Kaylie's Birth Story
Kaylie Drew Clemons entered this world and our hearts just 42 minutes into January 3rd, 2021. I woke up in the middle of the night on the 2nd with minor contractions, I was 38 weeks and 1 day, and this was the first sign I had of any labor. I thought for sure these were just Braxton Hicks contractions and would go away, so I moved to the couch to sleep through them. Just in case, I decided to download an app that would keep track of the time between contractions. A few hours later around 7:00am, the contractions were still happening and about 10 minutes apart. I immediately called my mom and asked her if I should wake Andrew up, but she told me to let him sleep. If this was actually the real thing he would need the rest! Fast forward an hour and a half later and the contractions were about 30 seconds apart, so it was time to wake up my husband and tell him that he might become a dad today! Our house is 40 minutes away from the hospital on a good day, and it just so happened that we woke up to freezing rain. I called the midwives and decided that we needed to start making our way to the hospital as soon as possible.
We arrived at the hospital around 10:30am where they put me in a triage room to be checked out. I was only 1-2cm dilated but my cervix was already 100% effaced so the nurse had me labor in the triage room to see if things kept going. They didn’t want to admit me yet given it was so early and labor could stall. I walked around and tried different laboring positions as the contractions were strong and close together. After another hour and a half or so, the nurse came back in to check on me again hoping to get me admitted to a room. At this point, I was still only 2-3cm dilated, but she said since I was continuing to have contractions regularly she felt okay admitting me. She made it very clear that we knew there was still a chance that labor could stall and we would have to go home.
We got settled in our room and the contractions did not slow down, at this point my water had broken but it was just a slow leak. It was now very clear that little miss was coming and we wouldn’t be going home! After a few more hours the nurse told me that I was still only 3-4cm dilated. I was trying all different laboring positions and I started getting some back labor while Andrew and the amazing nurses were giving me counter pressure. Andrew was also busy with the task of updating our 3 sets of very excited, soon-to-be grandparents. Around 5:00pm and a few hours after the last check, I decided I needed to make a decision on what I wanted to do for pain management. The contractions felt like they were nonstop and I had been in active labor for almost 8 hours at this point! When the midwife came to check on me this time I was still at 4cm, since progress was slow I decided to get the epidural. It was during the weekend so they only had the on-call anesthesiologist and it took an hour to get the epidural in.
Once I was relaxed and the epidural was working, the midwife left us for another two hours. I was feeling a ton of relief so I FaceTimed with a few people, this is when it actually hit me that we were about to have a baby! The midwife came back at 9:00pm and holy moly, I was finally fully dilated! She wanted to wait for Kaylie to come down more on her own, so we didn’t start pushing for another hour until I felt pressure and had the urge to push. It was almost go-time!
I started pushing around 10:30pm, and I loved how relaxed the atmosphere was. The nurses and my midwife were amazing and in between pushes we honestly had some great conversations. Since it was so close to midnight we kept taking guesses on if she would be born on the second or third. She made this mama work hard and was so close for so long! Finally, my midwife told me to just push through even though my contraction was over and in 5 big pushes in a row, Kaylie was born!
I reached down and grabbed her and held her close to me. I couldn’t believe it, she was here! I got to take a good look at her and the first thing I noticed was a birthmark under her left eye. I remember saying “oh my god is that a birthmark?!” and double-checking to make sure it wasn’t a spot of blood or something from birth but it didn’t wipe away, it was the perfect feature. I was in absolute awe looking at her. Andrew and I were in love instantly, and let me tell you, there is nothing more amazing than watching him hold her for the first time. I am so grateful to have such an incredible husband by my side the whole time. It’s been such a beautiful experience watching this tiny human grow for almost two months already. We love you so much Kaylie!
