So a little back story! I was scheduled for an induction at 39 weeks but had started dilating at 34 weeks which was 2 weeks sooner than I did with my first baby. That combined with Braxton Hicks starting and being consistent enough to be in triage multiple times from 18 weeks on made both me and my doctor convinced that if I did make it to my induction, it would go very quick. At 36 weeks I even lost my mucus plug and had my bloody show. Since my first cervical check at 34 weeks he even kept telling me we would start the induction around 7am and baby would be here by 3pm.

Well I made it to my induction with no baby and not progressing past a 2 so we went in monday April 13th at 7am. We got checked in, shown to our room, changed and iv’s started by 7:45am. I was checked and at 2cm. We started pitocin at 8 and increased every 30 minutes. 1 hour in and my contractions were already at 5 minutes apart. (They told me that it could take up to 3 hours for contractions to start so I was excited that things were already going quickly) My OB came in at 10:54 to check me. I was still at a 2 so he decided to break my water hoping it would move things along. We continued to up pitocin every 30 minutes. At 1:50 I got the epidural, my contractions were very manageable at this point but the anesthesiologist was about to head into a surgery so wouldn’t be available for 2 hours. I figured it was better to get it sooner just Incase things got serious while he was unavailable especially since I was already maxed out on pitocin. (My nurse explained that they are allowed to increase to a 20 before they have to wait for doctors approval and then have to go by the doctors direction on how they are allowed to increase pitocin from that point forward) After it was in and working, and my blood pressure was under control (it kept dropping from the medication so they were giving me meds to counteract it) they checked me again. Still a 2. I felt so defeated. With all the signs I had that labor was near before the induction my doctor was sure that I would deliver between 1-3 pm. That made me so excited because that meant he could deliver me this time around. He wasn’t the doctor on call with my first baby and since I delivered at 11pm I didn’t know the doctor who delivered me. Around 4 they ended up putting an internal monitor on me. My doctor needed to see how strong the pitocin was making my contractions as we were already at a 26 for pitocin. Apparently the “on belly” monitor gets a good read of when you have a contraction but not intensity. At 5:28 my doctor came to check me one last time before he went home since he was done with patients, I was finally a 4 and 80% effaced! He told my nurses that even though he was not the on call doctor and headed home, he still wanted them to call him with my updates and told them he would be back to deliver me! I was so excited that he was willing to do that me! He also gave the nurse clearance to continue to up my pitocin to 36 and to call back once we hit that if we still didn’t have a baby. After shift change at 7pm my new nurse told me that she wanted to be to put me into a bunch of different positions to get baby moving down and to hopefully speed things along. I was up for anything at that point and was willing to do everything she told me to do. As she was started to put me into position her charge nurse called her to tell her to take it slow as both the on call doctor and triage doctor were in emergency surgeries. Apparently she had a history in the room I was laboring in to have mamas progress super quickly and end up delivering without a doctor ready to catch baby. About 30 minutes later the triage doctor was out so she was able to begin! She alternated between having the peanut ball between my ankles instead of between my thighs and having me lay on my side with my bottom foot as close to my butt as possible and my top leg hanging over the edge of the bed. I believe she had me changing positions every 15 minutes or so. At 8:30 we maxed out pitocin again so the nurse checked me and I was still at a 4. She let me know that my doctor decided to turn it over to the on call doctor so he could rest since he had clinic the next day and it wasn’t his on call day. This was probably the lowest point of labor me, I was disappointed in my body’s ability to progress to active labor despite the crazy amount of pitocin I was on and what my body was doing before we had go in. We continued to play with different ways to position my hips and finally at 9:30 I was feeling uncomfortable so I knew my body was finally doing something! She checked me again and I was at an 8! We were all so shocked at how quickly I was able to get there! She changed my position again and left to do some charting before our next position change. Well one contraction in the new position and I was suddenly in an incredible amount of pain even with an epidural so my husband called her back in and sure enough I was at a ten! She came back in with another nurse and the baby nurse within 2-3 minutes but it felt like an eternity. They tried calling the on call doctor but she was wrapping up a surgery so my nurse was doing what she could to try and stall me pushing so the team could get gowned up and have the room ready. The nurses were still rushing around trying to get the room set up when I finally told my nurse I was going to start pushing regardless of what they were doing. There was only 16 minutes between her checking me at an 8 and me being able to start pushing but it was the worst! She had me push once and decided the triage doctor would have to come deliver me as baby was not going to wait for anyone! I pushed a few more times with my nurse until the triage doctor was suited up and able to change places with her. Well one contraction later and our sweet baby boy, Hayden James, was here! A total on 9 minutes pushing! 6lbs 9oz and 20.5 inches!

As for delivering during the pandemic, my experience was not terribly bad. My husband was the only one allowed with me, they gave him a wrist band that allowed him to leave the hospital and come back and still be allowed back into my room. The nurses used hand sanitizer every time they walked into my room and again before putting on gloves if needed. They always had to be wearing a mask but we were never asked to wear one thankfully. Come time to delivery, everyone in the room besides me and my husband had to be fully decked out in PPE. 2 sets of gloves, gown, 2 masks, hairnet and a face shield. Vending machines and the cafeteria were still open but we had to have nurses fill up my water bottle instead of my husband being able to do it himself. The weirdest part was having no visitors but it ended up being nice for us, this little guy loves to eat so I literally had a boob put 24-7. It was nice to not worry about being covered up if someone stopped by. We had to be quarantined for 2 weeks once we got home since the hospital was actively treating Covid patients but that ended up being nice as well. It gave our oldest time to adjust to a new baby and made it easier to get rest and heal without worrying about when people would be coming over.

(We used a tripod to get video since we couldn’t have guests and didn’t realize the angle wasn’t great until after 😂)

He will be 6 weeks this Monday, can’t believe how quickly time has gone by.