Ep 188: Krysti’s Birth Story – The Best Case Scenario

Dr. Nicole (00:00): I'm excited to bring you another great birth story episode. Welcome to the All About Pregnancy & Birth podcast. I'm Dr. Nicole Calloway, Rankins, a board certified OBGYN, who's been in practice for nearly 15 years. I've had the privilege of helping over 1000 babies into this world, and I'm here to help you be calm, confident, and empowered to have a beautiful pregnancy and birth. Quick note, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Check out the full disclaimer at drnicolerankins.com/disclaimer. Now, let's get to it.

(00:50): Hello there. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. This is episode number 188. Thank you for spending some of your time with me today. In today's episode, we have Krysti. Krysti was born and raised in a small seaside town in Connecticut where she also currently lives with her husband, her son, Leo, and their two dogs. In her professional life, Krysti is a clinician at a pharmaceutical company where she oversees clinical trials for autoimmune disorder treatments. She is an exercise enthusiast, a cupcake fanatic, and she believes that movement and a quality baked good can solve it all. Yes, yes, yes. Amen. All right. And in her free time, she can typically be found running, baking, or on a long podcast walk. In this birth story episode, you're going to hear about how Christie conceived her baby boy via IVF because of her Mosaic Turner syndrome. You're going to hear what that is in the episode.

(01:51): And then we're going to hear all about her pregnancy experience, her labor and birth experience, which she called the best case scenario for her, where she arrived at the hospital, eight centimeters dilated, and her baby was born four hours later. Now, even with all of that, she did have some challenges in the postpartum period, and we are going to hear about all of that as well. As always, y'all know, birth stories are my favorite episodes, and this is another favorite episode as well. You are going to enjoy it as much as I did. Now, before we get into the episode, one of the important things about having a great birth experience is education. I have a fantastic childbirth education option called the Birth Preparation Course, and it is on sale for the holidays. You can get it for $50 off. Just head to drnicolerankins.com/enroll, and the Birth Preparation Course is my signature online childbirth education class that will get you calm, confident, and empowered to have a beautiful birth, the beautiful birth that you deserve through my five step beautiful birth prep process where you set the tone for your birth, learn all of the details of labor and birth, get prepared for the possibilities, get off to a great start postpartum, and learn how to make a birth plan the right way.

(03:07): You will be ready for your hospital birth. So check out all the details at drnicolerankins.com/enroll. And again, it is $50 off. All right, let's get into the conversation with Krysti. Thank you so much, Krysti, for agreeing to come onto the podcast again, because the first time we had terrible audio issues, so I really wanted you all to hear this story, which is why I asked her to come back. So thank you so much for coming back again to record your story.

Krysti (03:43): Sure. Happy to be here.

Dr. Nicole (03:45): Yes. So why don't you tell us a bit about yourself and your family?

Krysti (03:48): I live in Connecticut in southeastern Connecticut, pretty close to the shore, and I live with my husband, our two dogs, and our son, Leo, who is now 16 months old.

Dr. Nicole (04:02): Yeah, I think the first time I recorded we did not have a dog now, now we have a dog, and now I'm like having a dog is a whole nother, has a whole nother flavor Oh, yes. Into the mix. And you have two dogs?

Krysti (04:16): Yes, we do. Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Nicole (04:19): And I bet it must be nice living close to the shore.

Krysti (04:21): Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun. We are a pretty active outdoorsy family, so it it's great to be able to have that as an option. Yeah,

Dr. Nicole (04:32): Yeah. So of course, in order to understand the birth, we have to talk a bit about the pregnancy, and in your case, your pregnancy was conceived through IVF because you have Mosaic Turner syndrome. So can you tell us a bit about what that means?

Krysti (04:49): Sure. So Turner Syndrome is a condition where there is an abnormality in the sex chromosomes. So in an individual who is genetically X X, they would be genetically female, and then X Y genetically male. And so turn in Turner syndrome an individual can have either a C complete Turner syndrome where it's all cells are X, essentially X, nothing. There's one X only. And then there's also a condition called Mosaics Turner Syndrome, where it's not full-blown Turner syndrome. And that's what I have. So roughly 15% of my cells are missing an X chromosome. And one of the conditions that goes along with that is infertility. Not always but in my case unfortunately, I am not able to conceive naturally, I don't cycle. So IVF was really the best and potentially the only option for our family.

