Walker Lee Kirshman was born on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at 4:21pm. He weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces and was 21 inches long. His birth came after a very long day in the hospital and some hard work by his mama and her doctor. Walker was 8 days early.
On Saturday, December 26 I started noticing less movement from Walker. He had been extremely active throughout the whole pregnancy and we were suddenly going long periods of time without feeling any movement from him. I started really worrying that Sunday morning while we were sitting in church and my belly was still. I decided to call the next morning when my doctor's office opened and they told me to come on in and get checked. Decreased movement is always a cause for concern but I figured he was just running out of room in there and that everything would be fine and we'd push forward for another week or two. The nurses hooked me up to a fetal monitor that tracked his heartbeat and movement and everything seemed to be fine. The doctor (not my doctor because she was off that day, but another doctor in her practice) studied the results and decided she wanted to do an ultrasound to check on things. She immediately saw that my fluids were low (1.7; I found out later that they should be between 7-8 at this stage of pregnancy) and told me very nonchalantly that I needed to check in to the hospital so that we could deliver. She even said that if I had my bags packed I could just go on over there without going home. I was by myself at the appointment and thought, 'well I'd like to have my husband with me!'. I ended up coming home for a few hours and Blake and I got our bags packed and made plans for Brady to go spend the night with Courtnie and Drew.
We had our last lunch as a family of three at Escalante's. By this time I was having contractions and my lower back/sciatic pain had long set in so I was waddling big time. Interesting note: we saw our pastor at the restaurant and he came over to pray with and for us. We thought that was pretty neat.
Our last pictures as a family of three:
Ready to go meet our second boy!
My last pregnancy pictures. 38 weeks, 5 days pregnant. Headed to the hospital:
After lunch Blake took Brady over to Courtnie's house. He had the best time! She sent texts and videos throughout the evening and the next day keeping us posted on what they were doing. He was having a big time at his first friend sleepover.
We got to the hospital around 4:00 and got checked in and settled in our room. The nurse came to do my IV around 5:00 and I had the strangest reaction to it. I've never been a huge fan of IVs (who is?!) but this was really weird... after she put in the IV I was laughing and talking with her for about 45 seconds and then I felt my chest tighten and I started coughing uncontrollably. This lasted about 20 minutes. They called a few extra nurses in there to help make sure everything was okay and later the nurse who was assigned to me told the night nurse she was worried it was an embolism. Luckily everything was fine and within the hour I felt okay again.
Later that night the nurse gave me some medicine to help me sleep before what would become a very long day of labor.
I had told my parents and sister to just hold off and drive down the next morning since there likely wouldn't be any baby action that night. So they all slept and woke up early to come down and be with us for Walker's birth. Little did I know how much I would need Mom and Kerri to coach me through the birth!
The next morning they got me started on pitocin and the contractions started coming pretty strong. When the nurse checked my cervix, though, it had not budged at all and was still shut tight. The doctor came in to see if she could get it to open and after a long, painful process and no movement she decided to just let me labor a little longer to see if that would help.
Labor was exhausting and I was so thirsty the whole time but they wouldn't let me drink anything. I would have given my right arm for a gatorade but the nurses said no. They were worried that it would make me sick during delivery. I finally convinced them to just let me have a couple sips and I have never been more grateful for liquids in my entire life! I did, however, get sick and throw up during delivery, so I guess they knew what they were talking about...
Around 2pm my doctor came in to check me and I still had not dilated at all. I think she realized that my cervix was not going to open on its own so our only hope of me avoiding a c-section would be for her to go in and manually open. Sound easy? Not so much. It was the most awful, painful (even with an epidural), grossest procedure. I'll leave the details out but suffice it to say that it took an extremely determined doctor and patient to get my body to cooperate. In the end, the doctor saw a tiny strand of Walker's hair poking out and from there she was able to find the opening of the cervix and pry it open. Once she did that I dilated very quickly and was ready to start pushing around 3:00.
Dad giving me a good luck kiss before the birthing process began!
Because Brady's birthing experience was relatively quick and pain-free, I kind of expected something similar with this one. A few pushes and done. Unfortunately, that was not how it went... it took lots of pushing and pausing and rotating and re-positioning and a lot of help/coaching from Blake, Mom and Kerri. It was painful and exhausting and there were several times when I thought it just wasn't going to happen.
Walker was finally born at 4:21. I have never felt such intense relief, exhaustion, and love in my life. It was indescribable to finally have this baby in my arms. The nurses let me hold him for a few seconds but took him away shortly after he was born because he was purple and they wanted to check and make sure everything was okay. I think the delivery process was as hard on him as it was on me so he was recovering from that too.
His precious face in this picture...
A little while later Dad got to come in and meet him.
I love how it looks like he's smiling at Koko!
I felt awful after Walker was born, as if I had just run a marathon. My body was shaking uncontrollably and I just couldn't get it together. It was hard for me to hold Walker and everything just felt so off. I remember not wanting to nurse him, or even hold him, and that was nothing like what I felt after Brady was born. I was exhausted, and worried, and really just wanted to be left alone. It was several hours before I started feeling back to normal.
Apparently Blake was tired too. Must be tough being a Dad.
The next couple of days were full of family and friends coming to see our newest boy. I absolutely love being in the hospital with a new baby; I cherish every second of those hospital stays. Even with a difficult birth, I still look back so fondly on the whole experience. With both of my boys, I felt like I was in an alternate universe the entire birth/post-birth: time moves more slowly, everything is beautifully hazy, nothing exists outside of our little hospital room: just me, my husband and our fresh new baby... oh how I wish I could re-live those times.
Hello there, little love.
On December 31, we were discharged and sent home. I got pretty teary when we were packing up to head home. The combination of exhaustion, fear, love, and hormones caught up to me, and I lost it for a little bit.
Walker's first time in the car seat. Dad's an old pro at this!
Brady loved getting to ride with me in the wheelchair!
Our first car ride with two little ones... was a slow drive home (and only about 1/10th of a mile!)
Welcome home, our sweet baby Walker!
My favorite memory from our hospital stay was when Brady met Walker. I will never forget the happiness I felt seeing them together for the first time.
