No wonder its called labor...

Errands interrupted — Birth minus 11h52m
Matt: Things got off to a pretty normal start today. Well normal for the week before the Barr Trail Mountain Race. I was doing some late night (well 4am so perhaps early morning) computer work assigning bib numbers to runners when Yvonne jinxed everything by waking up and saying something to the effect of, "What if Kyla is born today, you will be so tired.” Yea right... We left the house at 8:45am. We were heading to another one of our weekly doctor appointments and on the way there we would be stopping by two running stores to drop off the race numbers for the race packets. At 9:05am we pulled up to the Colorado Running Company and headed inside. Shortly thereafter Yvonne returned from the store’s restroom and let me know that Kyla was going to be born today. Yvonne’s water had broke — at a running store no less:-)

Yvonne: I always wondered if I would know that my water broke. I was afraid it would break during a shower and I wouldn’t notice it. It is amazing how many stupid things you worry about when there is 1000% more hormones running thru your body :-) I had read it was obvious — but how obvious? Well, VERY obvious. Since I was standing and Kyla’s head was blocking the “entrance,” only a little bit of water came out but it felt like someone poured a gallon of warm water inside my pants! Boy, was I glad I had been wearing these thick pads since the mucus plug came out… Also, good thing I keep towels in the car. We decided to head to the doctor appointment just as a formality because there was no mistake this time.

Off to the doctor — Birth minus 11h7m
Matt: Of course we were excited but having a doctor appointment already set for 9:50am helped us to stay calm. While we were waiting Yvonne had her first real contraction and we were 95% sure we were having a baby. We soon had our confirmation. The doctor took a peek and exclaimed, “look at that hair!” She then let me look into a light scope and I could see Kyla’s hair on the other side of the small opening of Yvonne’s uterus. Now THAT was cool! We were 2 centimeters dilated and our contractions were already just 3 minutes apart. In no uncertain terms we were told to head straight to the hospital. We asked about going home to get the cameras but the doctor made it clear that I should drop Yvonne off and then I could go get the cameras. Done deal!

Yvonne: The doctor confirmed the bag of waters was broken and that we were a “loose” 2 cm dilated. “That’s it?” I was hoping for 7 or 8cm already. Wishful thinking! The doctor said it was pretty good though and some women would have celebrated the 2cm! I had been keeping my hospital bag in the car since the mucus plug came out. It was a good thing too because the doctor told us to head straight to the hospital and not chance going back home to get the camera and camcorder. Oh yeah - I felt my first contraction about 15 minutes after the water broke. So that is how it feels like! Now I can say for sure that I definitely had never felt a contraction before throughout the entire pregnancy. Pretty bizarre…

To the hospital — Birth minus 10h37m
Matt: Yvonne did a good job of convincing me that it would be OK to head home for the cameras but about 2 blocks from doctor’s office a strong contraction had us heading straight for the hospital. We were pre-registered so check-in was quick and we were in our birthing room at 10:20am. Our first nurse (hint that this will not go fast) said we were now at 5 centimeters and that I had plenty of time to head home for the cameras. Indeed, things seemed to settle down a little and at 11:06am I left.

Yvonne: Even though I was feeling contractions now and all indicated that we would be holding our daughter in our arms today, I still thought we could make a little detour and go get the cameras. So I talked Matt into it. It did not seem like such a good idea anymore when halfway home the contractions were coming pretty close together (like 2 minutes or less) and each one was stronger than the previous one. Before I knew it Matt had already turned around saying “My daughter is NOT going to be born in a car! We are going to the hospital.” I promptly agreed :-) It was interesting to actually live the moments I have anticipated so much. And before I forget, almost NOTHING was as I imagined it would be! Once I got settled in Matt was hesitant to leave to get the cameras but I assured him that I would hold Kyla in until he was back! The thought of not having a picture of his daughter being born torn him up so bad that he decided to take a chance and rushed home for the high-tech gear.

Camera run — Birth minus 9h13m
Matt: The drive home was agony! On the one hand if I missed Kyla’s birth well, let’s not go there since it did not happen, on the other hand to not be able to record this most awesome event seemed almost as bad. I made the round trip (birth room, home, birth room) in under 40 minutes and was back in the room by 11:44am. Yvonne did not look any different — she was still eating Starburst. As I write this it is easy to feel we did the right thing with the camera run. However had we been smart not only would we have had the hospital bags in the car (since late June, no less) we would have also always had the camera gear with us. Again it all worked out but it was some unneeded stress for sure.

