Simply Stark: Birth Story of Mr. Chase

Well this was an interesting one! At least more interesting than Tanner's birth story up until he was 2 days old....

On Thursday, March 20th I had my weekly Dr. appointment for being 38 weeks. Everything had been going great, measuring great (other than him measuring big), but not feeling so great. I hate to say it but I was simply miserable for the majority of this pregnancy. We talked about the epidural and possibly stripping my membranes again to see if it would work this time. It didn't work the week before at 37 weeks.

I was all for getting my membranes stripped again but my Dr. asked if I could hold off since he was going out of town that night for his daughter's soccer tournament and wouldn't be back until Sunday and he didn't want to miss the birth and wanted to be there for me. So I opted to wait. Of course Chase had different plans.

The next day (Friday) I was feeling pretty weird and could have sworn I felt a contraction around 5:00 pm. Since I had back labor with Tanner my Dr said it was pretty likely that I would again with this baby. So I am never quite sure if I have contractions, if it's gas or if I need to go to the bathroom.

The contractions kept coming about every 30-45 minutes, sometimes over an hour and weren't very painful at all so I was very confused. Troy and Crystal had just gotten home from the hospital that day with baby Cadence so we were hanging out with them. It was so strange to just be hanging out and talking while in labor since last time it was in the middle of the night and everyone was asleep but me.

Later that night however, the contractions started getting stronger and more regular around midnight or 12:30 am. I had started timing them and they were starting to move fast and get much more intense. Kollin had gone to bed earlier that night since we weren't sure if anything was really happening that night and I said I would wake him up if they got closer and regular. Well they did so I went and woke him up to let him know.

I timed them for about another hour or so and they were getting to the point where my Dr said to head to the hospital, but of course not quite there. They were getting SO painful though I told Kollin that we just needed to go.

We got all of the last minute things together, got Kathy upstairs for Tanner and we headed at about 2:00 am. This time we had to drive all the way to Lone Peak Hospital in Draper since my Dr doesn't deliver at Jordan Valley anymore. It seemed like it took FOREVER but it also seemed like my contractions spaced out again while we were in the car. That made me nervous that they wouldn't keep me once we got there.

During the drive I called my dad and Sara to let them know what was going on so they were ready go come to the hospital if they needed to. My entire pregnancy I had planned for Sara to be in the room with me to take pictures like how Bippy did with Tanner. But her and Shawn were going out of town this very morning to go to Moab! This kid was seriously picking the worst time to come with my Dr being gone and also now Sara possibly missing the birth!

I was in so much pain but I had to get a picture of my cute hospital gown I had since early on in the pregnancy.

Once we finally got the the hospital they got me right to a room. By this time the contractions had come back in full force and really close to each other. The nurse checked me and said I was to an 8! I was begging for help and pain relief, but was so scared I was past the window to be able to get the epidural since I was so far along already. At this point the nurses really started running around and getting everything for the delivery. My main nurse said that since my water had not broken yet that I could possibly still get the epidural and that she would get the anesthesiologist as quickly as she could. Somewhere in there I also met the on-call Dr that would do the delivery. His name was Dr. Tanner so at least that was easy to remember! He seemed really nice.

But first they had to get the IV in me and run tests. It was so terrible trying to wait! Finally the anesthesiologist came and got started on my epidural. It seemed like he seriously took forever, and then once he was done it took another forever for it to actually kick in. I don't remember any of that taking so long with Tanner. I was really kind of ticked.

Finally the epidural kicked in and I was feeling pretty good. Also my dad and Gwen had shown up somewhere in that time as well. It was so sweet of them to come to the hospital at that strange hour of the morning! But then that crazy uncomfortable feeling started with the epidural that happened with Tanner. I had even told the anesthesiologist about what had happened and to not give me the full dose of the drug so we could avoid that. I don't know if he just didn't listen to me, or if I have become even more sensitive to pain meds over the last 3 years since my last epidural. But I was pretty mad it was happening again.

