Our sweet baby’s due date (or “guess date” rather) was September 18th, 2019. From the very beginning of my pregnancy, I just had this feeling she would be late. I started to lay out items for my hospital bag a couple weeks before, just in case she decided to come early. Once I hit about 39 weeks, we figured it was time to actually put everything in our bags and have it pretty much ready to go.
At this point at each doctor’s visit, I still wasn’t dilated which wasn’t a huge surprise to me because I felt 100% normal (other than constant back ache that I had the whole second half of my pregnancy). After making it to 40 weeks, Austin and I went in for my doctor’s visit, and they did an ultrasound and cervix check. The ultrasound showed everything was looking great. The tech laughed when she saw the full head of baby’s hair on the ultrasound screen. After the ultrasound, we went back to see the doctor for a cervix check and were also hoping for a membrane sweep to speed things up (she wasn’t able to do this at 39 weeks because I wasn’t dilated). Unfortunately, at this 40 week visit, I still wasn’t dilated, so once again she wasn’t able to do the sweep.
At this point, she suggested we go ahead and schedule an appointment to come back in the follow Monday morning, September 23rd (It was Tuesday, the 17th and my due date was the next day on Wednesday, the 18th) to do another cervical check and a stress test. If I still wasn’t dilated, then we would be checked into the hospital that night to start the induction process.
Last family photo of 3 (Millie counts of course!)
(September 22nd)
Sunday, the day before we would go into the doctor, was my birthday. Austin and I went to dinner to celebrate our last night of just the two of us and when I got home I started to get a headache, which quickly turned into a migraine the next morning. We woke up to head to the doctor that morning, and sure enough, I still wasn’t dilated. So, after my appointment, Austin and I went home to finish up a few last minute things and then headed to the hospital to start the induction process that night.
We checked into the hospital and started Cervadil which was meant to soften and prep my cervix overnight. Contractions started not long after (luckily, I couldn’t feel them at this point). We tried to rest as much as possible that night, although the nurses came in so many times to check the monitor on my belly. The next morning, they removed the Cervadil, and I was only 0.5cm dilated. I had about an hour to shower and eat a light breakfast before they started Pitocin (to officially start induction).
The Pitocin IV was started around 7:10am on Tuesday, the 24th. About 8:45am, my doctor (who luckily was the doctor on call, praise God!) came in to check my cervix again. She said I was about 1cm and went ahead and “stripped my membranes” to speed things up. She said my water would probably break on its own soon. Sure enough at about 11:15am, my water broke! This is when the contractions really started to speed up (I hadn’t really felt any up to this point).
After a little while, the nurse asked if I wanted to go ahead and get the epidural. It seemed a bit early and although the contractions were painful, I didn’t think they were that unbearable yet. However, I didn’t want to risk it being too late if things continued to speed up. So, she went ahead and called the anesthesiologist. About 12:45pm I got the epidural. (Side note: I was only allowed to have fluids and Italian ice while on Pitocin, and only ice chips with the epidural. Another reason I wanted to wait before getting it). At this point, I was of course confined to the bed, since I was numb below the waist.
About 2:30pm, I was only 2cm. The Pitocin had been on the highest level (24). I was getting a bit discouraged because my body wasn’t naturally picking up on this whole laboring process. The doctor decided to turn off the Pitocin at about 3:50pm to give my body a break and see if things would regulate on their own. It was off for about 20 minutes until they turned it back on. At 6:15pm I was still only 3.5cm. At this point, I was getting super nervous that things just weren’t going to happen on their own. I really wanted to have a vaginal birth and had a fear of having a c-section, since my water had been broken for a little while already, and my body didn’t seem to be naturally progressing.
My migraine had still not subsided and the doctors were giving me as many meds to help as possible, and it just wasn’t going away. At 8:10pm, the nurse took my temperature and I was running a fever of 101.4, which obviously is not good when you are having a baby. We weren’t sure if it was from the migraine or just all the stress on my body. At 9:10pm, it had gone down to 100.5 and then about 9:40pm, the doctor checked me and I had jumped up to 7-8cm! That was such a relief to hear, since I wasn’t progressing much at all earlier in the day. My doctor later told me that she was really glad she stopped the Pitocin for a bit to let my body work its magic.
A bit earlier, I had noticed that my left side was starting to gain back feeling and my right side was number than the left. A new anesthesiologist came in and decided to “re-adjust” my epidural, since he thought it may have veered to the right, causing my right side to be number than the left. Sadly, that didn’t really work.
About 10:30pm, I began to have really bad contractions on the left side in my lower back and front side. The epidural wasn’t covering this pain, and I knew I was getting closer to delivery. At 10:55pm, the nurse checked me and I was 9cm. At this point, the nurse was calling the anesthesiologist again to try to figure out why I was still having feeling on my left side. I continued to “push the button” to increase the medicine.
Finally, the pain started to subside just in time! I could still feel some contractions, except this time I felt a little bit of that pressure that everyone told me about… you know, that “it’s time to push” pressure! I wasn’t sure if it was the real thing or not, but I told Austin he should get the nurse in case this baby came flying out on the next contraction lol!
Luckily, she walked in, told me to get into position, and I said “what are we doing?” She said, “Pushing!” I knew I was close but not that close! It was go time! I freaked out for a second and said, “Ahh, I’m not ready!” Haha, well ready or not, baby was on her way!
After an hour and half of pushing (I know it seems like an eternity, but it went by super fast), my precious baby girl was born at 1:27am on Wednesday, September 25th and placed on my chest. The best feeling ever! I was able to have skin to skin time, and Austin cut the cord.
We were able to lay there, dozing off, while the nurses cleaned and weighed baby Ansley. It wasn’t until about 5am that we switched rooms and headed to the post-partum recovery room. At that point, we had been awake for 24 hours. The nurses took baby girl, and we were able to sleep for about 2 hours.
Since I had a fever at birth, the nurses required us to stay 48 hours after delivery to monitor Ansley to make sure she wasn’t affected at all. Praise Jesus she was all good! During the 2 nights in recovery, the nurses were able to take baby Ansley during the night, so we could sleep and would bring her back every 3 hours, so I could breastfeed. This was such a good idea, since we hadn’t slept in so long.
We were finally discharged Friday morning (got there Monday night). Although, we were there for a long time, it honestly flew by so fast. I knew I was going to be so sad to leave to hospital. Not only because the nurses were so helpful, but because I knew I was never going to get those precious moments back.
Although labor and delivery were long, I wish I could have paused time in that room to soak it all up just a bit longer. I feel so blessed to have had a smooth pregnancy and delivery. I read so many stories and asked all my mama friends about their experiences which was so fun for me to hear, but honestly, I was still a bit terrified going into labor and delivery. Of course, everyone’s stories are different, but I wanted to share mine as a positive hope for anyone that may be nervous going into delivery. It is such a beautiful time and the pain (big or small) is all to bring your new human into the world! The emotions you experience as you prepare to go from just husband and wife to bringing your baby into the world is the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced, and I would do it all 100 times over again. I’m still overwhelmed at how the Lord heard my prayers and delivered them in those moments. Each tiny thing I prayed for was answered, and I truly felt the presence of the Lord protecting our little family every step of the way.
Born on 9/25/19 at 1:27am
7lb 4oz | 20in long
