Kami: 48 Hour Induction, Shoulder Dystocia, Postpartum Recovery, and the Power of Healing Therapy

As a mother, the journey to meet your child is etched in your memory with all its twists and harrowing turns. Kami, a pediatric speech language pathologist, bravely steps into our space, inviting us into the most vulnerable moments of her life as she recounts the birth of her two children. Her story, a tapestry woven with the threads of anxiety, resilience, and profound growth, underscores the unpredictable nature of childbirth and the indomitable spirit of motherhood.

Our conversation with Kami dives into the heart of her experiences, from the strenuous 48-hour induction of her firstborn to the complex emotions surrounding her second child's planned C-section. She opens up about the postpartum period, a time of healing and introspection, where journaling and therapy, specifically EMDR, played critical roles in her recovery. Kami's narrative, punctuated with candid discussions about mental health and the power of support systems, offers a compelling and deeply personal look at the realities of parenting newborns.

As we conclude this episode, we extend our deepest gratitude to you, our listeners, for joining us on this intimate journey. As we part ways, remember, each story of birth is a testament to the diversity and resilience that lies within all birthing parents. Until next time, hold onto the strength of these stories, and may they guide you through your own chapters of parenthood.

Connect with Kami on Instagram here and Threads here.

To sign up for our newsletter visit our website and blog: www.goldenhourbirthpodcast.com
Follow Liz on Instagram here and Natalie here
Follow us on Facebook here.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello Golden Hour Birth Podcast listeners. I'm Liz and we have Natalie here, and today we have a captivating birth story from Kami, a pediatric speech language pathologist in mom of two. Kami takes us through her unique journey with both births, one marked by unexpected challenges and another guided by a different approach. We'll explore the twists and turns from a 48 hour induction to a scheduled T-section. But here's the burning question for you how can two births with different paths both lead to a sense of empowerment and restoration? Join us as Kami unfolds her experiences, shedding light on the diverse narratives that birth stories bring. Stay tuned for an episode that captures the essence of resilience, choice and the unexpected joys that come with the Golden Hour of birth.

Speaker 1: 0:53

One last thing before we start the episode Kami recorded her own birth story and sent it into us. We're trying this new approach that allows us to share more stories without scheduling issues or time constraints. If you're interested in doing this as well, just shoot us an email, or you can just go ahead and record your story and send it over. We are very excited to make space for more voices and experiences in this community, so let's keep the conversation going and celebrate the diversity of birth stories. The Golden Hour of Birth podcast, a podcast about real birth stories and creating connections through our shared experiences. Childbirth isn't just about the child. It's about the person who gave birth, their lives, their wisdom and their empowerment. We're Liz and Natalie, the Golden Hour of Birth podcast, and we're here to laugh with you, cry with you and hold space for you. Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and say goodbye, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Thank you for you. Okay, I'm gonna try telling two birth stories for my two boys. My boys are 17 months apart, so for my first baby, we got married in June of 2020. So right in the height of COVID, and started trying soon after getting married and I think it took us about six months for getting pregnant. We, when I found out, found out like late February, early March 2021.

Speaker 2: 2:36

And then, yeah, pregnancy was, you know, pretty typical first-time master had like evening sickness, so I would get sick in the evening or start feeling woozy in the evening time, and that faded pretty quickly, Like once I hit weeks I don't know 13 of pregnancy. And then in the second trimester nothing too crazy I did have pain in my upper right quadrant and my doctor was concerned about the gallbladder for a little while. When I had a second ultrasound after my 20 week scan, I went back to the same face, to the same radiology place, and they didn't ultrasound of my gallbladder and it was normal. It ended up just like my ribs and the cartilage around my ribs expanding and yeah, that was second trimester. And then in third trimester, that's when things got a little bit interesting. The first thing that happened was it was like 34 weeks pregnant and I just started working in person again after working virtually for a while and I had to go to different sites to do an assessment and I was carrying just like a bunch of stuff and also pregnancy, and I was walking to my car, my car was in a parking garage and I ended up tripping and falling on the ramp in the garage and hit, of course, land right on my stomach and I'm like, oh my God, freaking out and I end up just sitting and taking some breaths and realizing that I could feel the baby moving again. It seemed okay, so that kind of helped alleviate my anxiety.

Speaker 2: 4:46

But I called my doctor and, of course, didn't get through initially. So I was like waiting. I'm like okay, well, my mind's racing, I don't know what to do. I'm gonna well, I wait for the doctor to call me back, I'm gonna go and do this assessment which I don't know. Yeah, I think if I were able to go back in time and tell myself works, not everything, Like it's not gonna be your whole life and you should have just taken care of yourself a little bit better, but getting better, it's work in progress, but anyway. So the doctor did end up calling me back and telling me to proceed to the hospital. So I had to go to the hospital After that may monitor the baby, I think for three or four hours. So it was just a long afternoon into evening time. Yeah, yeah, Do not recommend having that happen because it was not fun.

