Chillin' with the Changs: 2019

Since Kennedy was born at 35 weeks 6 days, and both Jackson and Dean were born when Lindsay was 36 weeks, my doctor said there was a high chance I would also deliver early. I vowed to be ready this time, so bags were packed, clothes were washed, the car seat was installed, and we were ready when I hit 35 weeks! And then we waited... and waited... and waited.

At my 36 weeks appointment, Dr. Cowan checked my cervix and said that I was 2cm and he felt like her head was pretty low. He also let me know that I should head to the hospital when contractions were 10 minutes apart (versus the standard 5) as he believed it would go quick, if not more quickly, than before.

My 37 week appointment rolled around on Thursday, May 2, and I couldn't believe I was still pregnant. I told myself to soak up the alone time with Kennedy and cherish our final days together, but it was rough waiting when we'd been ready for so long. Dr. Cowan checked me, again, and said that I was 3cm, but he didn't think her head was as low as before. He also mentioned that, should I make it to 39 weeks, he would give me the option to induce. We chatted about it briefly, me saying that my body has done it before on its own, so why force her if she's not ready; him saying he didn't think it would end in c-section, and that I didn't have to decide that day. But the whole rest of the day, I kept wondering if I would do that or not.

But I was also feeling so much pressure the rest of the day... to the point where I felt like I needed to use the restroom, but I would just sit there and nothing happened. After putting Kennedy to bed, I was getting ready to take a shower while texting a neighbor and, upon mentioning that to her, she said her water broke a couple days after feeling that much pressure.

After our showers, Nelson and I settled down on the couch to continue catching up on Tosh.0 before tucking Kennedy in and calling it a night. Towards the end of an episode, I noticed a feeling in my lower belly. I'd been having Braxton Hicks the past several weeks, something I didn't experience with Kennedy, but this felt different. Whereas the BH would all of the sudden appear and be super tight, squeezing my bladder and making me need to pee, and then suddenly disappearing as quickly as it came, this feeling came on more slowly, was a little more irritable, and then faded out. After I'd had a couple, I also realized the BH would be one and done until later in the day or the next day, not back-to-back. So I started timing them around 10:00pm.

When we finished the episode and I'd been timing these "pains" for roughly 30 minutes, I noticed they were coming every 7 minutes. There goes the 10 minute suggestion! I asked Nelson if he wanted to watch one more episode. At this point, it was a little after 10:30pm, time for us to shut down for the night. Being very routine people, he looked at me questioningly and asked why. I finally decided to let him know I'd been feeling something and timing them, and I thought I should time them for a while longer to make it a full hour. He suggested we start prepping things in case we need to leave - a much more logical thing to do. I went ahead and called Lindsay, who I'd invited to be in the delivery room to take pictures, so that she could be on standby. I felt bad waking her up, and she said she thought about going back to sleep until she heard back from me, but that didn't happen for obvious reasons, so she got up and got dressed. Next I called my mom... which started with her answering the phone, "Can you call me back in 2 minutes?" The previous several weeks, everyone was on high alert. My mom would let me know where she was at all times in case we needed her; and the one time we did, she has me call back? When I finally called back, I let her know that we were going to see how things progressed, but to have a bag ready to come sleep at our house for the night so we didn't have to wake Kennedy.

While I was doing all of this, Nelson called the hospital to give them a heads up. They ended up putting the on-call doctor, Dr. Seeker, on the phone. I heard Nelson telling him it was our second, our first labor was about 6.5 hours, and contractions were 7 minutes apart for only 30 minutes. But he failed to tell him what my doctor suggested, so we were told to wait another hour and see what happens. Luckily we didn't take his advice.

I put some final things in my bag, helped Nelson get his together finally (#eyeroll), and gathered last minute things Kennedy would need at my mom's. Since we had both showered and were in our pajamas, we had to change clothes, and you know I blow dried my hair and put on some mascara, too. Since Lindsay would be taking pictures, I wanted to look as good as possible - ha!

