It's 5:55AM on Friday, March 8th and your dad and I are in a familiar position driving ourselves peacefully to the hospital to induce you just as we had with your older brother and sister. Although I really wanted you to come naturally, this feels right for our family now at almost 41 weeks pregnant and Carter and Addie safely tucked in bed with Meme in town ready to take over for 2 full days so we can 100% focus on you.
Although this is our third time to make this exact drive, there is something extremely special knowing it will be the last time we are in the car before 6AM heading to the hospital ready to bring home a new family member. We are so excited to meet you and pray for a safe delivery...
Love you,
Mom
It took sometime to check in and get a room but once we did and met my experienced nurse, Nora, we were on a roll. I told her my stories of 16 and 11 hours of active labors with Carter and Addie and she she confidently told me we'd have this baby by the time she got off at 3:30. I was a little skeptical but liked the positivity. The first four hours at the hospital until 10 AM, it was just Blake and I and was very relaxing. At 7:20AM when I was first hooked up to the baby monitors with out any pitocin, I was contracting every 10 minutes. I could vaguely feel tightness similar to what I had been feeling for days. I hadn't progressed anymore and was still a "loose 1cm." The petocin started around 8:35AM and Dr. Gallagher broke my water at 8:50AM... the party was officially starting. Dr. G said I had dropped some and the baby's heart rate was in the strong mid 130's getting to 140 bpm. At 9:15AM the contractions were already 3 minutes apart, making me stop what I was doing but not super painful yet. (Remember my goal this pregnancy was to really feel some contractions before I got my epidural.)
At 9:45AM, just 30 minutes later, the contractions were 2 minutes apart and much stronger. Just after 10, Addie and Diane got there right when they were getting intense but I was VERY hesitant not wanting epidural yet since I was only a 3-4cm and 80% effaced and didn't want it to slow down the labor like I felt it had done with Carter and Addie. At 10AM, I threw the IPAD I had been taking notes on to Blake and said I can't type any longer. At 10:25 AM Nora, my nurse, encouraged me to get the epidural but I finally settled for some Demoral to take the edge off. Erin arrived at 10:30 and at 11:10 AM, after a visit with Addie and Diane, I gave in and got the epidural. By the time it was in place, Megan Perkins had arrived to photograph the delivery and Addie and Diane came in to say goodbye.
The smiles returned in between contractions once I had the Demoral, at least for a few minutes.
At 11:45 when these last pictures were taken, I never thought I would be holding our baby in less than 45 minutes time...
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