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If you missed the announcement on Instagram, our team green baby is a boy! We welcomed our son into this world on October 15th and are so in love with our handsome little guy. Since I shared my birth story with Kennadi, I wanted to share all the details of Troy’s birth!
If you read Kennadi’s birth story, you know that it was a relatively quick labor and delivery. With Kennadi, my water broke, I never felt any contractions, and pushing her out was very smooth. Because of this, I feel I was more anxious this pregnancy and just overall more nervous to give birth. I just kept thinking there was no way it could possibly go as smooth as it did with Kennadi. I also was really stressed about not knowing what contractions would feel like.
The other aspect was that my water broke at 37 weeks and 3 days with Kennadi. Once I hit third trimester, I was starting to get a little antsy wondering if this baby would arrive early or if I would make it all the way to my due date. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to experience what 40 weeks feels like. My husband and I both kept saying we hoped the baby would arrive some point after 38 weeks but before 40 weeks. With my due date being October 26th, I just wanted to have the baby in October and not November.
For those that don’t know, my husband is a firefighter here in Southern California. His standard shift is 48 hours but during this pregnancy, his department had too many vacancies so the overtime force days were higher than usual. Once October hit, we both joked I would go into labor when he was at work (Murphy’s Law right?) He was gone at work when my water broke with Kennadi so we knew what our plan was if it happened again with this baby.
Fast forward to October 15th …. The entire week prior, I was extremely uncomfortable. I am pretty sure I had experienced every “early labor” sign and would have bet money that I was going into labor during my husband’s previous 72 hour shift (October 7-9th .) Well, I didn’t go into labor. When he got off work, he kept joking with me that it needed to happen before his next shift because it was a long one coming up. And I joked with him that it will definitely happen when he is gone on a 96 hour shift (I even told our family.)
So back to the 15th… My husband went into work on the 13th and I had complained to him how bored I would be for four days since I didn’t have any plans. Kennadi and I ended up going with family to the pumpkin patch and doing some fun festivities on Thursday and Friday. When I woke up Saturday morning, it was raining and overcast (very random compared to the 80-90 degree weather Southern CA had been having.) Kennadi and I lounged at home and cleaned up around the house a bit; again I was SO uncomfortable. The amount of pelvic pressure made every step pretty painful.
Another fun fact, my family (husband excluded lol) are huge USC fans. That Saturday night, USC was playing and I was feeling a bit lazy on the rainy day so I decided to order pizza for Kennadi and I to pick up later for the game. When she woke up from her nap, my back was really hurting and I decided I just needed to move for a little bit. So, I loaded Kennadi up in her wagon and took her to our park. We had a fun afternoon playing together but then it started slowly sprinkling again and I knew we needed to walk back before it down poured on us.
There I was, pushing her wagon (uphill) from the park back to our house around 4:30 pm. When we were half way to our house, I felt the weirdest sensation that kind of made me stop walking. I remember thinking “hmm that was weird” and then kept walking. A few minutes later, I felt it again and this time thought “yep haven’t felt that before.” But I still didn’t think too much of it. I felt it two more times before we got home and decided I just needed to drink water and try sitting to see if I kept feeling it or not. I let 30 minutes pass and finally realized I was probably feeling contractions but again, I was skeptical and unsure.
At that point, I texted my husband at work and said “I am 98% sure I am feeling true labor contractions” and he immediately replied asking tons of questions (the medic in him.) Then I texted my best friend and asked her to explain to me what contractions felt like. She immediately called me and told me to tell her what I felt and when I did, she said yes sounds like contractions. My husband told me to start timing them and that he was packing up and heading home from work. I told him to wait until I timed them to see if they were consistent.
At that time, it was kick off for the football game and I was loading up Kennadi to go pick up our pizza (everyone thought I was crazy for going and getting our pizza still.) I had also texted my Mom and sister telling them I thought I was having contractions but wasn’t completely sure. While I was driving, they were definitely getting stronger but I just wanted to get pizza for Kennadi and I to eat; especially if I was about to head to the hospital. When we got home, around 5:30 pm, I downloaded an app and started timing. Sure enough, they were consistently 4-5 minutes apart and told me to head to the hospital.
