Kettricken's Birth Story

It has been almost seven weeks since she arrived. I want to get this story out before the new mommy cocktail of hormones makes me completely forget about childbirth. 

Kettricken kept us guessing as to when she would make her debut. 

At my doc appointment at 34 weeks and some change we discovered I was 2 cm dilated and having contractions. I was not feeling said contractions, but apparently some of them were pretty big. They kept me at the hospital on the monitors, but let me go after 4.5 hours. 

This hiccup at the appointment had several repercussions. I had left my mom and Rolli at a playground for during my "quick" appointment. Thank God for Stroller Warriors and Melanie Binversie who went and picked them up, fed them, and took them home. My mom was down to help me drive that day to Ohio. The doctor didn't really recommend the trip. Well, we decided to wait till the next day to leave, but I couldn't miss Jessica Schultz Coffey's wedding. It meant that we didn't get to stop on the drive to visit Jenni Barnes and Dave Whitworth. Mom would not let me drive at all and is a warrior and my hero. 

I had a few more small contractions and a couple at the wedding, but no Ketti. We also had her baby shower that weekend, and thankfully not her arrival yet. 

After returning home, there was no more excitement until the middle of week 37. I woke up to contractions that started to get pretty strong, but did not develop a pattern of time. This continued into the next two days. Random contractions. At this point, being full term and quite large, I was ready for her arrival. 

Mom came back down in a hurry thinking she would miss the birth, but Ketti continued to keep us on our toes. The next week consisted of lots of what can we do to get her out. Walking, trip to the beach, a garage sale. We did our Friday sale, but Saturday was canceled for labor. 

My regular contractions began at 3:30 am and were stronger. I went to the restroom to discover the bloody show. By 5:30 contractions were 5 minutes apart and strong enough that I could not move during them. I woke up Cole and said we need to go now. 

When I was checked at the hospital I was 4.5 cm and they admitted me. Contractions were only 2 minutes apart and to the point I needed Cole to put counter pressure on my lower back. Back labor is so fun! 

It took a few hours of seemingly constant contractions to get to 8 cm. My water broke during labor this time. I actually had two separate gushes of water. One at about the same time as I reached 8 cm and the other very close to the 10 cm/crowning/pushing point. Cole had an arm workout massaging my back and squeezing it until the bruising point (per my request) for hours. Thankfully he had a conversation partner in his friend Sam Burnett that came in on his day off to help "deliver a legend!"

I was ready to push at 1045. Kettricken's shoulders were stuck for 30 seconds and the head nurse jumped on me and helped push from my stomach. Kettricken Donnally Cooper was born at 1055 on April 25, 2015 weighing 8 pounds 11 ounces and 19.5 inches long.

 She had no complications or issues from her "code purple" during delivery. 

I was stitched up (about 4 or 5) and given some extra medication for some extra bleeding after delivering the placenta. They said the extra bleeding occurs often with bigger babies. The pain and the bleeding began to lessen over the course of the next day. Ketti was perfect, but they kept us 48 hours just to be sure she was fine after being stuck. 

Rolli came to meet his baby Ketti on Sunday. He loves her and is so good with her. We are so lucky Rolli's Mimi (my mom) was here to keep him while we were at the hospital. He still checks to make sure we aren't going back to the hospital for days at a time, but it made it way simpler to have him with Mimi at home. He asks constantly for her to come back to our house, too. 

We are so happy, blessed, and in love.