Hellooooo internets!!! So glad to see you 😉. We have been very busy around here the past few months, and I have so much to get off my mind into cyberspace. But I guess I must start with the birth story of our second perfect baby girl before I start to forget the details! (Just a heads up in typing this out on my phone so sorry in advance for any typos!! I also apologize for my horrendous grammar, although I don't have an excuse for that one. 😬)
Quinnie's birth story!
With my first daughter I went earlier than the due date I received from the doctor (even though I thought the date would be a bit later). Of course this made me quite anxious for when my second would decide to make her appearance. Even though my first labor was not at all fast (and I had lost my mucus plug about 4 days in advanced) I couldn't help but worry a bit that labor would come on fast and there would be no one around to watch my almost three year old daughter. My parents live two hours away and my husband travels that far away for work each day. I worried a lot about Travis being at work when I was in labor and not knowing when to call him home, or keeping him home from work for a false alarm the first time too but this time having another little being added a new level of anxiety. Thankfully I have some wonderful mommy friends that live close by that reassured me they were there in case of an emergency, no matter the time.
This baby however did not come early, and May 3rd came and went. Which actually didn't really surprise me because, as with my first, I actually had a different date in my mind. Because I had charted to get pregnant I pretty much knew my conception date, and based on the chart's due date estimate, I was due May 8th. Despite my confidence in the chart, I began to doubt myself and my body's ability to labor, enter a new stress. You wouldn't think that 5 days difference would be enough time to worry that much, but it was. I was not a first time mom, I knew I should be savoring the last days with only one child, but I couldn't help but stress that I might have to be induced. I had not had ANY warning signs. No dropping, no substantial Braxton hicks or "practice contractions", no mucus plug. My midwife started checking my cervix at about 36 weeks I think and every time she would say it was open 1cm and still very high. I actually remember one time saying I might have had some Braxton hicks but I didnt know if it was just wishful thinking and my midwife saying "your still high but you are one cm so it probably was" and then I was thinking, "well that's exactly what you said last time". Needless to say I still had my doubts. Now, I did read that second and subsequent pregnancies don't actually drop until labor starts, and, while the cervix effaced and then dialates with first time moms, the cervix of multiparas efface and dialate at the same time. Not to mention that every women is different and every labor is different! So it made sense I hadn't had any prelabor signs. Still my midwife was always a bit negative about the fact my cervix was still so high. That, coupled with her talking about induction before I was even at my due date had me uneasy. To be fair she didn't say she would worry until a week after my due date but it just mad me feel nervous even discussing it! I didn't want to end up in a c section even more this time. Even though i had less of a stigma around it in my mind than I probably did this time, I just didn't want to have to be in the hospital and away from my daughter longer. Anyway, I was still holding out for May 8th, and I flat out told my midwife (multiple times) I thought that was a more accurate date and wouldn't want to even decide anything until that date. So we had an appointment that morning Monday, May 9th to discuss setting an induction date or refusing it and doing the non-stress test/ ultrasound route.
Well May 8th, Mother's Day, came and still I had almost 0 prelabor signs. I did have two nights where I woke up with contractions but as soon as I got up they went away. But still: progress! I also thought I might have lost a bit of mucus plug but it was not very much and no bloody show so I figured nothing immediate was going to come of it. I have to admit I was pretty bummed all Mother's Day! Once it got to the weekend and I knew Travis was going to be home I was so ready for labor! And what better day to have a new baby than on Mother's Day! But by the afternoon it was obvious we weren't going to have a baby that day. I did get a really great belly movement video though! So there I am, the last one awake Sunday night and I did have a bloody show!! I don't remember if I had minor contractions before that or if they came after but I do remember I went to bed thinking it was going to be soon and I might as well get as much sleep as possible. That turned out to be an hour of sleep before I was woken up with pretty strong contractions. I think I walked around a bit to make sure they didn't go way like the previous episodes had and then eventually decided it was the real deal and I got in the shower. Well that felt good but boy were the contractions strong. It was somewhere around 11pm and I didn't know if I could make it all night like I hoped before I called my parents. I decided to call them so they would be here to watch Kylie in case I had to go to the hospital in the middle of the night. Travis ended up waking up and just kinda being with me. The contractions were pretty painful but sitting on the ball helped. In retrospect I should have just got back in the shower. My parents got there somewhere around 2am and then we did decide to go to the hospital. I really wanted to stay as long as possible because I prefer to labor at home but also because I wanted to be there when Kylir woke up and tell her we were going to have her baby sister! But I also wanted my parents to be able to go back to sleep for a while and figured that wouldn't really be possible while we were there.
