Thread: Nov 09 Cranberries Arrivals & Birth Stories!

At 41w1d, I went into the hospital at 8:30 am for an induction. Up until that point, I had been 0cm dilated and 0% effaced, so I was pleasantly surprised to find when I got there that while I still wasn't dilated, I was about 50% effaced so we went ahead with the gel (cervidil in the states, it's something different here). After my required hour of monitering, they sent me home to come back either when I went in to labour, or 6 hours after the initial dose.

So the six hours went by and I was pleased to discover when they hooked me back up that I was contracting every 5 minutes. Unfortunately, I was still 0cm, but I was now 80% effaced. They gave me the second dose of the gel, and this is where the fun starts.

After the second dose, Liam's heartrate started sporatically dropping. He was on the borderline of whether or not they wanted to do the c/s, so they just kept me on the monitors. I was monitored for 5 hours straight, with only a couple of breaks to pee. Finally, at 10:00pm they let me off, and decided to just check me for 10 minutes every hour. By midnight, I was contracting every 2 minutes but was only 2 cm dilated. I'd had enough and decided to go for the epidural. I swear I could have kissed my doctor at that point LOL. DH and I went to sleep.

At 2:00 am, I was awakened telling me that Liam's heartrate had now dropped to 60bpm and they were taking him right then. DH had about 30 seconds to wake up and get dressed for the OR.

Liam Raymond Harrison P.... came into the world at 2:28 am on November 17th, 2009. He weighed 7 pounds, 13 oz and was 22 inches long. He had a full head of hair, which we were not expecting, and looks just like his daddy. He is perfect in every way. The doctors have no idea why he wasn't able to tolerate labour, and we're just happy he got here safe and sound.

I'm doing well. My incision is healing nicely, and I'm down to just taking Tylenol and Ibuprofin. I'm more than a little sleep deprived, and we're still working on figuring out breastfeeding but we'll get there.

Just one pic for now, I'll do more when I have more time. If I did this right, it's a clickable thumbnail.

Aaron Kriss’s birth story

Born 18th November 2009 at 5.49pm
Weight - 7lbs 13oz
Length - 21.5”

I woke up at approx 7.20am on 18 Nov 09 with very mild cramps, needing the toilet. When I went to wee, I felt a small amount of water leak out but I couldn’t really tell if it was my waters or if I was just bursting to go to the loo!!
I got back into bed and noticed the cramps were slightly more painful than before, probably coming every 7-8 minutes or so. At this point I wasn’t sure if it was labour starting as I had had cramps like this on and off for several days prior to this.
I laid in bed dozing (in between Kriss’s snores!) for the next half an hour or so. At about 8.20am I felt an intense pressure, like a huge baby kick, and a pop, my waters broke! And there was A LOT!! I woke Kriss up, he grabbed me a towel and I rang the hospital. It sounded like they were going to tell me to wait it out at home for a bit longer. I explained to them that on my midwife check up the previous Thursday I was already at 3cm dilated then. The midwife put me on hold for a couple of minutes and when she came back told me to come straight down to the hospital.
At this point the contractions weren’t still particularly painful, more like strong period pains. I shuffled to the bathroom and got myself sorted and dressed, then got Kriss to Attach my TENS machine. That really helped!
By the time we were ready to leave (9.05am approx) the contractions were getting stronger but still very bearable.

We arrived at the hospital at about 9.20am and was admitted. They put me in one of the labour and delivery rooms and checked my blood pressure and hooked me up to the CTG machine, which showed baby had a good heartbeat and I was having regular contractions every 5 mins or so. They kept me on the machine until about 10.35am, the midwife then done an internal to see how dilated I was - 5-6cm!! At this point I started loosing my willpower for a natural birth and asked the midwife about an epidural. She said I was very welcome to have one but it would be a shame as I was doing so well and she didn’t think it would be much longer. So, with encouragement from her and Kriss, I agreed to go with my original plan and get transferred to the midwifery led unit (MLU) where I could get in the birthing pool. The midwife also got me some gas and air to get going on. Kriss tried some once she was out the room and he said it tasted horrible and made him feel sick ha ha! At this point the contractions were quite painful, they had me gripping onto Kriss for dear life and burying my head in his chest!!

They were ready to transfer me to the MLU at approx 11.10am. The midwife asked if I wanted a wheelchair to be taken there or did I want to walk, I wanted to walk there!! This was a case of power walking between contractions and stopping to lean on the walls when one came!

Once I got into my room on the MLU I met my new midwife who was very nice. She checked my blood pressure, temperature and baby’s heartbeat. She then got me a birthing ball to sit on and we talked through my birth plan whilst we waited for the pool to fill up (she said it usually takes 20mins or so). She also got Kriss a cup of coffee which he wasn’t impressed with lol it was like a cup of dishwater!!!
I’m not sure what time the pool was ready for me to get in, it must have been about 12pm. That was so nice getting into that warm water, and the bottom of the pool was nice and padded!! She also dimmed the lights and got a selection of CD’s for us to choose some music from. Kriss picked out the birthing CD which was a nice mix of calming music and sounds such as crashing waves etc.

The contractions were coming on nice and regularly, although I couldn’t say how often, I was just concentrating on getting through them one at a time. They were very intense at this point, part of me was surprised at how well I was coping, and part of me was thinking I cant do this anymore!!! I kept taking drinks of water in between and also ate a rich tea biscuit the midwife brought me in as I felt sick and hadn’t eaten anything that day. I was starting to get very tired at this point too.
I found the best positions were kneeling up and rocking, kneeling on all fours and kneeling whilst leaning over the side of the pool.
The midwife was monitoring the baby’s heartbeat with a handheld Doppler about every half hour or so along with my pulse.
By about 1.50pm the midwife asked me to get out the pool so she could examine me and see how I was progressing. That was horrible getting out the water, very very difficult! She and Kriss towelled me down to dry and got me to lay on the bed. Initially, laying on that bed felt a relief after all, even to the point I said I didn’t want to get back in the water! She said to me “of course you want to get back In the pool, its lovely giving birth in the water!” so I thought yes she is right!
When she checked me she said I was just about fully dilated, there was just a small edge of my cervix tucked over the baby’s head. She asked me to push whilst she ‘folded’ it back out of the way. That hurt - a lot! It worked though, fully dilated and ready to start pushing.
She asked me to see if I needed to wee first, I tried but couldn’t go, the contractions were too painful to think about it!
Getting back in the water was lovely, particularly as the midwife had topped it up with some hot water.

