My husband said he really wanted Emilia to be born by the end of the week. I didn’t find that wish to be likely. I had needed to be induced with my second daughter and my body was following in similar footsteps to that pregnancy. I was 1 centimeter dilated and 50% effaced, I was mentally preparing myself to make it to 40 weeks.
I went in Friday for my weekly non-stress test (NST). I am high risk due to complications with my first pregnancy. The week prior Emilia’s heart rate dipped once and the Dr had mentioned that if that happened again during that NST I’d need to go get further monitoring at the hospital. I thought my NST was going great this week, she was moving around a lot and her heart sounded strong to me. Right when I was about to go, the nurse told me that the Dr wanted to talk with me, but not to worry. I’ve heard this before.
The Dr came in and told me I was going to be having a baby today. That was not the news I wanted to hear. I assumed he was going to schedule me for an emergency C-section since that’s what had happened with my first. He said that Emilia’s heart rate dropped again and since I was past 37 weeks he was going to induce me. He didn’t like seeing it drop two weeks in a row. He asked me when I could get to the hospital and I told him in two hours, so he scheduled me to go in and get induced at 1 PM. I walked out of the office, got in my car, and called my husband. I immediately started crying because I was worried something was wrong, and I was also worried I was going to end up having a c-section again because of how early they were inducing me.
When I get home everything is a craze. My two daughters are running around, I’m trying to pack our bags for the hospital, and Tanner (my husband) is calling his mom telling her what is going on and asking her to help us. We needed our daughters to be watched while we went to go have Emilia, but it was the day that everyone was arriving for a family reunion that my MIL was hosting. It was going to be a crazy weekend.
Despite all that was going on at my in-law’s house, they were able to take our girls, and Tanner and I headed to the hospital. Once at the hospital, we signed in and went up to the delivery room. I got changed into the hospital gown and sat on the bed. The realization hit me that I was stuck here until I had a baby. I couldn’t leave. I wished I could go into labor on my own and come to the hospital on my own terms for once. Why was it that every time I had a baby it was never because my body sent me into labor?
The nurse got my IV started and then my Dr came in. He told me that he was feeling very positive about this induction and did not think it would end in a c-section. I had never heard of someone who was attempting a VBAC being induced before 39 weeks and I wasn’t quite 38 weeks, so I was very skeptical.
After my Dr left the nurse checked me and I was still at a 1 and maybe 60% effaced. She then started the pitocin. When it comes to induced VBACs they do very low dose Pitocin so they started me at a 2. I didn’t feel much of an effect from that so they gradually upped the dosage to a 4, then after another couple hours I was at a 6. At around 5 PM they checked me and I was up to 3 centimeters dilated which meant I got to skip the foley bulb (YAY!).
I asked the nurse if my neighbor was working that night and she said yes, so I requested for my neighbor to be my night nurse. We are good friends and she’s always been so supportive of me, so I knew I wanted her to be my nurse.
At 6 PM the nurse shifts switched and it was now my neighbor who was my nurse for the night. She knew I had originally wanted to go natural, but with the Pitocin in me, I didn’t want to attempt to go natural anymore, but she was still super supportive of my wanting to do that. I had the shakes so bad and was not in a good headspace for natural, though. My neighbor was amazing and said no big deal, let’s work on ways to get your labor moving along.
So for the next few hours I walked in a circle, bounced on a ball, and would squat during contractions to encourage Emilia to move down lower. I found walking to be the most comfortable for me, and I didn’t feel much discomfort when walking either. When I’d lay on my left side that’s when contractions got more uncomfortable.
My Dr came in around 9 and told me at around midnight he wanted to break my water so I should get an epidural before they broke my water. I was well aware of the fact that contractions were a lot more uncomfortable once my water was broken, so I agreed.
I got my epidural around 11:45 and cried while they gave it to me because it stung more than the last time I had one. I’m also a big crier and was still feeling super anxious. After that I was checked and was dilated to a 5/6 and was 70% effaced. My Dr came in and broke my water and suspected I’d have Emilia early in the morning. He also told my neighbor, the nurse, to not do any practice pushes with me because my babies come out very quickly.
After my Dr left my blood pressure started to tank. I was not surprised by this and warned the nurse that this would happen. She was surprised by how low my blood pressure dropped, but after about half an hour they were able to get my blood pressure where it needed to be. Now that everything was stabilized the goal was to let me get some rest, then get the baby lower.
At around 4 in the morning, the nurse checked me and I was at a 7 and close to 90% effaced. My nurse and another nurse came in every 30 minutes after that and used a peanut ball to help put me in positions to speed up the process of labor.
I was feeling a lot more pressure and light cramping at around 5:30 AM, but it wasn’t pressure to push it felt like the epidural was wearing off. But it wasn’t terrible pain, just made me nervous to push. At around 6 AM is when I felt the pressure to push. I called in my nurse and she told me I was almost a 10, but still had some cervix in the way. She asked me to give a little push during my next contraction. While I pushed she moved the last bit of cervix out of the way. She also said I moved the baby down a lot with that push and not to push again until the Dr got there.
Now the room was bustling, and I woke my husband. The Dr was going to let my husband catch the baby because I really wanted him to do that. I thought it was important for either my husband or me to be the first one to hold our little girl. Tanner got suited up in the same gear that the Dr had on and it was time to push.
I was nervous to push because the epidural was not as strong as I wanted it to be. I felt a lot more than I wanted. But after two pushes Emilia was out, and she was crying. Tanner and I were a little shocked because it happened so fast.
They placed Emilia on me right away. That is something I didn’t get to experience with my first two. So I enjoyed every second of snuggling my newest baby girl. She was so cute and petite. The Dr did delayed cord clamping, which is something I wanted but forgot to ask him to do, so I was so grateful to him for automatically doing that.
I did have some stitches, but nothing too bad. My Dr was able to stitch me up while I tried and nurse Emilia. After she nursed for a bit they took her and weighed her and she was 7 lbs 8 oz. Had she come on time she probably would have been closer to 9 lbs.
After an hour or two we were moved to a recovery room. I was so exhausted. It was my best delivery, but my longest labor. We spent a few hours napping at the hospital before my husband went to go grab our two older girls.
Lillian came in very happy and excited to see Emilia. Natalie had no idea what just happened, but she loves babies and was very intrigued by her new baby sister. They both took a turn holding her, then we ate lunch and the girls watched a movie while we all spent time together as a new family of 5.
It’s been six months since we had our little Emilia, who we call Emi. She was born at 6:59 AM on July 9th, and has been such a perfect addition to our family. The transition from 2 to 3 has been the best transition for me, personally. I feel so much joy seeing our girls and how much they love each other and have grown more into the roles of being big sisters.
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