Yvonne: As you well know by now, we took many classes and did a lot of reading during the last 9 months. One thing that I found out during our Lamaze class is that if you have a full stomach when you check in they do an “enema” on you (this is the procedure where they “wash” your stomach thru your butt - just imagine how that must feel!). Just the thought of it scared me. So I did a lot of research on the web and found out that this procedure is not always done, but available and done only if necessary. I wasn’t going to take any chances and since I did not have any breakfast that day I was safe. One thing I read is that you can eat hard candy to keep the “umbrella” taste out of your mouth. So I packed a Starburst pack. I found out later that Starburst is not exactly “hard candy,” but more on that later… Once the contractions picked up, I was given a glass of water with ice and I broke the seal on the Starburst pack. By the time Matt was back with the camera s I was on the last one! Somehow the sugar was keeping me distracted…

Riding the waves — Birth minus 6 hours
Matt: The devices they hooked Yvonne up to are fairly cool. I know the main purpose is to let the doctor know what is going on but they also do a great job of helping pass the time away. One monitored Kyla’s heart and the other Yvonne’s contractions. For 3 hours we road the wave of contraction after contraction. Each seemingly worse than the last one. We also got a lot of visits from our nurse. We were making the progression nicely. 6cm - Yvonne was doing great. She was figuring out what worked and what didn’t as far as sitting, standing etc. 7cm - things were getting tougher but she was hanging in there. 8cm - it was a real chore for her to relax and despite everything we tried things were starting to get ugly. 9.5cm - we were all but there but unfortunately the pain was getting to be too much for Yvonne. It was a rough time for us both. Pre-agreed plans went out the window and I got the “you are not the one feeling the pain speech.” What is a guy to do? Now before I sound too much like the bad guy I should explain our plan. We had agreed that an epidural was an option but we had also agreed that an IV was not. We based that on our understanding that an epidural would only effect Yvonne whereas an IV could effect Yvonne and Kyla. At any rate, for better or worse we had an anesthesiologist who was also a good salesmen. A couple of “the mom makes the decisions” from him and the nurse and in no time Yvonne was getting a half dose of IV medication. Oh well, we were all but there and if this helped take the “edge” off the final half centimeter AND not hurt Kyla who was I to say no? Since I had no say, I said nothing...

Yvonne: Matt is totally right on the equipment distracting us. We are both so goal oriented — the graphs were giving us a short term goal. Of course the ultimate goal was to see Kyla, but that seemed way out in the future for this new minute by minute agony. We were living one contraction at a time and each one was more painful than the previous. In the Lamaze class they make you stick your hand in ice for a minute to simulate a contraction. I felt robed! The hand in the ice does not even come close to the pain of a contraction after 8cm!! Besides, it is a lot easier to isolate pain in your hand or feet since they are a terminal limb. Pain in you abdomen is death! It undermines your entire body. I never have real cramps during my monthly periods and I think that made a huge difference — I was simply not prepared for that kind of abdominal pain. I knew I was 9.5cm and that the doctor was on her way to deliver Kyla, but it was getting down right ugly. Someone told me that delivering a child was easier and less painful than running the Pikes Peak Marathon. I will have to disagree, at least for this birthing experience. Running the marathon was WAY easier than what I was going thru. The thing about running is that I am in total control of the pain and can increase or decrease according to my ambition. With the delivery, I had no control. I could only try to survive those 60 seconds which felt more like 60 minutes. The other difference is that I KNOW that during the marathon, the pain will go away when I get back to the bottom of the peak. I can only head back once I reach the top and therefore the fastest I get to the top, the sooner I can head back. I KNOW the distance left, I KNOW my pace, I KNOW how much more pain I will have to endure, and I KNOW there is no way to go faster with less pain. I am in control of my pain. With the delivery, I had no control. I didn’t know how long more it would be. I didn’t know how much more painful it would get, I didn’t know anything except that I survived the last contraction. I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel so I caved in and took ˝ a dose of drugs thru the IV (it was too late for the epidural). Man, what a mistake (mistake #1)! The drugs did a number on my body. I never had real drugs in my life - the illegal kind - but I imagine this is what they would have felt like. The whole room was spinning and everything looked in slow motion and far, far away. The nurse’s and Matt’s voices echoed and sounded so far, like they were 100 yards away. It was the weirdest way I have ever felt. I was scared thinking that if I was that gone, how was Kyla taking this? I put the thought away.