Dr. Nicole (06:12): Gotcha. Gotcha. So that's how you found out you were trying to get pregnant and then had difficulties getting pregnant.

Krysti (06:18): And Actually, I was on birth control for a very long time and was getting a period with birth control. And then when I went off birth control, it was a little over, I wanna say it was almost a year that I just wasn't cycling and we were trying to get pregnant, and so then we had to figure out what was going on.

Dr. Nicole (06:46): Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. And how long did it take to figure out, because some, it's not a common thing, so sometimes did you feel like you got a little bit of a runaround before you, or did it take awhile?

Krysti (06:55): Yeah, so I'm a runner, and the initial thinking was that it was something linked to my hypothalamic pituitary axis and kind of low body fat. And so I went to, was it four or five doctors and dug into some family history and realized that I needed some additional testing.

Dr. Nicole (07:29): Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Well, I'm sorry it took so long to figure it out, but I'm glad eventually you did figure it out. Yeah,

Krysti (07:35): Yeah. We were really mean as shocking, and it was tough to kind of swallow the diagnosis, but to be honest, it was almost a relief because it was a long time of just frustration not understanding what was happening. Yeah,

Dr. Nicole (07:58): Yeah. And then you knew there was something that could be done too. Exactly.

Krysti (08:03): Right.

Dr. Nicole (08:04): Yeah. And how was IVF for you? Was that a stressful process?

Krysti (08:12): The hardest part for me was waiting in between stages, and we started the process in February of 2020, so our fertility clinic shut down for several months starting in March of 2020. So we got the diagnosis and we were really excited to get started, and then we had to wait several months and so we were able to start the process in July of 2020. Okay. So it wasn't horrible. And once that got started, we were very fortunate in that we had success at every step of the process, and so we were able to get two healthy, genetically normal embryos in our first cycle. And one of those embryos is our son Leo. Okay.

Dr. Nicole (09:16): All right. That's awesome. Yeah. That is awesome. I know that's the very stressful process. Pregnancy is such a timing thing, and it's like there's some points in it where you have no choice but to what? There's nothing to do, but wait, and it can be like nerve wracking, for sure.

Krysti (09:34): Yes, yes, for sure.

Dr. Nicole (09:34): Yeah. Okay. So once you found out you were pregnant and things went well, what was your pregnancy and your prenatal care?

Krysti (09:44): My pregnancy was very I'm trying to think of a word to describe it. Okay. I didn't have much discomfort or illness. It was pretty smooth sailing at week 20, I think. I had my anatomy scan, and there was concern that I had a condition, I think it's Vasa previa or VA previa where there are blood vessels running over the birth canal. So that was a little bit of panic there for a couple of weeks but then I got a repeat ultrasound and everything looked okay. There was a marginal cord insertion though, so I had to be monitored closely just to ensure that the baby was growing as one of the concerns with that is low birth weight. So I had ultrasounds every two weeks from, I wanna say about 26 weeks on to monitor growth, just growth scans. And my prenatal care was excellent. I went to a practice that has both obstetricians and midwives, and I rotated between the midwives and OBs depending on who was in office that day, which was great.

Dr. Nicole (11:26): Okay. So you ended up seeing then a lot of different folks for your prenatal care and meeting all of the potential different people who you can meet that could be there for the birth, right?

Krysti (11:37): Yes. I did go to maternal fetal medicine for the growth scans to monitor weight and gotcha length.

Dr. Nicole (11:46): Gotcha. So overall, pretty low-key pregnancy, other than the things you mentioned and you felt satisfied with your prenatal care?

Krysti (11:53): Yes, yes, very much.

Dr. Nicole (11:55): Well, good. So what did you do to prepare for your birth?