Speaker 2: 5:48

And then another thing in third trimester that happened was I started getting these crazy dreams. They were Super vivid, super anxiety-presoking. Number one was like we went to the hospital, we knew the baby was a boy, but it turns out when the baby came and it was a girl, and then the baby was taken and we couldn't find her and I was just like rushing around the hospital and then I woke up. That was one of the dreams. I had Another one the baby died and I don't know. It was just like a lot of crazy, yeah, just weird dreams that I was having and I ended up seeing a counselor to kind of help. Just like work through some of the yeah, some of my stress and some of my tried to think about things that would help, and so that was an amazing night.

Speaker 2: 6:42

Yeah, just kind of ramped up in the third trimester was my anxiety and then, yeah, so then I also had prodromal labor which started in 38 and a half weeks. It was like 38 and five days, I think it started at end. Yeah, that was also not very fun. It was very long. My labor was very long and I feel like it started when I started having the prodromal labor because I was just in a lot of pain and did not feel comfortable and I couldn't work Worker because I was uncomfortable, just felt like it wouldn't yeah, it'd be very conducive to working and so I stopped and I ended up getting. I ended up going.

Speaker 2: 7:34

I remember going to the OB's office like fairly often for like checks because they were like, well, just getting off, you think like something's happening or you just wanna get you know, checked out and we can just assess things and if you want a cervical check, we can do one and see if you're dilating, anything's happening. I ended up going a couple of different times but I didn't dilate. I was like a fingertip dilated and slightly effaced. I remember them saying like, each time soaked, yeah, it was just like a long process. And I remember my OB saying, as I was earlier on in the pregnancy, we would think about induction, but not until you're 41 weeks. So you've gone a week, a full week past your due date. Sometimes it's helpful for new moms to have the 41 week induction. Other times you go into labor spontaneously, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2: 8:32

But when she saw like how uncomfortable I was and how, yeah, just like the discomfort I was in, she was like the only thing I can really offer you as an induction earlier, like back in, because she's like a little bit older for practitioners. So she was like, well, you know, back a number of years ago, women who were in prodromal labor, like you, we would give them basically like a sleep aid and it would help them, you know, fall asleep and then they would sleep for a good chunk of time and then, you know, you would either wake up with no contractions or you'd wake up like being truly in labor. So I remember that I'm being like can you just give that to me anyway, please? But no, that can happen. So, but she, you know, worked with we worked with the team to get an induction date. So I ended up getting an induction date for when I was like 40 days, 40 weeks and four days so it was still after my due date which I felt like okay, maybe I can still go. Maybe I'll still go spontaneously. Before that time I ended up not, I ended up going up until making it to the induction.

Speaker 2: 9:40

So the induction was I was doing early November, I was doing November 5th, so I think the induction was like on November 8th, started on the 8th of the night and it was a Sunday. At one in the morning we went to the hospital and it was day right, safe. That night was like the daylight savings night, so we gained an hour, so it was like 1 am twice. I remember that happening too. But so the induction, the plan for the induction, was because I was still the fingertip dilated, so it was going to be like starting on the oh gosh, can't remember the name of the drug they gave me, but it was something, a medicine that was supposed to help me dilate more and they gave me like a little sliver of a pill every I think this every four hours to try and help, yeah, soften and ripen my cervix. And I remember just like continuing to have contractions the whole time, continuing to feel uncomfortable, and the nurse being like, oh yeah, you're still contracting, like every five to seven minutes. I was like, yep, that feels no different than what I've been going through already. So we just, yeah, just continued to wait it out, basically.

Speaker 2: 10:45

So we did the full. It was like a 24 hour round of the pills and then see there's cytotech or cervidil. It was the drug, but anyway, after that we did it was like another round of the same drug, but it was a suppository. Oh, and actually before they gave that to me, I remember I got up, choose the bathroom and I sat back down and when I sat back down I felt like this gush and it ended up being that my water had broken. So I was like, oh my gosh, my water broke. This is exciting. This means like maybe something's gonna happen, something else will happen, and I remember that being at 8 pm, so it was like 1 am. We got there 1 pm, so it had been like a full, almost a full cycle or almost a full 24 hours of the pill, and then we did the suppository to get things moving a little bit more.

Speaker 2: 11:42

I remember that night feeling okay, we've gone to the next level in terms of my pain with the contractions. Yeah, just started to feel significantly more uncomfortable and that was kind of like the I was in, I guess like the next stage of labor, which was still like pretty far away from it to deliver at that point. But, yeah, through that night I remember everybody saying, yes, like the nurses were saying, try and rest, try and rest been trying to rest for, like you know, two weeks now and I haven't gotten solid sleep because of all the yeah, everything that had happened we did. I did end up asking for medication to help alleviate the pain at that point. So I did get probably like a solid four hour chunk of sleep, which was awesome, At the show which I remember. Oh, when I finally fell asleep, I had this great dream, like a happy dream, which was nice.