Waves come crashing down — Birth minus 5h10mins hours
Matt: The pain may have been less for Yvonne but this was far more painful to watch for me! Within a minute of getting the IV Yvonne’s contractions were flattening out:-( A huge step backwards! Indeed soon the nurse would come in for another dilation check and we were now at only 7cm!!! This meant that some of our progress would have to be done again and Yvonne was in no mood for that. The nurse and Yvonne were talking about another IV but I wanted none of that and insisted that Yvonne get the epidural. Several hours of nothing passed and there was no telling how long this was going to last and how many “half doses” it was going to take. Yvonne and I were not communicating very well and she said some mean things. However I just wrote it all off on the drugs that she was taking because she did in fact look pretty whacked out! Suffice it to say we did not do the 2nd dose and Yvonne got the epidural! As a summary let me say that I know Yvonne now extols the “get the epidural” philosophy and I imagine it is all too easy to ignore anyone but the mom’s advice. That being said, I honestly feel that our little session of pain management did exactly what the anesthesiologist said it would do when he said “it could slow the labor down” and “it could make pushing harder.” Somehow those words don’t get heard over the words “no pain.” Frankly, I think when you have made it to 9.5cm and your plan is working you stick with it. Or since so many running comparisons are being used; what we did was like RUNNING from the bottom of Pikes Peak to the 16 Golden Stairs sign, just 1/2 mile from the summit. We then decided we were too tired to go on so we STUMBLED the 5.5 miles back down to Barr Camp to get a bite to eat so we could head back out the door for a slow 6 mile NUMB HIKE to the top. Sure, it might be painless but look how many more miles we went and how much longer it took. Forgetting the running analogy there is also such a thing as stress on the baby. I am not saying to not get an epidural because there is no prize for going drug free but (like Yvonne said, but this is the key point) at 9.5cm they don’t give epidurals so that was no longer an option for us. By definition we only got the epidural because the IV set us back! I think Kyla would have been delivered 3 or 4 hours earlier with a whole lot less stress to everyone had we not gotten that IV. Now of course no one knew that Yvonne would have such a bad reaction to the IV but that is the whole point of why we decided many weeks ago when our thoughts were a lot clearer not to go the IV route in the first place!!! Sour grapes on my part? Perhaps! Bottom line, those 2 hours after the IV were some of the most hopeless feeling hours in my life! OK, again I know I had/have no say but at least you know what I think.

Yvonne: The IV drug sucked! As Matt pointed out, my contractions got further apart and less intense. In my opinion this drug is useless. It gives you the impression that the pain is not there just because you are too passed out to speak! It had undone the work of the most painful contractions I had endured so far and I was feeling down right depressed and helpless. I did not know what to do. When it started wearing off, the pain started to surface again and all I could think of was “Please give me more drugs.” I felt like a junkie! Matt looked so disappointed and it crushed me even more. I remember saying something like him not being the one feeling the pain and being much easier to “stick with the plan” as an spectator (the plan being no IV drugs). I am not sure what other “mean” things I said because even now that it is over he chooses not to share it! They must have been real mean!!! I am really sorry Mattypoo! During this chaos, the doctor arrived and was floored when she saw that I was back to 7cm. She immediately realized that the reason was that my bladder was so full after 2 full bags of IV fluids. Basically my bladder was in Kyla’s way. Amazing enough I did not care. I could not change what had happened. I was in the middle of negotiating a second 1/2 dose of IV drugs with Matt. He was downright strict. He said he could not believe I wanted more drugs and he wanted no part of that. I felt alone. Then it dawned on us that the best thing about being back to 7cm is that NOW the epidural was a choice again and so the anesthesiologist came in and did the honors. I was scared to death since there were only a few minutes between contractions and he was probably going to have to be doing his thing while a contraction was taking place but I would have to “hold still.” Yeah right. The epidural was in. Life was good!