My husband rushed out of work when I sent him the screenshot of my contraction log. I still was almost in denial, or I guess just more so worried about driving all the way to the hospital to be turned away. I called labor and delivery, explained what I felt and had to read the app log and the nurse said I needed to come in asap. I had to wait for my husband to get home (in Saturday night traffic in the pouring rain and lightning) before we could leave. My in laws (who live just a few streets over) came over to help with Kennadi as I got our last minute stuff together.
After Kennadi and I ate and my in laws were over, the contractions definitely started picking up but I had stopped timing due to being distracted with everything. By the time my husband got home, we got Kennadi and her stuff loaded, and then got our stuff all ready in his truck, it was a little after 7 pm.
On our way there, I started timing again and now they were about 3 minutes apart. My husband saw the log and (kind of frantically) asked “you don’t feel like you need to push right?” and I just laughed and said no I am good. I had initially told my Mom to wait until we got to the hospital before she headed there but my husband told me to have her head there asap since my contractions were getting closer.
After the most uncomfortable truck ride (contractions were way worse for me sitting down than standing up) we got to the hospital at 7:45 pm. When we got up to labor and delivery, the nurses were rushing everything since they saw how close my contractions were. They took us to the triage area, had me put the gown on, and then checked me right away. My husband and I were both shocked when the nurse said “you are at 5 cm” and put me into a room.
All I wanted was an epidural and thankfully they asked/offered it right away. My Mom had just arrived but wasn’t allowed in the room during the epidural and had to wait on that before coming in. The epidural went in around 8:30 pm and then we got to watch the last few minutes of the USC game in our room. I looked at the clock and asked my husband if he thought baby would come before or after midnight. He stated before but I thought it would be a middle of the night delivery like Kennadi was (I sat at 5 cm with her for a couple hours.)
The nurse came in to check on the epidural a few minutes after 9 pm. She stated since she was already there, she would check me to see if anything progressed. Well, if only you could have seen the shock on mine, my husband’s, and my mom’s face when she said “alright 9 cm, let’s have this baby.” I started having a slight panic moment because I truly thought I would have a few hours to relax and mentally prepare… nope, not the case at all.
The other nurses came in and started prepping the room and then the doctor came in at 9:30 pm and asked us a few questions about my delivery with Kennadi. They got me all set up and the doctor stated she wanted to do one round of “practice pushes.” Well, on my second “practice push” she said “whoa okay there’s baby’s head.” Two more rounds of pushes and Troy was born at 9:52 pm!
I was still in just complete shock that I had just had a baby but I will never forget the special moment of finding out our surprise baby was a boy. Right when I delivered him, I heard the doctor say, “Mom open your eyes” and when I did, I saw our baby boy that I could clearly tell was a boy right at the same time that my husband yelled “it’s a boy!” And then I heard my Mom freaking out because she thought she didn’t record it (my one request) but she did end up getting it recorded.
My whole pregnancy I was so worried this birth wouldn’t be as smooth as Kennadi’s and by some miracle, it was even smoother. I know people say the second baby comes quicker than the first but I was not ready for just how quick Troy came. I am definitely happy we headed to the hospital when we did; it was almost exactly 5 hours from the time I felt my very first contraction to when he was born.
Also, if you are ever thinking about keeping the gender a surprise… do it! My husband and I would do it all over again. It was so special and fun when I was in labor knowing we were finally about to find out if Kennadi was getting a brother or sister. And a little update, Kennadi is obsessed with her little brother and has been loving on him like crazy these last three weeks.
So, there you have it, our birth story of Troy David. To read more about postpartum recovery and essentials needed, make sure to read this post.
Are you preparing for delivery? First time mom? Second time mom? Fellow mom of two under two? Have any questions? Comment below or connect with me on Instagram! And don’t forget to subscribe to be notified of new blog posts.
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