We got him back in the room and he turned it down lower than where he said he had already started it but said it would take a while to wear off. This I didn't remember from last time either. I remember it wearing off and feeling better pretty quickly the first time. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. Kollin, Dad and Gwen all felt so helpless on what to do for me too. Since Kollin had already been through this with me he knew there was not any distracting me so he just stayed quiet and tried to just quietly comfort me by just being there which was perfect in my book. Dad and Gwen were great too. They would talk to me and ask questions to try to understand the feeling it was giving me but weren't annoying in any way. They were all just there for me. It was nice.

Since it was taking so long to wear off my nurse decided to check me to see if I was far along enough to just start pushing and have the baby and that would take care of that. She said I was pretty much there but there was just a tiny bit of cervix left. So she had me do some pushing to see if we could get rid of it.

Dr Tanner came back and checked me too and he said we were good to go! So they got the rest of the things ready, my dad left the room and we started with the pushing. I didn't feel like I was doing very well this time either, but my nurse was saying I was pushing really well. I'm starting to think they just say that to make you feel better.

During this entire time we were talking to Sara to see if she was going to make it and it looked like it just wasn't going to happen since everything was happening so fast.

I pushed for about the same amount of time that I did with Tanner (about 45 minutes) and Chase was here! He was born at 4:58 am. So from my very first contraction I guess you could say I was in labor for 12 hours. But if you only count when my contractions started getting regular it all happened in about 5 hours! I only had a few requests as a birth plan and one was that I wanted to keep the umbilical cord unclamped until it had stopped pulsating. They were more than willing to do this. While we were waiting for this (about a minute or so) everyone was mentioning how huge his umbilical cord was! Gwen was saying it was probably the biggest one she had ever seen and that it was like a hose! Kollin said it took him about 4 snips to get all the way through it when he cut it.

When he came out he was also SO blue. That really freaked out my Heart Mommy brain. Even when Tanner was born the nurses commented how pink he was, so I got pretty scared. After they took him to the warming bed to clean him off and everything he pinked up pretty quickly though.

As they were cleaning him up, taking vitals and weighing him they finally told me how much he weighed.... EIGHT POUNDS! As soon as they said that, all I could say was "WHAT?!?" No one could believe I just had an 8 pound baby! No wonder I was so miserable during this pregnancy!

But now that he was here none of those things mattered. I was just so so happy that I wasn't pregnant anymore! And even more I was so happy to finally meet my baby Chase and get to hold him in my arms and study every bit of him. It was love at first sight!

I still can't believe I had an 8 pound baby!

At this hospital you get to stay in the same room that you deliver in the entire time. So I didn't have to be moved. They didn't even take the baby away for tests and bathing. He stayed in the room with us the entire time and they brought all of the equipment to us. It was so nice! My room was also huge! If we have anymore kids, I would be more than willing to have them at this hospital again. I was really worried since I loved Jordan Valley. But Lone Peak was a pleasant surprise as well.

Everything was very laid back and we were able to just hang out in our room as a little family and take visitors whenever we wanted. Sara had barely missed the birth! Both of us were pretty sad about it, but she and Shawn got to the hospital about 30 minutes after he was born and were his first visitors besides my dad and Gwen. I was so happy they were able to at least come by and see all of us before they headed out of town and didn't have to wait to see the baby until they got back.

Aunt Carler and Uncle Stanford also came later in the day. Carler brought some beautiful yellow tulips and Stanford brought... you guess it.... Mickey! Stan said that everyone needs their very own Mickey. I couldn't agree more!

Kathy was so great and brought Tanner to meet his brother. Right across the street from the hospital is this place called the Boondocks. It is a water park. So of course all Tanner wanted to do was go and play at the park. Poor kid didn't want to have anything to do with Chase (which I was totally expecting) and didn't understand that it was still too cold to go to the water park. We promised him we'd go sometime when it was open and warm enough though.

Other visitors that came to see Chase were Clark, Megan and Bippy. Cousin Tiff and one of her friends (I can't ever remember her name). Troy, Crystal and Cadence.

The next day we planned to have Dad and Gwen take care of Tanner since Kathy had him the entire day before. They took him to church and they said that he did so well and was really good at folding his arms and being reverent. Good for you kid!

Before they went to church they came and visited us at the hospital again where we were able to get some really cute pictures of Tanner and Chase in their little and big brother shirts. Neither of them were very happy but the pictures turned out very funny and cute.