Evicted

My Surprise Baby has finally made HIS appearance! It took 41 wks and 2 days, a hectic eviction notice, and switching hospitals but I wouldn't have changed anything. We are so extremely blessed! I love reading birth stories so I wanted to share ours.

This is my third baby, we have a 4.5 yo and a 1.5 yo. Everyone including our doctor expected this baby to practically slide right out and no one expected me to go to my due date (9/16) much less past it! So at my 40 wk appt we went ahead and scheduled an induction for 41 wks just in case it was needed. Well that day was booked for the hospital we preferred so we scheduled the following day. My first born was natural (as in no induction needed) and my second was at the beginning of the pandemic/shut downs so we scheduled induction for him to ensure our safety and that my husband could be present. I really wanted to follow the path of my first born and labor at home prior to heading to the hospital. I was very excited for my water to break on it's own. As I spoke to family and friends who were nurses, they explained that going past 40 wks could present complications. These ideas really festered and I started having serious anxiety.

Well our induction day came and went with no call from the hospital. My doctor warned me that might happen but they should get me in the following morning. Well I called the next day and they told me how swamped they were. Around lunchtime I called the hospital again just to check in and I asked if they thought they would be able to get to me that day at least and the nurse said no but maybe tomorrow. The idea of waiting another day just didn't sit right with me, especially with being so overdue. I immediately called my doctor for advice and asked if I should try switching hospitals (luckily my dr goes to both hospitals). She gave me two options, go to triage and see if I'm in labor enough to where they could keep me (mind you I had been contracting for three weeks) or she could call the other hospital to see if they could get me in. I opted for the hospital switch. She called back with great news, they could fit me in in two hours! It was officially go time!

We got to the hospital and started Pitocin around 4/5pm and I was 3cm. Around 8pm I received my epidural and shortly after the doctor broke my water. I was at 5cm. Funny story: when my water was broken it literally gushed like it sounded as if the bathtub faucet was left running. My dr and nurse were shocked and made a comment about how unusual it is for someone so overdue to have that much fluid. I laughed but felt so much relief for my baby. Around 11:20pm I started pushing. The baby's hand was up by his face and his arm was delivered with his head which resulted in a small tear. After his head was out I had to stop pushing because his cord was wrapped three times around his neck and it was so tight the dr couldn't just slip it off and he was not breathing. She acted quickly and was able to clamp and cut the cord (which made me a little sad bc I wanted delayed cord clamping but his safety came first). When she cut the cord blood splattered everywhere, on the ceiling and on a nurse. We joke about it now bc my baby is alive and well. In the moment it was intense and scary. The baby was delivered and laid on my chest. I will always remember the feeling of relief when he was fully delivered and the joy when he was laid on my chest. In the moment this was a surprise birth, so we did not know if we were having a boy or a girl. My husband and I were almost in shock of the delivery that we kind of forgot to look and see if we had a daughter or a son. So my husband checked and got announce to the room that it is a boy!

Our baby boy did not have a name until he was almost 1 day old. We had our girl name picked out during labor but couldn't decide on our boy name. On the way to Mother & Baby one of our nurses said "Nolan" and we both loved it but we took our time committing to it because it was not on our list lol So I am happy to announce Nolan Manuel was born on Sept. 25th at 11:40pm. He weighed 9 lbs 5.2 oz and measured 21 inches long.