Kyra Lee Johannes; A Birth Story

As you all know my little angel has finally arrived, well she arrived 3 weeks ago today!! It was a long wait to meet her and ended up going 5 days over due. But it all worked out as my mom was here to help out after the birth, and lord knows we needed it!

It was Saturday March 24th when it all started. We had gone downtown to show mom the Market, and enjoy the Easter Market that was set up for the weekend. It was a beautiful day and we were really enjoying the sunshine and festivities!!! After walking around for about 1-2 hours we decided to head back to the house to relax. About an hour after we got home and ate lunch is when all the fun began.

The contractions started out really light and were easy to ignore, as I tried to take a nap. They progressively got stronger but didn't seem to be getting anymore frequent but we were on a doctors note to go into the hospital and get checked every 2 days since I was over due. So we went in and they put me on the monitor and saw that I was having pretty strong contractions every 5 mins or so. But they said they weren't the real thing and that I needed to go home and wait. This was really frustrating because I knew they were real.

So we went home for like 4 more hours and they only got worse and worse until I wasn't even able to sit down through them. But as we were worried about going back too soon and getting sent home again we sat down to watch Puss and Boots in hopes of distracting me for a while. But that was hopeless as each contraction hurt worse and worse. So we decided we would go walk out to the benches in the park, and if that didn't either speed them up or make them stop we didn't know what would. As we walked they sped up to 3 mins between each one and Dustin was having to hold me up from falling with the pain. We finally made it back to the house and decided that was close enough and painful enough, we are going to the hospital.

When we got there the same nurse was on duty, and was happy to see that I was in more pain, she said these were the real thing now. Even tho they were the same. I kept having contractions for about an hour before they checked my progress. And we had only dilated 1cm. So Dustin and I went on walks around the hospital in hopes of making the progress quicken. We did this for a couple hours and had only made another cm of progress. So the nurse suggested the hot tub and see how I felt after. So we went and sat in the tub but I had been in labor for 15 hours with no pain meds by this point, and it hurt and there was just no more energy left in my body :( So after a few mins in the tub I finally gave in and got an epidural, I just couldn't handle it any longer.

The Epidural wasn't painful like I expected but maybe that is because I had gone through so much labor I didn't really care anymore. But it was scary because the lady had to put it in between contractions that were now coming hard and fast. But once it was in I finally was able to rest a little. And my contractions would still be doing their job of progressing labor. But my Epidural did start to wear off and OMG was the pain intense and it took them a while to get the problem fixed, and when they did my entire leg was dead the rest of the time.

But after laboring for hours with it, the nurse said that I was fully dilated finally and could start pushing. I pushed for a little while before she said to stop while she talked to the Dr. Turns our part of the cervix was coming out or something because her head was too big to fit through. So we were told that the best option for Kyra and I was to get the emergency C-section. I was so scared but knew it would be the best choice. After this I don't remember a lot.

Just a rush of doctors and nurses getting me changed, Dustin changed, papers signed, more drugs administered, iv going, it was non-stop until they tied me to the operating table. Than I started to freak out. I can honestly say that is the scariest thing I have ever done. I could hear, and feel (not the pain) the whole thing and they had already cut me open before they even had let Dustin in. But once he was there everything was okay!!! He talked me through it.

Than was the moment......that first cry and I knew I was in love. I started bawling. 21 hours of labor and the only tears shed were for the birth of this little girl who I hadn't even seen yet. I knew that I could never love someone as much as I did in that second!!!

Kyra Lee Johannes was born at 11:36 am Sunday March 25th, 2012 in Weisbaden, Germany. Weighting 10lbs 12 oz and was 21.2 inches long.