Our doctor at my 38 week appointment told us that starting at 39 weeks that he would induce, but not pressure the idea of inductions until I was nearing 41 weeks. He says if you go into labor on your own anywhere from 37 weeks to 40 weeks, 6 days is wonderful, but once you hit 41 weeks the risk of c-section, and fractures and injuries to both mama and baby sky rocket.
I had full intentions on just waiting for labor to come completely on its own. Friday August 24th rolled around and Chris and I took Brenden on a walk to the park after dinner. Walking to the park I just had this flood of emotions and worries and stresses come over me. I started thinking, what if this baby decides to come late like Brenden and we're right in the middle of moving. Even if this baby comes on time, we would be moving in a matter of days after coming home from the hospital. We decided to give our doctor a call and see what he thought we should do. We called our doctor and he decided that if we were up to it, that he could set up an induction for the following Monday morning. That put me at 39 weeks, and 2 days.
Chris and I spent the weekend scrambling to get things done between laundry and cleaning, packing bags for us for the hospital, a bag for Brenden, and finding babysitters and places for Brenden to stay over night for when we were in the hospital. It was actually really nice knowing that we had everything scheduled out and knowing we wouldn't have to worry about anything for when I did go into labor. It was really an ease of stress. The whole pregnancy I never really did think a whole lot about where Brenden would be while I was giving birth to his little sister. I guess I just thought it would all just fall into place and I realized as I was scheduling babysitters and such that that would have been impossible. I'm so glad that we were able to schedule an induction for that one reason alone.
Day of Induction! We had gotten a call from Labor and Delivery the night before asking us to call in the next morning at 5:30 for availability for induction. That's exactly what we did. We both set alarms on our phones for 5:30 and called in. Well dang! They had 4 women go into labor over night and they were all still in labor. They told us to call back around 10 to see if they had any open rooms then. We decided to call around 7:30 to beat anyone else who might be calling for an induction that day. Everyone was still in delivery, so they asked us to call back in 2 hours. Chris and I decided to get up and shower and make a big breakfast and get everything packed up for the day. We had some yummy pancakes and eggs for breakfast, much needed for such an intense day. After breakfast I jumped in the shower. Labor and Delivery called while I was in the shower and Chris didn't hear my phone. So I called them back around 8:30 and they said we could come in anytime.
We dropped Brenden off at some friends where he would be spending the next few days and headed up to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 9 A.M. We got ourselves checked in, I got changed into one of their robes, and then got hooked up to a monitoring system, got my vitals in, and got asked a ton of questions. Chris and both called our moms while we were waiting for the pitocin to get started. Both were getting very anxious and excited. They got the pitocin going around 11 A.M. The nurses would come in and increase the pitocin drip about every hour. The drip can only go up to 20 units. They started the drip at 1 unit, and came in would increase it by 2 units every hour until we hit 10 units. Around 3 we hit 10 units and were kind of at a stand still waiting for the doctor. Our doctor had gotten stuck in a meeting and the nurses didn't want to increase the pitocin until they knew what his plans were. They said if they increased it more and the doctor came in to break my water, the contractions would just come on too strong and would be more painful than I would be prepared for.
I got my water broken around 4:30. Didn't hurt at all like I thought it would, thank goodness. After my water had been broken I decided it would be good to get to walking the halls to help speed things up. They started increasing the dose of pitocin again and I was only dilated to 3 cm. It worried me a little bit that it was almost 6 P.M. and that I was only dilated to 3 cm and the contractions were about 4 minutes apart and starting to get pretty strong already. At this point I decided that I wanted to try an epidural. Even though, I also did pitocin with Brenden, I did it all natural with out an epidural, I guess I just kind of assumed that this time it would be the same. I guess inducing to get the labor started made it a lot worse. My thought was that I wanted to experience both a medicated and natural childbirth, so when I'm ready to educate others about childbirth and help them through the labor process that I can know both sides and be totally objective and rational and unbiased.
