Baby number 4....I definitely expected to go in to labor early! But at 41 weeks pregnant I ended up being induced.

Friday, February 23rd, my husband and I headed in to the hospital at 6:30 am. Once we got there the nurses got me set up in the bed with monitors and placed my IV needle for if I needed it later.

Then we just waited for the doctor to come and break my water. My mom got there a little after 7:00...and the doctor got there a little after 8:00. She broke my water...and it started slowly trickling out. She told me to walk around, bounce on a ball and just try to get those contractions going. I started walking the hall with my best friend and then my Mom. I started having contractions about 5-7 minutes apart but didn’t really feel much for discomfort all morning.

I wasn’t supposed to eat anything while being induced...but the nurse said if food was snuck in and I ate it...she wouldn’t stop me. So my husband and bestie left to get Subway and McDonalds...and they brought me back a sub sandwich. I snuck a few bites and then saved the rest for after the doctor came. My doctor came in around 1:30, and I was checked, I was still just 3 cm. The doctor agreed to let me go a little bit longer before starting pitocin since the contractions were steady....and a little after 3 pm they hooked me up to pitocin and I kept pacing the halls with my Mom. They upped my pitocin drip every 30 minutes.....and once I got up to a 3 the contractions started getting really intense. I had to stop and breathe through each one before continuing to walk. I had my bloody show at this point too. I asked the nurses to stop upping the pitocin and leave it at the 3 until I got used to the intensity. I started to feel like they were getting really close together and I just wasn’t sure how much more I’d be able to take. That’s when the tears started......the nurses called for the doctor to come and check me and I started to get very shaky. I felt like it was all I could do to just hold on to my husband and mom’s hands and barely breathe through each contraction. I remember saying over and over “they just hurt SO bad.”

The doctor came in and checked me and said I was 4-5 cm dilated and I told her I wanted the epidural. She called for the anesthesiologist and told me he’d be here soon....close to 30 minutes later I heard a man’s voice coming into the room and I just felt so relieved. The anesthesiologist had everyone leave the room except my husband and the nurses. I had to sit on the side of my bed, hunched over....and my husband stood right in front of me...hunched into me. We had our foreheads pressed together and he held my hands and helped me breathe through each contraction, which came about every two minutes. I felt like getting the epidural was the longest process ever. The anesthesiologist placed the epidural and had to move it around a bit to try and get it into a good spot.....but then told me he didn’t feel like it was placed in the right area so he was going to have to do it again. Staying hunched over while these contractions were so intense was so hard....but my husband kept telling me to breathe slow....and to relax my hands. The anesthesiologist placed the epidural again and that time he seemed happy with the placement. I started to feel my left side get all tingly and pins and needles...but nothing on my right side.

They had me lay back in the bed and put a wedge under my left side to try and get the medicine to spread to my right side. My right side slowly started to get numb....each time I felt a contraction I was only feeling it on my right side, which was weird. Finally after a few minutes my right side was pretty numb too. That epidural was pure heaven. I couldn’t feel a thing from the waist down and my legs were impossible to move. The doctor came back in and placed my catheter. And also an internal probe to monitor the intensity of my contractions. In the process of placing that probe I had a lot of water flow out and she realized she had broke my second bag of waters. She said that labor would probably really pick up now. After having the epidural and not feeling those intense contractions my body felt much more relaxed....but yet I couldn’t stop shaking. My whole body was just trembling and I asked the nurse for another blanket. She brought in a warm blanket and it felt so good on top of me...but didn’t stop the shaking. The nurses turned off the lights and told me to try to rest but every time I closed my eyes I could feel my heart racing and I just couldn’t calm myself enough to sleep. I lost track of time after the epidural was placed but after a little bit the nurses came in to move me onto one side because of baby Jackson’s heart rate dropping with each contraction.

They had me on one side for a few contractions, and then rolled me to the other side. His heart rate wasn’t doing any better...and was very low with my contractions. The doctor came in and said she thought maybe the cord was being pressed against one side of my uterus when I was having a contraction and she wanted to put fluid into my uterus to kind of make the cord float into a different position. They started another drip to put the fluid in through the uterine monitor....At this point there were so many cords and tubes going into my body...they kept monitoring Jackson’s heart rate but still weren’t happy with it...so the doctor said she wanted to put in a fetal heart monitor. A little probe that would stick onto his head. When the doctor placed that monitor she said that I was 7 cm and it was going to be soon!

The nurses and doctor continued to monitor his heart rate and kept rolling me from one side to the other side....but his heart rate was still very low with each contraction. I’m not sure how much time passed but I commented that I was feeling a bit more pressure....and the doctor went to check me to see if I was ready to push. And she said she didn’t even go a knuckle deep because his head was right there. He was already coming! I had so many tears streaming down my face and just kept saying “he’s coming??! He’s really coming!?!” My husband stood right by me, holding my hand, and he had the biggest grin on his face. Our baby was coming! The nurses and doctor hurried around getting everything ready...the doctor raised the bed way up and told me she wanted me to do easy pushes for three seconds each so as to go slow and minimize tearing. The epidural had made everything so numb from my belly down that I really didn’t feel anything. Other than a little pressure I couldn’t feel him coming out. They propped my legs up and I think my Mom held up one of them...and my husband stood right by my side. My bestie had whipped out her camera but I wasn’t sure of where she was. By the time they were all set and ready Jackson’s head was already crowning. The doctor asked me if I wanted to touch it and I did. Feeling the top of his little head made me so emotional! I couldn’t stop crying and I couldn’t stop saying “he’s coming!!”

The doctor watched my monitor for contractions and with each one she told me when to push for three seconds. It was very slow and easy pushes...I honestly couldn’t even feel myself push..or feel Jackson coming out. After a few pushes his head was out and the doctor saw the cord was wrapped around his neck, which had been why his heart rate was dropping so low. She unwrapped the cord and then told me to give a great big push. And he was out! They suctioned his mouth and quickly placed him right on my stomach. HE WAS HERE!!! So many tears and so many grins!!! He was so perfect! He arrived at 10:02 pm...after only two minutes of pushing. And NO tearing! Jackson Lewis weighed 7.0 pounds and was 20.5 inches long.💙💙💙