Kylen's Birth Story

 Kylen Ray Sommer (Kai)

KAI-lin RAY SUM-mer

Origin: Gaelic

Meaning: Narrow & Straight

"Kylen" is a mix of "Karen" [Brian's mom's name] and "Glen" [Jessica's dad's name]. "Ray" comes from Brian's mom as well. "Kai" means "water" in Hawaiian.  

Baby Stats: 

Born on February 12, 2021 [2/12/21] @ 12:54pm

Weight: 8lbs 5oz

Length: 20in

Woah wait. We have ANOTHER kid?! I know, we're still a bit in disbelief ourselves.  For some reason God has entrusted us with raising another child, and we couldn't be more in love with the gift of Kylen! I really need to blog more, but I'm so happy to share Kylen's birth story with the world.  I'm going to be blunt and real with my words and photos.  Please note that this blog may seem "graphic" to some, so if you don't want to know me like that stop now! ;) 

First off, let's just say I WAS SO READY TO HAVE THIS KID.  A couple weeks prior my google searches consisted of "signs your body is ready for labor".  Maybe it's something about a third pregnancy, but being SO uncomfortable for days and weeks at the end is no fun.  I pretty much had contractions every night for a couple weeks, but nothing major.  They always went away and I continued to teach my kindergarteners.  

Thursday was a little different. 

Thursday, the 11th, we didn't have to teach students, but we needed to have professional development all day.  I noticed in the morning I was spotting brownish pinkish discharge a little, but knowing that's normal for almost 38 weeks of pregnancy I didn't think anything of it.  After meetings, picking up kids, and doing all the things, I felt the usual contractions coming around dinner time.  I went to the bathroom and thought maybe I was leaking a little water, and my contractions felt a little stronger than the normal fake ones. 

I got in the shower, did my hair, and told Brian I thought I might go to triage just in case I WAS leaking fluid (this happened with Makena, and means ).  We planned for me just to drive myself and he stayed with the kids.  If I was going to get admitted we'd bring the kids to my mom's house.  

I got to triage around 8:30pm.  After going over all the questions and
such, I got tested twice for fluid leaking.  Both tests were negative for fluid, but then I was sent to ultrasound just to be sure the fluid levels weren't too low.  After ultrasound results revealed that my fluid levels were perfectly fine, I was getting a little disappointed thinking I was getting sent home and needed to continue waiting for something more dramatic to happen.  

Luckily, my doctor said I should stay and be admitted! I was having contractions about 3 minutes apart, but they weren't super strong.  Because I was trying for a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section), that put me at a different risk factor in regards to my scar and potential rupture (not likely, but could happen).  They decided to admit me and start a birth plan! Woo! 

I called Brian and he brought the kids to my mom's and got to the hospital around 11:30pm.  The plan was to get an epidural, break my water, hope that breaking my water makes contractions stronger, and baby will come, and BAM we're all good...which kind of happened, but not exactly...

After getting upstairs, the nurses and resident prepped me with paperwork and the plan for getting baby out.  Everything went according to plan at first.  I got the epidural and it went super smoothly.  There were about 5 other people in the room during the epidural, and everyone was talking about golden doodles 😂.  It was so random.  

Anyway, once I was nice and numb (my left side felt more numb than the right.. it was strange), they broke my water.  That was such a strange sensation - like a waterfall between your legs hah! And then every contraction squeezes out a little more.  Never had that with Makena or Tate! 

I was checked a few more times to see if there was any progress, and unfortunately I stayed at 4-5cm for a while.  My contractions were further apart and not super strong, so they started me on pitocin.  Right before that, I had several waves of nausea and almost threw up due to super low blood pressure, but the nurse kept an eye on it. Once I got more fluids in me it got much better!

Pitocin has to be slowly administered, like up the dose every 45 min.  Eventually I got to 6cm (finally!) and after that everything started to go pretty quick! About an hour later after reaching 6cm, I felt some pressure and liquid coming out again.  When the nurse checked, apparently it was the "bloody show" - what happens right before it's time to push.  Soon I felt the bowling ball pressure in my butt which means... time to PUSH! We waited for the doctor to come, I literally pushed for 10 minutes during two contractions, and he was out! 

I seriously couldn't have asked for a better birth.  A successful VBAC after being in labor for 14 hours.  The worst part was feeling nauseous after the epidural - so I guess I can't complain! 

After he was born, and we were doing skin to skin, I asked to see the placenta.  It was honestly pretty awesome to see where Kylen lived and grew on the inside.  AND something rare (apparently) was that there was a loose knot in his umbilical cord - which means he had to have done a crazy 360degree turn in the womb somehow.  

Since the beginning, Kylen latched on to eat really well.  I just was mind-blown with how his baby instincts kicked in.  Since then he's been nursing pretty well, which I'm SO thankful for, especially after not being able to nurse Tate due to him being a preemie and not loving it.  

The last few days have been such a whirlwind.  Doctors/nurses coming in and out, doing tests, waking up me and Kai, etc. There was even a nursing student who took over rounds, and Kylen was the first baby he ever held! It's been fun being looked at as an "experienced" mom this time around... which is probably why I had a nursing student assigned to my room hah! Even going home felt different.  With Makena, I cried SO much freaking out about how we have to be in charge of another life.  With Tate, I had to go home without him since he was in the NICU (hardest thing I've ever had to do).  With Kylen, Brian and I took two cars and I drove Kylen home from the hospital to my mom's to pick up the big kids - no tears this time around...just excitement to introduce our new little one to the rest of the fam.  

First outfit!

I just feel so blessed and thankful for how everything happened this time around.  I just love my family and love the village we are building to help raise our kiddos.  💙💚💜