Introducing Chase Scott Kirkland !

So this is Chase's birth story! At this point he is almost a month old! It's so crazy how time flies. I have been so busy with this little guy that the last thing on my mind is blogging. But I really need to write down his birth story or I am going to forget it! So here it is....

Tuesday I was having contractions but that was nothing out of the ordinary--I had been on bed rest for 6 weeks at that point and contractions were just a part of everyday life. Casey took me on a walk in the wheelchair after work and they were kind of getting worse with every bump we hit.  I decided to lay down in bed and watch a movie on the ipad while Casey went to play basketball. He got back late around 10pm and I was still having them. I took my Nifedipine and they got a little better. I wasn't really counting them but they were probably 10 min apart. We tried to go to bed and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep for a couple hours. I woke up numerous times due to the increasing strength of the contractions. It was probably around 2am and I was due for another pill. I took it honestly thinking it would slow things down. It did nothing. I had a non-stress test and a doctor's appointment the next morning so I kept thinking I would just wait till then to go to the hospital. Chase had other plans.

Around 4am the contractions were hurting so bad! Mine were in my lower back too. They were probably only a couple minutes apart. Casey had not slept all night (he later told me he pretended to sleep so that I would fall asleep and be calm). I went to the bathroom and started to bleed. I thought about calling the doctor but I knew she would just tell me to go to the hospital. So we were on our way! Luckily that day I finished packing my hospital bag. I had a feeling that day that he was going to come sooner than later. ON the way to the hospital we hit almost every red light so we started to run them--no one was on the road at 430am. I probably had about 4-5 contractions on the way there and we live 5 minutes from the hospital (just so you get the picture of how far along I was). 

We got to the hospital and right after checking in to Labor and Delivery, getting into the cute gown, they immediately hooked me up to monitors and checked me. I was dilated to a 7!! I told the nurse I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom (like number 2). She said, "No! that's your baby! We need to work a little faster!" She immediately had another nurse come in and start an iv and seconds later the anesthesiologist started my epidural. My contractions were so bad at that point that I wasn't even thinking about the pain of being stabbed in my spine. After the epidural I felt so good!!!! I could still move my legs, they were just tingley and numb but I could not feel the contractions at all. It was amazing!! They checked me right after and I was at a 10! SO they called my Dr. and she was on her way!

At this point my sisters, Casey's sisters and Mom were at the hospital. We were just waiting for my Dr. to come. As soon as she got there she checked me and broke my water. Then she left for about 20 minutes to go round on her other patients. Once she came back we had the girls leave the room so I could start pushing. My doctor also had to turn him so he was in the right position to come out. It was probably 7am at this time. I started to push and it took me a couple times to get the rhythm of breathing down. I had been pushing about 15 min and his heart beat was dropping so they had me on oxygen. On the next push my Dr. said we were going to use the vacuum to get him out. It happened so fast! I literally pushed for only 30 minutes and then there he was!! 

We got a hold of my mom and she was on a flight at 8am and in Utah by 10am! Go grandma! Since he was born at 35 weeks 1 day they had to take him to the NICU to check him. He did great! His blood sugar was a little low and they put him on the CPAP machine to jump start his breathing. He was able to come downstairs to me in Mother/Baby right after. However he had a positive blood culture so he had to be on IV antibiotics for a week :( It was kind of frustrating because It could have been a false positive. After the 2 days of being with me he had to go to the NICU for 5 days for more antibiotics. I'm so glad that was the only reason he was there!! The NICU thing is so hard! I feel so bad for any mom who has to go through it. Leaving your baby every night is the worst. And going back and forth multiple times a day to breastfeed while you are trying to recover down there...not fun! I would be lying if I said I didn't cry myself to sleep a couple of those nights. 

A week after he was born he was able to come home with us! It was a very happy day. We had no idea what we were going to experience that night... Ever since then we have not slept more than 4 hours straight. This parenting thing is not easy but it is totally worth it!! We love our little guy :)