Daddy's version of Landon's birth...

A Tale of a Pineapple

It is amazing the trouble that can unfold from a single pineapple. It all started with a young girl named Kista in the land of Spotsyltucky. It was in the spring time when the trees and flowers were coming out and the signs of the summer heat were just starting to manifest itself. The birds were chirping and spring clouds were dumping their showers on the land. Outside you could hear the laughter of children as they enjoyed the escape of winter’s grasp.
The sound of laughter could be heard everywhere except for the home of Kista. This was because Kista was 38 weeks pregnant and very, very tired of being pregnant. Now Kista’s pregnancy was not an everyday event. She and her husband James had been trying to become pregnant for about the first seven years of their marriage with no baby. This is when they turned to help from some experts and decided to try the IVF procedure to try and help with having a baby. So nine months before the present the procedure was performed and a successful outcome was achieved. Kista and James finally realized their greatest dream, becoming parents of a new baby.
So for nine months Kista went through the normal effects of the pregnancy. There was the growing belly, the growing excitement, and then towards the end, the growing desire for it all to be over with. Kista’s due date was the 19th of May 2009. Kista’s sister-in-law, Kaisie, was actually due about two weeks before Kista. And because she had problems with going into labor naturally they set a date that Kaise would be induced. That was decided to be May 7th. So because of the closeness of the two births Kista’s mom was going to fly out to Utah for Kaisie’s baby, stay about a week, and then fly out here to Virginia and stay here for about two and a half weeks.
Because if Kista’s growing desire to be done with the pregnancy, she started looking into ways that could possibly induce labor faster. She started trying to do walks as much as possible. She started eating foods that can result in starting labor. And that is where the story of the pineapple begins.
It was the 10th of May, a sunny and warm day that was a relief to the almost constant rain we had been experiencing for two weeks previous. James went to work that morning at nine o’clock. After he got up and left, Kista got up and decided she felt good enough to finish preparing the house for her mom’s arrival. After finishing the cleanup, she felt like she had enough energy to go and attend a close friend’s baby shower. Tara Smith was a childhood friend of James that Kista had become good friends with. The shower was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and located at Matt and Julianne Smith’s house, Tara’s in-laws. The drive to the shower was about seven minutes from Kista’s home. And at the shower is where the pineapple comes into the story.
One of the foods that is said to induce labor is fresh pineapple. And guess what they had at Tara’s shower. And guess what Kista ate all of but one piece. Yes you have guessed it, Pineapple. That sour and sweet fruit that is so good when it is ripe. All Kista had on her mind was if I eat enough maybe I will go into labor sooner. And in fact it might of as soon as she left and on the way home that she had a big contraction. At the time she was on the phone with Candy Thompson. This was a really intense and long one and kind of a precursor to the real stuff.
After James came home from work around 5:30, Kista was back to her normal self, a little tired from her cleaning and running around but no more contractions. So it was back to life as normal, or so they thought. Around 10:00, James was downstairs playing the XBOX while Kista was upstairs in the bedroom resting. Kista then called downstairs for James. Upon entering the bedroom Kista informed James that she thought she was in labor. She explained that her contractions had started around 9:30 and they were about every five minutes. She informed James that she had contacted her good friend Heather Kite and she had said that Kista should wait one hour, and then if the contractions were still occurring to contact her doctor. At this point James started packing his hospital bag and loading the car in anticipation of the mad dash to the hospital. So about 10:30, with the contractions still occurring regularly, she called Dr. Hamilton. While on the phone Kista informed the doctor that she thought she was in labor and he asked if she was uncomfortable. Kista answered yes, and so he said to go to the hospital.
