Kalleigh Elizabeth--the facts and the story

For those of you who want just the facts, here you go:

Name: Kalleigh Elizabeth Hodges
Birthdate: October 2, 2006
Time: 12:35 am
Weight: 8 lbs. 8 oz.
Length: 20 in

Now for those of you who love the details, get ready!

An introduction:
I had been waking up at 5:30 am Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings for no apparent reason. This should have clued me in that I was close! Sunday was John's birthday, so I decided to use up some strawberries and make a pie ... before church. With that done, I got ready, fixed breakfast and got Johnathan ready. We headed to church just like every other Sunday morning. Very normal. People kept asking me the same types of questions that everyone asks, "Have you not had that baby yet?" "Are you just about to pop?" "You had better have that baby fast, 'cause you've run out of room!" "Are you so ready?" And I gave the answers they wanted to hear. I was actually thinking, "Well, I still have a few things to do around the house, so no, I'm really not ready." "Acutally, I don't feel all that awful, so I'd be okay with waiting a few more days." It seemed strange to me that I didn't feel ready when I knew I would be induced in just a couple of days.

After church we went to Johnny Carino's for John's birthday. We ate VERY well, and enjoyed a yummy chocolate dessert afterward! When we got home, Johnathan went down for nap and I made John's birthday cake.

We went to Bible Study at 6:00, and I brought the strawberry pie. While at life group I had a couple of contractions that were strong enought that I needed to breathe through, but they weren't close together at all, so I chalked it up to having a busy day.

We got home and put Johnathan to bed and started getting ready for bed ourselves. I kept having mild contractions, but again, they weren't too strong and not too close together. We decided to watch a little TV.

Labor:
Well, around 9:00, I started telling John when the contractions were coming, and sure enough, they were 4-5 minutes apart. Now with Johnathan, my contractions were 2 minutes apart before we headed to the hospital where they told me I was a whopping 1 1/2 cm and then sent me home. I was not about to be sent home again, so since I could still breath through them, I stayed put. Sundays are always busy, so I just knew that if I lied down or sat in a warm tub that they would slow down. I got in the tub and sure enough, I had a nice 8 minute stretch without a contraction. "See," I thought, "I just needed to calm down. I'm sure they'll go away." Another thing that influenced my decision-making process was that I had a friend who had gone to the hospital just the night before with close contractions after a busy day, and had been sent home because they fizzled out.

Well, around 11:00, the contractions were getting significantly stronger and I had decided that we really ought to go on to the hospital. I called Mom and told her that we were headed that way, so if she wanted to pull an all-nighter, to go ahead and get in the car. She did, of course. Then, since John and I are excellent procrastinators, we STARTED packing! No, HE started packing. I couldn't move very well. At about 11:30, I was really struggling through each contraction, but they were still only like 4 min apart. My biggest fear was that I was in all of this pain and they were going to tell me that I was only a 2! But it didn't matter. I had decided that we WERE going to the hospital and that I WAS going to have an epidural, and any other thoughts I had had in the past regarding wanting a natural labor were totally ridiculous. I knew I would never make it through several more hours of this kind of pain! Then I had a little meltdown about what an awful mommy I was for having to wake up my 2-yr-old and send him to another home for the night. Labor hormones ... wow.

We finally got on our way at 11:45 and headed into town. We dropped Johnathan off around midnight and began the drive to the hospital. I was in significant pain and at every red light, I yelled, "Run it! Please run it!!" John did so, for he knew that even though it was a potential threat to his life to run a red light, it was a guaranteed threat to his life not to listen to his laboring wife. He was so good. :)

Oh yeah, and my water broke in the car somewhere along the way. Wow. Really gross.

We got there, after what seemed like an eternity, but really only took about 10 min. As we were getting out of the car, these two ladies said, "Aw ma-yan. Is shay goin' intuh lay-ber?" (We life in East TX, remember.) I just rolled my eyes as we shuffled by. We went in the ER, like they told us to, and someone soon got a wheelchair for me. "I want my epidural ASAP!" I moaned. Then they started asking me all these questions! Like I could think straight ... good grief. We HAD pre-registered, so that shouldn't have been an issue. Then they had a couple of nurses take me up to the 4th floor. We headed around the first corner, and one of them turned a door handle that was locked. "Uh-oh," he said, "I'm not sure how to get there if we don't go through that door." I yelled, "NO!! WE HAVE TO GET THERE NOW!!!" Amazingly, they did find another way. We headed up the elevator and into the room.

The three nurses who were working that night were in the room and had all of the delivery equipment set up. "That's good," I thought. They gave me a gown and told me to strip down and put the gown on. John was helping, and after one unsuccsessful attempt to put the gown on, I threw it down in frustration and told him to do it right next time. Poor guy. Like I said, he was so good to me even when I was ugly to him! The second attempt was successful.

I got back to the bed and crawled up. The nurse checked me and said, "Well, you're at an 8." WHAT??? No way. I was instantly crushed because I knew I wouldn't have time for an epidural. I was coming unglued with every contraction. John and I had practiced our breathing because I had had such a strong feeling just a few weeks ago about doing this naturally, so I tried really hard to breathe through each one, but it was too hard not to yell ... a little ... okay a lot.

Delivery:
Like 5 minutes after she checked me the first time, I was yelling, "I NEED TO PUSH!!" She checked me again, and said, "Yeah, you're a 10, but you don't need to push right now because the doctor's not here." WHAT??? That was the most ridiculous thing I had heard all night. "No, I HAVE to push!!" The nurses were all scurrying around looking a bit frantic. Finally one said, "Okay, ladies, I'm going to have to catch this baby right now" and she sat down on the side of the bed for a side catch. I could feel Kalleigh's head coming down the canal and yelled, "SHE'S RIPPING ME IN HALF!" The nurse sat down on the edge of the bed and told me it was okay to push ... like I needed her permission. I pushed with everything I had, and heard John say, "The head's right there!" So I gave it another good push and her head was out. They suctioned her mouth out and told me to push again with the next contraction. I should mention that there were no sterile pads or a little curtain draped over me, they didn't have time to change my bed around and get my feet in stirrups, and I had absoluetly NO pain medication. So, I was hold my own legs back to push! For the push for the shoulders, another nurse came around and grabbed my leg and pushed my knee back to the next zip code and said, "Okay, NOW push!" That's all it took, and Kalleigh was in the world. Still no doctor! 12:35 am.

The nurse cut the cord and they took Kalleigh over to get her cleaned up. I noticed that the cord was still hanging out of me, so I asked if I needed to push it on out. "Well," she said, "Maybe we can wait to do that when the doctor gets here." "Yeah right," I thought, and with the next contraction, willed the thing out. "Oh, well, there it is," said the nurse. :)

THEN the doctor came to see what was leftover and to stitch me up--I needed 2 or 3, I think is what he said. Then he left and it was all over.

I couldn't believe how fast it all happened and how close I came to having that baby in the car! I had no idea I was that far along! And it was such a huge difference from my experience with Johnathan where I had an epi at 3 cm and then dozed off and on until they told me it was time to push, after which I said dreamily to John, "Let's do it again!" And then this time when I knew exactly when I needed to push and felt like my body had been totally destroyed right afterwards!

I wasn't looking for a brave war story when I had thought about doing labor naturally, but I sure ended up with one!

So, a 3 1/2 hour labor was all it took this time around. Whew! Here are a few pictures from the hospital. Thanks for all of your prayers! She's a perfect little girl in every way!