Birth Story

I have been debating over the right way to present Karlynn's birth story - the long or the short way? But, maybe there isn't a "short way" being that my labor began on September 4th and didn't end until her birth on the 17th. Two weeks of labor, real labor, that would start and then come to a crashing hault, only to result in being induced at 39 weeks gestation. I'm tired again just thinking about it.

My first trip to the hospital, on September 4th, came after I was hit with a wave of painful contractions - about 30 in one hour - early in the afternoon. The contractions were manic and crazy and had me doubling over. I didn't really know what to think, but knew I needed to head to the hospital just to make sure everything was okay. I assumed that it was a fluke and I would be sent home shortly after I arrived. However, that is not exactly how things went. Instead, the nurses monitored me for about an hour in triage to discover that my contractions had gone from manic to regular and steady. At that point I was already 3 centimeters dilated and about 60% effaced. The following hour, Jake and I went on a walk around the hospital, which is pretty standard procedure while waiting to see what is going on with a patient's labor progress. During the hour I continued to experience regular contractions and shortness of breath. When we arrived back to triage the monitors confirmed continued regularity of my contractions, and I had progressed to 4 centimeters. The nurses made a call to my doctor to give him and update, and soon after that, I was admitted into a labor and delivery room. Jake and I were astonished, being that I was only 37 weeks along (an earlier delivery than we were used to being that both boys were born in week 39). Jake went home to tuck the boys into bed, pack himself some essentials, and called his parents to head out from Payson to watch Micah and Caden.

The hospital setup was great. Not only were all of the nurses awesome, but I was truly comfortable. I know many people hate hospital L&D, but this has not been my experience. I spent the laboring time in a whirlpool bath tub, on a birthing ball, going on walks in my room and in the hallway, watching tv and even eating and drinking both dinner and snacks. Eventually,though, all of the contractions and progress came to a hault. Being only 37 weeks there was no reason for my doctor to push labor to continue, so he gave me the option to go home or stay and sleep for in the night. We opted to go home to rest and come back if things started up again - we arrived home around 3am.

Labor continued on and off like this for the next couple weeks, and we were even back at the hospital on the 6th for a few hours. Again my contractions were regular and strong, but things weren't progressing correctly. The going in and out of labor was very frustrating, as well as emotionally and physically exhausting. My doctor was wonderful and assured me that I was not a complete nut-job. What I was experienceing was not Braxton-Hicks, but real labor contractions.

Finally, on the 17th, my doctor had me come into his office for a stress test to see how baby and I were handling the crazy contraction patterns. There was no real emergency, but the stress test did show two important things... 1) baby girl was moving very little, and 2) her heartrate was not fluctuating the way that it should be. Nothing awful, but also not ideal. I was 39+ weeks along so Jake, the doctor, and I all decided to go ahead with an induction. Under one condition. I did not want pitocin. My doctor had no problem with this and, in fact, did not think it would be necessary since this was less induction and more tipping me over the edge.

My doctor broke my water around 2:30 in the afternoon and my bag of water leaked out slowly for about two hours. Once most of the water had cleared out my contractions hit pretty hard. I progressed from 5 centimeters to 10 centimeters in about 10 minutes/4 contractions. I did my labor drug-free (did the same with the boys). Those ten minutes were incredibly painful, but at least the pain was short-lived. When I told the nurse that I was ready to push she was beyond astonised. She called my doctor from across the street, but he did not make it in time for the delivery. Before they even had the bed setup for delivery, Karlynn was crowning. The nursing staff was moving pretty frantically around me, but I was in a world of my own.... pushing lightly to keep the pain at bay even if the nurses were telling me not to do so. "Whitney, please don't push yet, the doctor is not here," a nurse said. My response... "I don't care." They grabbed Dr. Johansen from the hallway to take the place of my doctor who only arrived in time for the post-delivery "stuff" (enough said) just in time for him to see that the umbilical cord was looped around Karlynn's neck. They asked me to keep my pushes gentle so that they could slip the cord over head which they had done pretty quickly... then out she came at 4:53 p.m. -- 8 pounds even and 20 1/2 inches long. Beautiful and healthy. She opened her eyes right away and nursed quickly and easily. She was awake for a few hours before she finally decided to snuggle in and sleep awhile. All of that post-birth drama can be tiring! :-)

We are so blessed to have our little girl and love her more and more everyday. She is the last of the Goble children that we have planned (unless God chooses to surprise us, of course).