Kennedy’s Birth Story
Whenever I tell the delivery story, people look at me as if to say, “That’s all? There’s nothing more?” Well, this is why.
I started having the dreaded Braxton-Hicks contractions about 8 or 9 weeks before my April 5th due date. Because everyone had convinced me this way, I thought she was getting here early, by a month or so. I packed my bags early (something we didn’t do until after my water broke with Colby) and was ready to send Colby to my parents house at a moment’s notice.
Saturday, March 17th: After my baby shower ended, I started having contractions. At first they were hit and miss, but then they were regular, every 4 minutes for an hour or two. They weren’t as painful as they were with Colby, but they were enough for me to think I was in real labor. We took Colby to my parents’ house, we went walking at the park at 11 pm, and the contractions eventually stopped.
Tuesday, April 3rd: The afternoon before she was born, I had a craving for a coke. I drank a cherry coke and worked on the MOPS newsletter for the next week, and then I took a nap. Then I woke up and drove myself to handbell practice, enduring painful contractions all the way there and back. These weren’t new for me, nor were they as painful as they had been before. I knew I was getting big and pregnant and miserable, so I prayed that at least by my appointment on April 5th that she would be born.
Wednesday, April 4th: I got up at 4:40 am to go to the bathroom (not unusual). I was having some light contractions, enough to assure me that today would be Kennedy’s birthday. But, since I was exhausted, I fell back asleep. At 7:00, I woke up with a very very large contraction and told Kevin, “Call my mom, we’re going to the hospital.” He asked me if he could take a shower, and I said, “You’d better hurry.” And actually, I took a shower too, thinking maybe these would lessen or go away, but they only got worse.
At this point (8:00 am), my contractions were 4 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute each. (I laugh now because my doctor told me to call him when my contractions were 7-8 minutes apart… they never were!) My mom came and got Colby while Kevin and I piled in the car… I tried to give him a hug before we left but I kept having contractions and didn’t want to scare him! So Kevin called my doctor to let him know I was having super fast contractions and to get there asap.
Kevin also decided this would be a great time to call his parents, to let them know we were on the way to the hospital. They had already left for work, so he had to make 3 more calls - one to his grandpa, one to his mom, and one to his dad. All of them left me wanting to punch Kevin in the stomach because I couldn’t stand the sound of his voice during a contraction.
While we’re driving to the hospital, there is a lot of traffic because of 8 am traffic and the high school’s traffic too… Contractions were like murder in the car; I ended up unbuckling my seatbelt so I could brace myself against the handle in the very front. If I could have, I would have ridden on top.
We got to the hospital at 8:15 and I ran towards a wheelchair, breathing heavily. The lady in front of me in line told the check-in lady that I looked like I’m in much more of a hurry than she is (I thanked God for her in between contractions.) so she let me go to the front. I scribbled my name/signature on some papers and they wheel me over to the elevator, only to find that it is broken. I was ready to climb the stairs myself, but they took me to the main elevator, where I prayed there weren’t children present.
Thankful I didn’t deliver on the elevator, there’s lots of checking in and sticking me with needles and IVs and poking and prodding in between my contractions, and then I heard one doctor tell someone to prep a delivery room STAT. I know STAT means “in a hurry”, so I was thankful the baby would be coming soon. I never heard how much I was dilated, effaced, or stationed, but I think that was because they didn’t have time.
They wheeled me into a L&D room and Alicia came in to ask if we needed anything. I wanted socks but couldn’t find any in my suitcase. So she looked for socks… somewhere in there I think I told her not to worry about it and to get out because I was going to have a contraction, but then after the contraction, I asked her, “Did you find the socks?” She did find a pair of Kevin’s socks, and she got them to me a-ok. I ended up ruining them both but they did keep my feet warm.
Dr. Davis came in around 8:50 (or later?) and broke my water. Then he put his gloves and mask and all the surgical garb on and said, “Okay, Jenna, when you’re ready, go ahead and push.” 2 pushes, and she was out.
Kennedy Faith Grubbs
April 4th, 2007
9:09 am
8 lbs., 0 oz.
20 1/4″