Kelsey's Birth Story

My third sweet lady was born on April 2nd, 2016.

Kelsey Parker Curtis
10:59am
8lbs 11oz

I guess I'll start at the beginning.  I was anxiously awaiting this baby the whole last month of pregnancy.  I don't remember feeling as 'done' and ready for a baby to be here as I did with Kelsey.  I had an ultrasound at 38 weeks and I asked on a whim if the tech could tell me how big she would be and she said 8lbs 13oz.  I thought she was crazy!! If that was the case I should have had her yesterday!  Both Hayley and Melanie were about six and a half pounds, so that fact that she was going to be so much bigger didn't help my waiting.
My step dad had a really invasive knee surgery on March 31st, so my mom was not going to be able to be around for the birth and really the first month at all which really made me sad.  But, with those circumstances I was really relying on Tyler's parents and his Aunt Beth Haynie who lives close by in Mesa as well as potentially some friends in case it was the middle of the night.

Saturday morning (the 2nd) I woke up at around 6:30am to a dream that I was in pain from a contraction but still sleepy I couldn't quite tell if it was also real life.  So I stayed awake waiting for the next contraction to come eager to know if today was the day.  Sure enough around 6:45am there was another.  Then at 7:00am there was another, so I got my phone out to start tracking and at 7:10am I finally told Tyler what was going on.
"I've had 4 contractions in the last half our or so....should I call your mom?"
"YES!" (as he jumped out of bed into the shower)

I still felt pretty good and all of my contractions were in the front of my uterus which didn't happen with either of the other girls and comparatively, they were really tame, but by the time Aunt Beth got here at around 8am my contractions were only about 6-7 minutes apart and I started having to pause and lean on something just so I could relax the rest of my ab muscles that would have normally helped me stand up.  I had put my makeup on (with primer no less...I was going to look good in pictures since this was the only time I'd gone into labor during the day!)  , triple checked my bag, got the girls breakfast, and tried to eat a pancake (which really didn't feel like a good thing to do).  Don and Jessie got to the house from Tucson around 9:30am and we were all on the couch watching General Conference.  I started to get this yucky feeling in my stomach like I had to go the bathroom and not much happened but I knew it was just my body trying to clean itself out.  I was still able to talk and once a contraction passed I felt totally fine!  Not like back labor....the breaks were not breaks just a minor decrease in back pain.  These uterine contractions were easy to recover from.  Around 9:45am I started to feel the contractions wrap around my back and in turn, the desire to kind of rub my back to ease the pain.  They were about 5 minutes apart.  I gathered my things and told Tyler I was ready to go.  In my head I thought we'd just hang out a bit at the hospital since I didn't feel totally in labor like I remembered with the others.  With Hayley the car ride was unbearable but I really did feel fine a majority of the time with this labor!

We pulled into the parking lot at about 10:00am.  I told Tyler, "We can probably just hang out in the car for a bit, I just didn't want to look like a moaning cow with such an audience".  I was able to labor in the middle of the night with the other two; no kids, no relatives.  Tyler didn't really care what I said and just kept moving me toward the hospital doors.  We checked in through ER and I remember feeling so calm compared to last time that I seriously thought I was way too early and not ready.  The triage nurse must have felt the same way because she hooked me up to monitors and said I was only 4cm dialated, she was going to watch me for 10 minutes and call the midwife to see what we should do.  Well....not 5 minutes later back labor seriously kicked in.  I was on my left side clinging to the bed rail and telling Tyler to push harder with counter pressure on my back.  I learned later that he was nearly kneeling on my back in order to push as hard as I was asking him too and I had the bruises to prove it the next day!  I remember Tyler saying, "Honey, these aren't 5 minutes apart anymore" then the next thing he said was, "Where is the nurse? Her 10 minutes are up".  At the point the back labor was everything I remembered it to be and more.  It was all I could do to keep my composure and the nurse reminded me to keep my moaning low so I could keep control.