Krysti (11:59): I really tried to stay active, so movement has always been my go-to when I'm not feeling so great or when I'm feeling off. And so that was my touchstone throughout my pregnancy. So I continued running, walking, hiking, and I feel that that really kept me in a good mental space. And in terms of preparing for the actual birth I read a lot. I listened to podcasts, listened to the birth stories, talked to a lot of my friends who have children, and one thing I really tried to not do is plan too much, and it was very against my nature. I am type A personality and really initially wanted a step-by-step, this is exactly what's going to happen, this is the pain medication I want. And then I just kind of surrendered and just accepted that whatever is going to happen is somewhat or mostly out of my control and that I'll just have to roll with it. Right.

Dr. Nicole (13:31): What do you think helped you get to that point where you felt like you could surrender to the process?

Krysti (13:37): I think just hearing other stories and just trying to tap into my rational mind and just understand that there's absolutely no way that I am going to know what's going to happen. And I think a lot of it is too, is that I was just so grateful and felt so fortunate after what we had been through that I was right. Kind of like, well, I just need to take it in stride and just be so happy that I'm able to experience this.

Dr. Nicole (14:12): So gratitude, really, I'm looking for the good pieces and things. Yeah. Was there anything in particular that you wanted for your birth?

Krysti (14:21): I wanted to be relaxed, and I wanted it to be a memorable experience in a good way. However, I know in a lot of cases that's not possible, but I didn't want to unnecessarily put restrictions on it in a way that would make it more stressful or more painful, or I guess in some, I wanted it to be a good experience.

Dr. Nicole (14:59): Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. So then what was your labor and birth? Let's talk about that.

Krysti (15:06): Sure. So I had a growth scan scheduled at 38 weeks and five days I think it was. And that the night before, I was feeling off and thought I might be feeling contractions, and I kind of just chalked it up to Braxton Hicks and first babies never come early. And so I, in typical fashion, the next morning I woke up early, tried to move through it, I went for a run. I ended up meeting up with my sister-in-law and my nephew to go get donuts and walk around. Right. I was off work at this time. I had maternity leave that started before my delivery date. Okay.

Dr. Nicole (16:01): Oh, that's nice.

Krysti (16:02): Yeah, three weeks off before my anticipated delivery date, which was That's nice. Awesome. Yeah. So around 11 in the morning, I started to feel really off and I was like, okay, something is going on. I don't know what it is. So I called my doctor and they said, well start timing it and let us know. And my appointment was at one 30, I think. So closer to the appointment, I called again and I said, I'm starting to get them relatively regularly between five minutes apart, six minutes apart. And they said, okay, somewhat reluctantly, call in a midwife. So I called my husband, he was at work, and I said, we gotta go. I, so we get in the car and we start driving. I'm about 45 minutes from the hospital that I chose to deliver at. And that was a car ride, let me tell you.

Dr. Nicole (17:06): I mean, I think we don't talk about that enough. The car rides to the hospital can be really intense. Yeah.

Krysti (17:11): Things escalated very, very quickly. So we made it to the hospital it, it's all kind of a blur from there, but there was a line to check in, and I just said, looked at my husband. I said, I can't stand in that line.

Dr. Nicole (17:31): Like, that's not going to happen. Do what you gotta do, but we're not doing the line.

Krysti (17:35): So they put me in a wheelchair. It was very dramatic. Wheeled me across the lobby, got me into a triage room, and then things kind of slowed down a bit. And I don't wanna say that I was being dismissed, but I think I was coming in as a first time mom nine days early. And so one midwife checked my dilation and kind of whispered to the other midwife and looked a little surprised, and then the other midwife checked, and I was eight centimeters dilated. Wow.

Dr. Nicole (18:10): Wow. Okay. So things had started that night and then ramped up during the day, and you were still kind of like, yeah. Things are getting closer together. And then it sounds like on the car ride things Yes. Really ramped up, but it was only a few hours that things were pretty and

Krysti (18:30): Not that long. Yeah. No, it was not long. Yeah. Yeah. I was at home kind of moving around, bouncing on the ball at 1230, I wanna say. And then we were in the car at one 30 and things just went from there.

Dr. Nicole (18:47): Okay. Yeah. So what went through your mind when you heard you were eight centimeters?

Krysti (18:53): This makes sense. Okay. Because the way I felt, and I just thought, I can't take much more of this. I mean, it doesn't really get worse or not worse. It doesn't get more intense Right. Than this, because this is a lot right now.

