Neither my doctor nor myself thought I’d see Avery’s due date without having Avery. The weeks leading up to it, I was already dilated 4-5 cm, practically half way there. Unfortunately, Avery’s due date came and went, and I was scheduled for another induction on Friday 2/20/15.
I was pretty nervous about having to be induced again. I kept imagining Kenzie’s 36 hour labor all over and was dreading it. We dropped Kenzie off at Sarah’s first thing in the morning. It was hard kissing my baby good-bye, knowing I wasn’t going to see her that night.
We made a quick pit stop at Panera for some pastries for our nurses and a bagel for myself. Then we headed to the hospital, getting there around 10am.
They had me in a bed with Pitocin starting around 11:00am. I kept mentioning it to the nurses that this was going to be a long labor and they kept saying they thought it was going to be a lot quicker since it was my second pregnancy and I was already so far along.
I had decided ahead of time to try to labor as long as possible without my epidural. I knew they had a reputation of slowing down labor so I decided to try to do without it.
Around 3pm my doctor came in to check on me. I was still only 4.5cm dilated and she mentioned breaking my water. Last time this happened, I still labored for 24+ hours and Kenz got an infection. I told her I wanted to wait and she said she’d come back in a couple of hours to check me then.
I talked to my nurse and she really thought breaking my water was the right thing to do at this time. She reminded me this was not the same pregnancy as my last one. I was already further dilated naturally and second pregnancies always go quicker than the first.
Around 6:15pm, my doctor came back and confirmed I was 5cm dilated. She repeated what the nurse had already said, that breaking my water would help progress the labor and we decided to go ahead and do it. The doctor also mentioned that my water was already bulging so it was close to breaking on its own.
Both my doctor and nurse warned me that the contractions would become more intense now that my water was broken. They even positioned me sitting up with my heels touching to help further dilate me. They asked if I wanted my epidural which I said I’d wait on. The next few minutes were tough. The contractions were coming every 1 to 2 minutes and felt incredibly intense. Around 6:30pm, I asked for my epidural. The nurse called and unfortunately confirmed the anesthesiologist was already on a case, and wouldn’t be here for 45 mins to 1 hour.
My nurse’s face fell, and I wanted to cry. The contractions were so intense I had to do the breathing techniques they taught in birthing class. I gathered up everything inside of me and reasoned with myself, I could do anything for an hour. If the contractions were coming every 2 minutes that meant approximately 30 contractions before the anesthesiologist would be there. Thirty didn’t sound too bad I told myself and from that moment, I started to count down.
Around 7:30pm, the anesthesiologist showed up and I was sooo happy. He quickly did his thing and by 8pm I was feeling great!
Around 9pm I gave Jeff the signal that I was tired and hoping to take a nap. Around 9:30pm, my nurse came in to check on me so Jeff walked his mom and brother’s girlfriend out. My doctor showed up shortly after and checked me, announcing I was 9 and three quarters dilated, only a small lip of my cervix was stopping me from pushing. I was SHOCKED! In 3 short hours I had progressed so quickly I was going to meet my baby that night!
Jeff came back in the room and the nurse mentioned I was 9.5 cm dilated. He laughed a bit and said no really, where is she at. My doctor then confirmed I was ready to push. Poor Jeff was just as shocked as I was! My doctor left to complete some final paperwork and came back shortly after 10pm.
Because my epidural worked so well, the doctor had to tell me when to push. Unfortunately Avery’s heartbeat was staying low during the entire time I was pushing so after 15ish minutes, the doctor advised she was going to use a vacuum to assist. I was so overwhelmed, I knew there were some concerns about using a vacuum but could not think of what they were. She must have saw my face because she mentioned the possible side effects and then prepped the vacuum. During the next set of pushes, I felt a relief of pressure and all of a sudden Avery was plopped onto my stomach.
She actually caught me by surprise because my eyes were closed! My sweet girl was born at 10:22pm with a head full of hair, dark hair! She weighed 8lbs, 4oz and measured 19 inches long. Jeff cut the umbilical chord and the nurses cleaned her off right on my chest.
They took her to the warming table after a few minutes to complete their measurements. My doctor finished delivering my placenta and then stitched me up. I ended up with a third degree tear.
Once she was measured, we enjoyed an hour with our sweet girl. I nursed her for a majority of it and drank in her beautiful face during that time. The nurse bathed her right in our room after I was done.
Shortly after Jeff ran out to get our bags and the nurses prepped me to move all of us to a recovery room. Once we were moved, we settled in for the rest of the night with our newest family edition.
Welcome my sweet Avery!
