TLDR: Pitocin at 9am, water broken at 115, epidural at 230, baby born at 640pm - 9lbs 21”!

I didn’t really want to get induced but I didn’t want a 9lb baby because I waited until 41 or 42 weeks. He seemed pretty darn cozy in there and Wednesday 3/13 was the latest my doctor was available before I hit 41 weeks. I was super nervous but we decided to induce at 40+2!

Arrived at 8am, did all the paperwork and got admitted. They started the IV and pitocin on a low drip at 9am. My first kid arrived on her own on her due date so I had mixed feelings about “forcing” my son to arrive but my body was responding well to the meds (and we had a higher risk of issues/c-section had we waited longer to induce).

I was 1-2 dilated when we arrived and got to 2-3 pretty quickly. I had 3 “levels of pain” I had to get through in my mind - cervix checks before epidural, getting the epidural, and actual child birth.

I was dilated to a 4-5 at 115 when my doctor came in and broke my water. The cervix check (my second that day) hurt like a mofo but water breaking didn’t hurt at all. Contractions ramped up and I was still breathing through them but they were starting to get more painful and frequent.

Got the epidural at 230 and it was painful, but MUCH better than my first time with my daughter. Everyone talked me through what was happening and I breathed through it (chanted “it’s SO WORTH IT” because it is lol).

Quickly got to 8 dilated then 10, but baby boy still wasn’t down in my pelvic bone. They sat me a bit more upright for awhile, then said he was moving down and back up with contractions, so to try pushing.

Did 2 sets of 3 practice pushes which got him fully down and engaged (husband actually had the guts to look this time and saw his hair!). Doctor came in and got gowned up, two pushes and his head and shoulders came out. Doc said to stop, then said ok one more and I felt his hips, knees, legs and toes slid out which honestly was so amazing. Didn’t hurt at all because of epidural but I still felt it and kind of understood why people like to go med free (altho I could never lol).

Baby was born at 6:40pm weighing 9lbs even and 21” long. Even though my main reason for inducing was that I didn’t want a 9lb baby (and my blood pressure was high for me, but not bad) I had one anyway! He didn’t give me any issues during delivery though and really slid right on out so I shouldn’t have been nervous.

Honestly the whole process was really great. My “three pain levels” to get through were totally manageable and I had no real issues (my old scar tissue from my daughters birth ripped again and my doc spent legit 10 minutes very intentionally stitching me up so she said it should actually feel better down than before). Baby was big for his gestational age so they’ve been tracking his sugar levels which have been borderline but he’s good now and everyone is healthy!

Recovery has been not terrible and even though I breastfed my daughter for 10 months, my nipples are killing me from having to wake my son up and feed him every 2 hours. Powering through though!

Welcome to the world, Ezra Patrick! 😍