They wheeled me to a delivery room and asked me to move beds.  I told them no...haha!  I could feel her head in my pelvis.  I didn't want to move with what feels like a basketball between my legs!  The nurse said, "The contractions are not going to get any better, we need you to just scoot a few inches and you'll be right on the bed".  That was the first time I had opened my eyes in maybe 10 minutes.  I remember pleading in desperation for 'some demerol or something' because I just didn't think I could do it.  Bless the nurses heart, I'm sure she knew how soon Kelsey would be there so she just said she was going to get my IV started (come to find out later she was just doing it to give me pitocin after labor to help my uterus shrink back because she knew full well I was going to have a baby any minute but starting an IV would make me feel like relief was coming).  I also remember thinking, "I better relax and open my legs so this baby can actually come out".  I was so tense.  This labor was more true pain than I remember from the other girls as well.  I felt like I was literally being ripped in half at my back.  My body started to bear down which I love because you know that's the beginning of the end.  All of the sudden my water burst!  That didn't happen with the other girls either!  I yelled, "My water just broke!"  I think at some point I also yelled, "I'm totally pooping!"  (I'm obviously not that worried about decorum in the middle of labor).

I don't remember the feeling of her crowning at all.  After my water broke it was all a blur.  Someone said, "Keep pushing!" and I said, "Why?!  What happened?!" and someone said, "Her head is out!  Now get the rest of her out!".  I gave it a solid push and she slipped right out!  10:59am.  I said, " I can't believe I just did that guys!!"  She was pooping everywhere, it was like her body could relax too.  I asked if I could hold her right away and the nurse asked if I wanted her to clean Kelsey up first and I said, "There's already blood everywhere, I may as well have poop on me too".

Sweet Tyler always cries when we have a baby and I love that about him.  He always says, "You did it!  You did it!" and kisses my head.  I love that about him too.

So....4.5 hours from start to finish.  It was so weird to leave the house in the daytime to go have a baby!  Tyler's parents were shocked when we literally called an hour later to tell them Kelsey was born.  I would have never guessed she would show up so quickly!  I love having a little baby to snuggle and hold on my chest.  She is a little ray of light in our crazy house.  I'm not sure if I'm more patient or if she's not as needy, but even when she cries I don't mind.  I'm so calm with her.  I love that.  Welcome the our family Kels!!

2nd Time Around

We're down to single digits folks!!  Just shy of 9 weeks and we'll have a new sweet little girl in our home!  I am getting excited, Tyler is totally excited, and even Melanie is ready! 

Here are some ways my sweet girl shows her sister love already:
- Flashlights on my belly...doing her own ultrasound
- Laying her head on me and grinning ear to ear with excitement when she feels a kick
- She puts diapers on everything!
- Rocking her baby dolls
- Making me laydown on her blankets next to her babies and tucking us all in

I am so anxious to see a friendship blossom between my two little ladies. 

The token post baby post :)

Melanie Brooke Curtis

June 14th, 2011

6lbs 11oz, 19.5in

I had officially started working from home full-time on Friday the 10th since my due date was a week away and the hospital was more than an hour away from my office...I didn't want to take any chances.  Plus it is was more comfortable to work from home and not have to get all fancied up and stuff my sausage feet into any dress shoes. 

Monday the 13th, I sat down at my desk at 8am and noticed my back was aching.  I thought maybe it was just from sleeping on it funny since I was big and spent most of the night rolling around.  I just dealt with it, rubbing it every now and then to try and massage what I thought were sore muscles.  Just after lunchtime I realized that it would hurt worse and then diminish, but it never completely went away.  Out of curiousity I looked online to refresh my knowledge on true and false labor....I definitely wasn't in labor....I was sure I was just psyching myself out, but I wanted to be positive.  All the definitions said true labor would start in your back and move to your abdomen and that your whole abdomen would harden with each contraction.  Well....if these were contractions they definitely started in my back but I wasn't feeling anything in my abdomen.  So, I called my mom and told her I WASN'T in labor, not to worry...but just in case, I described my symptoms.  Since mom's are so smart she said, "Well, sounds like your going to have back labor, I'm so sorry honey."   Great....

At around 4:30pm, when I started getting on my hands and knees to sway my hips and relieve the pain, I finally admited to myself that this was the real deal.  I called Tyler at 5:30pm and he picked up the phone and said, "Are we having a baby tonight?"  and I said, "I think we might be." He got home around 6:30 and ate some leftovers because I couldn't bear to make dinner and I definitely didn't want to eat dinner.  About every 4 minutes I would roll forward off the couch and just sway my hips back and forth.  I'm sure Tyler thought I was a crazy person.  At around 8:00pm I crawled down the hall to the bathroom because I thought I may throw up and I had Tyler give me a blessing.  I was determined to wait as long as possible to go to the hospital because I wanted to have a natural birth.  Then finally at 9:00pm, when my contractions were about  3 minutes apart, Tyler looked at me and said, "Can we stop waiting to go to the hospital?".  The hospital was only 3 minutes away and I had two contractions on the way there and another one at the check in desk.

