It's been a while...but I felt that writing out Kennedy's birth story like we did with Annika was very much needed. She's 1 month old now so I'm already real behind but here we go!
Kennedy's story was MUCH different than Annika's, in almost every way. Which was a great thing most of the time. I was hoping she would come 2 weeks earlier, I didn't want to go to 40 weeks with her. I thought that my wish was coming true because at 38 weeks I started having contractions. Real ones, not just braxton hicks. They started on the day I turned 38 weeks so I already had a Dr's appointment scheduled that day. I went to work, figured I would be closer to the hospital that way anyway, and I only needed to make it to lunch before my appointment with my doctor. With Annika I was in labor for HOURS before so I knew there was time, and that my contractions weren't strong enough or close enough together for it to be time to go to the hospital. I started driving to the doctor and was having contractions 10 minutes apart for the last 2 hours. I called Curtis and told him to pack the car and meet me at my appointment...I called my mom and told her I thought this was it and to be ready to grab Annika if I needed her to. I walk in to my appointment and told my doctor I was worried I was in labor, I was excited and just needed him to confirm it. Well....he didn't. I was dilated to a 1 and 80% effaced and things were definitely progressing but not in active labor so he told me to get as much rest as I could and that baby could be coming that day or it could be a few more days. By the time I got home the contractions had died down a bit and the disappointment set in.
The next day was the same story, and the next, and the next. I had consistent painful contractions every day for the next week. They would get to the point where I would tell Curtis we needed to go to the hospital, and then by the time the car was ready to go they would start to die down. At this point my doctor was out of town so I was hoping that they would go away. I REALLY wanted my doctor to be at my labor because we had talked so much about my fears, and issues with Annika's, and in my head I felt like if he wasn't there I wasn't going to be able to give birth. I went to my 39 week check up and met with the doctor that would be delivering Kennedy if my doctor wasn't back in time. He confirmed that I was having contractions but that my body just wasn't ready yet. I was ok with that because I needed to wait 3 more days for my doctor to get back.
Then it was Thursday night, same thing with the contractions but this time they got closer and it was hard to talk through them. Finally, this was the real deal. Or so I thought. We were out getting food and I told Curtis I thought this was it, by this point I had said that 3 times already so I told him to take it with a grain of salt. He had plans to go to the movies that night with some friends already and I told him to still go but to have his phone on him in case I needed him to come home. I laid down after Annika was in bed and started timing my contractions. I was literally texting Curtis to come home when the contractions started to die down. My excited text turned into, "well they stopped again, she's never coming out."
So Friday came, and I went in to work. I was having contractions throughout the day again but by this point it had been almost 2 weeks so I was getting pretty used to it and didn't think anything of it. I got home and told Curtis we needed Mexican food because I needed something spicy. Well where we live there isn't anything like that within 30 minutes so we ended up at Taco Bell (don't judge)...I was in so much pain, again didn't think much of it. We ordered the food and sat down and I couldn't eat any of it. I felt so sick and dizzy. I had morning sickness throughout my entire pregnancy so I just assumed this was that and told Curtis I needed to go home right then. I was timing my contractions the whole way home and they were following the same pattern as the previous night so I just assumed that it wasn't real. Curtis asked if we needed to go to the hospital and I told him I wasn't going anywhere unless my water broke, or I could feel the baby coming. We got home and I told him I was going to try and take a little nap because I felt so sick. He was getting Annika ready to go to bed and checked again if we needed to go to the hospital. I told him no. I had family and friends texting me and I told them it wasn't happening. My contractions were dying down again, went from 5-7 minutes apart to 13-19 minutes apart. I said goodnight to Annika while Curtis took her in her room to put her to bed. The second he closed the door to her room I had a contraction but this one was different. Right int he middle of it I heard a loud pop and the contraction got 10 times worse. I couldn't move, and started wondering if my water broke, I never heard a pop with Annika so I wasn't sure. The contraction ended and I sat up and there was NO denying that my water broke. I tried to call for Curtis but he couldn't hear me over Annika's white noise machine and then BAM another extremely painful contraction. I waited for it to end and ran into Annika's room saying "my water broke, let's go". I pulled out my phone and told my parents to meet us at the gas station to grab Annika because this was the real deal. Curtis' face looked terrified. Like I was playing some evil joke on him and then it hit him that this wasn't a joke and he sprung into action. We were in the car a couple minutes later and I felt like I was dying. My contractions went from 19 minutes apart to 2.5 minutes apart when my water broke. I was kind of worried I wouldn't make it to the hospital, but I did!
Amazingly there was zero traffic on that Friday night, an answer to all my prayers. We made it to the hospital in 30 minutes - usually a 40-45 minute drive. It was about 9 PM when we walked in and they walked us right back. They checked me and said I was dilated to a 4 and things were moving fast. They were a little worried because everytime I had a contraction, Kennedy's heart would slow way down.It was scary to listen to it while trying my best to breathe through the contractions. An hour later the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural, at that point I was dilated to a 5. By the time he left it was around 10:30. An hour later they checked me again because my contractions were doing weird things, I honestly can't remember what they said. The nurse was surprised when she saw that I was dilated to a 10 and ready to go! She left the room to call my doctor (who was actually the on call doctor because my doctor was still out of town). He got there about 20 minutes later and started to suit up. The exciting thing was that Curtis was going to help deliver Kennedy so for the next little bit I got to watch him put on all the gear and get lessons from the doctor. I started pushing and was told that the baby was posterior. I instantly felt terrified that this was going to go the same way as Annika's birth. The doctor immediately asked for a vacuum to be pulled out just in case, which I was eager to remind him that we didn't need it with Annika and I pushed for 3 hours with her and would do it again now if I needed to. It became very clear with the next push that we wouldn't need the vacuum because Kennedy was coming. The doctor quickly told Curtis he better hurry getting his glove on because this baby was coming. A few more pushes and we realized that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck so the next pushes needed to be strong so we could get her out. Made sense why her heart was struggling during contractions! A couple more pushes and she was there, with the cord around her neck 3 times (scared me!). But I loved seeing Curtis catch her. The nurses and the doctor were able to pull the cord off and I instantly calmed down when her face went from blue to pink and she could breathe. Kennedy Rae Lowe was born at 12:23 AM on August 11th, weighing 6 pounds 8 ounces and 19 inches long.
Everything was so much smoother and quicker than it was with Annika, she had definitely forged the path for her siblings. I was so happy when she was born and definitely on a high, which I was NOT after Annika. It was nice to be able to enjoy holding my little girl and doing skin to skin with her.