I got my epidural around 6 P.M. and it was the weirdest sensation ever. They give you a shot in the middle of your back to numb and when they actually do the epidural, it kicks in like a doctor is testing your reflexes. Weird. Once I had the epidural it kicked in really fast, within the first 20 minutes or so. Both of my legs totally went dead. Up and walking around was no longer an option. I think that's the worst part about an epidural. Chris went down to the cafeteria and grabbed some dinner for himself and brought it back up. I wasn't supposed to eat anything just in case of the need for an emergency c-section. Yes! Finally someone gave me a straight answer to why women in labor shouldn't eat while in labor!
The epidural kicked in and it was time for this mama to take a much needed nap. It had been such a long day and I had been expecting to have another baby by dinner time, I was just so emotionally drained and just so exhausted. I napped for a good 3 hours until the nurse came in to check on me again. She came to check on me at 9 P.M. and I was still not considered to be in active labor. I about lost it. I got so emotional and just cried for about 20 minutes. I was at the limit for the pitocin drip, epidural had kicked in, contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart, but I was still only dilated to 4 cm. All of this to me was just so discouraging, I just wanted to give up and go home which with the epidural was not a viable option, so I just cried and cried until I finally fell back asleep.
The nurse came back in to check on me at 11 P.M. and I had finally made it to 6 cm and was in active labor with contractions coming less than 3 minutes apart. I was so happy to be seeing some progress! After making it to a 6 I didn't want to go back to sleep fearing that my labor would stall out since that's where I stopped progressing with Brenden and being at my limit with pitocin, I was getting super nervous. Well, labor did stall, for almost 3 hours! Chris and I took some naps, watched some tv, and tried to rest up as much as we could. I wasn't progressing and being at the limit with pitocin our doctor started to get a little concerned that we may have to have a c-section. He would give me a couple more hours to get things going on my own. I was so scared of a c-section and really started regretting my decision for an induction.
That quickly went away around 2 A.M. I was still only dilated to 6 cm, but I started to feel better, I knew the baby was getting ready to make her grand debut. By 3 A.M. I had progressed to 7 cm. I was getting super excited because at this point I started dilating a centimeter every half an hour. Which is amazing progress!! Just before 5 A.M. rolled around I was complete. Wonderful! I decided I would just breathe through the contractions while they got our doctor back in instead of trying to push for an hour like I did with Brenden. It was so wonderful to know my body and be able to breathe through the contractions and know exactly what was going on. Have an incredibly attentive husband right by my side to hold my hand and talk me through everything. Our doctor showed up at 5:15 to catch the baby. It was pretty incredible. Our doctor barely had time to put on his robe before Aria decided to come. The nurse had asked me to try and push through a contraction to see where we were at. She quickly told me to stop pushing because the baby was right there and the doctor wasn't quite dressed for the occasion yet. Our doctor through on his gown just in time for me to start pushing through a contraction and Aria was born at 5:19 A.M. To me, this was such a quick birth compared to Brenden's. So much more relaxed and just so much better.
I really loved having such a supportive doctor and wonderful nurses. The best part was being there mentally. With Brenden and the pitocin with him, they had given me some pain killers which made me super tired and loopy. I just don't remember much about his birth. I wasn't super lucid, which I really regret. Sure it would have been nice to go with out an epidural again, but now that I look back on it and think about how long it took my body to react to the pitocin I am so glad with the decision I made.
This birth was also a lot more intimate which was also nice. It was just Chris and I and we got to talk to each other more than we were with Brenden. I just have to say that everything was just so much nicer this time around. I'm so happy that we switched to a better doctor and got everything that we wanted and hey, we got a little baby girl a head of schedule! Here's to another successful and happy birth!
Aria's Stats:
Born at 5:19 A.M. on August 28, 2012
7 lbs, 14 oz.
20 inches long
Getting Aria all cleaned up and warm. This is our little baby girl at about a minute old.
First picture with a very proud Daddy. Now Mommy can take a shower!
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