It was just after 11:00pm and I was walking a lot around the house, continuing to time the contractions, which by this point had dropped to every 2-3 minutes and I was having to pause what I was doing to breathe through them. We decided to call my mom back and have her come over. Again, I was surprised when she asked if she could wait for her her laundry in the washing machine to finish so she could bring it to our house to dry, that it would only be another 10 minutes. I begrudgingly said ok.

While we waited, they continued to be close together and were getting more painful. I decided to take one final belly picture in the mirror to always remember what I looked like. Nelson was freaking out, asking where my mom was (with an extra word thrown in there), and wondering if we should call a neighbor to wait for her. But she finally arrived around 11:30pm and, after going through instructions for Kennedy, showing her where everything was, setting up her laundry in the dryer, and turning the car seat in her car to be rear-facing, we were off to the hospital. Lindsay was already on her way, too. Luckily it was so late and the streets were empty because Nelson ran every stop sign in the neighborhood and was definitely speeding. My contractions actually slowed in the car to about every 5 minutes, I guess because I was sitting down, causing me to wonder if this was a false alarm, and I felt bad for inconveniencing everyone if it was.

We got to hospital around midnight, getting there right after Lindsay. We took a few more pictures to commemorate the occasion, and then headed inside. I was glad to have a calm person with me because Nelson was starting to freak out, and she knew how to get in the door after hours - ha! We all went to the check-in desk and I busted out laughing when Nelson started out with, "Hi, we're here because we believe she's in labor." What? We believe? Ummm... ok. Poor Nelson.

Unfortunately only 1 person could go back in triage with me, so Lindsay went back to the waiting room. Kathy was my nurse, and she got me all set-up with a gown and the contraction belt. I had stopped timing them by this point, but they were getting painful; I just wasn't sure how far apart they were. She finally came back to see how dilated I was around 12:30am, and it was both exciting and frightening when she announced that we would be staying because I was 6cm! I texted the "fan club" at 12:35am that I was officially in labor and Baby Sister would be here soon! While we waited for everything that happens to be admitted, Nelson yawned and said, "Man, this is not an ideal time." You know, because he's going to be doing a lot.

When I finally got wheeled into a room, it was nearing 1:00am and Carlina would be my nurse. They asked if I would be wanting an epidural since I was far enough along to get it, and I actually thought about it. I mean, I'd made it so far with Kennedy before getting one since we didn't even get to the hospital until I was 8cm; should I just try it? I wasn't feeling too bad... yet. But Carlina said that it'd be about 45 minutes by the time I actually get it from when I ask, and I realized I could always just not give myself much of the medicine, so I said sure.

Thank goodness I did because things went fast - fast! Maybe because they'd hooked me up to fluids? I don't know, but it started to get rough. The contractions were getting severely painful and lasting longer with a much shorter break in-between. I laid in the bed and gripped the side rail as tightly as I could. I remember Lindsay and Nelson were just sitting on the little couch in the room, neither of them talking or doing anything. I honestly didn't think much of it, and Lindsay mentioned later that she wasn't sure what to do. Should she hold my hand? Talk me through them? But when Nelson asked quietly, "Do you need water or ice?" at one point, and I responded with, "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up," she knew they were doing what I wanted. I actually don't even remember that - haha!

Between contractions, I tried to keep the room light and airy. We'd all make jokes when we could, but it was obvious things were getting pretty serious. I kept asking poor Carlina how much longer before I got my epidural, and she eventually told me that she had everything ready on her end, that she was just waiting to hear back from the lab on my blood work. She picked up the room phone and called down there, saying, "Hi Amy, it's Carlina, room 14 is ready.... (listening)... ok, thanks!" When she hung up, I asked what they said and she goes, "She said, 'Okey dokey.'" What does that mean?! I said, "Amy, that is not helpful!"

By this point, around 1:30am, they were back-to-back, meaning one contraction wasn't quite ending before it started to ramp back up for the next one. I started to tear up at one point because it just hurt so bad. Where was this dang anesthesiologist?! The nurses could tell I was probably getting close, so they mentioned that, should I feel the need to poop, don't go to the bathroom. It's more than likely the baby making her way down. I was able to breathe through them by inhaling and exhaling extremely loudly, so it almost distracted me from the pain because I was seeing how loud I could be. Hey, whatever helps, right? The nurses would tell me I was doing great, so go me!