The midwife then told me it was time to start pushing with the contractions.
That was definitely a worse feeling than just having the contractions alone, as pushing seemed to intensify them. This was the point where I cut down on my use of gas and air as I found the loss of control made me feel worse and almost sicky. On some of the pushes I didn’t use any!
The midwife started checking the baby’s heartbeat more regularly now, about every 5-10 minutes.
It must have been about 1.5 hours of pushing, my contractions started becoming irregular and not to productive. The midwife warned me if things didn’t pick up I may have to go back over to labour and delivery suite for an iv of Sintocinon to speed them up again. I continued pushing for approx another 1.5 hours when she decided it was time to examine me again. Getting out of the water was awful, trying to even just stand up was so difficult. She checked me internally again and that really hurt. She asked me to push at the same time which I did but she couldn’t feel the baby coming down a huge amount.
Another midwife then appeared with a wheelchair and took me over to labour and delivery. This is where things start to get a bit fuzzy!

It must have been approx 5pm at this point. I was hooked back up to the CTG which showed baby’s heart rate was good and my contractions had picked up. The midwife then put me in stirrups and asked me to hold the bars with my hands and grip with every push. The pushes didn’t seem as painful for the first few, they actually felt more productive than before and she said I was doing great.
She also decided it was time to catheterise me as I had drunk over 2 litres of water so far and not used the toilet at all and it may be my bladder which was hindering the baby moving down. This I really really didn’t want, but obviously wanted to make sure everything possible was done to help baby. I remember really screaming my first obscenities as she put the catheter in, that was so so so horrible. Kriss stayed by my side the whole time and reassured me. Not much drained from the catheter so it wasn’t my bladder causing the problem.
An iv was then placed in my left hand, I’m not sure whether they gave me the Sintocinon at this point.
By this time the contractions were really hurting again and I was starting to get real bad backache.
The surgeon then arrived to check me, yet another internal which hurt like hell! I’m not sure what he felt but he then reappeared with the ultrasound machine and done a quick scan. This showed baby was lying back to back. He explained that when he checked me, the baby’s shoulders appeared to be stuck, explaining why my pushing wasn’t getting us anywhere! He said unfortunately it was time for me to go to theatre where they would try an instrumental delivery and if this wasn’t successful I would need a caesarean section. All I kept saying was get me an epidural please, now!!! The anaesthetist appeared pretty quickly and I signed the consent forms. Kriss was taken away to change into his theatre scrubs at this point. That was horrible when he went, especially as one of the worst contractions started! The midwife was really nice though and she held my hand through it.
I was then wheeled round to theatre where I think there was a team of about 6-8 people to start with. They transferred me onto the operating table (which was really narrow!) and rolled me over onto my Left side. The anaesthetist explained to me how important it was I remained completely still whilst she done the epidural. This was really difficult to try and do when those contractions kicked in!! She got me to roll in a ball, bringing my knees right up to my chest and my chin down to my chest. It was also at this point I got the horrendous shakes from the pain and shock of it all. One of the theatre staff then sprayed some ice cold spray all down my back to check if I could keep still. The anaesthetist then pressed into my spine with her fingers and started injecting the local anaesthetic, that stung! For some reason she wasn’t happy in the place she was in and repeated this again slightly higher up. I felt the spinal catheter go in, it didn’t particularly hurt, just a bit of an odd uncomfy feeling, It was like a scraping. Once that epidural kicked in, it was heaven!! It only took about 5 mins or so, started off cold then went numb. I was numb from my chest down. They sprayed the cold spray all down me again to check I couldn’t feel anything. I was then re-catheterised which was fine, I couldn’t care less what they done to me now I was numb!
The midwife then told us, the surgeon was going to attempt to deliver the baby by forceps. She also told Kriss not to look down there, he didn’t want to see this loll! I didn’t want to even think about what was going on down there so I made sure I didn’t look. I kept saying nothing is happening down there! The midwife then said I have had to had an episiotomy which never occurred to me would happen. I know it was needed because of the forceps but this was something I really dreaded.
As they were pulling to get the baby out, they told me to push when they told me to. This was really odd as I couldn’t feel anything., to me it felt like I wasn’t doing a thing but I apparently was! As the baby was being pulled out, I was being pulled off the table so the midwife and Kriss had to hold me down!

Baby Aaron Kriss was born at 5.49pm, after approximately 10.5 hours of labour! He came out crying as he was placed on my chest briefly. He was quite purple but I knew he was ok because of his loud cries and his face and head were so bruised and mis-shaped where he had been stuck and pulled. They took him away to the corner where there was a team of paediatricians to do his checks, at this point me and Kriss still didn’t know if it was a boy or girl so I asked the surgeon!

Aaron was then placed back on my chest whilst the surgeon delivered the placenta and repaired my episiotomy cut. They also showed me his left ear was misshapen, folded inwards slightly. They said it may be where he was stuck and squished for so long or he may need a little op to fix it later on in life. I didn’t really pay much attention at this point as I had this real sudden sickness come over me. I apparently had a bleed which they couldn’t stop (not sure where from) so they gave me a combination of drugs to help, this is what brought the sickness on so quick! I said to kriss please take baby, I’m going to be sick, and there it was!! That was horrible. About 2 mins after that, my head suddenly started pounding intensely, I couldn’t hardly open my eyes. This really worried me as I thought I was having some sort of reaction to the epidural. I think they gave me another combination of drugs.
I then remember being hooked up to more drips and noticing Kriss had gone, think they sent him out with Aaron whilst they cleaned me up and wheeled me out of theatre.

Kriss was in the recovery area waiting for me, admiring his son! It must have been about 7pm.
I still had an awful headache and my blood pressure was through the roof so they gave me some medications for this.
Me and Kriss started taking crafty photos and sending texts out on our phones, we were being sneaky as we weren’t meant to be using them!

Kriss was shortly shown where to go so he could change back into his clothes, and I was shown how to attach Aaron to the breast for his first feed which he seemed to take well to. Then it was my turn for food, one of the midwives brought me some tea and toast, the tea was lovely but the toast was cold with nasty margarine!! Kriss buttered and jammed it up for me though and made me eat some, although I preferred our mini cheddars and cereal bars we had taken with us!
Shortly after, a couple of the staff come in to give me a wash, it wasn’t the most thorough of washes though, I would have loved a shower at that point but obviously that wasn’t possible due to the epidural.

