It was 4:00 am on Thursday, December 29th, 2022. I slept fairly well the night before and felt good when I woke up. I’m naturally an anxious person but surprisingly, this morning I felt a ton of peace. I was incredibly thankful for that! I was up getting ready to head to the hospital and waiting for it to turn 5:00 am. That was the time I had to call the hospital to make sure they were ready for me to come in. I spoke with a super nice nurse and the hospital was ready for us and we were on our way! This is our birth story.
Choosing Our Son’s Birthday!
I was 38 weeks and 5 days and heading to the hospital to meet our son! Due to my “advanced” age of 42 and having gestational diabetes, my high risk doctor opted for an induction somewhere between 38-39 weeks. The neat thing about being induced is that you somewhat get to choose your child’s birthdate! Being that it was the end of December, it was a bit tricky. We wanted to ensure we delivered in 2022 but also wanted to be aware of our son’s thoughts as he gets older if his birthday fell on New Years. We chose to be induced on the 29th thinking the 30th would be his birthday. Obviously, things played out a little different!
Childbirth Checkin Process
The induction process can be a long one…24-36 hours! When it came to our birth story, I thought this would be a large portion of it. Our arrival time at the hospital was 5:45am for our 6:00am induction. There was quite a few thing that took place before they actually started the induction process. Sharing this part of the birth story since it was something I wasn’t aware of.
Up to the 3rd floor we went! Checked in at the desk and they told us to walk down the hall to another desk. We arrived at the desk and she said, “Amanda? We have your room ready! Walk down to 314”. We arrive at 314 and a nurse is standing at the door. I felt very important, LOL. The next step was to change into the hospital gown and another nurse would be in soon.
The next nurse came in and had some paperwork for me to complete and went ahead and hooked up my IV. I had a great vein in my wrist and she said that would be a good spot since it would allow me to move around more freely than if I placed it in my inner elbow area. WORST mistake ever! That was the next most painful thing to my contractions!! Everyone is different but fair warning that it may hurt like the dickens. It also ended up being a bad spot when holding Landon on that side as it would dig into my wrist.
Time To Get Induced!
The time is now 8:30am and we were ready to get things under way! The first step is to have a cervical check to see if there is progression so they know where to start. I was not dilated but was happy to hear I was 80% effaced! To complete 100% effacement, they started me on Misoprostol. This medicine can be taken orally or they can insert at your cervix. I choose to insert at cervix since it had a chance of working faster. Now we wait. They said they would check me again in 4 hours. Around 12:30pm they were back to check me. I needed another dose since there was not a lot of progression.
Now things were moving along. This next cervical check at about 4:30pm my cervix was paper thin. My midwife was able to poke through and stretch me to about 2cm. Now it was time for Pitocin. They hooked me up on my IV and at this time I also had my first dose of antibiotic. The antibiotic was given since I was positive on my GBS screening. Now we wait and the nurse will be back in a couple hours.
Fast and Furious Is An Understatement
In my room there was a medicine ball chair. I decided to sit on that a bit for a change of scenery. I then decided to walk a bit since that can also help labor progress. Tristan pushed my IV around for me while I walked back and forth in the room. I was having a little cramping while I was walking so thought it was helping things move along. The nurse came in the room and said “Girl, do you feel those contractions?! They are 1 1/2 minutes apart. Let’s get you back in bed and stop walking for awhile.”
As I laid in bed, things calmed down a bit and my contractions moved to about 3 minutes apart. This was still really close together considering I was only 2cm. My midwife came in for a cervical check and I was about 3cm. She told the nurse to take me off the Pitocin. She said my contractions were too close together for this medicine and Landon was not reacting well.
My Water Broke!
Time to Deliver!
I was lying in bed talking to Tristan as he sat by my bedside. I was starting to feel a little cramping but nothing major. I then started to feel liquid dripping down and I told Tristan I peed myself! It was sort of a short burst and then it happened again. I kept saying oh my gosh I can’t believe I keep peeing myself. Then all of a sudden there was more of a gush! Now we are getting this birth story started.
At this point the contractions were getting painful..really painful. The nurse came in and I told her I wasn’t sure if I peed myself or if my water broke. The midwife came back for another cervical check. My water indeed broke and I was about 3cm close to 4cm at this point. She said to let them know when I wanted the epidural.
I’d Like The Epidural Right Now
I was trying to hold out. For what, I really don’t know! I guess I wanted to go through as much of the labor as I could naturally. My contractions were back up to about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes apart. They were SO painful and so close together that I told Tristan that I couldn’t go any longer knowing they would keep getting worse.
I told the nurse I was ready for the epidural and she said she would call it right in. What feels like forever passed by. In reality, it was anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. We called the nurse and asked where they were?! The anesthesiologist was in a surgery and they didn’t know when she could come up. I’m sorry, WHAT?!?! There was nothing I could do.
Not long after she came up to the room and administered the epidural. Not long after, I started to feel numbness in my toes on my right side and I could feel less of the contractions on the right. My left side still had full feeling! Tristan pushed the button and gave me another dose. My right side now had no feeling and my left was still full force! One more dose, and still nothing. I have full feeling on my left side and am in so much pain.
The nurse called in another anesthesiologist. He said she has you on half the dose I would have given you. I’m going to give you a boost and then you shouldn’t feel anything. Almost instantly I felt no pain! The contractions now just felt like immense pressure on my butt.
We’re Having A Baby, Like Right Now!
Everything with the epidural happened so fast. I didn’t have a cervical check before or during the epidural process. After I received the boost and was smooth sailing, my midwife came in to check me. Her response was, “We’re having a baby, like right now! I can see the top of his head”. Whoa, what? Wait a minute! I went from 3cm to head crowning during the time of the epidural which all in all was about an hour or so.
The midwife starts giving out her orders and before you know it the bottom half of my bed is gone, feet are in the air, and there are 7 people in the room waiting in their position. It was time to push. Between the 3 pumps of the epidural and the boost shot, I was beyond numb. I had a nurse on each side holding my feet in the stir-ups.
Once a contraction came the nurses lifted my legs up and back and the midwife told me to push! There was only one problem. I couldn’t feel if I was pushing or not, LOL. I kept asking, Am I pushing?? She said you’re pushing and doing great. Keep going!
Something Isn’t Right
After a couple rounds of pushing, I asked Tristan if the epidural was supposed to make you tired. All of a sudden I had felt so lethargic and sort of hard to put sentences together. The next thing I hear is the midwife stopping everything and telling me that my blood pressure is dropping very low. Not what you want to happen in your birth story. She calls for an injection to my IV. Instantly, I felt normal again and we started pushing. That was the weirdest experience. It all happened so fast that I mentally didn’t process it.
Landon Is Here!
Best Part of The Birth Story
The time is 8:58pm and Landon is making his debut. The best part of the birth story. They laid him on my chest and starting checking him to ensure everything was ok. Tristan cut the cord and we were a family of 3! The process of pushing was anywhere from 15 – 30 minutes and the overall induction was 12 hours!! We couldn’t believe and were so grateful that he arrived the same day we went in.
We stayed in the delivery room for a couple hours for skin to skin, for them to check Landon out, weigh him, and make sure everything was ok. Landon was born weighing 6 lbs 9 oz. They assisted me to the bathroom and then we were on the way down to the mother baby room where we would stay until we left the hospital. We headed home around lunchtime on Saturday which happened to be New Years Eve! What a perfect start to 2023 🙂
If you missed my pregnancy recap, read it here!
Find my pregnancy and postpartum must have’s here!
Till Next Time,
