I was scheduled to be induced on Friday 8/20 at 4am, but figured I would NEVER make it that far without going into labor. Little did I know. Then, Friday rolled around, and I called labor and delivery to see if they were ready for me. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a bed ready, so we started the waiting game. I tried ALL of the things to get my labor going. Including walking, and walking, and walking some more. On one of those walks, it was drizzling and I (stupidly) was wearing rubber sandals. A car started to drive past me, and I stepped up onto the red-painted curb to get out of the way. Rain, a painted surface, and rubber shoes made for a slippery situation, and I went down HARD. The poor driver of the car must have been terrified to see a heavily pregnant woman go down like she had just stepped on a banana peel. He pulled over and asked if I was okay. Embarrassed, I quickly reassured him that I was fine. He went on his way, and I hobbled back to the house where I immediately burst into tears. I showered my wet, muddy body, and laid down. Baby boy gave me some reassuring kicks after a while, and I calmed down knowing that he was okay.
We finally got the call on Saturday 8/21 at noon that labor and delivery were ready for us. Upon arrival, I immediately got a cervical check. I was only at a 1 and baby was still very high. I, of course, was disappointed. I had wanted to go into labor on my own SO badly. There is something so exciting about feeling those contractions come on knowing that baby is on its way. I had that experience with my first two, so I had naively assumed the same thing would happen this time around. So, to get to the hospital and find out that I was not in a labor at all? Another disappointment. But, I rallied and decided that I would change my attitude and take things as they came, without disappointment.
My doctor decided (since this was my third baby) to skip the cervical ripener and go straight to pitocin, which they started at 3pm. Within an hour, my water broke. I had polyhydraminos, so the amount of fluid that came out of me was INSANE. It just kept coming and coming, and we were all laughing about it. They checked me again at 6:00 and I was at a 3. By 8, the contractions had started to pick up and I had progressed to a 5. I had been holding off on an epidural because I didn’t want to be stuck in my bed, but by 9:30, I was ready. The anesthesiologist started my epidural at about 9:45, and my blood pressure dropped really low almost immediately. I guess it’s pretty common, but it was the WEIRDEST feeling. They gave me a shot of something (I don’t remember the name) to stabilize my blood pressure, and it worked quickly. After that, the epidural was perfect. I asked them to keep it low because I like to be able to move my legs and feel my contractions. I just like it to take the edge off the pain. My nurse checked me again right after getting my epidural, and I was at a 6.5. Within 20 minutes of that check, things started to escalate, and my nurse could tell I was in transition. She checked me, and sure enough, I was at 9.5 with only a small “lip” of my cervix left. At that point, she stopped the pitocin and called my doctor. I thought for SURE, I would be pushing at any minute. But, things slowed down after the pitocin was stopped. By 11:30 (1 hour after my last cervical check), the nurse decided to have me try pushing so that we could get past the last little “lip” of my cervix and get to a 10. I pushed for half an hour, but the doctor came in and said to take a break so that we didn’t increase the risk of swelling or injury. I was still at 9.5, and baby obviously wasn't quite ready. They started the pitocin again, and the pressure really started to build. An hour later, at about 1:30, I felt the urge to push. My nurse checked me, and then had a colleague check me, and neither one could feel the lip anymore. BUT, the second nurse said that she could feel that baby was sunny side up. The doctor came in a few minutes later and confirmed. She wasn’t worried about it and assured me that babies often “spin” as they come down the birthing canal. But, she did warn me that it could take longer for delivery because of baby’s positioning. I started pushing at 1:35 am. It was slow, hard work, and I was in quite a bit of pain, but baby made his way down, and his head was almost out. As my doctor had predicted, he had turned to the right position during his descent. I waited for a contraction and was able to push most of his head out. I stopped to take a break and wait for the next contraction, but his heart rate plummeted with him stuck in that position (with his head halfway out), so the doctor and nurses told me that baby was struggling and that I needed to push without the help of a contraction. One more push, and his head was out, followed immediately by the rest of his body. My mom announced, “it’s a boy!” And everyone else (the nurses and the doctor) were stunned by how big he was. The doctor exclained, “that’s not a newborn, that’s a toddler,” and we all had a good laugh. They put him on my chest for skin-to-skin, and he immediately started crying. He calmed down quickly, and five minutes later, he was rooting. He latched on and started nursing beautifully. We all took bets on how much he weighed, and an hour later, they announced his stats: 9 lbs. 9 oz. and 23 inches long. He was a BIG boy.
Life with our Beau has been a dream ever since. He has the calmest disposition, and is content pretty much all the time. He is so patient as we navigate our busy life with three kids, and rarely makes a peep as he is shuffled from school drop off to school pick up every day. He is always smiling, and like his big brother, would be the world's easiest baby...if only he would sleep.
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