Dr. Nicole (19:12): Right. So then what did you decide then? What were your thoughts around what did you wanted to do for what you wanted to do for pain management?

Krysti (19:22): I said, give me whatever you can. So I mean, I was not against any type of pain or relief that I was knowledgeable about. So I knew I was not against having an epidural, whatever was needed for a calm birth. So they ended up giving me a spinal and epidural.

Dr. Nicole (19:51): Okay.

Krysti (19:52): So the spinal provided immediate relief, and then the epidural after the fact was it took about a half hour, I wanna say, to kick in. But from then on, it was so calm and things still moved relatively quickly, but it was the experience that I wanted. Gotcha. For sure.

Dr. Nicole (20:17): Gotcha, gotcha. For sure. So from the triage room to when they got you to the room, did things move pretty quickly? Were they like, oh my gosh, she's eight centimeters?

Krysti (20:31): Yeah, so I actually never made it to a delivery room. I was moved to another triaged room. The hospital was overflowing, and things just moved so quickly that they didn't have a room available.

Dr. Nicole (20:54): Gotcha, so okay. So you had to stay in the triage room?

Krysti (20:57): Yeah. So luckily at one point they were able to bring in a bed, a delivery bed. Right. But yeah, I ended up giving birth in the triage room.

Dr. Nicole (21:12): Oh, those rooms are tiny too. They're little, I mean, for the most part, in most hospitals, they tend to be pretty little. They're not like the expansive sort of rooms. Were you disappointed? I mean, I guess you couldn't do anything about it. Really. Really? Okay. No,

Krysti (21:26): No. The only thing that I was a little bit disappointed about was they didn't have the equipment really that they needed in that that room. So they didn't have a scale. So we had to wait a little bit after he was born for my husband to hold him. So I got to, of course, hold him immediately, but they ended up having to take him here and try to find a scale. And so there was just a little bit of commotion after. Gotcha, gotcha. Because they didn't have all the typical equipment in that room. Okay.

Dr. Nicole (22:02): Okay. So what happened from when you got the epidural to pushing and Leo being born? Tell us about that.

Krysti (22:11): So as I said, things really started to slow down. I got moved into that other triage room, and I was hooked up to a couple of monitors just to monitor his heart rate, and then also one to monitor contractions. So after I got the spinal and the epidural, I wasn't really able to feel the contractions. I felt pressure. So the nurse was helping me. She was kind of guiding when the contractions were coming based on the monitor. So I reached 10 centimeters, I wanna say it was in about an hour, and then started pushing. And Oh,

Dr. Nicole (23:00): Did your water break at some point, or did they break your water?

Krysti (23:02): Yes, my water broke in that first triage room. It was probably 10 to 15 minutes after I got in the triage room. My water broke. And oh, also I was group B strep positive. Gotcha. So they had to figure out all the, I had to get the iv. And

Dr. Nicole (23:26): I forgot to ask, when they saw you were eight centimeters, did anybody a talk about at all, do you wanna keep going without an epidural? Yes. Okay.

Krysti (23:39): Yes. There was one midwife. She was so lovely, and she kind of just looked me in the eye and she said, you are, you're in it. Right? I mean, we're not going to try to, I mean, I can't remember exactly what she said. Sure, sure. Basically, it was like, we're not trying to lead you one way or the other, but you're in transition. You could continue. Right. In those words, more or less. Sure. And I said, no. I said, Nope.

Dr. Nicole (24:10): No, thank you.

Krysti (24:11): And then it was just okay. I mean, didn't even sign. The anesthesiologist was also wonderful, and she just said, I'm going to verbally consent. You have you sign everything after. Okay. So I did a verbal consent for everything. They were just Gotcha. As fast as they could have been. Gotcha.

Dr. Nicole (24:31): Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. And had you thought already decided beforehand that you knew you wanted to get an epidural? Or were you just going to play it by ear when you Yeah, were going

Krysti (24:42): Through it. Initially, I wanted to try nitrous oxide because I knew that there was more of an opportunity to move around with nitrous oxide. And I think if I had gotten to the hospital earlier, I might have gone that route because it felt really good for me when I was home, kind of just walking and bouncing on the ball and getting into different positions. But I think by the time I got to the hospital, I was so far along that I just didn't wanna go that route anymore.