Speaker 2: 12:43

Then I woke up again in more pain and then it was like mid-morning. I was like, yeah, like nine or 10. That morning they checked me and they were like, oh, you are five centimeters. So I was, things were happening, Stuff was dilating and, yeah, at that point they were like, do you want an epidural? You can have one. And I was like, yep, sounds good. So they put the epidural in. We waited a little bit more.

Speaker 2: 13:07

I had figured he would be born 24 hours after my water had broken, but it did take a little bit longer than that. Well, I guess I started. Yeah, I guess I did start pushing at the 24 hour mark, like 24 hours after my water had broken, so around 8, 30 or 9 pm the following evening. But he did not come until it was like 1.40 am. The following yeah, yep, so it was like I don't know. Yeah, I was about six hours where I was in the pushing. I was in pushing for six hours, which was crazy. Another thing I don't recommend. It's part of my story, it is what it is.

Speaker 2: 13:55

So, yeah, we, I reached 10 centimeters and I remember too, we, just because it was so long, we ended up going through a lot of doctors. So it was like, at shift change, right, Because it's that right that like 7, 8 o'clock time frame, so at 7.30, right before the next doctor started, the last doctor check me. She was like, oh, you're complete, you can do a couple of practice pushes with the nurse. The new doctor will come and deliver your baby. So that that new doctor had come and she checked me. She was like, well, you're more like a nine centimeters right now. Like you're not, you're not complete yet, but you remember being like what? Just like feeling really disappointed and tired. I was exhausted. But they, I, they got me like a peanut ball. So I, they put me in this position, the nurses and I was, yeah, like after waiting, I didn't have to wait long, 30, 45 minutes. And then she checked me again. She was like, oh, okay, you're ready, let's go, let's have the baby. So yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:03

So then I started pushing and, yeah, we did the practice pushes, we did the pushing for real. I remember my husband like holding my left side and the nurse holding the right side and she was kind of like the nurse was kind of like helping me through the pushes and helping Q me to make sure like I was doing, yeah, you know the right, getting the right motion, I guess. And I remember the third or fourth push, not very long, my husband's hands, they, he did a little flutter. I was like, oh, he's something's happening, he feels excited, and come to find out that I had gotten some of his head out and so it was just like, okay, push again, push again. The baby's really close. I remember the nurse saying he's almost here, You're so close, Cause I was just like I'm exhausted and feeling, just felt hopeless.

Speaker 2: 15:59

I started, yeah, getting this feeling of, oh my gosh, is this going to happen? Can I really do this? Can I really have this baby? And yeah, it was hard, it was really tough. Then, yeah, I think it was, yeah, it was just like a long, it's just a long time and a lot of power, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:23

So eventually they, they called the doctor. The doctor came in and I think the pediatrician was there too. So another thing that had happened, or they had found, with my water breaking was some oh, I forget the word oh, meconium, that's what it was Meconium had also come out with the fluid and that I remember being, yeah, like not a little bit apprehensive about, not really sure what that would mean for the baby. But they said, basically, the pediatrician's just going to be there to assess him and make sure that everything's okay. Basically, some babies that happens and everything's normal and sometimes they have difficulty breathing, which has to assess when, when he's born. Yeah, so when I finally did, when we finally got to that point, the OB was there and the pediatrician was there, and then I remember, like the last push, I finally was able for his head out and they I remember the doctor grabbing him and saying something like, oh, that's an ear. Oh, and then they, and then, like a bunch of movement happened. So they said she said something which later I learned like at the time did not know what she had said, but later learned like she's called right shoulder endostasia. I learned that later. I didn't know that that's what she had said at the time, but essentially what that meant was his shoulder was stuck on my pubic bump. They I also heard her say call for help. I do remember hearing that call for help A bunch of movement, like a flurry of movement.

Speaker 2: 18:04

The nurse ended up standing on the bed. They pushed, somebody pushed a button. A bunch of people came in to the room. I remember too, getting wasn't really flipped, but it was like, I guess, more of an inversion. They moved the bed quickly in such a way that like my head was facing away and I remember also closing my eyes and being like do I push? What's going on? I feel like the wind thought knocked out of me, Because at this point too I can feel the epidural wearing off and I can feel some movement, but not everything. That happened, yeah, Flurry of movement basically. And then somebody knew like another nurse came in and I guess at the right moment or just to help motivate me. She was like come on, mom, One more push. So I did, I pushed, Then he was blank and they turned the bed upright no-transcript.