The final push — Birth minus 2h7mins
Matt: The epidural did wonders! That combined with some Pitocin to strengthen Yvonne’s contractions and soon we were back at it and making progress again. In fact in no time Yvonne was at 10cm and allowed to push, albeit, some of those first pushes were rather lame — nurse’s words, not mine. A couple of rounds of puking Starburst put some oomph into Yvonne’s push and we were off and having a baby. My job was to hold one of Yvonne’s legs while our new nurse held the other. My other job was to do the counting to 10 while Yvonne pushed. I felt like I was calling off split times at the track. With each push Kyla’s head would come a little further out. However each time Yvonne relaxed it would go back into hiding. After what seemed like forever our doctor made a comment that this had gone on long enough and if things did not progress along soon she was going to get out the suction device. Well that was that! Whereas Yvonne had been doing three 10 count pushes she went gonzo with a series of about 8 pushes and the next thing we knew Kyla was born! That brief point where just a purple head was sticking out from Yvonne had to be the most surreal thing I have ever seen in my life — I won’t even try to put it into words. But I will say that when babies are young they cry a lot but they can’t shed tears. Not to worry little Kyla, every time you cried I shed tears for you — tears of joy!

Yvonne: Birth should be made up of 2 stages, not 3 as you read everywhere (pre-labor, active labor and delivery of the placenta). There should be “Before-Epidural” and “After-Epidural!” What a difference. Now I honestly understand why a lot of people get an an epidural. For those that have an easy delivery it is not needed but for the rest of us it can save the day. We got to 10cm in no time (with the help of Pitocin, of course) and the pushing began. It was easier said than done. With the epidural you can still feel your legs and move them around but your nerve sensations are blocked. It’s pretty weird. The pain level was at 0, even at pushing. The doctor tried to put pressure on the muscle I needed to use for pushing so I knew where it was. I still did not have a clue what muscles to use! She then said to act like I was pooping. Well, that could be dangerous. What if I do poop? No problem, she said. They are used to it. Great, but I am not used to pooping with an audience. Pushing was hard work and the fact that I had to pull my own legs back sitting in a very uncomfortable position (I still had that huge belly) did not help. Also, when you get an epidural they have to monitor your blood pressure every so many minutes so they leave the blood pressure cuff wrapped around your arm all the time and the machine goes on and off on its own inflating and deflating it. My hand turned purple and was real hard to bend my arm to pull my legs up. To make things worse, the Pitocin was making me so nauseous I wanted to puke real bad. But since I absolutely hate puking, I resisted the urge. That was mistake #2. I could not push very hard because after one push the puking urge was so intense it made me slack off. But with some encouragement from the doctor, the nurse and Matt, I went ahead and puked all 10 Starbursts (I told you I would see them again!). What a relief. The doctor asked what I had eaten. She said Starburst was a bad choice since you actually swallow pieces of the candy. Lifesavers would have been better. This whole thing was reminding me a little about the book “Into Thin Air.” I always wondered how hard it would be to climb Mount Everest. The author describes a number of times how difficult it was to accomplish the most basic grooming and hiking activities. I thought “What is wrong with these people? Why would you want to climb a mountain like Everest without being in incredible shape?” Truth is, most of them are in incredible shape but the body they are handling at 20,000' is not the one they started with! It is definitely not the strong, healthy, peppy, lean machine they once knew. It is now a sluggish, oxygen depleted, confused, cold, meager shell of a body. That is why it is so hard to climb the darn tallest mountain! Same with the delivery. After that many hours of labor, my body was shot. I was already in pretty bad shape to start with after 9 months of being pregnant when labor started. Add the exhaustion of the contractions for so many hours and I was left with very little strength. Kyla was also getting a little stressed out at that point since her head would come and go with every push (they placed a mirror in front of me so I could see her head popping out). The doctor finally declared that I had 2 more minutes and then that was it. She was going to do an episiotomy and use the suction device to help Kyla come out. The words “Suction Device” had the same effect on me as the words “Mountain Lion” would have had on a winter day running up Barr Trail by myself! Needless to say, I pushed 8 times during the following contraction and I saw Kyla’s head come out on push #5 and her whole body on push #8. It was absolutely incredible to see a person come out of me. And she was not small by any stretch of the imagination!!! At 7 pounds and 8 ounces and a head circumference of 13 ˝ inches no wonder I got a 2nd degree tear “down there.” I should have let my doctor do the darn episiotomy! They immediately sucked out most of the goop from Kyla’s mouth and throat. I was expecting to see a gooey, sticky, cheesy, swollen, puffy eyed, purple baby (as you read in all baby magazines) but instead, we were presented with a beautiful wet baby girl with a lot of hair, screaming her guts out! No oxygen needed:-) I was amazed how pretty Kyla looked from the start. Maybe it is a parent thing to think your kids are beautiful, but I thought she was (and still is!) gorgeous. I could not believe she was our daughter. I often imagined how she would look like at birth and I hate to admit I had prepared for the worst. What a pleasant surprise! Hi Kylabee!!