I sent Kriss home at about 9.45pm as it had been a long day for him and he would be back early the next morning. They wheeled me round to the ward at 10pm, I was still knackered but couldn’t sleep, I think it was a mixture of being over tired and in my own happy bubble keep looking at Aaron! When I first got in there, it was empty which was lovely as I’m quite a private person but they wheeled another woman in about 45mins later. Now this I wouldn’t have minded too much, you expect this when your in hospital, but what was so irritating was she wouldn’t shut up!! She could talk for England, she didn’t take a breath! Aaron started screaming his head off so I couldn’t hear what she was saying, I didn’t have my glasses on so I couldn’t see her properly and I just wanted to rest peacefully and gaze at my baby! About 15mins later another lady was brought in with her baby and the poor woman was put opposite Miss talkative, you could tell she also was irritated by this, she kept yawning and saying how tired she was and was going to sleep but the other woman wouldn’t take the hint! She even resorted to putting her light out in the end (I had done mine as soon as she had left me alone) and Miss talkative kind of got it! One of the midwives came over and kindly let me plug my mobile in to charge, and I asked her if I could shut my curtain which she said was fine, I wasn’t comfortable trying my first breastfeeds with other people watching as I was still learning. What annoyed me was the post op nurse from the recovery area then popped in for something for the other lady and opened my curtain! I asked her to shut it but she said no I wasn’t allowed as I was still recovering and they needed to be able to see me…….that didn’t make any sense as it was not possible I could be directly seen from where I was anyway.

I think it must have been very shortly after this I heard Aaron use his nappy, the midwife came and checked and he had done a huge poo! She took him away and changed him for me as I was still numb.
About half an hour later another lady was brought in and put opposite me, she didn’t have a baby on her she was still pregnant. From what I could make out she had had a fall and they were monitoring her. I think they should have put her in her own room though, she had an awful awful cold, all you could hear was her sniffing, coughing and (this is the loveliest part) snorting up phlegm, yuk! Surely all those germs floating around aren’t good for the 2 newborn babies in the room! Thankfully the midwife shut her curtain.

By about midnight I decided I would try and sleep, I think I laid there for a couple of hours and finally must have dozed off at 2am. Unbelievably, Miss talkative started chatting away on her mobile phone and woke me up half an hour later!!
Then, I got really panicked as Aaron started vomiting. I managed to reach into his cot to turn him on his side and I frantically scrambled for the buzzer to call the midwife. She said it looked like mucous he had swallowed during the birth and took him away to suction it off. She brought him back about 10 mins later and it happened again twice. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to reach him in time to turn him and he would choke so the midwife said she would take him for monitoring a let me get some sleep.

By this time my epidural had worn off and I was feeling the pain, I put my hand down there and couldn’t believe the amount of swelling! Probably not a good idea to have done this as it made me think about the pain even more. I buzzed the midwife who said I cant have anymore paracetamol and codine yet as it was too soon, she said I was down for morphine if I wanted though. She said the only downside was it would send me to sleep and Aaron wouldn’t be able to breastfeed (because of me sleeping, not the effect of the drug). After giving it some thought I decided to leave it and see how I coped as the night wore on. It got to about 3am and the pain was starting to get unbearable, I felt like I had been kicked real hard underneath so I gave in and asked for it after all. That was given alongside anti-sickness drugs by injection into my thigh, ouch it bloody stung!! By 30mins later I was out for the count, lovely!

I think I must have woken up at 6.30am, by 7am the midwives started doing the rounds. They checked my bp, bleeding and wound and changed my pads, then removed my catheter, ugh nasty feeling!
Aaron was also brought back to me as he had stopped vomiting, he then done another lovely poo!! My curtain was finally shut which I was most thankful for, and breakfast arrived just as I was feeding Aaron so I ended up with cold tea and soggy cornflakes, a sign of things to come!!
My mum and sister arrived to visit me at about 9.30am with flowers and presents, it was their first time meeting Aaron. I made use of my sister and got her to change his nappy and dress him! They only stayed for 30mins or so as it wasn’t visiting hours.

By about 11.30am they asked me to get up and try to have a wee. I was very unsteady on my feet to start with but once I got going it wasn’t too bad. I couldn’t go to the toilet, the midwife explained I needed to do at least 3 large wee’s before I’m allowed my iv out and I can go home.

Kriss arrived at about 12.30 just as I was finishing of my manky dinner which they called ‘chicken casserole’, luckily he brought food supplies with him. The next few hours were just a case if waiting for me to use the toilet. Several attempts later I still had the feeling that I needed t go but couldn’t, that was horrible. By late afternoon I managed a very small wee but they said it was too small amount to count! After a while we were taken to be shown how to bathe Aaron. First off the nurse wrapped him up and got Kriss to wash his head, Aaron loved it! I was really uncomfortable as I couldn’t sit down because of my wound and because I felt like I still needed a wee, so unfortunately I had to excuse myself from the bathing bit. He apparently hated it and screamed the whole time poor, thing!
I done another ‘non-counting’ wee! It felt good to finally be producing something though!
By about 8pm I had produced my 3 large wee’s, that was the best thing ever, and was allowed home!!
We finally arrived home at 9.15pm, I was so glad to see my own bed and surroundings!

Paityn Brooke
November 13, 2009 3:56pm
9lbs 4oz
20.5 in

My FRIDAY THE 13TH BIRTH STORY:

At 39 weeks exactly I was admitted at midnight on November 13th for induction due to Paityn being so large and me being GBS+.

We arrived at Midnight, and were taken straight to L&D to begin paperwork and "hook-up". We began to answer all of the 900 questions after she had hooked me up to all of the monitors. As soon as she was finished she just kind of paused and looked at me and said, "Do you not feel that?" "Do I feel what?", I said. She began to tell me I was already having some pretty good contractions about 3-5 minutes apart. I thought I was starting to loose my plug right before we left. I had went to the bathroom and had a little spotting, but didn't really think of it as anything major.

Around 1:30 am they came in and started my antibiotic and low dose pitocin. I slept for the majority of the night, besides pee breaks. LoL.

My doctor finally got there around 7:00 am to check me. I was 3-4, 60%, -2. She then decided to up my pitocin. That was fine with me because I was still feeling absolutely no contractions.