Dr. Nicole (25:17): Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. So you got to completely dilated. And then how did things go from there?

Krysti (25:23): So I pushed for, I think around 45, 50 minutes or bit. Oh, that's a little longer. An hour. Yeah.

Dr. Nicole (25:31): Okay. Could you feel anything? Because it sounds like you had a dense epidural.

Krysti (25:35): Yeah. Yeah. So once I started pushing, I actually started to have back pain, really bad back labor. So Leo, he was sunny side up, so he had to turn as he was coming out, and they wanted to try to do that naturally. They didn't wanna have to try and turn him. So that part was pretty painful. But I was able to, I pushed on my side a lot, kind of rotating between my side, one side and the other, which was really helpful and relieving some of that. And one of the nurses was actually pushing on my back as well, which was helpful. Okay.

Dr. Nicole (26:20): Okay. So you felt like you had great support and Oh, yes. Encouragement while you were pushing? Yes. Yeah. Okay. That's impressive. Even in the triage, I'm just thinking about our own triage rooms. So they're tight spaces. So for them to be able to do all of those things and help and support you, sounds great.

Krysti (26:38): Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Nicole (26:39): Yeah. So then you said you pushed for about 45 minutes, and you were with the midwifes, is that right?

Krysti (26:47): Yes. Okay. So there was one midwife and two nurses. Okay. And then the OB came in at the last moment as he was kind of right coming out.

Dr. Nicole (27:04): Why didn't the midwife just stay?

Krysti (27:09): So the, well, the midwife stayed. Okay. But OB, so everyone stayed and then Gotcha. The OB came in at the last moment. Okay.

Dr. Nicole (27:16): Okay. Okay. So then what was it like pushing him out of your body?

Krysti (27:28): I can't really remember that exact moment, but I remember directly after, I mean, he cried immediately. Everything was perfect. It was best case scenario. He was really healthy. He was small.

Dr. Nicole (27:45): How much did he weigh?

Krysti (27:47): He weighed a little under six pounds. Okay.

Dr. Nicole (27:49): Oh, he was tiny.

Krysti (27:50): Yeah. So not really, really tiny. I mean, he didn't have to go into the NICU or anything. Sure, sure. But so they immediately put him on my chest, and I mean, it was just a surreal moment. It was just incredible.

Dr. Nicole (28:10): Yeah. Yeah. And then did they do delayed core clamping also? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. So brought 'em straight on your chest, delayed core clamping, and it sounds like it was just everything that you could have wanted.

Krysti (28:25): Yes. Wonderful.

Dr. Nicole (28:28): Yeah, that was wonderful. That is wonderful. So then, what was the postpartum period for you?

Krysti (28:35): It was tough for me. I think being a runner, I just have always had the mentality of trying to get back to things really quickly, injuries. And so it was hard for me in that I had to really physically slow down, and it was humbling in that sense.

Dr. Nicole (29:01): Oh, I forgot to, I'm sorry. Did you have any tears? Did you have to get any stitches or anything?

Krysti (29:04): Yes. Okay. Yes, I did. I had a very minor tear. Okay. I, I needed stitches, but I think it was a first degree.

Dr. Nicole (29:16): Yeah, that's the most minor.

Krysti (29:18): Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It wasn't bad.

Dr. Nicole (29:20): Gotcha. Gotcha. So you were thinking, were you expecting that you were going to be able to get back to things quicker than you actually did or how you were feeling?

Krysti (29:33): I think so. And even after my six week follow up appointment, when you're cleared to do everything, I tried to jump back into it, and I was so not even close to being ready. And so I had back issues and ended up going to physical therapy for core strengthening. And so in that sense, it was difficult for me. But I guess on the other side of things, it was also just an incredible, really special time for our family. So my husband was able to take a few weeks off, and so just having the three of us plus the dogs at home.

(30:27): Just being able to bring Leo home and it just felt so right. And so I remember it as a tough adjustment, but also just a really, really beautiful time as well. I don't think I mentioned we have, my husband and I are from the same hometown, and both of our families are local. So we have an incredible support system. That's nice. Yeah. That's

Dr. Nicole (30:56): Nice. So I'm sure you had lots of meals and things. Yeah. That help.

