He finally came and we couldn’t be happier! It feels like such a long time since we found out and it was a very different pregnancy for me. This time around we knew in the first trimester and my morning sickness and vomiting lasted beyond delivery – I am still having moments of nausea with foods and have been sick a few times.
Due to my previous back injury coupled with my non-progressing contractions for several weeks, it was decided that an induction at 39 weeks would be best for my body. On Sunday evening, March 25th, we arrived at L&D and where checked in. Because I had worked at this particular hospital for over a year and it was an almost empty unit, my nurse let me pick the labor room. We got the quietest room on the unit, with a great view of the lake out back. It was a little while after we got settled in that my midwife was about to come by to start the induction with a foley bulb.
After that, my husband and I had some dinner, watched a movie and then laid down for bed. Knowing from my labor experience with my daughter, I asked to sleep with a peanut ball. The nurse thought I was a little strange, but I wanted to give my induction the best chances of progressing quickly and near to natural as I could get. Around 1-2 am they started the pitocin at a very low dose to help strengthen my contractions and at 4:45am I felt the need to go to the bathroom and that’s when my foley bulb came out. When they checked me a little while later, I was at 5 cm and well on my way to having William. It wasn’t until later that afternoon around 10 am that my back pain became too unbearable with the contractions.
Knowing I was only at 7 1/2 cm, I decided to get an epidural to help me relax and be able to conserve my strength for pushing. It took almost an hour for the anesthesiologist to come and do the line but it made a world of difference and I was able to sleep until around 1-1:30 pm. When I woke up, the tension in my body was building to the point where I felt like I needed to push soon. I was at 9 1/2 cm but my midwife was tied up with three other women who where about as progressed as I was so it would be a little bit before she got to me.
What followed next was probably the longest half hour of my life. Being told that I needed to hold off on pushing and wait for the midwife to be there was honestly excruciating. I had an epidural yet was trying o not tense and just breathe and not react with my body trying to push my son out by itself. By this point, my water hadn’t even broken yet. The only reason I made it through that period of time, was my husband being in the room, keeping my grounded.
When my midwife finally came in and said I could push, it was a relief!
While I wasn’t fully 10 cm and my water wasn’t broken yet, it was really time to push. She checked me and it cause my water to finally break and I just focused solely on pushing and breathing. Then at 2:21pm, our son, William, was born! He was just as calm and wide eyed as his sister and it was a beautiful moment to feed him and hold him. All round me, nurses and the midwife where working to finish the labor and delivery process and I was just focus on my son and the relief that he was out and in my arms.
We spent two nights in the hospital before coming home, and our daughter was thrilled to have her baby brother out. She still wants to hold him and play with him, and have been such a big help to me as I’m recovering.