She then came back at 9:00 am and I was 4-5, still 60%, and -1, so she up-ed the pit again. Still fine with me because I was just feeling very mild menstrual cramps.

Around 11:00 am the contractions started to pick up so she checked me again. Everything was still the same, but I was contracting about every 2-4 minutes and they had intensified some.

I decided to go ahead and ask for my epidural just to get it out of the way before she broke my water. This is where things got BAD fast. I had requested an attending anesthesiologist to do my epidural due to the hospital being a teaching hospital. He came in around 12:00 pm to start it. I sat up on the side of the bed, you know, in the usual "comfortable" position. I noticed it was taking him a few minutes longer than what I thought to be finished. They asked me all of the questions like if I heard a ringing in my ears, if my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest, and all of the above. None of that was going on so they laid me flat to let the medicine circulate. WELL, that is when it all hit. I felt like I was literally going to die. My blood pressure dropped to 66/42. I couldn't feel anything....not even me breathing. I kept telling them I couldn't breath, then I started dry heaving on top of that. Well, they started rushing around grabbing medicine to put thru my IV, and they were hand pumping the IV fluids to run faster. Come to find out the needle nicked my spinal cord so it was considered a intrathecal catheter. I was paralyzed from my chin down for 2.5 hours. When it finally wore off they had to come in every 15-30 minutes to give me a bolus of pain medicine....which may I add didn't work.

I finally got to the point I just couldn't take it anymore. The contractions were 2 minutes apart and VERY strong....like off of the chart. The anesthesiologist came back in and said that we could take that one out and retry it after the doctor checked me again. She checked me and I was 6-7, 70%, and -1.

They sat me up on the side of the bed, and I told the nurse I felt like I was sitting on a bowling ball. They went ahead and took the other one out. I am sitting there crying my eyes out, 1 because of the pain, 2 because I was scared the same thing would happen again. I noticed that it was taking forever again. He just kept on and on. Finally another doctor, the 3rd anesthesiologist, came in to try. This went on for 40 minutes or so. Well, he thought that he got it so they taped it up. I laid back, and in a few minutes I realized it had only taken on my left side from my thigh down. I was in MAJOR pain! They decided to turn me on my right side to maybe let gravity take the medicine to the other side.

Finally around 3:40ish I asked for my Mom and husband to be able to come back in because I needed them. The nurse went and got them and came back to turn me. As soon as she got me turned, I told her that I felt like the baby's head was between my legs. So she said she would check me again. She checked me, and said, "Well no wonder, you are ready to have a baby! Don't push, I have to get the doctor."

I started to freak out because I had NO pain medicine that was working, and I was feeling EVERYTHING!!! I was just moaning and crying in pain. It was horrific!

Well, the doctor finally made it in there, and let me start pushing. I never screamed, but I didn't have some loud grunts at the end of pushes. The doctor was like, "Try not to be loud, and channel that towards pushing." To which I replied, "If I was giving birth out of my toe I would be in good shape, but my epidural isn't working so I am going to be loud."

Well, I was complete and ready to start pushing at 3:45, and delivered Miss Paityn at 3:56. I pushed about 5 times, and she was here. In the midst of pushing like Super Woman, I pulled the muscles in my back, which I found out the day after. I felt all 9lbs 4oz of her coming out, and every stitch from where she tore me.

It was all worth it though to see my beautiful, healthy, baby girl.

I think it is time for her birth story. She is doing great so I feel so much better knowing what her problem is. Anyway here is the short but long. birth story since it only was a 3 hour 54 min labor LOL


On Wednesday November 18th I was to be admitted at 6pm to start part one of the induction. My cervix wasnt budging for weeks. it was 0cm very high and closed. So we check in get a room hook me up to the IV then around 9pm the dr came in to insert the cervidil. I was basically told to sleep since nothing was going to be going on until the next morning. I was hooked up and the nurse kept telling me that I was contracting like ever 30mins for a period of time would stop then it would start again but I wasnt feeling anything. all night long they had to keep coming in to fix her heart rate monitor since she moved and moved allllllll damn night LOL.

anyway dh and i got some rest. at 830am they removed the cervidil told me i had an hour break and i could shower if i wanted to. so i took a shower but i started to feel contractions starting at 845 they were coming every 20 mins.
I was in the room after my shower while dh went to get food and I was starting to think good things while I was waiting for my dr to come and check me out. at 930 she comes in and tells me that my cervix is soft but it was so high that it hurt like hell and she was having a hard time getting up there I was also still 0cm. I was so upset thinking this will last allllll day!!! so at 10 am the nurse started the pitocin but had it very low because i was contracting a bit on my own.

I was having so much back pain and the feeling like something was going to explode out of my butt hole (tmi LOL i know). Around 11:15am nurse came in saw how much pain i was in and said "you are contracting so much more now on your own 4 mins apart.

My mom was with me and DH thank god because he would not of helped me that much through the horrible back pain. so at 1145 am I said thats it.. I can not go all day with this pain. get me the damn Epidoral.. (i didnt do that with my first and wasnt planning on it this time around)

anyway the nurse came to me at 12:00 and said to me ok let me check you and the anestheogist (sp) will be here in 5 mins.. so she checked me at 12:10 and i was only 3 so then the guy came in to get me ready for the epi but i was having sooooo much pain that they were now coming every min and i kept feeling like i had to push. the anestheoglist kicked my hubby and mom out of the room after they tell them all the side effects for the epi. so as he is getting me all preped up im screaming like a baby that i feel like i have to push but how can that be if i am only 3cm. well now its 12:45 and the nurse lays me down since my water is gushing all over the damn place every time i am having a contrax and remember I had lots of extra fluid in there LOL. i didnt even get 2 doses of the epi didnt get the catherer (sp) she looks and says OMG she is ready and there is the head. Now the nurse is screaming for help to get my dr and my family. My dh and mom now think im dead because the 20mins they were told to come back wasnt up yet.

so in 15 mins I went from 3 to fully. Pushed 2 times and had to stop because she had the cord wrapped around once. Dr got it off quickly and I pushed one more time and poof she was born. i couldnt believe how fast she came.

so On November 19th 2009 Gabriella Paige was born at 12:54pm 8lbs 5oz 19 3/4 in tall.

she is still in the NICU as I write this but she is doing just fine. She has Stridor which is caused by acid reflux and Larngomalica which just means her flaps by her voice box and her trachea are just not completed formed yet. it will all be fine and it is something that will fix itself by the time she is a year old. as long as she eats poops and everything she will be home soon.
for those who are on my facebook you all prob. know all the details.