Once in triage I was only dialated to 2cm!  Just my luck...haha  The nurse told us to walk for about an hour and I definitely looked like a fool stopping every 2 minutes to get on my hands and knees in the middle of the hospital hallway and sway my hips.  About 20 minutes in to our walk I threw up (thankfully I hadn't eaten any dinner), so they took my back to triage, gave me and IV and some anti-nausea medicine and the doctor decided to go ahead and keep me around...thank goodness!!

We got into our labor and delivery room at around 12:30am and I had the most wonderful nurse of all time.  I'm not kidding....this lady was meant to be my nurse.  Wanting to go natural and having back labor, she was so supportive and told me to do whatever I needed to do in order to keep myself comfortable and she would figure out a way to monitor the baby. 

The contractions got tough, really tough.  I'd watched a lot of hippy natural labor videos, read a ton of literature, and talked with quite a few people, so I started to use a low moan to get me through each one.  I'd get on my hands and knees on the bed (anyone who walked in got a good glimpse of my backside if the nurse wasn't fast enough to cover me up...but I didn't even care...haha) and would just take a big, deep breath, and moan through it.  It actually helped because it forced me to focus on something else and control my breathing. 

At about 2:45am, I was on a medicine ball leaning onto the bed and I hit that breaking point where I was just exhausted and sore.  I asked the question that no one can answer, but you just want an answer to...."how much longer is this going to take?"  the nurse was so great and told me it could potentially take another 6 hours and she knew I wanted to go natural, so we could try a dose of stadol if I wanted to.  In between contractions we talked about the pros and cons.  It would only last an hour, so I was nervous that I wouldn't progress in that hour and have to finish out the rest of the labor because I didn't want to keep taking medicine all night long.  I decided to ask Tyler, who was also exhausted and trying to catch some sleep between my moans, and he convinced me to go ahead and try it.  I was only 4cm dialated. 

At 3:45 I woke up from the nap the stadol had allowed me to take.  The nurse said I would wake up enough to breathe through contractions, but just go back to sleep.  She checked me...9.5cm dialated!!!  Holy guacamole!  If I remember correctly, I looked down at her and said, "Shut up.  Are you serious?"  She called in more nurses and the frenzy began!

Then the contractions got out of control.  I was laying on my side and I would have Tyler put counter pressure on my lower back by pushing his fists against my spine as hard as he could.  They came fast and started to double up on me so I didn't have any breaks.  I continued to moan through it, definitely louder and longer, but I stuck to what I knew worked.  The nurse had me roll onto my back so she could keep a better eye on the baby and as soon as I did that, my body kicked in.  I'd heard women say that their body just started to push for them and I had a hard time imagining that actually happening, but boy did it!  I couldn't stop it....a contraction came and my whole body would just bear down and push.  After two pushes, the nurses all told me to stop pushing and grunt through it....guess I was being pretty productive! I could feel someone helping my body stretch out and after about 4 more contractions I think we all realized that this baby was coming out whether we were ready or not.  About 3 more focused pushes and a good "that hurts!" shout and there she was! 

I remember them saying "she's a girl" and I shouted "hallelujah" (I had a fear that she'd come out a boy and then I wouldn't have any clothes for her!).  The nurses cleaned her up and the nurse 'down in the trenches' said, "I don't think you even tore!" the doctor walked in 15 minutes later (I don't think anyone expected this newbie to go so quick!) confirmed I hadn't torn and wandered around with this look on her face that read, "this was so easy, I don't even know what to do with myself" haha. 

Labor was hard and I don't want to make light of it at all.  Our family was just so blessed to have no complications and a wonderful nurse.  Those two things were key.  I tried to keep my mind on the end goal, take one contraction at a time, and remember that pain wouldn't kill me.  I never once felt like I couldn't do it, it never felt impossible, and honestly, even having back labor, I think I was expecting it to get worse than it did.  Maybe that's the key, managing my expecations :)

Now, just about 3 weeks later, we're doing great.  Melanie is starting to show her personality and it is so wonderful to get to know her little spirit.  I know she was meant for our family, it is such a humbling feeling to be reminded how we fit into our Heavenly Father's plan.