I don’t know what it is, but once I got into “baby mode” baby stories started to fascinate me. So in light of that, I thought I would share my little “squeak”‘s baby story.
At about 36 weeks my doctor checked me and said I was ready to go at any time. At 36 weeks I was dilated to 1 and 50% effaced. Needless to say he got my hopes up – which is never a good thing for an ultra organized planner like me. The next few weeks passed by like molasses in winter time. At 37 weeks I was dilated to 2 and 75% effaced. At 38 weeks I was dilated to 3 and 80-85% effaced. Needless to say, I became restless and scheduled an induction.
I had high hopes that the babe would vacate the womb on his own. But alas, we made it to D-Day. I called into the birthing center at 5:30 a.m. as instructed. The charge nurse said they weren’t ready for me and that I should check back at 7:30. So 7:30 rolled around and I called back, and they were not ready for me. This time they said they’d call me back around 9 to let me know when I could come in. So at 9 a.m. they called and said I had two options, either I could stay on-call all day or they could reschedule me for the next day. In that case, I could still be pushed back again because I was a non-emergency induction. So I chose to stay on-call. Monday was probably the least productive i’ve been in a while. I just kept crawling back into bed, so annoyed with everyone and everything. At 2:30 the hospital called and said, “are you ready to come in?” i’m like “YES!!!!” So we dropped boo off at my SIL’s and rushed (and by rushed I mean we went 35 mph in a 50 because people don’t know how to drive!!!) to the hospital.
Once we got there, things slowed down a bit. We spent 30 minutes in the lobby area, waiting to fill out mandatory hospital papers. Around 3:45 we finally were shown our delivery room. At about 4:15 they started me on some sort of liquid to hydrate me. And around 5 p.m. they finally started the petocin at a level of 2. Lucky for me about an hour later my labor team showed up along with my mom and her husband shortly after. Having people there for conversation made time fly by. At 8:30 visiting hours were over, so the parentals left. Around 9 p.m. I had received my epidural and was all ready for the doctor to come in and break my water. Dr. Kapernick (my doctor) was amazing and I’m so glad I had her for the delivery of this baby. She broke my water around 9:30 p.m. (at that point I was dilated to 4).
Once the water broke we (my three girlfriends and husband) decided to pass the time by with a game of scattegories. 🙂 I love inductions – I was fully dilated by 11 p.m. and didn’t even know it until they checked me. At 11:45 p.m. I started pushing. I was hoping that the baby would pop out after 15 minutes, but alas that did not happen. At 12:40 a.m. on March 27th my healthy baby boy was placed on my chest. At 7 lbs 9 oz, 20 1/2 inches long. He was perfect.
**stop reading now if you don’t want to know the gory details**
Now on to the part that all new moms or moms-to-be love to know. “Did you tear?!” Yes. Unfortunately, I did. Mainly because my little man came out in a superman pose (fist up by head). I experienced a second degree tear, which honestly is a walk in the park compared to my first birth where I had a third degree tear… a degree makes a difference! It took me 6 months to heal from my first birth – and for the entire first month I was taking pain meds. This time, I made it to-day 5 and stopped taking medicine because I simply didn’t need it anymore. What a blessing!
Well that’s my birth story – it is true, at least in my case, that the first one is the hardest and thereafter it’s a walk in the park. 🙂 Enjoy the pictures below!