Cash Walker's Birth Story!

Wow it has been 10 months since I wrote on the blog...coincidence that the timing coincides with when I got pregnant? Definitely not. Pregnancy takes it out of me people. It zaps every ounce of my physical and mental energy for 39 long weeks! I am SO happy to not be pregnant any more! With that being said, I will move on to the birth story of our precious Cash Walker. I apologize in advance for how long this post will be. Feel free to not read it all! I like to have a place where I have all the details written down and I can go back and read it because my pregnancy/mommy brain is no good these days! I will forget all these details if I don't get them down!

I feel like my labor story should start at 35 weeks pregnant. Throughout my entire pregnancy I would get contractions and cramping any time I got sick or over did it and would just have to take it really easy (which is so easy to do with a jumping, climbing, crazy 2 year old boy right?!) But right at 35 weeks I started getting painful contractions every single night around 5:00pm. They would always go away when I would lay down for about an hour but would pick up if I even stood up to go to the bathroom or do anything. I had preterm labor with Sawyer starting at 35 weeks but with him, laying down wouldn't stop it. It would only stop with complete bedrest and medicine. I was really hoping to avoid that route this time with a toddler so each day was a balancing act of keeping Sawyer entertained but not putting myself into labor. The weeks kept ticking by and I was still pregnant. I was so relieved when I got to full term and I wouldn't have to stress about stopping the contractions.

From 37 weeks on I would wake up with horrible period like cramps and contractions. I am not exaggerating when I say every single day for 2 weeks I would have hours of painful contractions and cramping about 2 minutes apart, lasting for 3, 5, 8 hours and then everything would just completely stop. These were not "uncomfortable" Braxton hicks, they were full on, "can't walk, talk, or think straight through them" contractions. They felt identical to my true labor contractions I had with Sawyer. I would call all the family to set up for child care for Sawyer and let my sister know since she was going to be in the room with me. We would get in the car to go and then everything would stop. This happened so many times. It was physically exhausting but also mentally exhausting wondering each day, "is this it?". I was so tired! I did this for 2 weeks until I finally had him at 39 weeks exactly.

I woke up on Thursday morning with my usual bad cramping and contractions. I didn't even bother timing them because they always fizzled out in the past and I just didn't even want to think about it. The contractions were really really painful but were pretty far apart and I honestly didn't think it was anything. I dyed easter eggs with Sawyer that morning and then went over to my sisters house to watch her 2 kids while she took her middle son to an Easter party at school. When I got there I was bending over from the contractions and my sister said "I feel like I shouldn't go, I think you are in labor" I assured her this was no different than any other day, in fact the contractions were only in my lower tummy and they were super far apart. Definitely not active labor, just more false labor. My mom came over later to give Taylor piano lessons and she saw how much pain I was in and made me start timing them. They were 6 minutes apart but then every now and then would be 9 minutes apart...again not true active labor. Still pretty sporadic. After about 2 hours there they got so painful that I couldn't really think straight and I didn't want to talk to anyone or listen to anyone so I told my mom I was going home to put Sawyer down for nap and asked her to stay with Laura's kids. I called David on the way home and said I don't know if this is it or not but I need help with Sawyer, so he left work a few hours early and came home. At this point I started thinking this might be it, started getting kind of excited. I went for a walk to try and get the contractions closer together but they were just getting farther and farther apart. I called the nurse and she said, "sounds like you are in early labor but you could do this for a while. Call back when they are closer together". I came home from my walk, sat down, and EVERYTHING completely stopped. Not a single contraction, braxtion hicks, nothing. I was seriously SO mad. Poor David. I was so grumpy and could not believe after a full day of being in so much pain everything stopped again. We went to the mall to just walk around some and get some jamba juice to cheer me up. I had a few contractions at the mall but nothing regular. We got home and put Sawyer down and started watching a movie and I had a few more but they were seriously about 15 minutes apart. Around 9pm my oldest sister Laura called me and said she thought I should call my dr back and she was worried about the baby being in distress since I had been painfully contracting for so long with no progress. Poor thing, she later told me she had herself so worked up and was so worried about me and the baby. Had she not called me and urged me to call the Dr again I would have not gone in. I felt so dumb for crying wolf so many times that I had decided I was not going in until I KNEW I was in labor. Thank goodness my sister urged me to go because things got pretty crazy really fast!