Speaker 2: 19:08

I got to touch him for a second and then they brought him to the table to be warmed. I remember that. I remember thinking okay, what just happened, Is the baby? Okay, I don't hear crying, what's going to happen? And then it was a couple of. It felt like an eternity, but I think it was in reality only A minute. He started crying and I remember feeling relieved and then they weighed him. I remember they weighed him and they were like oh, he's 8 pounds, 13 ounces, mom. I was like, excuse me, that is not the weight I was expecting. I was expecting some of a lighter child.

Speaker 2: 19:59

But he was here in a huge form and the OB started talking to me in a little bit more detail. She was like okay, I'm giving you stitches now because we gave you an apesiatomy to get the baby out. So if you feel any of the pulling or anything, just press your epidural button and we will give you more medicine. So we did that and as she was stitching me up, she said I do want to take a second to explain to you what happened, because it was traumatizing for everyone. Your baby had a short logistosia, so he was stuffed and we had to do several maneuvers to get him out, but he made it out. And then the pediatric I remember the pediatric asked how long was he stuck for to the OB and the OB was said two and a half minutes. So and then they were all like, wow, oh, my gosh. So I was like, okay, I don't know what shoulder dystocia is, I've never really heard about that, but yeah, I'm just happy that he's okay.

Speaker 2: 21:09

So then at that point I was able to, after I got the stitches and they weighed him and assessed him and they had to do some. Yeah, at that point too, the pediatrician was like, okay, mom, we're monitoring his breathing and if he doesn't show a certain amount of breath support in this five minute span, he's going to have to go to the NICU. But if he does, if his levels start going up, then he'll be okay to stay. So we waited and he was like, oh, yeah, his levels are increasing, so it looks like things are looking good and he's a strong baby and yeah, you can hold them. So then I got to hold them and I got to try feeding him in the room there. And yeah, after that, yeah, we tried latching, had the nurse help us latch at the beginning, right in the room, and then he did get to eat, which was good. That was one of the things I wanted to try, wanted to have happen soon after delivery, so it wasn't immediately after, but it was Pretty soon after. Time is kind of a blur, as I think about it. But yeah, After that we moved to the postpartum area.

Speaker 2: 22:47

I remember just being very grateful at that point, being very grateful for the nurse and for the OB, for the team, for everybody who watched the baby and helped monitor him and stuff, yeah. So then we started our postpartum journey. Yeah, at that point it was probably like three or four in the morning, so I think at 8am the next morning we made it into the postpartum room and the lactation consultant came. It was probably like eight or nine in the morning that that following day. So she helped with the latch, showing us to position and, yeah, just helped us a lot. Okay, so it's another evening I'm walking my dog and telling my story.

Speaker 2: 23:35

I left off talking about my postpartum experience with baby one, so the lactation consultant came that following with a couple hours after birth telling her to work on feeding. And then it was also like rotating nurses, so the nurse would come for me and another nurse would come for the baby. And I remember the first time that the nurse came for me, she like wheeled on her little thing to check my blood pressure and check my meds and had the computer and like when my name on the chart, when she like accessed my chart this I remember seeing this red flash that came up that said this patient is on subsist watch and I was like, oh, she should talk to me in my rooms. What happened to me was really crazy. Like the whole, the whole experience was traumatizing and I never wanted to tell people about it for a while.

Speaker 2: 24:49

I remember also, in the immediate couple weeks after, my mom and my mother-in-law both asking me questions and I just didn't want to answer any of them. Like we're kind of like freeze, for lack of a better descriptor yeah, just had no desire to talk about it, I guess, because I was still sort of like processing it and processing everything that happened. But anyway, so we stayed in the hospital, another it was like a total of four days or maybe five, with the induction and then with the birth, because it was 48 hours after by the time we left, yeah, or maybe it was longer than 48 hours. It's kind of a blur, but anyway I remember it feeling like a very long time. But so, anyway, we get home my husband is.

Speaker 2: 25:51

I think it would really help you kind of get through this if you sit down and you journal, if you write everything that happened. Write down everything that happened and then maybe it'll feel better, like maybe that you'll be able to, or want to talk about it a little bit more and tell people, kind of like, what happens. Yeah, and I'm happy he gave me that advice it was definitely a good step toward healing not fully healing from the experience. Yeah, I don't know if the liver fully healed from the experience, it's just part of the story. Now, Now I can tell the story and I can remember the positive parts of it and not be afraid to tell it either. So that's, yeah, I think that was helpful.

Speaker 2: 26:47

Yeah, overall, postpartum with him really wasn't too bad. Oh my God. Hi, here I'm like walking by the road and there's cars, oh well, so anyway, yeah, it just didn't turns with eating Like he was a good eater. He was a fast eater, he was gaining weight appropriately. We were able to get like chunks of time at night at the beginning, which also helped, I think helped me overall. And from there, when talking to my husband, I remember him saying something like I can kind of want another baby and I want the babies to be close in age.