So off we went to the hospital and my contractions just about stopped 😑. I was thinking great I made my parents come down and we are going in the middle of the night and it will be for nothing! We also had to check in at the security desk and the security man said something along the lines of "so you think your in labor" and I said "I think so"! I was feeling a bit unsure of myself then! We got checked in a security, and then went upstairs to labor and delivery. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones there other than the nurses. It was about 4am or so and they had to turn on the machine and get it started which took seriously close to an hour. Then another half hour to get all my info in. Meanwhile, my contractions had pretty much stopped. I was really worried now, and I could tell the nurse thought she was just going to end up sending me home. Well, she checked and was surprised to find I was a 6cm. I tested strep b positive this time so I had to be hooked up to an IV to received the meds for that. I had asked if I could walk around later and she seemed slightly taken aback, and told me she wasn't sure but she would ask. I pressed my case and told her that it had been no problem with my first daughter. She came back with aprroval but also said to be careful and not stray too far because "we don't want the baby to slip out" or something. I was thinking ah ya that's not going to happen.
They did a staff change at 7am, which was good because I could tell the other nurses were quite tired and done with their shifts. My next nurse was pretty great. She wasn't as old or mothering as one of the nurses I had with Kylie, but she was a nice strong, supportive presence, and she was awesome to me even though I was practically kicking her during pushing.
Labor itself was different than with Kylie because I couldn't walk around as much due to construction so I didn't actually enjoy it because I felt like I was evesdropping on the nurses. So I tried to walk around in my room as much as possible and sit on the birthing ball but the contractions were not as strong. I found it ironic that with Kylie everyone told me we would wait to break my water as long as possible but for Quinn's birth they were talking about breaking my water right away. They just had to wait til I got the second round of antibiotics for the strep b, which they didn't end up actually waiting, they broke it about a half hour before when it became apparent there would be time for the IV to be administered. Like I said, labor wasn't as strong in the hospital as it was at home and I was not making much progress. Marcia and Bruce got there and I was trying to tell them to go shopping and not wait because it seemed like it might take a while. Although, the nurses kept saying "baby by noon", I was very skeptical.
They eventually recommended pitocin, which I took since I had last time and this time really wanted things to go faster since Ky was at home. That was probably around 11am. It did get pretty intense fast after that. I almost think contractions might have been starting to get stronger on their own because I remember thinking there were certain positions I didn't want to sit in because it was making them strong and hurt. But, make no mistake, the pitocin stepped up labor to a new level. It was very VERY painful and I was just laying there looking up at the ceiling for the first half of the contraction because it was so much force I felt kinda out of control and like all I could do was endure it and not break. Once it peaked, I could breath through the second half of contractions and felt somewhat in control. I remember thinking omg there is no way I can do this for long, but I didn't really have to because by 12am we were pushing. Like with Kylie, laying on my side was not fun, and I had a "lip" of cervix that was being difficult. So I was rotating from side to side. I think at some point my body just pushes because it is kinda a pain blocker. If I would stay in one position long enough I would feel like pushing and that is what happened on my right side but I couldn't help it, my body was pushing. I told the nurse and at that point she went to get Barbie the midwife. When Barbie came in she checked and said the lip could be pushed so she told me to lie on my back and push. This part was very weird because once I got to my back, I no longer felt the urge to push. So, it was very bizarre. Of course it hurt and I was going slightly crazy screaming and pushing my legs. At one point her head was like halfway out and I had to take a breath before I pushed again and that was the worst pain. But she came out in two pushes I believe (my nurse said the baby "shot" out) so the pain was short lived. Ah to be over with labor!! The "high" you get from just returning to normal after being in prolonged agony hahahaha.
They brought her to my stomach and I said "she's so small" and the midwife said "well, she's a good sized baby". She was 7lbs even and 20in long. We thought she might be the big child of the family, it looks like that might not be true (fairly small now at one) but she still has many years of growing left to do. She was crying quite a bit and I was trying to nurse her but I couldn't get her to reach because of the umbilical cord. The nurse was also getting annoyned because she had to give me more pitocin and I wasn't really listneng because I was admiring my brand new perfect baby. woops! Travis cut the umbilical cord, I nursed her and life has been amazing with our littlest girl ever since!
I called Kylie to come and see and I thought she would be most excited to see me. I had read to have it just be you in the room first and then to bring the baby. So I did, but when Ky got in the room she could have cared less about me and was looking all around for the baby (including behind the furniture). One of my favorite memories.
The nurses all thought I was crazy because I didn't want to stay two nights but then in thet middle of the night I hear two "code blues", someone died. :/ Travis was still getting over a gold and hacking up a lung, I thought they were going to kick him out haha. He went home the next morning to get Kylie and we all went home as a family around 12-1pm the next day. The weather was beautiful and it was a lovely spring day. Best feeling of my life, going home with my perfect new family.
