.: Drake's Birth Story

Drake's birth story requires a bit of a background story. I had 4 ultrasounds this pregnancy. The first was just a quick 5 minute look at around 10 weeks to verify and date the pregnancy. He measured according to what I had thought based off our calculations and was given a due date of November 6th. However, based off of the 3 more high tech ultrasounds done later on, the due date was bumped up to November 2nd. I was not convinced. However, Carter was born 25 mins before his due date, so I tried to put my thoughts aside and trust the doctor and the ultrasound techs since they were basically dead on the first time!

Fast forward to my 39 week appointment...I was 0cm dilated and 70% effaced, which was a bit of a bummer but not much of a surprise. In my pregnancy's so far, I've always had a surefire sign when I start to dilate because I will experience one day where the pressure is so strong that I will basically be bed ridden. It has always just lasted one day, but it is very intense.

Sure enough, at my (almost) 40 week appointment on November 1st, I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced which gave me a bit of hope! Things were progressing! (I also credit some of this to going trick-or-treating with Carter all night the night before, much to the dismay of my husband!) The doctor said things were looking in the right direction but scheduled for me to have a non-stress test anyways that upcoming Friday and scheduled me for an induction the following Monday. My baby boy passed the non-stress test with flying colors and thus began our waiting game. At this point, I was so big and so uncomfortable so it felt good knowing that there would be an end in sight.

I spent the weekend cleaning, getting my first pedicure (thanks Richard!!) and cuddling Carter like it was my job. I was pretty emotional about his days as my only baby coming to a close, but was anxious to meet this new little life. I also had mixed feelings about the possibility of being induced. I had heard that contractions were much more intense with pitocin and although I am a total Type-A planner/control freak... I was hoping labor would come about naturally and spontaneously so I wouldn't have a chance to over think things. The only thing that made me feel better about the situation was that since I was GBS+ this time around, an induction meant that I'd be able to get a full dose of antibiotics that would help protect the baby so I figured it would be for the best.

I went to bed Sunday night with not even one contraction to speak of but with plenty of time to cuddle Carter as my only baby for the last time. I will say, it was nice to be able to have "closure" in that regard. I woke up on Monday, November 7th still very much pregnant so after getting ready and dropping off Carter at my Mom & Dads, Richard and I drove downtown for my appointment at the OBGYN office at 8:45am. After a quick check-up (I was still just 3cm), we were sent across the street to triage! My good friend's Mom (Julie) is a L&D nurse downtown and basically runs the show there so I was SO thrilled when I saw her and found out she'd be my main nurse! Having her there really put my mind at ease and I knew I'd be taken care of.

It was soo surreal just strolling on into the room where I'd have my baby. Everything was such an incredible blur last time that I honestly couldn't even tell you what my delivery room looked like. This time, I got changed into my gown and got comfortable while Julie got me set up with the monitors, my fluids, pitocin and antibiotics. She started me off with a very small amount of pitocin to see how I'd take it and also so that I could for sure get my 1st round of antibiotics in. She noticed that I was having small contractions every 10 minutes or so which made me feel a bit better about evicting this baby :)

By 11:00am I was all set up and it was time to wait. We spent most of the time checking my contractions on the monitor (which was really fun actually!) watching episodes of The Office and filling out my election ballot haha.

The contractions quickly started getting much closer together, but there wasn't any pain to accompany them. Everything just felt tight like the Braxton Hicks I'd been having throughout the last couple of months. Once I got through my antibiotics, Julie said Dr Thomas would come in to break my water to get things rolling a bit. They broke on their own at some point with Carter, so this was my first experience having it done for me. He came around 2:30pm and ohhh man, was it gross. I'll spare you the details on what that was like.

Right after (or before?) my water was broken, he checked my progress and was still only at a 3!!! At this point I had been in the hospital for 3.5 hours (which was basically my whole labor time with Carter) with no progress so I got a little discouraged. To be fair, I wasn't experiencing any pain yet, so I'm not sure what I was expecting. But after hearing that, I was convinced that I'd be there all night so I started actually considering an epidural if things started to get uncomfortable.

After my water broke, things did finally start to pick up, but it was definitely still manageable. I did eventually have to focus through the contractions enough that I put down my annoying ballot and requested to watch more of The Office to distract myself instead. At around 3:15pm I started really squirming through the contractions and wanted nothing more than to get off my back. Richard encouraged me to just get the epidural already since we would probably be there for a while longer and I gave myself until 3:30pm to decide (like it was going to get any less painful? Lol, I'm stubborn) At 3:30pm I decided that enough was enough and Richard put in the order for me.

The anesthesiologist was there in about 10 minutes and I started getting really nervous since I absolutely hate needles. Sitting up and staying still was very difficult when contractions were right on top of each other. In fact, as she was getting my back prepped, I kept saying that I felt a ton of pressure and while I didn't want to admit it, my body was pushing. The anesthesiologist asked Julie if she should just stop but I said to just continue because there's no way I could be anywhere near the point of pushing yet, right?! Wrong again! I really need to start trusting my body because after the epidural was done at like 3:50pm, Julie checked me and sure enough it was go time! 3 or 4 other nurses came in and started hustling around getting everything prepped and Dr Thomas came in shortly after and at 4:09pm after 3 pushes our baby boy was born! I still felt everything so I don't think the epidural had adequate time to really kick in. But my legs were nice and tingly for the next hour and a half and helped me not to feel the stitches. Dr Thomas told Richard that he should just be prepared to deliver our next baby in the car ;)

I have to say, I really was so happy with the after birth experience with the downtown hospital and with Julie. I got to hold Drake immediately after he was born and do skin to skin with him for over an hour and a half before he was weighed and measured. It's also standard for them to delay cord clamping and bathing now which I didn't really care about before hand but I could really tell a difference with Drake and I will make sure it happens with any subsequent births. He was ready to nurse as soon as I held him and latched on right away without a problem and nursed for over an hour. Poor Richard was begging to hold him but I just couldn't get myself to let him go!

My parents brought Carter down to the hospital shortly afterwards and we had some alone time as a family of 4 which was nice. Carter was so sweet and wanted to give baby brother Richard's visitor sticker and feed him some of my chips :) No jealousy at all and honestly not much interest either which was just what I was hoping for!

Drake and I stayed at the hospital for another two days and Richard bounced back and forth with us in the hospital during the day and went home to spend the nights with Carter. Our days were filled with lots and lots of cuddles (and CNN, if we're being honest).