Adeline Kate's Birth Story-- Part One

The morning of my induction! Notice sweet Reese on our bed reading Goodnight Moon! ;-)

Last belly pics! Whoa, baby!

The days leading up to my induction were filled with emotions- both good and bad. I cried for no reason one day while driving just looking at Reese in the backseat.  I felt guilty for having another baby.  I worried about not connecting to this baby as I did with Reese. I was extremely excited to meet this new baby, and to finally see her! I was worried about delivery-- would it go smooth? Would it be a nightmare like Reese's delivery? Was this my last pregnancy? I was excited to not feel so horrible each day and be in so much pain, yet I was trying to soak up every last kick and jab that I felt.

I had had my appointment the Thursday before my induction where we had to met with a different doctor since my doctor was doing training at Mass General. At that appointment we learned that I hadn't dilated much more than the week prior and was still at 2cm, but my cervix was softer.  The doctor stripped my membranes again, and scheduled my induction for Tuesday.  After my appointment I was crampy and hopeful that something would happen to trigger labor on my own before my induction.  On Friday I lost my mucus plug in the evening, and began to have contractions.  They were painful enough that I thought they could be the real deal...that is until they stopped at about 3am.

Todd and I were happy to spend the weekend as a family of 3 and make the best of it. We finished last minute projects, I wrote more lists, and we tried to prepare Reese for what was about to happen.

On Tuesday, we dropped Reese off at school, then headed into the city for my 9:30 induction. I would be lying if I told you that I wasn't crying at drop off.  That was the last time that I'd see my little baby girl Reese as an only child.  The next time I'd see her she'd be my big girl, a big sister! On the way there I was so uncomfortable in the car and could not get in a position where I felt good.  The contractions began and were about 7-10 minutes apart.  Once we got the hospital and to my room and got hooked up on the monitors, the nurse was able to see that I was infact contracting on my own.  The doctor came in to do a quick check of my cervix to determine what the best method of induction would be.  My check put me at 3cm dilated, 50% effaced with a soft, low, cervix, and contracting on my own.  We'd be able to skip past any cervadil or citotec or folly balloon, and head directly to pitocin.

By the time all was said and done I started the pitocin at 11am.  Within 15 minutes I was contracting every 2-3 minutes and having painful contractions.  The nurse and doctor both said I could get the epidural whenever I wanted, but I had it in my mind that I'd try to labor through on my own for at least a couple of hours first.  By 1pm I'd had enough because my contractions were so close together that they gave me no real time to rest in between, and so I requested the epi. My epi was in by 1:30.  The process was as smooth as last time with Reese.  And within about 15 minutes the pain seemed to melt away. All was well until about 2:30 when I started feeling a "window" of pain through the epi.  It was the same exact thing (same side and all) that I felt during Reese's delivery.  I told my nurse and she called anesthia to come give me more meds ASAP.  My nurse said that the doctor was anxious to check me and would probably break my water.   No sooner did she say that, and I felt a pop and then a gush of water.  My water had broke on it's own-- again exactly what happened during Reese's delivery. When my water broke with Reese I was 8 or 8.5 cm dilated by that point, so I was pretty anxious to see  how far along I was.

At 3pm I was checked, and the doctor said "How does complete sound?".  I about fell off of the bed.  Say whatttttttt? In 4 short hours I had gone from 3 cm to complete- a far cry from being in labor for 39 hours with Reese. Todd and I were so excited! What an amazing experience we'd had so far.  We were going to meet our little girl soon! There was a commercial for Home Alone (the movie) on the TV in our room for 6:30pm.  Todd and I joked about that being the baby's first movie-- and how ironic because we LOVE Christmas movies and Home Alone is one of our favorites.  Little did we know how things were going to turn out...

To Be Continued...