We got to the hospital at 6am on Monday November 30th and got checked in. We were in room #5, which is the room next door to where Eden was born (room #6 was occupied!) I got changed into a gown, and we got the room all set up. The nurse started my IV (which I tried to get out of, but apparently that was a no-go…). They blew the first vein, so had to do another one. It was ok, that didn’t hurt actually. Just bled! Then the nurse and I discussed the pitocin and how I wanted to proceed with that. Dr. Leath had told them to start the pitocin, then she’d be in around 9am to break my water. They checked me, and I was still about 3cm and 50% effaced. After discussing it, we went along with the plan as I wanted to get the show on the road since I had not made any progress in 2 weeks.

They started the pitocin at a very low level. I was having very mild contractions, similar to what I had been having for 2 weeks. These did not change even as the nurse, Tammy (awesome lady!) upped the pitocin every 15 minutes. Dr. Leath came in at 9am as promised, we talked for a bit, then said she was going to break my water. She got a towel and placed it under me, and I just laughed and asked her if she was sure she didn’t want me over the trash can as I had a lot of fluid with Eden and was told by the U/S tech that it was the same with this one. They said it would be fine, and she proceeded to break my water. And the flood gates opened. Tammy laughed and said they should have listened to me! 8 towels later and a new bed pad, it slowed down. However, there was meconium in my water so Dr. Leath explained that at delivery, the pedi would be there and they would need to suction her out immediately if she did not cry right off the bat, so they may not be able to hand her to me first. But if she cried immediately, it was no difference and they could hand her to me. That had me nervous, but she said it would be fine. The pedi would be there as a precaution and to make sure all was well with the baby.

The contractions began to become greater at this point. They got closer together, and began to get strong enough for me to not be able to talk through them. I went on like that until about 11am, when I finally caved and told Tammy I wanted to get an epidural. She loaded me up with an IV bag, and called the anesthesiologist. He showed up about 11:30, and did his thing. It was painless…that guy is good at his job! Funny thing is it was the same doc that did my epi with Eden, and he remembered us, so that was cool. About 30 minutes later, the contractions mellowed for me and I was comfortable again. I could still move my legs, which was great as I hate that numb feeling. It was perfect. At noon, they checked me and I was still only at a 4, but very soft.

About 1:30pm, they checked me and I was at 8cm! Dr. Leath said within the hour we’d be pushing. They started getting everything ready; I was strangely calm about it all. The contractions were registering very strong and close together, and the baby’s heartrate dropped to 90 with one of them. I heard the fetal monitor slow and I panicked and sent Travis to get Tammy. She came in, and seemed concerned as well. She stayed through 3 more contractions, but was pleased that the baby recovered immediately right after each peak, and only dipped at the strong part. Apparently this happens when their head is being compressed from a contraction (which was good as it meant she was descending!). However, they got me some oxygen just in case and had me lay on my side. This fixed it for the most part and they weren’t worried anymore.

At 2:20pm, it was show time. Dr. Leath had me do a few practice pushes, and amazingly I could feel the baby descending into my pelvis. She said I was doing great with the pushes, and to keep them going just like that. They put me on oxygen as the baby’s heartrate was dropping again, and the oxygen fixed it once again. It made me feel a bit claustrophobic, but it wasn’t too bad as I knew it was needed. They had me pushing with every contraction, which I began to feel as the left side of my body wasn’t taking the epidural as well. But it was never painful; I could just tell when a contraction was coming on, which actually was really helpful looking back.

At 2:50pm, Everly Grace entered the world, sunny side up, kicking and screaming. Dr. Leath laid her on my chest, and she was just fighting mad! She was covered in everything under the sun, but I didn’t care. Daddy got to cut the cord, which was awesome as he didn’t get to do that to Eden as she needed to be checked immediately (she didn’t cry when born). Everly was pink and strong and BIG. 8lbs, 12 oz and 20 inches long. They got her cleaned up, and she fought the pedi the entire time; it was pretty funny how mad she was at him! They handed her back to me and we all got acquainted. She took to nursing immediately, and has a great latch. I’ve had zero issues with breastfeeding her; minimal pain which is so lovely. So now we’re a family of four!

We were discharged from the hospital after her 24 vitals check, and headed home so she could meet her big sister Eden. All is going very well and we couldn’t be happier.

Alright, I FINALLY have a spare few minutes to type up Finn's birth story. It's nothin crazy, so here we go

We got to the hospital at 5:30am on Monday 11-16-2009. Cody and I were immediately taken to the pre-op/recovery room. I was strapped into the fetal heart monitor, and one of the nurses asked me, "Do you feel that???" I was kinda confused and just asked her what she was talking about. She said that I was having contractions...quite a few of them too! Haha I was like "Well shoot, I can totally handle that" Anyways, another nurse started taking my blood work, blew a vein...OUCH (I still have a nasty looking bruise from that, 17 days later), she got me all IV'd and antibiotics(for the GBS).

Soon enough, it was 7:10! Anesthesiologist came in and walked me through what he was gonna do the spinal. He was SOOOOOOOO nice, I really really liked him. They got me into the OR, Cody waited outside the door while they put the spinal in. They had a lot of trouble getting it in too. I know it took at least 5 tries. So between him shooting the numbing stuff in my spine, pushing on my back, having to lean forward and to the right with a kicking baby still inside me...not fun. They brought in a second anesthesiologist to help and FINALLY got it in there. Cody was a nervous wreck because he said it took 45 minutes!

So I'm all numb on the operating table. They go to work on me at this point. I've got Cody all nervous on one side of me with my sister's camera, and the awesome anesthesiologist rubbing and petting my head talking to me and holding my mother's camera haha!

I was lucky enough to have both of my OB's perform the c/s. And boy did they have a hard time getting him out! He hadn't dropped at all so he was still hanging out up in my ribcage area. They told me that I would feel some pressure now, and THEY WEREN'T KIDDING! My doctors were just short of jumping up and down on my belly trying to pull him out. Took my breath away for sure. At that point my BP dropped pretty low to I got a little starry-eyed. So they got me some oxygen.

Then I heard the most beautiful little whimper I've ever heard. Dr. Lum held my little baby boy over the curtain. He was bright-eyed, staring at me, and let out about 30 seconds of a cry. I of course started to cry at that point because he was perfect!

