There are affiliate links in many of the posts on this site. This means your purchase supports myself, my business, and my family when you click through to buy - at no additional cost to you. This site also uses cookies. You can learn more here. Thank you!
It feels a bit odd to be sharing my second child’s birth story YEARS after her birth, but I LOVE reading birth stories. Plus this had been sitting as a draft for years. So here is the story I wrote years ago, just finally being shared with you today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your birth story actually starts before the day of your birth. The entire pregnancy proved to have many challenges – from the blood thinning injections to prevent blood clots to the news at 16 weeks that I had gestational diabetes.
The gestational diabetes made things more challenging as we couldn’t get the fasting blood sugar numbers to where the doctor wanted them. Because of that, we found out in mid-December that I was going to be induced at 37.5 weeks. Our OB and specialist both agreed this was best, as they did not want to risk you being stillborn. Talk about scary and stressful when you hear that news!
So the morning of, your daddy and I needed to be up at 3:30 in order to leave by 4am to be at the hospital by 5. BLAH!
I was freaking out about oversleeping, so I was thrilled when I woke up at 3:29am. Except then I realized it was only 2:29, and of course I couldn’t fall back asleep. Plus I woke daddy up, costing both of us an extra hour of sleep.
While getting ready, I threw up. Ugh. It was not the way I wanted to start the day… But -let’s be honest- I had thrown up at least 2x a week throughout the entire pregnancy.
We left the house at 4:10, so we were at the hospital by 5am like we were supposed to be. Because of all the previous trips up to the third floor (like I said earlier, your entire pregnancy had plenty of complications), we knew exactly how to get to the maternity ward – so that part was easy. The nurses met us and took us back to the three rooms where deliveries take place.
The first nurse tried to get the IV into my right arm, but she wasn’t having much luck. It didn’t help that I was nauseous. I’m not sure if it was from getting sick at home or if it was because of all the digging she had to do.
The second nurse was able to get the IV into my left arm, but she had to dig around a bit to get there. Apparently the needle would go in just fine, and then it was like my veins disappeared. Yuck!
Around 6am they gave me three little pills to get labor started. Plus they checked and I was only dilated to a one, so we were basically starting the entire labor process from zero. We just had to sit back and wait…
Daddy needed to use the bathroom around 7am, and that’s when the first round of excitement started. All of a sudden the OB, his intern, our two nurses, and the anesthesiologist were all in the room at the same time talking about a C-section. EEK!
Apparently your heart rate had dropped to an unsafe level. They were going to give me some drugs to hopefully stop the medication, but if that didn’t work and you didn’t improve – I’d be going in for an emergency C-section. The anesthesiologist was giving me my different options, and it was overwhelming. I kept hoping daddy would walk back into the room so he could hear everything, but he didn’t come in until the very end.
One of the nurses gave me a shot in my left arm. Within minutes your heartrate was improving. PHEW! No C-section this time around.
They started me on Pitocin shortly after that. Thankfully you didn’t have any negative reactions to this medication, but it also meant I had to be hooked up to the baby heart rate monitor the entire time. That made 8am on a verryyyyy long time. I got up about once an hour to use the bathroom, but that was it. Plus I had to have the compression leggings on the entire time as well since I wasn’t able to move around. That would help keep blood clots at bay so we didn’t have the same issues we did when your big brother was born.
Thank goodness for cell phones! I was able to text and check Facebook throughout the day to help pass the time. Things were borriiinnngggg – which I suppose is actually a good thing. The nurses kept upping the Pitocin every hour or so, but there really wasn’t much change.
The OB came in around 1pm to see how dilated I was. I was maybe at a two, but I think they said that just to make me feel better. At that same time he decided to break my water. He asked if I was uncomfortable (which I was), but I said I was ok. That’s when he asked if I was lying, and I think I said “maybe”.
Right before my water actually broke, I told him he’d better be about done. OUCH! But then there was that small gush and we were one step closer to meeting you.
The afternoon continued to be pretty boring. We tried to take a nap around 2:00, but I’m not sure I slept more than 30 minutes – and even that felt like more of a doze than actual sleep. Daddy on the other hand was out cold, blanket over his head and all! (Of course I took pictures as proof! And I *may* have even sent them out to other people as proof. Hehe)
The OB came in again before leaving for the day, and at some point they checked me again. I was still only around a 2. Sigh.
Somewhere around 6pm I was dilated to a four. Thank goodness for small progress!
When the new nurse came on, I asked her what time she thought I was going to deliver. Since I was only at a four, she said you can anticipate each hour to dilate one more centimeter. That meant she thought I would deliver around 2-3 am. As much as I loved having a time to go by (planner much?), I hated that it was going to be that much longer…
At 8pm I started crying, telling dad that I was so tired from being up since 2:30. That was basically 17 hours already, and I knew the hardest part was ahead of me.
