For me as a personal record, and for anyone who cares about birth stories, here is mine for Ivy:
For the first time ever for me, I was strep B positive with this pregnancy. My doctor was concerned about me getting enough antibiotics before she was born, since Zane came so fast, so we decided to schedule an induction once I hit 39 weeks (I was also SO done being pregnant and was concerned about my parents getting to Omaha in time to watch my other kids). So here I am, at 39 weeks:
Since I knew that on Monday (March 13th) I would be induced, the weekend before I cleaned the entire house, got all of the laundry done, went grocery shopping and had about 14 freezer meals all ready to go (I had worked on those for the month prior).
I was nervous about getting induced (I was really scared of having a C-section), so Ryan gave me a sweet blessing Sunday night where Heavenly Father promised that all would go well, and I felt at peace.
My parents got into town late Sunday night, so Ryan and I woke up Monday morning, showered, got dressed, made sure the bag was packed, and ate some breakfast. We were about to leave when I got the call that the hospital was too full for me and I would have to wait. So I waited and waited, with calls going back and forth, until about 5 pm the hospital called and asked if I was going to come in or not. What? I had been waiting for them to call, as I was told by my doctor to do. It didn’t matter, they still had space for me so I was on my way!
It was weird to get to the hospital and not be in pain or rushed or anything. It took awhile to get things going, so I didn’t get to the induction part until around 7 pm. Once all that started I began to progress pretty well to a 5 or 6. The doctor broke my water and I got my epidural. After awhile, my progression slowed quite a bit, and Ivy was still not very low, like maybe she was at a 1. They put me in all sorts of positions to get me to move along, and I progressed about one more centimeter. Then, around 2 am, my contractions started getting painful. We called the nurse in, she did the extra pump of epidural, but nothing happened, and the contractions were getting even more painful.
For the next hour, I was in the most excruciating pain I have ever felt. I screamed, I yelled, I asked over and over when the anesthesiologist would come and give me more meds, and was generally that crazy woman you see in the movies. The anesthesiologist finally did come, about 2 minutes before I started pushing, and he gave me a big dose of meds, but that never kicked in, even hours later, so I’m assuming the tube got pulled out of my back a little or something when the nurses had pulled me up on the bed when I was changing positions. I don’t know if that is what natural birth feels life, but if it is (or is even worse), I would never, ever in a million years choose to do that.
So, without my precious epidural, I felt the urge to push, but I tried to stop it and hold her in because I just reaaaallly wanted those pain meds. My doctor finally convinced me to just push because it would make the pain go away and I wanted that more than anything. So, I pushed twice through one contraction, and out Ivy came at 2:58 am!
I think because she wasn’t that far down in my birth canal for very long and because she came out in two pushes, her head was super round. I had two different nurses ask me if she was a C-section baby because her head was so round! Also, her head was in the 97th percentile (and still is), so I’m assuming the speed of her descent and her giant head helped contribute to the immense pain I was in.
Ryan cut the cord (his first time ever), and I got to hold her for some skin to skin time for an hour. I knew in those first moments that her middle name should be Adelle, and I knew just how precious she is.
I also knew that I never wanted to be in physical pain again
She weighed 7 pounds, 11.5 ounces and was 20 inches long, and has just been the most precious little princess ever.
The kids loved visiting her in the hospital (they even came twice in our less than 48 hour stay) and were so glad to hear that they could hold her as much as they wanted once we got home:
My parents were awesome and came and stayed for a whole week to take care of me and my kids. I couldn’t have done it without them!
The kids picked out Ivy’s going-home outfit:
Our first picture as a family of six!
One thrilled big sister:
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