Kyla is born! — July @ 8:57pm — birth!


Name: Kyla Carpenter
Date: July at 8:57 PM MST
Weight: 7 lbs 8 ozs
Length: 20 inches
Head: 13 1/2 inches
Chest: 13 3/4 inches (Looks like she has big lungs:-)
Cool note: I got to cut the cord!
Side note: Yvonne's water broke while we were in a running store:-)

Here is a short movie of Kyla getting weighed at 7lbs 8oz just a minute or so after being born. The room was fairly dark but once on the scale you can see her crying (ok, screaming) for all she is worth! Please select your download speed:
41 second movie for 56K modems
41 second movie for cable modems

Yvonne and Kyla get to meet each other. I was practically balling just watching it all take place! We were both amazed at how good little Kyla looked after being told for months how bad little babies look when they first enter the world.

Kyla and Yvonne make first eye contact. This picture alone was worth the stress of the camera run! Yes we are biased but she just looks so cute:-)

Matt gets a turn with Kyla while Yvonne gets sewed up. She had pushed so hard and Kyla had come so fast that a tear needed to be fixed. After that she took a short nap before we headed up to our room.

Hospital life




Kyla gets some blood drawn for a PKU (Phenylketonuria) test. This did not make her happy at all because they have to keep squeezing blood from her foot in order to cover five 1/4" dots! We have to do another one of these 8-14 days from now.

Kyla being monitored for several things. You can see that they have put some ointment in her eyes which is standard procedure. Also note the leftover umbilical cord hanging from her navel. Soon after this picture was taken the clamp was moved a little closer to Kyla and the extra was cut off.

With some of the testing done Kyla gets her first bath. She turned beat red and then calmed down and seemed to really like it. I don’ know if it is because her head looks so big or because of the look she has on her face but this picture always makes us laugh:-)

Kyla gets her first shampoo. I thought for sure she would go balistic during this but again she seemed to love it!

Kyla in her first diaper. At this point she had to stay here for 1 hour so they could see if she could maintain her temperature, color, oxygen saturation etc. During this time Yvonne was sleeping so I went out for a run. While I had decided in advance to break my 5 plus year running streak today I now had an empty hour to kill. However I am just as compulsive about keeping my promises so in honor of Kyla’s birth weight I started my watch and I ran exactly 78 seconds. I then walked a block up the road and sat in the grass in front of the Olympic training center. However instead of thinking about running I found myself thinking about my new life role as a father. Yes, 78 seconds was more than enough of a run today. On the walk back to the hospital I thought about how easy it was to have broken my running streak. The funny thing is my mind answered “well, in fact you did run even if for just 78 seconds;-)” and I laughed out loud as I started walking faster to get back to the hospital to pick my daughter up from the nursery. Kyla had passed her hour of tests just fine:-)

And finally we get our beautiful daughter Kyla back in her second pink knit hat of the day.

Kyla has lunch. No Starburst for her! It was neat to see how fast Yvonne and Kyla got the hang of breastfeeding. In fact they went at it so much that the first couple of days Yvonne got a little sore. After some improved technique however everything came out Ok - sorry for the pun!

Kyla passes her hearing test. She looked like a little astronaut getting ready to take off for the moon! It was simply amazing the number of visits and tests that would be done during our 2 night stay. This is one of the few things I don’t think we were prepared for and we were looking forward to heading home.

Kyla and Matt getting to know each other. She did not open her eyes much but when she did it was just awesome. In fact every little movement she did was awesome. Well heck even when she did not move it was awesome! Another check by our pediatrician and Yvonne’s doctor and we were allowed to go home:-)