The Steigers: July 24, 2009- Happy Birthday Keaton!

A couple weeks before Keaton's birthday, I started feeling some Braxton Hicks contractions...nothing major, just little tummy tightenings. Wednesday, July 22 I had an OB appt. When Dr. Poore checked me, he and I were both surprised that I was already 3 cm dialated and he said the baby was already quite low! He told me to go ahead and make another appt for next week, but he guessed that I wouldn't need it and would be seeing him again within the next 48 hours!! (Okay, let me back up here. So for the last week or so, Casey and I were getting pretty anxious. Casey was especially anxious and growing impatient. He wanted to check me into the hospital weeks ago. However, when the doctor said I was a 3 and that I could be delivering any day, the look on Casey's face was priceless!! All of a sudden he went from "when is this baby coming?" to "O MI GOSH, THIS BABY IS COMING!") Color started returning to his face as we got closer to home. I went home and took a little nap and when I woke up, he again was ready to have this baby. All of a sudden he was super excited again and wanted me to have Keaton ASAP. He decided we should go walking to try and get things going. Now I was thinking we would go for a little stroll around the neighborhood...and we did. But when nothing changed, Casey wanted to go for a little more of an intense walk. We drove to Chambers Creek walking trail. This trail is about 3.5 miles...and it's not all flat. It has lots of hills and inclines. Add to that the 85 degree weather and this was intense! Plus, I struggled with wanting to drink lots of water but knowing this place only had 2 bathrooms along the trail and not wanting to have to pee the whole time! I honestly didn't know if I could do it. I will say people were definitely staring at us...I mean, I was this HUGE pregnant girl walking this kind of hard walk in high heat! Well, we finished (and I thought I was gonna die), but no labor yet. We went home, watched a movie, and went to bed.

Thursday we woke up and Casey again had a whole day of walking planned for us. Again we walked around our neighborhood for about an hour. At one point, I started feeling a little bit more "tightening" in my tummy, but didn't think much of it. Then we went back to Chambers Creek trail and walked just the flat part which is about 1.25 miles. During this walk I thought that I might be experiencing some contractions. My stomach would feel just a little bit more tight. When I told Casey this, he immediately wanted to start counting/timing. Everything was irregular and I didn't even really know if these were contractions because nothing really hurt at all. But he said it probably was (because of all his experience I guess) so he counted and timed. After our walks, I went home and took a nap. I woke up to Casey saying, "Are you sure you're not feeling anything else? I think you are, you just don't realize it." lol. Well, around 630ish I thought my water might be leaking a little. I called my friend Melissa (who is a Labor and Delivery nurse) and talked to her about it. She said it sounded like it could be and suggested I call Tacoma General Hospital L&D (that's where I was delivering). The nurse suggested I wait and lay down for 30 minutes and then stand up and see what happened. So I did, and definitely felt a little leaking so we started getting ready for the hospital!!

It was pretty exciting and a little surreal that we were finally packing up to go to the hospital. Casey was fairly calm but so anxious. We called our families to let them know what was going on...we told them, don't get too excited yet. We're just going to get checked out...we're not even sure if we're going to be admitted; but of course, everyone was so excited.

Once we got there, it took a while for them to actually check me. Once they did, the doctor (not my doctor yet) said I was about a 5 and about 90% effaced...we were getting checked in. I swear before we could even call our fams back to tell them, everyone was already there at the hospital!! lol. I told them they really didn't need to come yet because I knew it would still be a while before anything truly happened but there was no stopping them! Nobody wanted to miss anything! After a little while, I wasn't progressing so they said they would like to start me on Pitocin. I asked if I could walk around the hospital to try and get things going on their own since it seemed this whole walking thing had been working for me. They agreed so family members started taking turns making the rounds around the hospital with me. At this point, I still do not think I've truly felt a contraction...I've experienced no pain yet. At worst, just slight tummy tightenings. Anyway, we keep walking, and walking, and walking. After a couple hours the nurse re-checks me...and nothing much has changed. So we agree and go ahead and start the Pitocin. At this point, I think it's around midnight. After several hours of Pitocin (with adjustments to the rate), I finally start feeling a smidge discomfort but definitely I would not call it "pain." I mean, I just know some women have worse menstrual cramps than this. The nurse says that I am experiencing contractions but they are not quite strong enough or regular enough to be in active labor yet. I'm growing impatient and a little annoyed because since I've been at the hospital, nothing much has happened! It seemed like more change happened when I was at home!

I fell asleep for an or so. I think it was around 4am, the anesthesiologist came to do my epidural. Even though I hadn't experienced any pain yet, I did not want to risk it. If an epidural is available, I will take it! The epidural took really well and was pretty darn comfortable. Finally I was starting to progress more and I was beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Poore came by around 530ish and checked me. He said that I still need to have a little bit stronger and more regular contractions. He broke my water and the nurse said that things should really start picking up. Well, they didn't that much. But then his partner doctor came by and she found another little sack and broke that too. I measured at about a 7 and they said probably within a couple hours I would be ready to start pushing. Well, 20 minutes later, I was ready to start pushing!!

I ended up pushing for about 40 minutes. Everything went so well...the epidural was great because I didn't feel any pain at all. I was a little worried about being able to push well/effectively with the epidural but the nurses kept saying I was doing great. In the room was Casey, my mom, Doreen, and Jaewon. Okay, so you know how when you watch t.v. and like on Baby Story, you see the husband standing at the head of the bed, holding the wife's hand, encouraging her, etc...lol, that was not really Casey. He had to sit towards the head of the bed because he was constantly like about to pass out! lol. He would stand up real quick and say "Good job babe" and then sit back down. At one point, the nurses brought me ice chips because my mouth was getting dry and Casey said, "Ooh, can I get some of those?" So me, the woman pushing a baby out, literally reached over and fed her husband ice chips!!!

Anyway, the whole experience was amazing and of course I immediately broke into tears of joy and happiness when they put little Keaton on my chest. He was absolutely perfect and beautiful and so precious. There was such an overwhelming feeling of love and happiness; I'll never forget that moment. So Keaton Alan Steiger was born on July 24, 2009, at 0941, weighing 7lbs 4 oz, and 20 inches long. Perfection.