So while James had visions of a 100 mph dash through traffic with a police man trailing behind, Kista assured him that there was no rush and to not get a ticket. To say the least the trip was uneventful. They drove up to the Emergency Room and were then whisked away to a pre-labor room to see if Kista was truly in labor or if she just ate something bad. This is where they met their nurse Jean. She was a very good nurse who apparently had been doing this since 1978. She said she had been receiving graduation announcements for babies that she has helped deliver in earlier years. At this point it was verified about the frequency of the contractions and if this was Kista’s first baby and all other pertinent information. Now due to the fact that it was Kista’s first pregnancy and she wasn’t due for another week and a half there was an air of calm and complacency in the room with everyone. After taking Kista’s vitals it was discovered that her blood pressure was a little high. They then ordered a bunch of blood work to insure everything was fine.
So after all this took about a half hour Kista had a very important question for Jean, "So when are we going to find out if I am in labor?" Jean did checked and told Kista that she was at an eight. For those who don't know at a ten you are delivering the baby. Well Kista's reaction to this statement was "Did you just say an eight?" From this point everything turned into full speed ahead. The baby was on his way.
At about 12:00 the two soon to be parents were moved into the delivery room. Here all of the final preparations were made for the impending delivery. When asked about the possibility of an epidural Kista said she was still at a maybe. But then Dr. Hamilton called and said that due to Kista’s high blood pressure that it was probably a good idea to go ahead and get her on the epidural. So the next hour or so was spent with the process of getting everything set. But Kista was still dilated to an eight. So everyone left the room to let James and Kista try and get a little rest. This lasted a few hours until three o’clock in the morning. This is when the fun started.
At the time James was in a semi conscience state when Dr Hamilton entered the room and asked the nurse for the “hook”. Now James had never had the chance to be in a delivery room and see the process so he started thinking that maybe this was a way to pull the baby out or something. But instead of a screaming wife or a crying baby, the only sound that he heard was the gushing of water. It sounded like they had turned on a faucet. He asked the nurse and was informed that they had just broken Kista’s water. So for the next hour they checked in on Kista regularly to see how she was progressing. And finally at about five in the morning the nurse stated that Kista was now dilated to a ten and ready to start pushing.
The next two hours, from four to six, set into a pattern. Nurse Jean said that because of the epidural that Kista wouldn’t be able to feel a lot as far as the contractions. So in order not to tire her out too much, she would have Kista push through a few sets of contractions and then turn onto her side to let the baby labor down and not have Kista Do all of the work. They would then let Kista rest for about fifteen minutes and then the nurse would come back in and do the pushing through more contractions. Through these two hours we saw the doctor very briefly once or twice. I now know that the nurse does most of the prep work and the doctor is just there to catch the baby as they are being delivered.
The whole time that Kista was pushing James’s and Kista’s cell phones kept ringing as family members and friends wanted to find out about the baby. When James would inform then that Kista was still pushing a voice of surprise was heard on the other end and then a quick “I will let you get back to Kista” was the returned. The epidural definitely slowed down the process due to the fact that Kista couldn’t feel anything below her waist.
Then at around seven there was the shift change for the nurses and we then met our new nurse Jen who would be with us till the end. Jen was much younger then Jean but more involved with Kista. She never left the room from the time she got there until the baby was born. She told James and Kista that this was the second day in a row that when she arrived for her shift that she was immediately give a patient that was about to give birth. She said it was great to see the baby but she said she also like to get to know the moms and dads.
So for the next two hours the pushing continued for Kista and the baby’s head could be seen. But that was as far as it got. About eight Dr Hamilton and a second nurse April, arrived and started putting on the official delivery gowns. Just before the doctor put on his gowns, Kista asked Jen if the baby was ever going to come. Jen stated that when the doctor puts his gowns on then it is time to deliver the baby. Kista continued to push but the baby just didn’t seem to want to come out. This is when the doctor called for the vacuum and some extra nurses. Now when the doctor asked for the vacuum visions of his big shop vac in the garage popped into James’s head. He was wondering if this was a good thing to go around and using a shop vac to suck the babies out. But as it turned out it was a large suction cup that attached to the babies head. Once attached and with one big push by Kista and Landon James Marker was born.