Last Thursday morning, Jeremy and I headed off to my weekly appointment – just a day shy of 39 weeks. This is the first appointment that Jeremy had been to in a couple of months. And of course it was the most crowded I had ever seen the waiting room. Almost an hour after my appointment time we were finally called to a room. As my doctor's nurse was taking my blood pressure, she casually mentioned that Dr. Ingram would be on-call for the weekend. I had a brief thought of how cool it would be to just deliver that weekend, but after being disappointed the week before during my cervical check of NO PROGRESS, I wasn't super-hopeful.
Dr. Ingram walked in, and immediately started joking about having the baby this weekend – how it'd be convenient for her too... And I joked back about scheduling an induction... And she didn't say no. Wait, what? I could possibly schedule an induction this weekend? Oh, ok, as long as my cervix is favorable. Which it wasn't at all a week before. Cue disappointment...
But, but! You guys already know I had a baby last weekend... Cervix was favorable! Dilated to a two! Come in tonight and let's start your induction!
Tonight? Man, Jeremy has a work function so that's not going to work for us.
No worries, come in tomorrow at 5am and we'll get it started.
So y'all, I went from knowing I was going to be pregnant forever to you're going to have a baby tomorrow within a matter of minutes! So. Excited.
Friday morning we went to the hospital at 5am. Having gone natural with Graham (although not entirely by choice), I was choosing to be open about another natural delivery. Except I'd be working with pitocin this time. And I had read many, MANY things about how terrible contractions can be on pitocin.
And they were true. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Around 6am, a doctor came around, broke my water and we started the pitocin drip. I was dilated to a three at that point. My guess is, had I not be induced that morning, it wouldn't have been much longer on my own. And with a crazy fast delivery last time 'round, I'm thankful I was at the hospital.
At 8:15am I was checked again – 6cm dilated. And one last offer for an epidural. I was still managing the pain ok at that point so I denied it knowing that it would no longer be an option.
Y'all, it was maybe 15 minutes later that a contraction hit so hard that I couldn't not push. Checked again – 8cm. And told to not push until I was fully dilated because I might cause swelling that would make pushing difficult. Hahahaha... not pushing at that point was no longer an option.
I don't know if it was because I was more aware of what was going on this time or what, but dude, it hurt. My nurses and my doctor were incredible. I seriously felt like I couldn't do it... I had my eyes closed, pushing with everything I had. My nurse called my name, told me to look at her and told me that I could do it. She did that several times for me. And I think that helped me re-focus on just exactly what I was doing. And I knew that I could. I also knew that if that baby hadn't come out on the last push, I wasn't sure what I was going to do, ha!
But she did come out. And it was amazing. So amazing. I had a second degree tear. (I still don't know exactly what that means. I refuse to look it up and I refuse to check it out if you know what I mean.) I couldn't feel a single stitch though; I was on such a high with this beautiful (and super-cheesy) little girl laying on my chest.
At 8:59am (less than 45 minutes after being at 6cm), Tatum Rebecca came into this world. Super chubby cheeks, weighing in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 20.5 inches long. She's the exact same size as her oldest brother, and came out with a head full of hair like her second brother.
We had skin-to-skin immediately and no lie, the tot started rooting around to nurse instantly. I just kept saying to Jeremy how amazing she was. And she is. We have a girl. WE HAVE A GIRL!
Also? I earned the nickname "Speedy" that day. Ha!
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