Sarah's Birth Story

On Monday, June 6th, Josh and I took the boys to Vacation Bible School at our church and then drove to the doctor's office to be checked again to see if there was any further dilation.  Even though I hoped there was some change, I knew most likely I would still be one centimeter dilated from past experience.  Sure enough I was still the same as the week before, but by this point I was ready to be induced.  My doctor agreed that induction would be wise because he didn't want me having a bigger baby than I already had with Josiah (8lbs 5oz). 

We scheduled the induction for Wednesday morning, June 8th, but he wanted me to go into the hospital on Tuesday evening to give me something to help the cervix "ripen" and help the induction go quicker. 

On Tuesday afternoon, my parents came up from Georgia to stay with the boys while we were in the hospital, and Josh and I left to get something to eat before going to the hospital.  I was having contractions off and on at dinner, but nothing too uncomfortable.  We arrived at the hospital around 6pm and I thought I would be able to wear my own clothes and not be hooked up to any monitors until the next morning, but I was wrong.  They immediately made me change and then put the monitors on to listen to Sarah's heartbeat as well as measure my contractions.  The worst part was inserting the IV needle (even though I didn't need it at the time), because it took 3 attempts and 2 nurses before they finally got it in...ouch!

My doctor finally arrived about 9pm to give me the medicine.  After giving me the medicine, he checked me again and I still was only one centimeter.  He told me the nurse would wake me up around 5:15am the next morning to get a shower before they began giving me pitocin at 6:00am.  Josh and I settled in watching some television and waiting until 11pm when I could get out of the bed again and the nurse said she would give me a snack since I couldn't eat after midnight.  A little after 10pm I noticed my contractions were getting much harder and by 10:30pm, they were painful.  I was confused because this wasn't supposed to happen until the next morning and we wanted to sleep. 

At midnight, my nurse decided to check me and see if I had dilated more.  Thankfully, I was at 3cm but you need to be at 5cm before you get an epidural, so she offered to give me some other pain medicine to take the edge off and maybe I could nap a little.  She came back with a shot and told me it was really going to burn because it had phenergan in it and boy was she right! It did work and I was able to sleep between contractions until about 2:30am.  My nurse checked me again and I was only about 4cm, so I told her I would hold out another hour to see if I could get to 5cm and have the epidural.  Around 3:45am she checked me and I was finally at 5cm and I told her I wanted the epidural (I had not slept since the night before and I really wanted some sleep before Sarah arrived thus the desire for the epidural). 

The anesthesiologist arrived a little after 4am and gave me the epidural.  The funny part about getting the epidural is that I was still so groggy from the shot of phenergan that I had a hard time keeping my head up while she was giving me the epidural!  Thankfully, it worked quickly and I don't remember anything until the nurse waking me up at 6:45am to check me again.  I was fully dilated as far as she could tell, but my water still hadn't broken and she needed the doctor to break it to be sure I was ready. 

My doctor finally arrived about 7:35am (the nurse thinks he fell back asleep after getting the call) and broke my water.  As soon as he broke my water, they could see the top of her head and all her hair!  They immediately started getting the room ready and one of the nurses was about to position me, when another nurse said, "Wait! The doctor isn't ready yet and if you do that the baby will fall right out!"  As soon as the doctor was ready he told me to gently push and her head was out and then said to gently push again and she was completely out!  It was by far the shortest labor I have had and the easiest delivery!

Thank you to all who prayed for us.  I was nervous about the induction, but technically I was never induced as I never received pitocin to start labor.  We are so thankful for a beautiful and healthy little girl!