Speaker 1: 27:48

For this whole life.

Speaker 2: 27:50

I don't know, not very immediately postpartum, maybe two or three weeks, and I was still just trying to process what had happened, and I remember getting like a little bit short with him and saying, no, I'm not even, I don't even think I want another kid. I think I said something like that and I know, going forward, that that really hurt him and I don't know it is what it is. So I came around, though I ended up coming around to the idea.

Speaker 2: 28:30

I ended up working with a therapist on BetterHelp who specialized in birth trauma. We did I think it was EMDRs the acronym but I recommend, if anybody's listening to this and feels like they have gone through a traumatic birth process, find a therapist that specializes in this, because it's really helpful At least it was very helpful, for in my opinion and it's hard to really explain it involves basically tapping into different sides of your brain thinking about the rational side, the side that rationalizes everything, and then the side that's more emotional and more reactive. I worked with this person. It was a benefit that I got through work through our EAP program, that I didn't have to pay for it, because that can be another hurdle that you have to go through when you're finding therapists.

Speaker 2: 29:38

I remember, whatever session it was Finn was eight months at the time, so he was still pretty young we were having. My husband and I had a conversation about oh, if you get pregnant in this timeframe again, the baby would come in March or in April or May and that would be a good time in terms of your work schedule because you could take a couple of months off and then it would go into summer vacation, because I guess I didn't mention this earlier, I work as a speech pathologist in a school setting, so I have summers off, unless I opt to work summer school, which I haven't done in a couple of years now. At the time we were having this conversation, this was an option that seemed feasible because I would get more time off with him or with a new baby and with the old baby. I think I was like, okay, I can see myself going through this again and doing this again on the one hand, but on the other hand, in all reality, it took us six months to get pregnant with my baby ones. What are the chances like we try in this two month window and we're pregnant with baby two? We'll just try again the same timeframe next year and the kids will have a bigger age gap and that'll be fine. Another thing that we had going on around the time I found out I was pregnant with baby two was we were married in June of 2020, right in the height of COVID, and we didn't really have a wedding that we had initially envisioned. I guess I'll say we ended up doing an anniversary reception in the summer of 2022, so like two years after we had officially gotten married, I found out I was pregnant with baby two three or four weeks after our anniversary reception.

Speaker 2: 31:59

There you go jokes on me thinking like, oh, this is going to take a long time for me to pregnant again with second kid. It did not and I couldn't believe it at first, again because I was still breastfeeding baby one. So I'm going to start calling him Dan, that's his name. I was still breastfeeding Finn, yeah, because he was eight months old and my cycles were not regular. I think we were coming like every. Sometimes it would be like every four weeks, sometimes every six, but I'm still getting a cycle. So, yeah, my cycles started again like five or six months postpartum, even though I was like exclusively breastfeeding until, yeah, until he started salads. So, anyway, all that to say, it was kind of like I don't really know if he's going to work. We'll see. I was very skeptical.

Speaker 2: 32:57

The whole process was trying to conceive for baby two and yeah, so it ended up being like two months went by and I didn't have a cycle and started feeling kind of funny and like nervous. And, yeah, I took a test and it was positive. I remember waking up that morning because I had read oh, if you, if you take a test first thing in the morning, hear HCG levels are higher concentration or whatever. That was what I ended up doing and it was first thing in the morning and nobody else was awake. My son was still sleeping, my husband was still sleeping, but my dog was awake. I ended up just leaving the pregnancy test on like sink in the bathroom and walking outside with the dog. So I was like, okay, wow, doing this again. Feeling lots of feelings, lots of heightened emotion and not quite sure what to expect.

Speaker 2: 33:55

That day I called the doctor to make like my first appointment, which ended up not being until I was. I think at that time I was like six weeks along. They were based on one of my last cycle while I was seven weeks along. Yeah, my appointment ended up not being until I was 10 weeks long, so like another four weeks beyond the phone call.

Speaker 2: 34:19

And then, like two days after we made that first appointment, I started spotting. I was like, oh crap, what's happening? I called the doctor. We have an advice line. So I called the advice line and asked what do I do? And the nurse said, well, you just have to keep monitoring and see how much you're bleeding. But if it would make you feel more at a piece of mind, we can have you come into the lab to do a blood test. So you'd come in one day we would take your HCG levels and then you'd come back in 40 hours later and we would see if your levels are, you know, exponentially going up, as they should with a successful pregnancy. So I was like, okay, yeah, I'll go ahead and do that. So we did that and I think after the second test I remember like feeling starting to feel like ill again, like starting to get that morning sickness come back, and so I was like, oh well, I guess this means that the pregnancy was successful Because I remember I had read that too.