I called the dr and she said she wanted to check on the baby and make sure it wasn't in distress. Since this was my second kid and I was already dilated she wanted to see me but that I was probably going back home after they checked on the baby. My dad came over to watch Sawyer and the last thing I said to him was "we won't be staying, I will be back home soon". We got there and I was 4 cm dilated (I was a 3 at my last drs appointment) and the baby's head was so low she could feel it. She said "You are not going anywhere until you have this baby". So I called my sis to have her come to the hospital. They admitted us at 11:00pm and I had Cash at 12:30am. That is 1.5 hours from the time we got to the hospital. Like I said, thank goodness my sister urged me to go back in...this kid would have come in the car had I waited!

They admitted me and let me start walking around to try and get the contractions closer together. They pretty quickly went to about 2 minutes apart but if I ever sat down or got on all 4s to try and help my back pain everything would completely stop again. It was just like all the false labor I had in the past. Even when I was in active transitional labor, if I laid down the contractions would stop. This was the strangest labor ever, so different than my experience with Sawyer. My mom, sister, and David were taking turns walking the halls with me. David was trying to convince me to let them break my water to speed things up but I really didn't want them to. I knew I wanted to go natural with no epidural and I remember from my labor with Sawyer, as soon as your water breaks the pain gets SO intense. I didn't want to be in that pain for hours and hours if I didn't need to be. David was worried about my body wearing out from being there all night and kept urging me to let them break it. I decided to let the nurse check me and if I  had made no progress I would let them break my water. Trying to walk back to the room from the hall took me about 5 minutes because the pain got really really intense and I couldn't move through them. (This is probably the moment I would have KNOWN I was in labor had I waited at home...and I had Cash about 20minutes, if that, later. Our hospital is 15minutes from our house and we wouldn't have had to wait for someone to come stay with Sawyer. Don't think we would have made it honestly!)

The nurse checked me and to all our surprise I was 7cm dilated! I was very encouraged and stood up to keep walking. As soon as I stood up my water broke. I grabbed my sisters arm and said "oh my gosh I have to push. I have to push right now". The nurse said get back in bed, let me check you! She checked me and I was an 8 (seriously less than a minute from being 7cm). I had a contraction while she was checking me and she said "you are a 9". Things got absolutely crazy from this point on. I was saying I have to push, I have to push and the nurse is yelling back at me "you can't push, you are not 10cm yet". It was physically impossible to NOT push at that point. My body was pushing for me and there was nothing I could do to not push. The nurse ran into the hall and yelled "I need some help in here" and about 3 nurses came flying in. They start trying to set up for the delivery and tear the bed down and I am yelling at this point "I AM PUSHING. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BED. I HAVE TO PUSH" My poor sister, I grabbed a hold of her and was using every ounce of my being to concentrate on her and not push. The nurses are yelling "listen to your sister, do not push" and Laura is whispering in my ear "you are in a hospital Megs, if you need to push then push, it's OK" hahaha love her. Just what I needed to hear. The baby was pushing and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The nurse kept yelling into my little phone attached to the bed that she needs the Dr, where is the Dr, I am yelling I need to push. It was insane! The Dr literally ran into our room, someone threw gloves on her and she sat down. One nurse had the nerve to tell me "you can't push, I don't have the bed set up" and I looked at her and yelled "I don't care about your bed". The dr was there, it was fair game in my book! I remember the nurse still trying to set the stirrups up and trying to put plastic under me as his head was coming out haha a little late sweetie! As soon as the Dr sat down I just relaxed my body and the baby's head popped out. I didn't even really push, my body was already pushing for me. I just relaxed and Cash did the rest. It felt SO good to be able to finally let my body push. His head popped out and then his shoulders slipped out and I immediately felt such relief. Just like that I was in NO more pain. It was crazy. We didn't know if it was a boy or girl and apparently when I was in transition I kept saying over and over that I wanted David to be the one to announce it (haha I don't really remember that part!). There was no announcement needed, she held him up and I immediately saw he was a boy! The first thing I said was "I knew you were a boy sweetie, I knew it". He was just perfect. They laid him right on my chest and he calmed down when he heard my voice. He was so beautiful and perfect. We all were laughing at how round he was! He is just the roundest little thing. They took him away to clean him up and he started screaming again. I told David to go talk to him and as soon as he heard Daddy's voice he calmed right back down. It was such an amazing and crazy experience. I was able to do it natural like I wanted and I'm so thankful I did. It was absolutely crazy and the most intense pain ever but I'm so glad I did it. By far THE most painful part of the whole experience was the last 7 minutes when I needed to push and they wouldn't let me! I think it would have been less painful if I could have just pushed when I was ready. What's funny is when we first got there, my mom told the nurse "just so you know, I have 3 daughters and all of them go really fast once they hit 4 cm and I was the same way with all 4 of my kids." The nurse was sweet but just said "ok, sounds good". After the labor was over she came back in and said "wow grandma you called that one! I wish I would have listened to you more!" haha I still cannot believe I had him within 1 1/2 hours of getting to the hospital. Things went from "this might be it" to me holding him in under 2 hours. It was so inane and intense!