Finneas James was born at 8:23am on November the 16th, 2009. He weighed in at 7lbs 7oz and was 21in long.

They got him all cleaned up, and got me put back together and handed me my tiny little man. No joke guys, he just looked up and smiled. We were in the hospital for 3 1/2 days and got to go home on 11/19.

It was a great delivery and everything went smoothly. I couldn't have asked for a better experience!





There's that smile I was talking about <3


Going home

Sunday morning, planned on staying home from church since my body was still hurting and no sleep from staying up most of the night b/c of my round ligament pains. I went to the bathroom around 9:30 and more than just pee came out!
I told hubby to come to the bathroom and that something just happened. It was just a little bit of water....then as the morning went on, i was still leaking and then had a gush of it come out... i thought that was all of it.
We waited at home for a couple hours and then called the hosp to let them know we were on the way.
I wasnt sure what to expect since Im so used to the labors being so short so we decided to go.

Well my contractions didnt start.
they were totally sporadic.

Checked into the hosp around around 11:30.

In the room, changed and got on the monitor for a bit to check babys heart rate and my contrax.
They knew that I did not want any medications or epidural but they really wanted me to get a hep lock. (that thing was bothersome the WHOLE time) ;/ I let them put it in for peace of mind for everyone...especially since I just didnt know what to expect with this one.
The nurse brought the peanut shape birthing ball in the room and i sat on that for a while to get some contrax going.
Contrax would come and go.
Took a warm shower.
Walked around the hosp floor we were on.
It seemed to be taking forever for this thing to start.

Contrax would be regular then go away....come back..then go away.

I was SO hungry. i sneaked some of hubby's fries. ate some graham crackers.

oh and while all these hours there, i had like 4 more GUSHES of water come out! I couldnt believe how many times that was happening.

hubby and I had fun just joking around and laughing. we always know how to make situations fun. haha

well i guess around 10pm is when things started to happen a little more.
though I was only at 4.5 cm. so discouraging to hear that.

Before midnight the contrax were stronger.
We walked more around the labor floor.
I took another shower...longer one. sang and prayed while in there..
sat on the birthing ball some more

One scripture i quoted so much was phil 4;13!!! I can do all things thru Christ that gives me strength.
Singing songs helped me a lot too.
also, praying and praying....
Times I felt I just couldnt go on. I felt weak, hungry and tired.
but Phil 4:13!!

Around 1 am, i was 6 cm.
We noticed that the baby's heart rate dropped VERY low a few times with contrax-these were much stronger contrax now.
So I tried different laying down positions to see if it would help her. Finally I said if i stand up it would help. So when the contrax came, they seemed to help a bit. ..
Texted a few people to pray for her.
Every time contrax would come I would stand up quickly and lean fwd to help Eva.
We notice that a/b 30 mins later her heart rate stayed pretty steady. We thanked God so much and knew that He heard our/everyones prayers.

The contrax were really wearing me out. I would cry sometimes just feeling that this was going to go on forever. i know my hubby felt so sorry for me. he had teary eyes too.

Its funny even though during this very intense labor, hubby and I would still joke and laugh a/b stuff...then when a contrac would come I got serious so quickly all the while thinking that I know he is still wanting to laugh a/b what we were just lauging a/b.. but he just would start praying for me and rub my back.

He was my post. I would sit on the bed to rest after a contraction then when one would come, I would stand up , grab his front pockets and lay my forehead on his shoulder and get thru it.

Im so blessed with such an awesome partner in life. God is so good to me. :'-)

anyway I felt so much pressure down there I told hubby to get the nurses. one of the nurses checked me and said i was only like 6.5-7cm... another nurse said i must have felt baby getting lower...
a few mins later I told hubby to get them again b/c this time I felt like I had to push.
He went to get them and I was completely dilated.
oh my goodness..... it was hard not to be loud(er) with these contrax it seemed like it was taking forever for the dr to get in there......
finally dr got there and they got everything set up and ready for me to push her out. I gave a big push. Her head was out.
hurting so much... they said push again.. i said I couldnt....
then the dr said to stop screaming and to push.. (it was more yelling than screaming..lol anyway)..So i got focused and gave another push.
They said one more. So i took a deep breath and pushed!!!
It felt like she was sooooo long.. i was thinking when is she going to be out already... haha.. then I felt her little feet pass thru and ahhh!! finally. tho i was so wore out and still hurting!! ugh. (praise the Lord I didnt tear down there! even though i felt like I was going to rip in half!)
hubby cut her cord.
Dr placed her on me to hold her.. so precious. ..

then the nurse took her to clean her up....
Baby wasnt crying very much so they were kind of patting her a bit. she let out some more little cries...

She was making such cute little noises. one time it sounded like she was trying to say something.
so sweet. .

I had to push for the placenta to come out.
then the nurse said 'this is going to hurt but i have to do it'.. she was smashing down on my uterus so hard!! I finally grabbed her arm and said to stop..
she gave me a little break , came back and did it again.... and then i grabbed her arm again after a few smashes.

anyway finally my sweeet little Eva is all cleaned up and brought to me. Its such a special moment.... she was looking around, looking at me and just so wide eyed. so sweet. still making some sweet noises with her sweet little voice! awww...

then... the nurse came back to do some more smashes on my uterus.. hubby said he'd hold Eva and the nurse said "no, that's ok. she cant grab my arms while shes holding the baby'. lol

after that I was able to breast feed my sweet little girl... she took it so well..
Finally daddy gets to hold her and she lets out her first little burp!

hubby held her for a little while longer then gave her back so I could feed her some more......
Such a sweet 1hr 1/2 or so....
then around 4:45am they took her for monitoring and stuff...
I got all cleaned up and we moved to another room....

Finally got to have my baby again at 9am!

never thought I'd have such a long labor and especially my 4th time total=18hrs
1st labor =9hrs
2nd labor=6hrs
3rd labor=4hrs

Stats

Rocky Wayne
Nov. 28th 8:22am
8 lbs even
20.75 inches long

This is gonna be a long one, so prepare yourself lol.

Friday Nov. 27th - Nothing going on birth wise, just miserable. We went to my brothers in the evening to visit and then we came home. I realized that night that I would be missing a work Christmas party we go to every year for the kids, that was to be this coming Sunday. They see Santa, get gifts, we eat, they do crafts, ect.... It didn't hit me until that night, that if I had to get induced this Thurs or Friday, I would be just getting out of the hospital the day of the party. I was NOT happy and whined about it all night to hubby. We don't get to do a lot as a family, so when I have to miss out, it really upsets me. I went to bed not happy.

