Karsyn Cole Herndon
May 3, 2015 at 3:48am
6lbs 11oz 18.5″
(Please excuse the quality of the photos, we were not prepared for Karsyn to arrive the day that she did and
we did not have our camera for her birth but the pictures we did capture mean more to us than the quality of them.)
I decided to share Karsyn’s birth story with all of you simply because after we shared our Birth Plan I said I would share what really happens. The morning before Karsyn’s birth Trey and I woke up earlier than normal to go to the dirt bike tracks with my family. My step dad and brothers are into motocross and Trey is picking it up as a hobby and a shared interest with the other guys in my life. My mother and I like to sit in lawn chairs, solve the worlds problems, drink sweet tea, and watch the boys ride around the track. It is what we consider great outdoor family time.
The morning was going great and well into the afternoon I started feeling contractions, but I didn’t think too much of them because I have had Braxton Hicks for about a week leading up to this day and I automatically thought that it was just another set of Braxton’s coming at me. I had already been to the hospital once before thinking Karsyn was ready to make her appearance and I ended up getting sent home with my heart a little broken. I was so ready to meet my baby girl at that point and with my contractions coming back, I didn’t want to get sent home for a second time and my heart break even more. After all, Karsyn is my first child and just about everyone told me she would come after her due date, boy does my little girl love to prove people wrong just like I do.
We start packing up at the track to head and get lunch and my contractions are getting stronger so I just go and sit in the front seat of my step brothers truck and turn the AC on full blast. If you’ve never been pregnant, the hot flashes are so real and you’ll get in an AC battle with your significant other frequently. I promise. So, I’m sitting in the truck and everyone is starving, so I’m just trying to pretend that my contractions aren’t bothering me so everyone can get lunch and we start to head to Subway for sandwiches. At this point my mom is in the back seat, I’m in the front, and my step brother is driving. Trey and my step dad are in the family van that hauled all of the dirt bikes.
We get about 10 or 15 minutes into the drive and I start to feel a pain in my back that I have never experienced before, at that moment I just knew it was time. Tears started rolling down my face and I think it was more from the fear of giving birth and the excitement that I just knew she was going to be here than the pain in my back. My mom asks me if I’m okay and I say “Yes, I’m fine. We don’t need to go to the hospital, let’s just get everyone lunch.” Less than 5 minutes later I’m saying “Forget lunch, we have to go now…”
We go straight to the hospital and they are waiting for me at the ER entrance to wheel me up to labor and delivery, we get in my room and hook me up to the heart rate and contraction machines, easier to understand than the fancy names that they have, and we wait. After two hours of my contractions staying regular and consistent but not getting stronger the nurse comes in and tells me I need to walk the hospital for 45 minutes. This is exactly what happened the last time I came in, they made me walk around and then they just sent me home. I was heartbroken, I just knew they were going to send me home again.
Trey gets me out of bed and we start to walk around to see if we can get my contractions really going, I can still feel them as I’m walking which was different because I couldn’t feel them the first time I had to walk. Finally 45 minutes go by and they put me back in the bed and back on the machines to see how my contractions are doing.
This was it, this was the day. The nurse decided to keep me in and it was time to get Karsyn to come and see the world and boy did she do just that. My contractions were happening for 12 hours this day, my active labor was 7 hours long, and less than 10 minutes of pushing I was holding my sweet Karsyn Cole in my hands.
I had a vaginal birth and got an epidural when I was dilated at a 5, after getting the epidural I started feeling very nauseous and my blood pressure dropped immensely, which put us all in a scare. We couldn’t hear Karsyn’s heartbeat on the machine anymore and a few nurses ran into the room to help, they put a breathing mask on my face and were pushing around my stomach to get Karsyn to move around. I couldn’t really comprehend what was happening but as I looked around the room I could see tears in my moms eyes, and complete fear in Trey’s eyes. I didn’t know what was going to happen. Luckily after a few minutes we were able to get my blood pressure back to normal and Karsyn was okay. Right after this scare the doctor came in to break my water because it hadn’t broke on it’s own previously and it was time to get this show on the road.
Before Karsyn made her appearance it was around midnight that my nurse checked to see how far dilated that I was and how much I was progressing. I was still at a 5 and we decided it would be a while longer before she would come so everyone that was there should head home and get some sleep. Well, she spoke too soon because about an hour after Trey and I sent everyone home and decided to try and get some sleep for ourselves, I was fully dilated and Karsyn was ready to come. I called my mom in a panic just hoping that she didn’t put her phone on silent and luckily she answered after just one ring. She and the boys rushed to the hospital and were there in 10 min but we still couldn’t start pushing until my grandmother arrived because I wanted her to be in the delivery room along side my mother and Trey.
Once my mother, grandmother, and Trey were all in the room it was time. It wasn’t but 8 or 9 minutes and 4 big pushes later and I heard my sweet girls cry. I looked over at her daddy and tears just filled his eyes and I had never been more in love with him than I was in that moment.
Sunday, May 3, 2015 is a day I will cherish for my entire life and I will never forget the first moment I got to hold my baby girl in my arms. Karsyn has completely changed our lives and we wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve never known a love like this, thank you so much for all of the love you all have been giving me and my family on Instagram, Facebook, and email. We are so happy and so in love and so grateful for each and every one of you.
2 comments
Congratulations on your new arrival! Karsyn is beautiful. May the coming years bring you continued joy.
Sabrina
http://www.babymoonadvice.com
Beautiful! Spellcheck 🙂
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