Krysti (31:00): Yeah. We have, and we have lots of visitors, which was just, it was just so special to have Leo meet everyone. Right. And I had a great maternity leave as well. I had five and a half months off.

Dr. Nicole (31:16): Oh, that is nice. That is very nice. Yeah. Very nice. And let me ask for, you said you went to physical therapy. Is that something that you took upon yourself to do, or did your doctor recommend it?

Krysti (31:30): So my doctor ended up recommending that I go to physical therapy due to the back pain.

Dr. Nicole (31:38): Okay.

Krysti (31:40): And it was really just linked to kind of a weak core after pregnancy and delivery, which I would not have put that together. But yeah, it ended up helping a lot.

Dr. Nicole (31:53): Okay. Good, good, good. And did you breastfeed?

Krysti (31:56): I did, yes.

Dr. Nicole (31:58): And what was that like?

Krysti (32:01): Actually, which this is very contradictory to what I expected. I actually overproduced, so it, that was pretty surprisingly challenging to try and regulate that and get the hang of that.

Dr. Nicole (32:24): So did you just have lots of extra milk?

Krysti (32:27): Yes. Yeah. I actually ended up donating quite a bit, which was great that I was able to do that.

Dr. Nicole (32:36): Right.

Krysti (32:39): So I breastfed for about 11 months and then had freezer stash, and then I donated some. So yeah.

Dr. Nicole (32:51): Nice. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. People, there's breastfeeding is always, you never know until you get into it. And some people are like, oh, how could it be bad to overproduce? But it's like you're constantly milk. Yeah.

Krysti (33:08): And I had to start pumping pretty much when I got home from the hospital, and I didn't know, I had no idea what was going on. So he latched beautifully in the hospital. And then when I got home, it was just awful. He couldn't latch, and he was crying and I was crying, and I didn't know what was going on. So I ended up calling the lactation consultant, and she said, you know, might just have to start pumping a little bit. Okay. Because you're just too full, he can't latch. Gotcha.

Dr. Nicole (33:43): Gotcha.

Krysti (33:44): Yeah. Gotcha. So. Gotcha.

Dr. Nicole (33:46): Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I've always called breastfeeding and labor of love.

Krysti (33:49): Yes. For sure.

Dr. Nicole (33:50): For sure. The easiest thing in the world. For sure. Your whole world revolves around your breast. Yes. For a while. So yes. All right. So how do you feel overall about your pregnancy, your birth, your postpartum experience?

Krysti (34:05): I'm really happy with how everything turned out for me. I think it was really, and I keep saying best case scenario, but it really was. And I think I'm probably forgetting a lot of the hard parts. I've kind of blocked it out. But yeah, I mean, my care, prenatal and postnatal was wonderful. Our IVF clinic, our fertility clinic was wonderful. So really happy about all of that.

Dr. Nicole (34:40): Yeah. That's amazing. And do you ever feel like sometimes I see that when people have challenges getting pregnant and then they're so excited and they have a baby, and then sometimes if the baby's colicky or their issues and they feel like, well, this is, the expectations don't match up to what they were thinking, they're thinking it's going to be this beautiful experience. Did you ever have any of that where you were like, this is harder than. I wanted this, I wanted this baby, but it's harder than I thought it was going to be.

Krysti (35:11): Definitely. I knew it was going to be hard, but I think it was a different kind of hard than I expected. And I don't really know how to describe that. And I think to myself sometimes when things are really tough, if I'm a little bit more accepting of it, because we had such a hard time, but then I think, well, am I just more accepting of it because I just love him so much. Right. I don't know. It's just hard to say. Yeah.

Dr. Nicole (35:42): Yeah. I totally get that. I totally get that. And then the last thing as we wrap up, what is your one favorite piece of advice that you would give to someone who's getting ready to have their baby?

Krysti (35:56): I think my number one piece of advice would be and I know you preach this as well, is to just advocate for yourself. Luckily, I had a really great experience, but there were a couple of times where I had to speak up and really reinforce what I wanted, and if something didn't sit, I addressed it. So I think it's easy to just go with the flow a lot of the times, and you want the experience that it is right for you. So yeah, definitely just advocate for yourself.

