On 3/5 I went in for my 38 week prenatal appointment. The doctor checked me and I was 1 cm dilated. When she took his heart rate it was hovering around 110, which he was always on the low end of normal, but this time it was occasionally dipping into the 105 range. After 5 minutes of monitoring, she decided I should go to the hospital to be further monitored. The doctor wasn’t overly concerned but wanted to be safe. She even said she didn’t think I need to stop home and pack a bag or get my husband (he was with our toddler).

When I got to the hospital they started me on the monitor and everything sounded great. At 10 minutes they said we’d watch for 10 more and call it an NST and send me home. In the second 10 minutes his heart rate dropped again. So my doctor wanted to consult the high risk doctor. The high risk doctor said they couldn’t pin point a reason for a low heart rate because my scans had all been normal, but also couldn’t completely rule out a heart defect, so they decided we needed to have the baby then.

This was the hardest part for me. I never stopped home after work and my daughter was still asleep when I went for work. So I didn’t get to see her at all or have a final moment of her being my “baby” 😭😭😭. I still cry about this.

I called my husband, gave him instructions for packing bags for me and baby (silly me hadn’t already done this). And he headed to the hospital. Once he got there the doctor explained it all to him and asked if we still wanted to try VBAC or go straight to C Section. She felt VBAC was still perfectly safe, and it was really important to me to try, so that’s what we did.

Around 9pm they inserted the foley balloon. It was not as bad as I expected. Until the contractions started. The pain was pretty unbearable but I was not ready for an epidural. At some point I puked from the pain. Around 2 am the balloon slid out, and I was dilated to a “stretchy 3”. I was able to get some rest after that. A few hours later they started me on Pitocin. I was so surprised how quickly the contractions started and how close together they were. I worked for a few hours that morning, cleaning up emails and setting an out of office message.

They encouraged me to walk for a little bit after that. At this point it was almost noon and the pain was getting to be too much. I got the most heavenly epidural. I was around 5 cm at this point. They had me shift positions a lot because his heart rate kept dropping.

Around 3 or 4 they broke my water while checking dilation (a contraction started while they were checking and out came the water). I progressed quickly after that and was ready to push by 6:15. After an hour of pushing Hunter made his arrival, safe and sound. I am so proud of myself for a vaginal delivery and am grateful for my medical team.

On 3/6/21 at 7:16pm, Hunter was born. And this day carries so much meaning. Our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage- the due date for that baby was 3/6/2019. We also found out we were expecting on 7/7/2020 and our first born’s due date was 7/7/2019. So from start to finish this pregnancy followed such special dates for us.

So happy this beautiful boy joined our family.

💙💙💙

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