The night nurse told me that she could give me IV pain medication, but that I could only have a total of four doses. They lasted about 45 minutes each. I didn’t want to waste one of them so early, but I also knew I HAD to sleep.
She gave me the IV meds shortly after 8:00. I know I didn’t entirely fall asleep, but I was able to doze off and on for the most part between contractions.
When the medication wore off at 9:00 I was still in quite a bit of pain. Plus the Pitocin was cranked up pretty high. I was crying, telling daddy I wasn’t sure how much longer I could do this. At one point I was seriously questioning getting an epidural.
The nurse told me that I *might* be able to get one, but I’d have to hold still and she wasn’t even sure how long it would be until the anesthesiologist would be able to get there. I didn’t really want one, but the pain was getting pretty intense. I was at a constant 8 or higher in pain.
The rest of the time before you were born is a bit of a blur.
At some point I remember the OB walking in. He checked, and I was dilated to a 7 or 8. He said he was almost asleep when he decided he had better just sleep at the hospital in case I delivered quickly, that way he could just be there.
It was 10:19 when I last looked at the clock. I can’t remember if this was just before or just after the OB had checked me. Regardless, that’s when I got one more round of the pain medication. But this time it wasn’t working…
I remember begging the nurse to turn down the Pitocin, but she told me it was completely off and that I was in full blown labor.
I was thrashing around in the delivery bed quite a bit. The most comfortable position was when I was on my left side. When each contraction came, I would squeeze daddy’s hand and push against him with the other. It sounds totally weird, but it seemed to help the pain.
I remember the two contractions that took me from an eight to a nine and then the next one that took me from a nine to a ten. When I went from an eight to a nine, I told the nurses I would be pushing soon. One of them said something fairly condescending like, “Sure you will, honey.” Maybe she was being genuine, but it didn’t sound like it to me at the time.
They called for the OB around then. I’m not sure if he had left to go to sleep or if he had just stepped out. Since I was moving so much, he put a monitor on the baby’s head to check the heart rate.
After that last contraction, I rolled to my back and said I was going to push soon. No one seemed to react (or I didn’t really notice it). I could feel the next contraction coming, so I yelled for daddy to come so I could grab his hand. He had to quickly move to the other side of the bed.
That first contraction brought you really close to entering the world. One of the nurses told me she could see that you had a full head of hair.
The break between that contraction and the next one felt like two minutes, but daddy told me it wasn’t any longer than the others. One of the nurses told me that with the next contraction I was only going to push the head out and then I needed to stop so the doctor could make sure the shoulders weren’t going to get stuck and that the cord wasn’t wrapped around your neck. I heard her, but I was also thinking “HA!”
With the next push, you entered the world!
The doctor put you on my stomach. The umbilical cord was so tight that I couldn’t move you. So I started asking, “Is it a boy or a girl?” No one had looked, and I still couldn’t move you. I think I told someone “Lift a leg and find out!”
That’s when we found out you were a little girl. I was so overwhelmed, and so thankful that you were breathing and alert!!
They covered me up enough to get some pictures so that daddy could cut the cord. They also took a picture of the three of us. You were covered in a white “glue” looking substance that the nurses called cheese.
After delivering the placenta, I was able to hold you for roughly an hour. During that time the OB stitched me back up. I had second degree tears, just like I did after the first delivery.
Unlike your big brother, I had no idea what to name you. Daddy and I had narrowed the name choices down to two names. Since I did all the shots, carried you for nine months, and pushed you out – it was my choice. But I had no idea…
About an hour after you were born, everyone left the room so the three of us could have some privacy. That’s when I handed you to daddy. At one point I looked over at him and asked how you were doing, by name. I sort of laughed and told daddy, “I think we just named her.” He was ok with it, so that’s how we officially decided on your name.
Shortly after midnight we called your grandparents to let them know you had arrived. We told them we’d see them on Wednesday.
The rest of our hospital stay was uneventful. We moved to the recovery room and you stayed in the nursery. I didn’t fall asleep until almost 3am that night and was up again by 7 the next morning.
Wednesday you got to meet your grandparents, big brother, a family friend, and one great aunt. The entire stay was sooo much less eventful and easier than your big brother birth. Thank goodness!
Thursday morning it looked like a blizzard was coming in. Both my OB and your pediatrician came in before 8am so check us out so we could get on the road. We were discharged later in the morning, made a quick stop at Taco John’s for lunch, and then we were able to head home before the storm hit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