Sat. Nov. 28th - I wake up at 6:15am to what feels like a bad bm cramp. I wait it out and then stumble to the bathroom half asleep. I try to go and can't, so I wipe and go to stand up. I glance down and notice two tiny drops of blood on my undies and then realize they are also pretty wet. I then wipe again and look at the paper. Blood... I then stand up alarmed and see the water is pink. I am not in pain, I am not leaking anything, and am starting to kinda panic. I go into my bedroom and turn the light on. Decent size wet area on the bed. I'm thinking how the heck did my water break, and I not wake up? Still no pain. I wake hubby up and tell him I'm kinda freaked out but not in labor. I told him I didn't want him to go to work cuz I didn't know what was going on. I decided to call my doc and see what she said, just in case. I also called my brother, to make sure he could watch my kids if she needed me to go in and see what was wrong. During this time, I had a few more bm cramps. This was also freaking me out, cuz they were a little painful and it reminded me of the tail end of labor. Doc called and didn't seem super concerned. She said it was probably my plug, or just me getting ready, but because of her last check, she still thought it would be days more than likely. I told her that I thought I was probably gonna head to L & D just for peace of mind. I have never seen blood before in this situation and it really bothered me. She said ok, whatever eases your mind is what you should do. Let me know what is going on later.. I hung up. We got kids up, and started to get a few things ready. It was about 7am at this point and I realized these bm pains were really starting to hurt. I timed like 4 and they were like 3-4 minutes apart. I didn't really think they were contractions though, so didn't worry too much about the time. My belly wasn't getting hard or anything. Even though I was uncomfortable, I was still not thinking labor. I even shaved the bottom part of my legs, which totally ticked off hubby lol. On the way out the door, I was stopped in my tracks by the pain of the bm cramps. I looked at hubby and said, either this is gonna be the labor from hell and be horribly painful OR we are in VERY big trouble cuz it feels like the end of labor. I still didn't "really" think it was the latter.

We dropped the kids off and by that time, I was near crying with each cramp. Hubby was getting very nervous too cuz the cramps were happening one on top of another. Our hospital is about 15-20 minutes away, and he was driving VERY fast. I got out at the ER and we had valet park the car. I got a wheel chair and hubby ran thru the hospital with me to l & d. I couldn't speak at all the pain was so bad. It was now 8am. So 1 hr and 45 minutes had passed since I woke up in no pain at all. We had to go to the registration desk, but I couldn't talk, so the lady finally got a clue and quit asking questions. A nurse came out and smiled. She said ok hun, wanna walk? I said NO. She smiled again and said, don't you want to have the baby? It'll make it happen quicker. I almost smacked her. I was pretty sure it was happening more than fast enough THANK YOU. Ugh...

We get to a room and she casually moves about doing stupid stuff and asks me to climb on the exam table. I'm trying to get it across to her how bad this situation could be due to my history of fast labors. She's not getting it. I climb on the table and lay down. Immediately my jeans are soaked. I feel helpless and terrified. Normal for me at this point, is to push the baby out within minutes. And here I am being ignored for the most part and still in jeans. I start crying hard. She finally checks me and looks shocked and says, you are 7! I think that is the point I sorta felt like I was in shock or something. Like this couldn't really be happening, right? I yell at hubby to call the doc, cuz she's not gonna make it. He does. The nurse then brings me a wheelchair and I scream at her thru tears that I'm not moving again. I'm having a freakin baby. She grabs my bed and starts running down the hall with it. Apparently they have "checking" rooms, "labor" rooms and "recovery" rooms. So like 2 minutes later, I'm in a "labor" room. I somehow manage to help them get me in a different bed and order them to check me again. 10! OMG OMG OMG, I can't deal with this!?!?! I was freaking out. I can't believe I didn't pass out, cuz I was definately hypervenalating. The docs and nurses still weren't panicking, they weren't offering oxygen, nothing. Just telling me I'm ok. I'm laying there in my sweater and nothing else, my doc isn't there yet, no one seems to be taking me that seriously, and I'm in serious pain. IT IS NOT OK!

At this point, hubby taps my hand and informs me he will be going to sit down. I look at him in disbelief and tell him no he won't be. He stays, but about 1 minute later, 2 or 3 nurses come over and take him away. I see him face down across the room on a table with cold compresses on his neck and face and he is being hand fed juice and sweets. What a lightweight! lol

All of a sudden I feel the ring of fire I have always heard ppl talking about and I also feel tearing. My body starts pushing on it's own and NO ONE is paying attention to me. So I yell, someone better help me, I'm pushing now. Hubby somehow manages to come back over to me. I get looked at again and everyone gets kinda quiet. I think they were shocked how fast it all happened. I think they were expecting my doc to show up and be the one delivering. It was such an out of body expierience this time. My eyes were as wide open as they could have been and I just stared at a wall. I was gasping for breath and my body was just doing it's own thing. I heard hubby say the head was out and I think I told him to shut up cuz I didn't want to know what was happening. Everyone was applauding my progress and how well I was handling it and next thing I know, he's born. I had no IV, no pain meds, no preparations, no doc, no gown, NOTHING. But I had my baby. I just kinda layed there trying to figure out what the heck just happened. The nurse got me in a gown at that point and they started doing everything that should have been done prior to the birth. They tried to give me a pitocin shot in my leg but I refused. I told them if it was needed for sure, ok then, but not until it was needed. Luckily, it wasn't. Baby was doing great, I hardly bled, so we just waited for my doc to show up. I had 2nd degree tearing, so I had to be sewn up. I won't bother you with that story, cuz I'm a HUGE wuss with needles, so let's just say it sucked but I got thru it. Rocky was born at 8:22 am, so I literally was in the hospital for less than 30 minutes before he was born. Sorta scarey how close he was to being born in a car or hallway or elevator lol.

The rest is pretty boring. He's nursing like a pro, which is funny cuz I have never done it and have no clue, but it doesn't seem to matter. He got circ'd and his hep shot, the eye goop and the heel prick. He is a healthy little guy and so good. He only crys if startled or undressed for any reason or hungry obviously. He is a HUGE sucker though, so I broke down and gave him a pacifier. I had been going to avoid that, cuz I didn't want to hurt our bfing, but all he wants to do is suck. Lucky for me, he loves the pacifier and wants it constantly, but he loves the boob more, so it's not hurting the bfing.