Speaker 2: 35:33

Yeah, I have lots of feeling, lots of feelings about getting pregnant again so fast and it was like planned. But it was also like I had kind of said to myself oh well, like this probably won't happen, don't get your hopes up. And then that didn't happen. So it was. It was a pleasant surprise.

Speaker 2: 35:55

And so this pregnancy this time around, I felt was harder compared to when I was pregnant with my first with him. At the beginning I was a lot sicker. I ended up, yeah, just like feeling really nauseated a lot and getting vomiting more, more often. I think it was, yeah, and I was also going into work in person full time at this point. For work I had to take the metro sorry metro in from suburbs to the city. It was like a 20 minute ride. Oh God, it was just like well, felt very wizzy, usually, got off and then dry, heaved a little bit and then felt that as if it's a pulse which sounds terrible. But around 13 weeks again it, it subsided and I did end it up.

Speaker 2: 36:51

I did end up around 10 weeks getting prescriptions for the anti-nausea medicine, so Zofran and a I think it was called dye and Glendon, I don't remember. I'm in a butchery, but it was essentially a sleeping pill mixed with a vitamin. I should look up up specifically what they were, but anyway, it was a combination oh, that's what vitamin B6 and unisum, that's what it was. So took that together and that actually I would take that at night before falling asleep and that, I think, helps the most with my yeah, low symptoms. And then on days when it was like really, really intense, I took Zofran, anti-nausea, anti-lamidin. So then around 12 weeks I did do the NIPT, the newborn blood test, because it was covered through my insurance again and we found out we were having another boy. So that was exciting, we at first I thought I remember thinking like, oh, this must be a girl, because I'm more nauseous and I was like craving sweets and I'd read that that was a thing and I don't know, you can still be pregnant with a boy and have those things have to blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2: 38:18

So, yeah, the second trimester with this pregnancy was rougher as well, mainly because I got COVID. So I went for my 20 week anatomy scan and then, I think, two weeks after that, so I was like 22 weeks, blah, blah, I remember, with walking to work. So I had gotten off the train, walking to work and thinking, well, I think I have a head cold, like I don't feel well. But when I got home that day I took a call to the test and it was negative. So then I was like, okay, whatever, a couple more days go by and I'm still not feeling great. But I'm like going through the motions. Essentially, I don't know the.

Speaker 2: 39:13

Yeah, I ate something weird. I ate Cheetos, which I don't normally eat, because I was like craving something salty and the Cheetos came right back up immediately. I was like, oh well, okay, shouldn't have done that, that wasn't good. So I thought it was kind of like a one off time that I got sick. And while I was getting sick, I started feeling like water coming out of me, like I thought my water had broken. Looking back, I had peed myself. However, at the time I thought, oh my God, my water broke because it didn't like smell like urine anyway, and I was just, oh no, like panicked and anxious, called the doctor. She said keep monitoring. If you're soaking through a pad every couple of hours, then it's likely that it's your water breaking and you should come in then.

Speaker 2: 40:16

So I got on the train to go home, got in the house and got sick again and the same thing happened. I was like, oh my God, this is not good. I think also, everything was wet. But so, anyway, long story short, I ended up telling my husband to take me to the hospital because I thought that the baby was coming. So we all got into the car, me and my husband and Finn and it was this was December, so it's cold. The hospital was like you need to stay outside with the baby. You can't bring the baby in because and I remember too telling my stop, don't break him inside, I'll just go in myself. And, yeah, he got turned away at the door, basically, oh, and we've gone to an urgent care first. So first we went to urgent care, we told them what was going on and they were like we can't help you, you need to go to the ER. So we did, and so, anyway, they did all.

Speaker 2: 41:27

Once I went, once I got to the hospital, they did all of the testing to determine if my water had broken. It had not, and the OB on call was like I'm gonna get. You also need the Guffel Viral Workup, because something is clearly wrong with you and you're clearly dehydrated, cause at that point I have gotten sick more. And yeah, I was just like nervous and wanted to make sure everything was okay, and she was concerned too. And anyway, yeah, we did that. And then I came back positive for COVID and I was like, are you serious? Yeah, it was not fun. We I think I ended up spending a total of eight or nine hours in the hospital from that whole experience, got home and just could not yeah, could not function very well, and of course my son also had it. So we were all kind of like quarantining in the house. My quarantine was up at the on Christmas Eve, so we still had a somewhat regular Christmas. Yeah, but it was not fun. That's what I remember most about.

Speaker 2: 42:45

Second time, that whole scenario. Okay, so I am going to mention in the second pregnancy, when I got my first anatomy scan done, I came back saying that the baby was 98th percentile and large for gestational age, and so I had two additional ultrasounds sounds after that, so one at 32 weeks and then 36 weeks, and then the other one was at 21 weeks and each time measured larger than gestational age. Yeah, I think they were all around like 98th percentile. I remember the. When I went from my 32 week one, the tech was like his year has been tall, and I laughed because my husband is the same height as me, we're both like five, six. So I was like no, but yeah, it ended up being so.