FINALLY I was ready to get my epidural! When the guy that administered it walked in, I told him he was more beautiful than my baby.... I was that desperate! But I also looked at Carlina and told her I was feeling A LOT of pressure down there and wondered if it was too late. Luckily she knew how much I needed it, so she just said, "Hang on just 10 more minutes - you can do this!" I was contracting the entire time I was getting my epidural. It was so hard being still, but the worst part was the guy kept talking! He would not be quiet, and for some reason people talking when I'm in labor REALLY bothers me. It's not like he was making small talk, he was actually explaining what he was doing and going through the process, but I was really tempted to just tell him, "I don't care at all, just give it to me."

At one point, during a contraction, my body involuntarily pushed. It was like a reflex push from my stomach, kind of like when you gag and throw up. Except I pushed the other way, and immediately looked at Carlina and said, "I think I just peed." She told me that I probably didn't; it was most likely my water breaking (spoiler alert: I peed). The guy was finally done, and now we just had to sit back and let it take effect. With Kennedy, I was completely numb minus a pressure feeling on the right side of my belly during contractions. This time, I could wiggle my toes, move my legs, and still feel the contractions. The pain was simply dulled. But they tested the feeling by rubbing alcohol strips all up and down my body. It was a weird feeling when I could tell when it was cold versus when I could feel them touching me, but it didn't feel like anything.

When I was eventually numb enough, around 2:05am, Carlina decided to check me, again. Not only was my water still intact, meaning it did not break like she thought, she guessed I was about 9.5cm, so just a little bit left to go. But she didn't seem completely sure and wanted a second opinion, so she called Omega to come see what she thought. Poor Omega was just about to take her "lunch" break, but came in at 2:15am and ended up staying through the rest of the delivery! But that's probably because Omega determined I was 10cm and it would be soon, so she called Dr. Seeker. The baby's heart rate did start to drop a little bit with each contraction, so they ended up putting an oxygen mask on me while we waited. They weren't too concerned (to the point of any emergency actions) because they said it was because she was moving so far into the birth canal.

Dr. Seeker is a very popular doctor and has been doing this for many, many years. Women will wait 2-3 hours for appointments with him and I always thought that was nuts, but now I see why. He was such a sweet, wonderful, and gentle man and was very good at what he did. He broke my water and let me know it was time to push! I was confused because, after breaking my water, the doctor with Kennedy then left and came back later when she was about to come out. But Dr. Seeker stayed... but that could be because he also knew it wouldn't be long.

I suddenly remembered I wanted the mirror, so they had to go to another room and get it for me. When they set it up, I realized, "Woah, she's almost here." All we could see was this long, thick hair on the crown of her head. It was both amazing and kinda gross at the same time. While they were getting things set up, Dr. Seeker drizzled something on me. I asked him what it was: olive oil. Didn't have that before, either! We started pushing around 2:25am, and it only took 3 pushes for her head to come out. And then Dr. Seeker told me to stop pushing, and my body just naturally did the rest and she came right out.

They laid her precious body on my stomach to clean her off, get fluid out of her mouth, and get her Apgar scores (first time 8, second time 9). While she laid there, she pooped all over my leg. Sweet girl :) I had asked for delayed cord clamping, so when he noticed the umbilical cord had stopped pulsating and was ready to clamp, Dr. Seeker asked Nelson if he wanted to cut it. Nelson and I kinda laughed and said he wouldn't be doing that (I didn't care, but just knew Nelson is too squeamish), so then Dr. Seeker said, "Well sometimes sister just has to step up." Lindsay jumped at the opportunity.

After doing some skin-to-skin, Lindsay decided she should probably head home to get some sleep, so Nelson and I were left to spend some alone time with our new girl. We missed Kennedy so much and were both excited to introduce her, but we took advantage of the snuggles with our newest baby girl.

And with that, I gladly introduce you to Adrienne Lee Chang, born Friday, May 3, at 2:28am, weighing 6lb 9oz and measuring 19.5in long.