I am so happy to be home after all this. My other kiddos were miserable not being able to see the baby, so they are SUPER happy now and fighting over who gets to touch him next lol.

REAGAN’S BIRTH
Week 35-36 I was dilated 1 cm, 50% effaced. Weeks 37-39 I was dilated 2 cm and 60% effaced. I decided to be induced at 39w5d…just 2 days shy of my due date of November 18th. We dropped Savanna off at the sitter's house the evening of November 15th and we headed to the hospital the morning of November 16th. We arrived close to 7am and got checked in, strapped to the monitors, and I got my IV in (OUCH!).

At 8am I was still at 2cm and 60% effaced and they administered the Pitocin. An hour later at 9am I was at 3.5 cm and 80% effaced, so Dr Boes broke my water. The contractions at this point were very manageable and not painful at all. OK, I spoke too soon….9:50am they started to get pretty uncomfortable so I had them page anesthesia to get my epidural. At 10:15am I received the epidural from the anesthesiologist…the same one I had when delivering Savanna. He was super nice and did everything to ease my nerves and made me laugh! Once in, it took just about 10 minutes to kick in. I could still partially move my legs, but couldn’t feel them! It was so weird! But any pain from the contractions was now gone and I felt so relieved!

At 10:45 Dr Boes checked me again and I was at 5cm and 90%. I stayed there for a while, and just watched some TV and played on my Blackberry…posting on my May Mommies Board and Facebook. Reagan, for most of the time she was monitored, kept going on and off the monitors. The nurses kept having to come in and readjust the monitor to get her back on. It must have been the way she was positioned. The monitor repeatedly would lose her heartrate (120 bpm) and start picking up mine (60 bpm). So Dr Boes decided to put in a fetal scalp monitor on Reagan at 11am. This worked really well until about 12:30 when it started getting odd readings, so they removed it. They still were having a difficult time monitoring Reagan with the fetal monitor, but were able to pick up her heart rate every so often. At this point I started to get a bit nauseaus and real shaky. I was shivering a lot but wasn’t cold. The nurses said this was normal as delivery was drawing nearer.

I decided to try and get some rest, but that didn’t last long. Before I knew it, I started to feel a lot of pressure down there that was coming with each contraction and informed the nurse and asked her to check me. She was working on getting Reagan on the monitor and a few minutes went by, and I told her again that there was a lot of pressure. She finally checked me and said I was there but wanted to get Dr Boes to confirm. Dr Boes came in within a few minutes and checked me, and told me not to cough or sneeze because if I did, Reagan would shoot out - her head was RIGHT THERE! She just needed a few minutes to get everything set up for the delivery and at 1:03 I got the go ahead to start pushing! I pushed twice and her head was out. However, the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice and was super tight, so Dr Boes had to cut it off her. Once she did that, another ½ push and she was out, born at 1:08pm! It was such an easy birth!

Reagan was unresponsive at first and Dr Boes said she was “stunned” because the umbilical cord was wrapped so tightly. The nurses took her and rubbed her aggressivleywith a towel to rough her up a bit and she finally let out some cries! Her Apgar scores were 7 and 9.

Reagan Amber Kahalley
Born November 16, 2009 at 1:08p.m.
7 pounds 6 ounces
19.5 inches long

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday, November 20th, even though i was due the 25th. I had been 2 cm dilated for 2 weeks. I got to the hospital at 7:30 am, and, after being on the monitors for an hour and getting all my paper work filled out, they started my induction with Cytotec (per my request, as it had worked well with my last pregnancy) at 9:15.

As this was my third labor I figured it would move along quite fast...... i was mistaken.
I was 2 cm on the 6th, and 2 cm on the 20th when they started the induction. With cytotec you have to be monitored for 4 hours after they insert the medicine, and the first hour you are not allowed up to move. they can reinsert every 4 hours, up to 3 doses, before they start pitocin....( i was hoping i wouldn't need pitocin)but they can't reinsert if you are having to many contractions at the risk of overstimulating the uterus.

I would have recived my second dose at 1:15... but i was contracting every 3 minutes, so my nurse decided it wasn't a good idea. Thank god. At 2pm my contractions wouldn't stop. They were going down a little but never completely going away before another would start. Needless to say i wasn't enjoying myself... and i was not far enough along for any pain
meds.

At 4pm my Doctor came in to check on me, and my contractions had quieted down some and were now every 4 minutes. She checked me... and i was still 2 cm. ( talk about disappointment! i thought 3rd labors were a peice of cake!) She advised my nurse to go ahead and give me a second dose of the medication. So i got the second dose at 5pm.

My contractions were insane. they didnt stop again. (oh, and did i mention that my precious little girl was posterior so i had horrible back labor?) I had my husband punching me in the back during every contraction, because it was all that seemed to help.

My new nurse came in at 6 to see how i was doing. My husband asked her to check me because i was in so much pain ( i really wanted to go without the epidural) and i refused. ( i didnt want to here that i hadn't dilated and more) At 7pm i was in so much pain they gave me a shot of stadol in my IV ( and phenergan cause i have a habit of getting sick). i was checked again at 7:30 and had made it to.......

3cm.

talk about a let down.

Anyway, when they checked me at 7:30 my nurse noticed a considerable amount of blood. Then my water broke and there was alot of blood....
I asked ( or yelled at my husband) for the epidural.
They don't like to give it until you're 4 cm.
we lied.

I got my epidural a little after 8pm. And fell asleep. Who falls asleep during labor?
At 10pm I woke up and my nurse said she should check me.
Her exact words were "did you plan on holding this child an inch away from the end of your vagina much longer?"
I had no clue! Apparently my epidural was amazing. I felt absolutely nothing. and my body was pushing her out on its own.
As she was crowning they noticed meconium.
(she was a week early, so this is usually caused by stress)
we found out afterwards that i had a placental abruption, apparently caused by the medication overstimulating my uterus, and that was what caused the bleeding, and stressed the baby.
However at 10:35 pm I gave birth to a healthy, beautiful 7pound 3ounce, 20 1/2 inch long baby girl, who, despite the abruption, got apgar scores of 9 and 10.
As much as she was a surprise, she was well worth it and i would do it again in a heart beat.