Speaker 2: 43:48

That kind of played a role in decision making for delivery, because with my first, since I had had the threshold or dystocia, when I got pregnant again, my OB was, you know, concerned about that and so she said I'm recommending that you have a C-section, like even this was like in the one of my first appointments and I wasn't ready to accept that as as this is what we're going to do until the. I think at the point when I had my 36 week ultrasound and the baby was still measuring like in the high 90s percentile and I think was already yeah, my 36 week scan he was eight pounds eight ounces in the womb, or that was like the estimate, and at that point I was like, okay, so this ultrasound has a slight margin of error, right, that could be like one pound under, one pound over from this measurement and that just increases. Since I've already had a shoulder dystocia once I think there were statistics about that too that I would be at increased risk to have another one, and then if the baby's big, then that would also increase the risk. And yeah, after the 36 week ultrasound I think it was the 36 week, one might have also been the 32 week one. Anyway, after that we decided to schedule a C-section. We scheduled the C-section for 39 weeks in one day, and I think at that point too, my plan was like well, we'll see what happens if I make it to the C-section and that's what we'll do, and if I end up going early, like maybe I would try to have a natural vaginal birth. But wasn't really sure at that point. And, yeah, I ended up making it to the C-section, so I ended up having a C-section.

Speaker 2: 45:52

But let me backtrack just a little bit Around. The time I got my 36 week scan, I started having painful I would describe them as painful Braxton Hicks not necessarily the Petromo labor that I had with my first, but it was, yeah just started to get continually uncomfortable, Wasn't sure what was really going on or what was happening and I just kind of hit a wall with going into work. It was like my body's way of telling me like it's time to stop this, like time to take a break is the way I sort of interpreted it. And yeah, so I ended up starting my leave earlier than I was going to. And yeah, so it was. I think I had two and a half weeks at home before the scheduled C-section and once I stopped work like once work obligations stopped for me the Braxton Hicks stopped as well. So I do wonder if it was related to stress or related to anxiety or on my job, and I, yeah, that was what I ended up doing and I know, yeah, I had really wanted to go all the way to my due date, but that's just not what happened and it's okay.

Speaker 2: 47:14

So then I remember, when we got to that week, my in-laws came down for the C-section to watch my and we drove. The C-section was scheduled for 10 o'clock in the morning, but they said to get there two hours beforehand. So we were. So we had to be at the hospital by eight o'clock and it was a 10 minute drive, but the Since it was traffic, it was like rush hour, it was a weekday, it took a little bit longer. So anyway, we got to the hospital, I got admitted, did like the pre.

Speaker 2: 47:56

Yeah, the nurse came and asked us questions and yeah, again, I just remember like feeling really, really nervous about the whole experience and in the car too, like when we were driving, I was crying because I was like this is the last time my thin is going to be an only child. I had just a lot of feelings about it. But anyway, once we got through all of that and the nurse asked us all the questions, they were like okay, we're going to wheel you this way, and so I had to wait in this other little spot for a bit and my husband was. They got him like scrubbed in or not scrubbed in, but wound up to go into the operating room for the surgery. And yeah, I remember going and meeting the anesthesiologist she and her nurse assistant or nurse. They got me set up to do the spinal tap and once that spinal hit, it was like whoa, everything was numb and I did have a playlist going for music just before the anesthesiologist did the spinal and they started playing the music, which was good, and she was like I can tell that you have a lot of nervous energy right now and I just want you to sit and listen to your music and just try and breathe. Okay, because we got this, which I really appreciated. Yeah, once the spinal was like done, I felt this relief. So I was like, okay, we made it From here on out. I was just okay, I can do this, this will happen and this is good. I felt relaxed. Then my husband came back in and sat by my head and they put the drape up and I also just kind of like closed my eyes and focused on the music and the breathing. And then I remember feeling it felt like a really light touch. But then the nurse was like, okay, she, like the doctor, is poking you with one of the sharp instruments. Do you feel anything? And I was like, nah, it just feels like poking.

Speaker 2: 50:03

So then after that day, yeah, you know, moved forward with the surgery and then at one point too, I remember feeling like that's what kind of felt, like my legs were rocking back and forth. And then I remember the anesthesiologist saying you're probably you're feeling some movement right now and that's from because the baby is very large. The doctor's getting the baby out, basically. And then he was born and he started crying and they lowered the drape down so we could see him. They brought him to weigh him, which was the part I was curious about, like, how much does he weigh? And he ended up weighing nine pounds and 15 ounces. That was great, it was healthy and happy and they got him in a blanket, basically.

