Third Times The Charm by Kenny & Kristen

Kallen Birth Day Jan. 13 2026 10PM January 12th Kristen was having mini contractions for several days but on this day she was noticing that they were getting more real. To help her distract herself, she decided to make home made pizza for dinner. It was Delicious! At this point it was a normal night, and we got the kids put to bed and we started to head to bed ourselves. Or so I thought. I feel asleep but soon learned at 10pm that Kristen had not fallen asleep but had been awake because the baby was not letting her sleep. She tells me that hse is not going back to sleep, so I said “OK” and we headed downstairs to try to sleep on the couch. No sleep was had though as Kristen was overall uncomfortable. We tried timing contractions for a bit and finally got to the point where we decided “Maybe we should take the kids to the grandparents incase this is serious”. So we rounded the kids up and we drove them over to Gigi’s house in their pajamas (although we forgot their shoes). We also called the doula and let her know that we thought it was go time. Kristen was nervous the whole time that she was wrong and that she was going to wake everyone up over nothing. 12AM We got back home from dropping off the kids. Kristen was still having contractions although they weren’t super close together yet and not all that consistent. We decided to turn on Harry Potter and just hang out and see what happened. The doula also got here and watched the movie with us. The contractions were getting stronger and Kristen started having to change positions. I was able to catch a nap since the doula was here to help her through. Kristen and I were starting to wonder if it was time to get to the hospital because Kristen was feelnig a lot of pressure, but the doula said “No, we have time. We’ll check in again in a half hour.” And Kristen feel into a weird trance state where she closed her eyes through contractions and when she opened them again an hour had passed. At this point it was DEFINITELY time to go. Kristen was feeling so much pressure. The doula still wasn’t totally convinced, but we decided to go anyway. The contractions got closer together in the car – but the whole time Kristen was still thinking “What if we get there and this baby isn’t coming.” It was a pretty calm drive over all – no traffic. We made really good time, but Kristen did make some funny noises in the car. I dropped Kristen and the doula off at the entrance while I went to park the car. Kristen walked to the double doors, started getting a contraction, and put herself in the corner like she was in timeout until it was done. The whole hospital staff laughed at her a little. But up to this point she was very calm and focused. They brought her back to the triage room and the nurses started coming in. They checked her cervix and she was 8cm! Definitely having a baby. By this point, there was no question about the epidural because there probably wasn’t time for her labs to come back. They came in with an IV and missed at least once, (they didn’t pop a vein like with Kace) but she did end up with an IV in the side of her wrist and pretty sure they hit bone. Thankfully, contractions are so all consuming it wasn’t as bothersome as it should have been. They brought us back to the delivery room. The doula suggested we get in the bathtub and started the water. She dimmed the lights and put up some Christmas light things, started some music. All was temporarily calm. Kristen was in the bathtub in her sports bra. Then Kristen had to throw up – all of the sudden her water broke. At this point Kristen was starting to panic because there was a lot of pressure and she was trying to keep the baby from coming out. At this point the doula and the nurse have to get her out of the bath tub stat. For some reason Kristen decides she has to pee – and for an even more unkown reason – the nurse and the doula decide to let her try. She wasn’t sure she was getting back off the toilet. I was wondering if they were all crazy. All of the sudden they were calling for a bunch of extra hands to carry her to the bed. She laid down in the bed and I tried to suggest she get on her hands and knees but at this point she told me she couldn’t move – the baby was coming. They did have some nitrous oxide set up for while she was pushing – although I don’t think she really breathed it much. At this point she was panicking and saying she wasn’t sure she could do it – but she was doing great. She didn’t want to be that Mom that yelled across the whole birthing ward and scared all of the other laboring Moms, but she did get a little loud during pushing. She started pushing and the baby was there within 15 minutes. Someone tried to yell at me to put on gloves – but there was no time. I did get to catch the baby. We put him up on Kristen’s chest and I have never seen such a look of relief. They were in no rush to cut the cord so we let it run all of the way out before clamping and I cut it. Kristen told me there was a 50% chance she would do it again wtihout an epidural if we had another kid. As of writing this, she says there’s a 100% chance she would do it again without an epidural… Mom brain…

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