Sloane's Birth Story + Video | Poplar Bluff Birth Photographer | Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center
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Presents
Sloane Olivia’s Birth Story
Childbirth is completely unpredictable. It doesn't matter if it's your first child or your seventh, each birth story is as unique as the baby being born. Some babies come faster than you can get to the hospital! And some like to make you wonder if they're going to be the first ever documented 10 month pregnancy.
Little miss Sloane was no exception. On Monday August 6th, I got a text at 11:03pm from Kelsey, saying that they were on their way to the hospital to get checked. Kelsey had been having long contractions for two hours prior and they felt like it was time to prepare for the birth. Cool! Let me know what they say and keep me posted through the night!
It was a long and slow night.
Kelsey's labor maintained but it didn't progress like everyone had expected. After a restless night, at 8:15am on Tuesday August 7th, the doctor broke Kelsey's water in an attempt to jump start active labor.
I arrived at 10:45am to check on everyone, bring snacks if needed, and to take some laboring shots. Still nothing much was going on. Kelsey and Dominic chatted and watched youtube videos in an attempt to pass the time. They even enjoyed a little "Fixer Upper," on HGTV.
Lunch came and went and Kelsey just continued to labor as per usual. Around 2:30 the doctor checked her and she had made a little progress. She was finally to a 7cm. Kelsey thought that maybe going for a walk and moving around would help shift Miss Sloane down into position better. Unfortunately, the nurses don't let you go very far from the baby monitors. So Kelsey walked around in circles in her room from 3pm-5pm (dizzy much?)
At 4:30pm soon-to-be big brother came for one last visit as an only child. He snugged on mom and dad but mostly just wanted to play with the birthing ball and dad's car key panic button.
Around 5pm her doctor came back to check her again and informed Kelsey that she wasn't progressing enough. Medically speaking, after the water breaks the risk of infection increases with time. And they were slowly approaching a cut off point. Doctor suggested that she may want to start getting used to the idea of possibly using a little pitocin to get this baby out.
That was not something Kelsey was happy to hear. Her natural unmedicated birth story dream was being shatter by a labor that just would not get it together. So she put her game face on and started walking the halls (thank goodness they let her out of her room or we'd have all been dizzy.) She walked fast. She walked with determination. Honestly, all Kelsey wanted was a natural unmedicated birth and she was fighting hard for it.
Despite all her efforts, later that evening, they still had to start the pitocin drip. Ultimately Kelsey knew that if the pitocin was going to help keep her baby healthy then it was worth it.
Then they waited.
A dozed. And sweet hubby massaged her shoulders. And they waited some more.
Then at 3:20am on Wednesday August 8th, it was finally go time! With the end finally in sight, knowing her baby would be in her arms soon, Kelsey turned full beast mode. From start to finish she only pushed for 3 minute before sweet little Sloane made her glorious entrance.
Dad was beaming with pride as the doctor cleaned off Sloane's little body. Mom and dad both enjoyed some good skin to skin snuggles. And dad even go to put on Sloane's very first tiny diaper. It was so tiny, in fact, that it was kind of comical to watch. It took a village to put on that one little diaper. Haha.
As Kelsey gazed down at her precious little one, she nearly feel asleep sitting up. It had been a long two days. I took that as my cue, and quietly bowed out.
Praise the Lord for an uneventful and healthy labor and delivery. It's frustrating when sometimes these things don't quite go according to our plans. But we just have to have faith that God sees the bigger picture and loves us and our little one's more than we can image.
Happy Birthday Sloane Olivia!
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Blog, Imaging, and Videos by Jennifer Kreager
Owner and Primary Photographer at Artist By Heart Photography LLC