We decided to wait to name him until the next day (we did this with Sawyer too). I needed to be able to try out a few options on him and see which one stuck. We knew we were using the name Walker because it's my grandma's maiden name but we hadn't decided if it would be his first name or middle name. I was leaning towards Walker as his first name but David really wanted Cash. He did look more like a Cash to me but I just couldn't decide. David came the next day and asked me what I thought and I said "I still don't know. I like them both" So David said "then let's name him Cash Walker" and that was that! I think his name just fits him perfectly! We absolutely love it! Cash walker was 7lbs 15oz 21inches long. He was born just after midnight on March 29th which just so happens to also be his cousin Jesse's birthday! (some of you may remember when I had Sawyer 2 years ago my oldest sister Laura was also in labor at the same time! Sawyer and Luke were born 2 hours apart but on different days b/c Soy was just before midnight and Luke was just after). My kids are destined to share birthdays with their cousins! Cash was an amazing nurser right from the beginning and has just been the sweetest best little baby. He had a lot of mucus and choking episodes at the hospital because he came out so fast, his little body didn't get to squeeze everything out of his lungs. My mom spent 2 nights with me and David spent the 3rd night (We had to stay an extra night b/c Cash was jaundiced) and we each just took turns holding him upright and suctioning him out all night long. If we laid him down at all he would start choking and sputtering and throwing up tons and tons of mucus. It was so sad. He finally cleared it all out of his system and has been so easy since. From the day we came home from the hospital he slept 4 hours at a time at night and the last few days he has gone 6 hour stretches. He is gaining great weight and nursing great. He passed his birth weight at 5 days old so I'm not worried about not waking him to feed anymore.

Big brother Sawyer loves his little Cash. He loves to hold him and asks for him first thing every morning. Anytime he leaves the room he says "come baby Cash". He is having a bit of a hard time not having so much of me. The first few days he cried a lot and wanted to be IN my lap or arms 24/7 but he seems to be settling in more the last couple days. Sawyer also had pink eye, ear infection, sinus infection and a fever when we came home from the hospital, so he was extra weepy those first few days. Overall he is adjusting pretty good. It's tricky when I'm nursing Cash and Sawyer starts getting pretty rowdy but we are figuring it out as we go. Today is my first day alone with the 2 boys and we have had a fun day so far. We did breakfast together, ran some errands, and both boys are napping now. Hoping to go to cousin Bo's Tball game later today if I am not too worn out. I did get a uterus infection again (I got one after Sawyer's birth) so that has slowed down my recovery some. With Sawyer I also got a kidney and bladder infection so I'm thankful for just the 1 infection this time. The first week was really really hard because I felt so miserable and Sawyer felt so miserable and poor David was keeping the house and all of us going. But I am starting to feel better each day and am just so happy to not be pregnant any more! If you made it this far, I applaud you! Future blog posts will no be this long I promise!