My second son was born yesterday and let me tell you- labor and childbirth were WAY easier this time around! What they say about second babies was definitely true for me.

Just like my first pregnancy, I dealt with moderate high blood pressure after 30 weeks, but no other symptoms of pre-eclampsia. When I went in for my 38 week appt it was REALLY high, so after monitoring in L&D; for a bit when it didn’t go down, they recommended induction. I was already 3cm dilated, 50% effaced, and was having mild, irregular but frequent contractions. I agreed.

I got checked in to a room around 1pm and they started pitocin around 3. The plan was to wait until my contractions were more regular then get an epidural before breaking my water. I got the epidural around 8pm and they finally came to break my water around midnight. I would have waited longer on the epidural if I’d known it would be so long. By then I was at 7cm.

After that, contractions really picked up and by 2am I was feeling pressure and the urge to push. The nurse checked and said I was at an 8/9. 45 minutes later the contractions were right on top of each other and pressure was INTENSE, and when the nurse checked again, I was at a 10. I had to wait about 15 minutes for the doctors to come and get set up (not pushing was torture) but when they let me, I pushed him out in 3 pushes. After 1 push, I could feel the head coming out. Two minutes and two pushes later and he was on my chest at 3:08am.

For people keeping track that’s 12 hours from pitocin to birth and only three hours from my water breaking to when he was born. My first pregnancy, they induced at 39 weeks for the same reason, but I wasn’t dilated or effaced at all. I ended up in labor for a total of 36 hours including 22 after my water had broken, and I pushed for an hour. This time was way faster and easier. I’m a little nervous for what it could be next time. Thanks for reading. Here’s some pics of my little guy!