Here's the birth story:
Tuesday when I hit 40 weeks I had my final appointment with my doctor. I went in very anxious and ready to get the show on the road. My induction was set for Oct 30th and I was hoping to move it up to the 26th. The doc changed the induction date and gave me a very thorough membrane sweep. At that point I was 4cm, stretchy to a 5, and 75% effaced. She said she'd be shocked if I made it past 48 hours, but she'd been wrong before.
I went home and played cards with my mother in law and made lunch. At noon I started having contractions ranging from 4-6 minutes apart. The doctor told me to go in to labor and delivery if I had contractions 5 minutes apart for an hour since I was fairly progressed already, she suspected I would go quickly.
I timed the contractions, not dare hoping that they'd stick around but sure enough an hour hit and they were still coming. We got ready to go and my father in law drove me in since Kolt was at work. I headed up to L and D and just knew they would fizzle out by the time they hooked me up. They kept coming and were about 4 minutes apart, but when they checked me I was still 4cm and 75% effaced. The doctor said because I wasn't making any progress they may send me home and she went to go talk to the chief resident. After several minutes the nurse came back in and said "From the three options we discussed earlier (staying, going walking for 2 hours, or going home) which one did I want?" So I said "well I'd like to stay." And she said "Ok, lets go get you checked in." I was so relieved. I did not want to go back home and wait for them to get closer. We went onto the unit and Kolt went to go tell his family what the plan was. While waiting for him the doc came in and we discussed options. She said because I was due and the contractions were regular they were going to keep me, but because I wasn't progressing they would start a low dose of pitocin. I had been hoping to have a med free birth and asked her if I could walk around and then maybe could they break my water. She said that would be fine, so I left the unit to go find Kolt with instructions to come back at 5pm (it was 3:30 at that point). We walked down to the cafeteria and got everyone but me dinner and I paced the room. The contractions weren't getting any closer but they were getting stronger. At 5pm we went back upstairs and I got checked in. Around 5:45 they checked me and low and behold, I was pretty much the same. 5 cm and 75% effaced, -2 station. She said the baby was too high to feel comfortable breaking my water so she wanted to start pitocin. I said I trusted her judgement and I waited to get my IV.
With Leila it ook 4 sticks to get it in, thankfully it only took once this time. They started my pit on 6 (I guess it goes up to 40) and I handled it really well, it hurt but was manageable. After about an hour (so around 7pm) they came in and checked me again. 5cm 75% effaced, -1. Because he'd moved down some they decided to break my water. I knew this was the point where it would probably start to hurt really badly. The nurse told me that I'd need a bolus of fluid prior to getting the epidural, so if I wanted it she'd need to do that. I decided to try out a couple of contractions and see how it went and then asked how long the bolus took. She said about half an hour. Right then I got a contraction and it was every bit as awful as I remembered it with Leila. I asked for the bolus and to get anesthesia in there for the epi. I was in no way ashamed or disappointed that I'd need it. Pitocin on a broken water is just simply too much for me or most women to handle. No shame in that at all.
I got my epidural around 8pm and at that point we were trying to decide what to do with Leila. She had been there with my in laws but was getting tired. We wanted her there to meet the baby as soon as possible, but didn't want her to be overly tired and grumpy. Around 9 we called our friend to come and take her because I wasn't moving along very quickly. Shortly after that a nurse came in and asked if I was feeling pressure. I said I was but no pain, so she left. I noticed the next few contractions after that were starting to hurt. Then I felt like my body was pushing, even without my trying to. I told the nurse to come back in because I felt like it was time. She took a peek to see if the baby was coming out, he wasn't and said she'd go get the doc to check me. It took a few minutes and I was starting to think he was going to come out on his own if they didn't hurry. The doc came in and checked me, said I was ready to push and asked me to do a 'practice push'. I did and he said 'ok let's have a baby.'
He gowned up quickly and everyone was getting ready for his birth. They had me push and about 5 pushes and a few minutes later at 9:38 pm, Lucas Thayne Harris was born. I felt him come out, there was a fair amount of pain, enough that I feel like I got a semi natural birth, and I'm perfectly happy with how it went. They placed him on my chest and he screamed right away. They cleaned him up and he looked great. He weighed in 8lbs 10 oz and was 21" long. We were all shocked at how much he weighed, he didn't look chubby or huge to me, but he's a big baby!
Because I could feel a lot during the birth, when they came at me with the needle to repair one minor 1st degree tear, I panicked. I looked at them and said, "Um, I felt him come out, please make sure I'm numb enough for that!" The doc checked and thankfully I couldn't feel it so they proceeded. Funny how you can push a human out of you and it doesn't scare you, but see that needle and a big "oh hell no!" came over me. Haha.
His birth was pretty fast and furious once it all went down. He's such a great baby and we're home now. Leila was a little upset when she first saw him because she was pretty tired but she absolutely adores her baby brother. A little too much and she feels like she always has to hold him, which is a little difficult. I'm sure she'll get over it and eventually not need to touch him every second, but I'm grateful she loves him. I was afraid she would hate him, so this is working out well.
I can't believe how much I love this little boy. He's such a sweet heart and so tiny (no matter what they said up on the floor, he's itty bitty compared to Leila!) and loves to snuggle. He's got lighter brown hair and blue eyes, very different than Leila. He has SO much hair, I can't believe it. I plan on getting some new born pictures this weekend and will post them as soon as I can. All I have for now are pictures on my phone so for now this is the best I can do.
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