Dr. Nicole (36:40): 100%. 100%. All right. So where can women connect with you? You can say nowhere if you're not on social media or anything.

Krysti (36:49): Yeah. So I think probably Instagram would be best. Okay. So my Instagram is k r y s t i four 30. Okay. So Krysti four 30. Perfect.

Dr. Nicole (37:01): Perfect. We will put that in the show notes. Well, thank you so much, Christie, for agreeing to come back on and record this again. Sure. It was just as delightful the second time, so I appreciate

Krysti (37:11): It. Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Nicole (37:20): All right. Wasn't that a great birth story episode? And again, thank you, Krysti, for agreeing to record it again since we had trouble the first time. All right. Now, after every episode when I have a guest on, I do something called Dr. Nicole's Notes where I talk about my top takeaways from the conversation. I had a lot of options with this one, so I had to narrow it down. But here we go. Here are my Dr. Nicole's Notes for my conversation with Krysti, I loved a few things that she said, one, you cannot plan birth, or rather, she went into it with the attitude of not planning birth, which can be hard when you're a type A planner kind of person. However, I wanna be clear that not planning is not the same thing, is not preparing. Okay, you can prepare for birth, but you can't plan birth.

(38:11): And preparing involves getting educated about the birth process. You really can't control birth. No one can control birth. I can't control birth. Doctors can't control birth, you can't control birth. Your baby has the most control over birth. And people will say that they can control things, but they're not. They're just doing things and hoping for a certain outcome. But no outcome is completely guaranteed. And I just loved how she said she had to surrender to the process. And also using gratitude as well as a way to manage that, being grateful for the things that you had and taking control of the things that you can control. Again, one of the important things that'll be crucial to do that is childbirth education. And I don't care what childbirth education class you take, okay, that's a lie. I want you to take the birth preparation course, but more importantly, I want you to take any childbirth education like you need childbirth education.

(39:07): So find a option that works for you. Definitely check out the Birth Preparation Course, drnicolerankins.com/enroll and get that $50 off for the holiday season. Okay. Number two, labor is also unpredictable and it's different for everyone. Yes, we have some general guidelines about how labor progresses, but it can be different in any given individual. Krysti was eight centimeters when she got to the hospital. I like to say, like we as obstetricians and midwives, we don't know nothing about how labor can progress. And I don't mean that cuz actually we do know a lot. But what I mean is that it really boils down to the individual and what's happening in their own body. She really listened to herself. She knew something was going on. She actually had to advocate for herself a bit when she got to the hospital that, Hey, I am feeling something.

(40:03): Things are ramping up here. And she was eight centimeters. So know that labor can be different for everyone. There are general guidelines about how things may go, but don't be surprised if they go different than that. You have to know what the possibilities are and then be prepared that they may go different than that. They may go different than that. And then the third thing that I wanna touch upon is after you have a baby and giving yourself some grace with recovery, you really become a new person. After you give birth, you become a new person, physically, mentally things are going to be different and you really need to give yourself some time to recover and then also adjust to the new normal of having this human being that you're taking care of, but also the new normal for you, the new normal for your body, the new normal for how you feel.

(40:59): So just give yourself some grace and patience with recovery. Don't feel like you have to hop back into anything right away. I'm always like at the snap back, there is no snap back. You get back to or get to that new person of who you're going to be on your own time and definitely seek out support if you need it. I think we definitely underutilized like pelvic physical therapist in the process of the postpartum recovery. So definitely check that out if you think that may be helpful for you. It's probably helpful for most to be honest. All right. So there you have it. Share this podcast with a friend. I so appreciate it. It helps me to reach and serve more pregnant folks. So if you love the podcast, then please share it with someone who you know think may benefit from it. Also, subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening to me right now, and leave a review an Apple podcast if you feel so inclined. I'd love to hear what you say about this show and it helps the show to grow. Do check out the Birth Preparation Course, drnicolerankins.com/enroll. Grab that $50 discount for the holidays. I would love to see you inside the course. So that's it for this episode. Do come on back next week and remember that you deserve a beautiful pregnancy and birth.