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Kian Crew Hickey, my little king, was born on June 7, 2012 at 2:32
pm. I was done being pregnant…done. Looking back now though (postpartum amnesia
in full swing) I could do it all over again.
Kian sleeps through the night, occasionally rousing to nuzzle with mom
and fill his tummy. I feel very blessed.
This is his birth story.
Kian is my third baby and when I went in for my 38 week
office visit the nurse practitioner told me that I was 4 centimeters dilated. I
was excited and surprised. I had been
having contractions every night for a week and didn't think they were doing
anything. Apparently they were! She offered to strip my membranes and I
accepted. It wasn’t too painful, she
apologized and said she did her best but she had short fingers and it probably
didn’t do much. I was still grateful for
the chance of things being sped up and the possibility of jump starting true
labor. But another week passed and still
no baby so my doctor offered me an induction.
I was induced with my first two boys, Kael and Caleb, so I knew what it
entailed. So in my “doneness” I
scheduled myself for an induction and was super excited to know the day that
Kian would arrive.
My sister Robin and I drove to the hospital at 5am on June 7th. Sam stayed home with the little boys and
would be coming to the hospital after he dropped them off at daycare. They started me on the Pitocin at around 6am
and the contractions began about 40 minutes after that. They were steady and mildly painful.
I had a nurse and a nurse in training looking after me. Eva my nurse was AMAZING. The gal she was training was really nice too,
but when she checked my cervix for dilation I thought I was going to die. It was excruciating. Then Eva would come over and apologize and
recheck me to confirm the trainee’s estimate on how far along I was. Eva once said “sheesh, if she stayed any
longer in there you would have had to charge her rent!” we shared a little
laugh.
As a few more hours passed and they continued to increase
the drip I felt the contractions grow longer and stronger. They were still bearable and I could talk
though them. I dilated to a 5 around
noon, but hadn’t made any further progress.
The baby was still sitting high so they gently broke my water. The doctor was careful to make sure the
baby’s cord didn’t come out before the baby’s head came down when she broke my
water. It is bad news if the cord were
to come out first because then it pinches and doesn't give the baby oxygen. She said she barely had to touch it and my
water broke.
Wowzers, this is when the contractions really began. They were earth shattering and felt like they
were breaking my body in half. I could
barely say the word epidural though these contractions. The anesthesiologist was short and in his
50’s, very soft spoken and warned me in advance that he took his time when
placing an epidural. He did take his time, but he worked with me to
make sure that he was able to get me completely numb from the belly down. Oh, how grateful I was for the drugs, and
they were just in time. It wasn’t but a
few contractions (pain free mind you) later that I felt pressure. After being checked again I was dilated to a
10 and they said I could start pushing.
5 contractions later Kian Crew was born.
It was easy, I remember them telling me to push and since I couldn’t
feel anything I didn’t feel like I was making any progress.
When he came out they placed him on my chest, something I didn't get with the other boys. Kian was
covered in vernix, a thick coating to protect him while he stewed in amniotic
fluid the previous 9 months, and he had a ton of hair. I wasn’t surprised by all his hair though
because both Kael and Caleb had a lot of hair.
What a handsome little boy! 8lbs,
2oz, 22inches long. Kian Crew, I love
you!
