It took me a little longer then I had anticipated to sit down and type this out, but I guess with 2 kiddos and a husband who is again MIA due to the Military I have a pretty good excuse.
As planned, Braelyn was induced. Not the dream come true of birth stories, but it was the only way to insure that my husband was present for her birth and I could never deny him that if there was a way for him to be there. The plan was to be induced on my husbands birthday, July 8th, however the hospital had different plans. On July 7th around 9:30 pm I received a call from the hospital telling me that they were too busy for any "scheduled" procedures on the 8th and I was pushed back to the 9th. Talk about disappointment! I had been doing so well. Time had not stood still, I had no anxiety about the pending induction, nada! Oh well!!
On July 9th at 4:30 am my hubby and I got up and ready to head to the hospital to have our baby girl. By 6:15 I was checking in, 7am in my labor room, and by 9am the pitocin was hooked up and things were rolling. I started out about 1.5 cent and 80% effaced so I was hopefully for a quick delivery. By noon the contractions were building but I was still chatting away with the nurses and enjoying a House marathon on USA with no problems. Around 2 I was checked again and had only progressed to about 2 cent and 90%, however my bag of water was sitting right on the cervix's and my nurse felt if my Dr would break my water I would have a baby within a few hours. She was right!
A little after 3pm my Dr (who I LOVE and was super wonderful) arrived and broke my water. By 4pm I was 5 cent and begging for an epidural thanks to a position the Dr had me laying in called the Midwife position. Due to the size of my daughter the Dr's at my practice were worried about shoulder displasia and I was listed as a "high risk" delivery as I refused a c-section. I personally believe that most woman do not grow babies they can not birth. Woman have been having large babies for millions of years without issue. I did not have gestational diabetes so there were no outside factores that could cause me to have a larger baby then I could handle. But to say she was big would be an understatement. My Dr was very supportive of my decision and felt I would be just fine, however she prepared my husband and I that morning for what could come later on during delivery.
Although I asked for the epidural at 4 I didn't receive it till around 6 and lets just say I might as well have skipped it. Although no one is 100% sure why, but my epidural didn't take. I mashed that damn button as many times as I could but it didn't matter. The only things that were numb was from my knee caps down, not exactly the blissful feeling I had when I had my last one. The nurses continued to roll me from side to side in the midwife position to open my pelvis as far as it would go as well as to thin out ever piece of my cervix there was(this position is laying on your side with your fare leg slung over the leg of the side you are laying on, quit painful I may add!). At 8pm I was ready to go. The Dr was on her way, the nurse's were prepping the room, and all I could think about was getting this baby out!
It was such a different experience from having my son. The room was quite. Instead of 20 people in there like there were for my son's birth, there were 2, plus my husband and myself. The room was dimmed and my Dr was seriously the most calm relaxing woman I have ever meet in my life. We discussed for the last time the "what if's" because of baby's size and at 9pm it was time to push. Although the pain was excruciating it was nice to be in control when the pushing started. My Dr told me to just go when I felt ready. I looked at my husband and said "dear God make this go fast" (I only pushed for 13 minutes with my son and my biggest fear with this one was that I was going to have to push for hours and I didn't know if I would have the strength or the stamina to do it). The Dr looked at me and said "now this is a bigger baby then your last one so it may take longer. Just be patient and we will get this little girl out the way you want".
The 1st round of pushing felt GREAT! The pain leaves your body when you are pushing against it! It is so strange! and what do you know 3rd push of the 1st round baby was right there. YES! I was screaming inside, 2nd set 2nd push crowning baby and dr yelling at me to stop!!! SO I did. Oh good lord the Ring of Fire is just what it sounds like. The burning was intense and insane. I kept asking if I could push and was being told no. The Dr didn't think I would get her out so fast so the ped's team needed to be paged, plus she was trying to keep me from tearing and wanted the baby to come slower. FINALLY! I was told I could push again. Dr. Cook said to push hard but to stay slow and controlled, I did as I was told and about 2 seconds later, 9 minutes into pushing, 6 pushes, and baby was out. Instant relief! Any pain I felt was gone that second and I had a big beautiful baby girl laying on my chest. It was amazing. A 12 hour induction was pretty quick, and probably could have been faster had I skipped the epi all together and had my bag broken a little earlier, but I will take it!
This time my birth plan was more specific. I didn't hold my little boy for almost an hour because they bathed him 1st and all kinds of other things. I specified that she was to come to me 1st! Then they could weigh her and all the other good stuff a little after, and her bath could wait!! I had family waiting to meet her and not having a bath in the 1st hour of life will not hurt her. She had her 1st feeding within 30 minutes of coming into the world and then she meet her grandparents. It was such an amazingly different and better experience then it was with my son that I couldn't be more grateful. With him it felt like everything went wrong (except I had an amazing epidural) this time everything else was perfect and the epi stunk...but I wouldn't take it any otehr way!
July 9th 2010 Braelyn Ann Ensley H...was born at 9:10 pm 10 lbs 12 oz 22 3/4 inches long and absolutely perfect! (and no I didn't tear, not sure why but that seems to be everyone's 1st question). She is doing wonderfully! Bog brother has adjusted well, and with the exception of the hubby having to leave when she was a week old all has been better then I could have imagined
