June's due date was the 20th, so we set an induction date for the 21st (duh). It was kind of a no-brainer. She dropped pretty low in the weeks before her due date and I had a lot of pain walking, so I thought for a while there that we might not make it to her due date! But we did. The week before I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced, which is more dilated than I've ever been at that stage before, so I made sure to take it easy the last week as much as possible.
They called us on the morning of the 21st at about 7:00 AM and told us to come right in. I called my mom to let her know, and she said she'd get ready and meet us there. We got to the hospital about 7:30 and started the check in process, which took some time. I got into my gown, they got an IV started, gave me a whole bag of fluids and then started Pitocin at about 8:30.
At 8:45, Dr. Brown came in to break my water. That was the most painful part of the whole day, ha! Apparently I had like four layers of membrane, and she had to keep going back in with the hook to try to break another layer. Oy! She said my water was never ever going to break on its own, ha ha. They let me contract for a while, and I told them I was ready for an epidural. When they went to call the anesthesiologist, he was in a C-section, so we had them turn down the Pitocin while we waited for him. I did not plan on having this baby without the epidural!
At about 9:45 the anesthesiologist finally arrived and gave me the epidural. Then the nurse turned the Pitocin back up a little bit and they let me contract. My mom and Chris and I sat and visited and passed the time. At about 10:45 AM the nurse checked me and I was still at 2 cm. Chris was a little disappointed because he thought the baby was going to be here by 10:00 AM. Ha. Lunch rolled around and they checked me and I was at a 5. Chris walked over to get lunch at Costco (he kept saying how cold the room was and how he was glad to go walk out in the 100-degree heat to warm up, but I thought the room felt delightful!). After he came back my mom went down to the cafeteria and ate lunch.
At about 1:25 the nurse came in and checked me and I was at a 7. She suggested we roll me to my other side, so we did. As soon as she did that, I had two big contractions that I could "feel" through the epidural, and then I felt a ton of pressure. We called her back in to check me and sure enough, I was complete! The room had already been set up so they called Dr. Brown down and she got there pretty quickly. As she was prepping the bed, they rolled the mirror over and I could already see all of her hair! It was crazy. I wasn't even having a contraction, but Dr. Brown said, "How about you give a little push?" I gave one push and her head came right out. With a second push her shoulders came out (which were a little broad and I ended up needing like two stitches), and she was here! They put her right on my chest and rubbed and rubbed her because she was still a little purple. She was so mellow that she didn't even cry at first but finally she let out a few screams to get all the gurgles out.
She nursed wonderfully right away and has been such a mellow baby. Her sucking reflex is so strong that the nurses in the nursery gave her a binky to suck on to give me a little break, ha ha.
June is such a little piece of heaven and we are so glad to have our rainbow baby here safe and sound!