Speaker 2: 51:02

And at that point too, I remember my cold and I wanted to try breastfeeding and I just kind of felt funny. I didn't end up doing it in the room, but then, when we transitioned to the postoperative room, I fed him and the other thing that happened in the transition from the room to the postop room was they had to move me and the spinal was still going and my IV came out so they had to put it back in. I think it was when I was being moved because I had to move beds or something. Yeah, then the anesthesiologist had to fix it. But I remember just feeling grateful for her because I felt like she did a good job advocating for me but also telling me, okay, I need to relax. So it was a good experience overall.

Speaker 2: 52:00

And then we got up to our recovery room, my recovery room, and, yeah, just hung out with some little baby Kai. Yeah, he was so sweet. He's still such a good baby he's seven months now and he latched well, he's been feeding good Lee. Yeah, really no complaints about him. More complaints about me, ben, on a journey with you, probably as you were sitting to this, tell that there was. I was an anxious person before having children and then becoming a mother. Now I feel like I'm even more anxious and so just working through that with therapy and medication has been helpful. That's been probably the biggest journey postpartum with Kai has been, and yeah, I joke that I took all of my chill energy and birth that into this baby because he's just that he doesn't get easily upset when he is upset.

Speaker 2: 53:22

Oh, wow, you're really really upset about this, but, yeah, most of the time he's just like this relaxed, happy kid, which is great. I hope he carries that into into toddlerhood. We'll see what happens in toddlerhood, but yeah, yeah, so that's me, that's my story as I record this. Like I said, my youngest, kai he's seven months and then Finn just turned two, so I'm officially out of the two under two, but, yeah, still still a lot going on in this house. Yeah, I don't have a lot of tips for navigating having two kids under two. Just giving yourself a lot of grace and keeping expectations low, especially those birth couple weeks home, like you're still trying to. All right, yeah, trying to figure stuff out and recovering yourself. And then also, yeah, just figuring out how to navigate the world with two kids. Yeah, give yourself lots of grace. I think one resource I found helpful was it's an Instagram account. Her username is chaoswithcara and she has a guidebook, like a two under two guidebook, and I did end up getting that and I thought that was helpful. She had a lot of good tips and strategies for just here is how you can tackle bath time here, so you can tackle bedtime in different ways, to just do things, which was good, yeah, and then I guess, well, that reminds me too of feeding. So that was another hurdle that we had to go through, just with so, finn, the day that Finn stopped nursing was the day, yeah, that I think he nursed. Like the morning I went to go for the C-section and we tried doing tandem, like both of them nursing, and it just didn't work for us because he, like my oldest, just wanted to always be there and he couldn't was hard for him to understand that the baby meet while he wanted to eat, like the baby needed to eat, so we didn't. It just ended up working out for us. So, the couple of times once yeah, just a couple of times we, when I would have to feed him and he would be there, my mother in law or my husband distract him in some way, there was like screen time or an ice pop, because it was hot, it was April, so, yeah, it was warm outside, so they would take him outside and give him an ice pop and have this like way more exciting, yeah, and eventually it he didn't, he wasn't interested in nursing anymore and it worked out. But that all, yeah, that happened. So, yeah, yeah, I think that's really all I have If people have birth stories that are similar or different from mine or want to just reach out.

Speaker 2: 56:48

I am on Instagram. I am on threads. I think my threads is public. My username is cammycam5. So K-A-M-I-K-A-M-5. And I like writing. So, yeah, I try to update my threads with a little tidbit about the kids at least every month, but sometimes more often because, especially with Kai, I haven't been as vigilant about taking the photos of him at certain months with the little blanket like the four month and the six month and anyway, lots of time I've been doing. I've been like posting a little thing on threads each month about putting a little tidbit on there about how he's been doing and yeah, yeah, but that's my story, thanks.

Speaker 1: 57:38

Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Golden Hour Birth Podcast. We hope you've enjoyed our discussion and found it insightful and beneficial. Remember, the Golden Hour Birth Podcast is made possible by the support of listeners like you. If you appreciate the content we bring you each week, consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast platform or sharing the show with your friends and family. Your support helps us reach more people and continue creating valuable episodes. If you have any questions, suggestions or topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach us on our website, wwwgoldenhourbirthpodcast, or connect with us on social media. We value your feedback and want to make sure that we're delivering the content you want to hear. Before we sign off, we'd like to express our gratitude to our incredible guest who joined us today. We are honored that they trust us enough to be so open and vulnerable.

Speaker 1: 58:36

We're grateful for their time and willingness to share their stories with us If you're interested in taking the conversation further with us, join us on our Facebook group, the Golden Hour Birth Circle. We'll be back next week with another exciting episode, so be sure to tune in. Until then, stay golden and remember to take care of yourself. We'll catch you on the next episode of the Golden Hour Birth Podcast. Bye.