The Baby Ginn Story - Labor and Delivery

"Now this is the story all about how / Our lives got flipped, turned upside down"

It's hard to believe that exactly one week ago, Cami went into labor. Here's a brief recap of what took place over the course of three days -- June 20, 21 and 22.

(6/20) Wed early morning: Cami felt a couple small contractions or Braxton Hicks early in the morning. The timing couldn't be more perfect because later in the day she had a scheduled appointment with her doctor. Perhaps some progress had been made?

Wed afternoon: Cami headed to her doctor for her weekly check-up. Since she had had some Braxton Hicks contractions earlier that day, we thought she might have made some progress. The doctor checked and sadly, no real progress had been made.

Per a discussion that took place the week before, the doctor stretched Cami's membrane with the hope of jump-starting her labor.

Wed afternoon/evening: Almost as soon as the doctor stretched Cami's membranes, she began to feel some fairly consistent contractions. Unfortunately, they weren't consistent or strong enough to warrant going to the hospital, so we headed to bed at 11:45pm.

(6/21) Thurs early morning: A series of contractions woke Cami up at 3:30am and then again at 4:30am. These ones felt different. When I woke up at 5:30am, we decided to go through our normal morning routine of washing up and walking the dogs and then see how she felt.

Thurs morning: Throughout the morning the contractions got stronger and I decided to call into work and let them know I wasn't coming in.

We spent the rest of the morning eating together, reading our Bibles and then watching movies -- Ratatouille and Remember the Titans.

Thurs afternoon: At 1:30pm Cami signaled that we should probably get ready to go to the hospital. I let the dogs out one last time and then packed the car with our hospital bags. The contractions were about 4-6 minutes apart and about 55-70 seconds long.

We arrived at the hospital at 2:15pm and after registering and going through triage made it to our labor and delivery room at around 4:00pm. Cami still hadn't made much progress and was still hovering at around three centimeters dilated.

Thurs evening: After laboring in the hospital room for three and a half hours, Cami's water broke at around 7:30pm. When the nurse checked her half an hour later, Cami was still at only four centimeters. We said that if she didn't make much progress within the next hour and a half or so, we would begin to think through other options like getting an epidural.

About an hour and a half later, the nurse came in to check on Cami's progress and announced that Cami had jumped from around four centimeters to nearly six centimeters! The nurse encouraged Cami that she was doing great and that her progress was going well. Almost as soon as the nurse walked out of the room, Cami had a fairly intense contraction and then turned to me and said, "Babe, I can't do it! I can't do it anymore!" Needless to say, she was wrong.

Thurs late evening: Over the next three hours, Cami progressed about one centimeter every hour. The nurse kept saying that this was a "textbook labor" and that Cami was doing an amazing job.

At around 11:30pm, Cami moved to the "transition" stage of labor, the most painful and intense part of labor.

(6/22) Fri early morning: At around 12:30am, the nurse checked on Cami and announced that she was at nine centimeters and said that she would check back on us in an hour, but that if Cami felt like she needed to push, we should call her back in.

At 1:10am, Cami asked, "How do I know if I need to push?!" and I immediately called the nurse over the intercom. Seconds later the nurse as well as Cami's doctor came into the room. Cami's doctor checked her and then told the nurse to get the other nurses. Within seconds lights were being flipped on, other medical stuff came into the room, medical equipment was being set up and I was getting the camera ready for what I assumed would our first time seeing our baby.

The numbers are only an approximate, but it seems like Cami only pushed for twenty minutes because at 1:33am baby Karis Akemi Ginn entered into this world. As soon as she was out, my camera was rolling, the nurse was wiping her off and she was placed on Cami's chest.
Afterwards all the nurses and even Cami's doctor were singing her praises. "Textbook labor", "best natural labor I've seen in fourteen years of being a nurse", "amazing job." All I could do was nod in agreement. I haven't witnessed any other labors or been a nurse for any amount of time, but in my estimation, Cami truly did do an amazing job.

The journey of Cami's labor and Karis' delivery spanned three intense, grueling and ultimately, incredible days. But those days were just the beginning of what we hope to be a life long journey with our baby girl. And in the end all praise is due to our God because He alone is the giver of life.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." Rom 11:36