blew my mind. I was just at a 5 two hours ago! I'm grateful that was my nurse was able to stay so calm and collected throughout this whole thing though because it kept me calm. I wasn't worried at all but I could tell that something big just happened and I SHOULD be worried. The nurse stayed and kept close watch on the baby's heat rate after. After about an hour, she said everything is okay and took off the oxygen mask.

From this point, it was basically just waiting until I was ready to push at 4PM. Lety, Stephanie, and my mom came and stayed for the birth. Lety filmed and Stephanie photographed (thank you!!! So glad they were there to capture it and to also experience this with me). I had no idea what I was about to experience. I asked my nurse what to expect and she said the hard part is everything before the epidural. She told me not to worry and that pushing will be nothing! I was so pumped and prepared for no pain, haha! (except I forgot the fact that my epidural didn't work "down there" for me). We started pushing around 4:15PM. My nurse was so sweet and calm, bless her heart. I thought I was pushing okay until an hour later, another nurse came in to check on the progress and told me I needed to push WAY harder and also that the baby's head was stuck behind some sort of bone. She stuck her hand in me and was pushing down SO hard. It hurt so bad! That's when I started to feel PAIN. At one point, they were able to see the baby's head. Everybody in the room was saying it had a lot of hair. I wanted to see it so they brought out a mirror to show me and that's when it started to hit me a little that A BABY WAS COMING!! Another hour passed and I was getting tired. I felt like I was trying so hard but we were making barely any progress! The "harsher" nurse kept telling me that I shouldn't worry about the people in the room and to push the best I can. I kept thinking, "I AM. WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING!!??" hah! The last hour was the craziest. It started to hurt down there so bad and I honestly felt like I couldn't do it anymore. I was also so thirsty. I remember thinking, "Just ask them to give me a c-section. I can't push anymore!" I wanted to give up so bad. It was probably the most I've ever felt so defeated in my life and just wanted to give up. The nurse realized that the mirror was making me push harder so she brought it back out and she was right! It was definitely motivating me more being able to see the baby's head coming out! It was also so, so, so painful with every push. But I remember people saying "The baby's head is out!" and I never felt more motivated than I ever did before at that point. I gave it one more push with people around me cheering me on and then I felt RELIEF because after 3 hours of pushing, my baby was OUT at 7:27PM! It felt so unreal to me to see my baby. He started crying a few seconds after and I was so glad! I remember feeling pain still so I couldn't really focus on my baby being with me. I even forgot that I didn't know the gender until I heard Daniel say, "Kat, I know what it is!" and that's when the nurse turned the baby towards me and I saw that it was A BOY!! The doctor had no idea we didn't know the gender. She kept saying, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know!!" Hahah! They also found a knot in the umbilical cord which apparently is rare and could've gone real bad! The nurses got pretty excited about it and even told Stephanie to come photograph the knot, haha!

They put him on me after Daniel cut the cord. I didn't even see that happening because I was just so focused on the pain I was feeling down there, haha. Oh my goodness, I really wish I was more in the moment! But it felt so amazing to feel that little body against me. It didn't last long though because I still couldn't focus with the pain. The doctor told me I tore a little and she was going to stitch me up. She also said I wouldn't feel anything. NOPE, SHE WAS WRONG. Little did she know that the epidural didn't work for me down there so I felt every little stitch! I definitely didn't like that feeling and it definitely showed in the pictures and videos!

They gave me a turkey sandwich to eat once everything calmed down but all I wanted was water. I drank the two juice boxes they gave me in like one second! I always thought I would be starving after giving birth but I didn't even want the sandwich, haha. I just wanted more juice and water!

I'm so grateful for all the support we had. All our friends and family were there at the hospital waiting for the longest time. They couldn't even come in to see the baby because visiting hours were over by the time everything was done. I felt so bad! They allowed grandparents to come in for a quick visit though so I was happy about that. My poor dad didn't know and left with everyone else so he didn't get to see the baby until after work the next day.

So that's the story of our little Knox entering the world. I can't believe how fast labor was. I can't believe I actually did it. Props to all the mamas who can do this without any medications! Now we have our Knox with us. He was born 7:27PM, 8 lbs 5 oz, and 20.08 inches long!