Birth Story

I have been meaning to write this out before I forget the details... So here it goes.

After two weeks of trying every possible natural remedy to induce labor, and even scheduling to be induced... Archer made it very clear that only he would decide when he was coming into the world.

I was scheduled to be induced last Tuesday. I had a difficult recovery after Keating so my Dr and I thought that delivering at 39 weeks would be best. On Monday afternoon we packed up Keating and his sleepover gear and brought him to my parents house. We were scheduled to arrive at the hospital at 5:30 am Tuesday morning. An early morning in labor and delivery didn't seem like a fun time for Blue, so off to my parents he went. On our way home we decided to stop at a new restaurant for a last minute date night. After-all, We would be home bound for a good while starting the following day.

After wrapping up dinner, we came home and went to bed around 10:30pm. At 11:30 I woke up to contractions that began at 3 minutes apart. I laid there for a few minutes to see if it was like the false labor contractions I had a few days before. The contractions stayed steady for over an hour and got even stronger. I made the call to the on-call Dr. and let her know I was coming in. Naturally the Dr on call was the only one in the practice I had never seen.

I woke up Brad and let him know we should go to the hospital. He thought it was morning and we had slept through our alarm clocks, but in reality he had only been asleep for an hour. (my labors just love to start in the middle of the night where we get no sleep)

Upon arriving to the hospital at 1am I was greeted by a not so friendly nurse that looked down her nose at me when she learned I was scheduled for an elective induction the following day. She told me that I was only 3cm dilated and would need to walk the halls for an hour before they would give me a room. I began walking the halls and contractions increased to every two minutes. Thankfully another nurse was kind enough to get me in a room at the 45 min mark. At that point I was contracting every minute and having back labor....( Which if you have never experienced it, it kicks regular labors ass. )The most miserable pain I've ever had. I was checked again at 2am and at 4cm. At that point, They gave me an epidural that offered a little relief. An hour later I had progressed to 8cm. I began feeling a lot of pressure and the nurse said that he was coming too quickly, that the epidural couldn't keep up. Just the words I wanted to hear! At 3:30 I was at 9cm and told the nurse that I needed to push. They quickly got the room ready for delivery and at 4am I was ready. I pushed for ten minutes and Archer was here.

It is crazy how fast everything happened. I went from 3cm to giving birth all within three hours. As they wheeled my bed past the nurses station on the way to the recovery floor, I held my little bundle proudly for the nurse that didn't take me seriously to see.

I'm so thankful that it was a quick process, because I'm not sure I could have done it if it was any longer. I am still recovering from the "quickness" of it all. There was a little bit of tearing but nothing near as traumatic as the third degree episiotomy I got last time. My unknown on call Dr ended up being fantastic, and she allowed my body to work on its own without jumping to cut anything.

Thank you to everyone for reading about my pregnancy the past few months, and for offering kind encouraging words. I truly appreciate it.