Holding my beautiful 2 month old girl and finally getting around to writing her birth story!

I have a 13 year old daughter, so with this being my second pregnancy my doctors told me up front they'd probably want to schedule an induction once I was full term. 🤷‍♀️ I was a little hesitant about scheduling one for no reason, but as my 40th week approached Layla was measuring close to 9 lbs! I didn't want to keep putting it off and risk a C-section if she got too big. I was due July 3rd and scheduled the induction for June 30th hoping she'd decide to come on her own before that. No such luck.

On the morning of June 30th my boyfriend and I packed everything up and hung around the house waiting for it to be time to leave. We were both so nervous that we wouldn't even talk about what was about to happen! We left for the hospital, got checked in quickly, and started the pitocin. I had told them to start fluids immediately so I could get the epidural as soon as possible. I knew from my first labor that I couldn't calm down and let my body do what it needed to do without the epidural. The anesthesiologist comes in and gives me the epidural. Things are slowly moving along and I'm feeling no pain. It was wonderful! The nurse has me turning from side to side to make sure the epidural is evenly distributed and to help things along. Every time she comes to turn me the pain seems to be getting worse. I mention it to my boyfriend and explain that I don't think that should be happening. Each contraction is getting more and more painful. I tell the nurse when she comes in and she hits the button on the epidural and tells me it should get better in 15-20 minutes. Ten minutes later another nurse comes in and I once again say the pain is getting worse. My boyfriend chimes in at this point because he can tell how uncomfortable I am. The nurse goes to help me move and says "oh the epidural fell out!". Well no wonder I was in so much pain! She checks how dilated I am and tells me I'm at 9 and I'll need to push soon. I tell her I'm not even going to think about pushing until the epidural is back in! Luckily I was the only one in labor and delivery and the anesthesiologist was able to come in and put a new epidural in! We waited another 20 minutes to let it kick in and I was once again feeling no pain! Time to push! 

I have to say I wasn't the greatest at pushing. I'd get so tired and my head felt like it was going to pop from all the pressure of pushing. After pushing through about 6-7 contractions they started saying her head was right there which gave me the motivation to push harder. One more push and her head was out! The Dr asked if I had one more push in me for that contraction or wanted to wait till the next. I just wanted to see her at that point and gave it my all and she was out! 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches long! 

The whole labor from walking in to holding her only took about 6-7 hours! It was an amazing experience despite the epidural falling out! Labor with my first daughter took 16 hours! So the second time around was much easier! 

Here are some pictures of my beautiful Layla Cain!