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Lilliana Grace joined our family this week, and I am finally settling in to write out her birth story! It was a whirlwind, but went absolutely perfectly, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
I know I am probably in the mass minority, but I have decided that I love induction. I love the idea of planning ahead and being prepared. I loved being able to get our family into town to be a part of the birth. I love being already at the hospital when contractions start, just in case things progress quickly (which they did!). And this go around, I loved being able to settle my big baby girl in and make sure she was in the best hands possible prior to going into labor.
After a busy weekend throwing Addilyn an early 2nd birthday party, the plan was to head to the hospital on Sunday just after dinner time to start the induction process. Sunday morning, I was feeling a little unprepared. Our parents took Addie to church, and I opted to stay home by myself to get ready, pack and tie up a few loose ends. I took a long hot shower…like the kind where the tank runs out of hot water. Without having to listen for a baby monitor. I haven’t done that in two years! And it was so nice. I packed, picked up, wrote a letter to Addilyn for her birthday and wrapped up a few gifts for our nurses and our OBGYN (we LOVE him!). All in a quiet house. It was so relaxing and helped me feel more mentally prepared.
We had lunch together, and while Addie napped my mother in law took me for a last minute pedicure. Not totally necessary, but boy was it nice! And it’s always fun to go in for labor with cute toenails!
When we got home, we spent a little time as a family, got Addilyn settled with our friend that was keeping her and then Michael and I set off for the hospital! We made the hour drive, got stuck in traffic and grabbed a quick bite to eat. And then we did the fun stuff like checking in and filling out paperwork.
Finally at 10:15pm, my first dose of Cytotec was placed. I was not dilated at all, so we settled in to try and rest a bit after our parents came by to check on us and drop off a few things that we forgot. We both were able to grab a couple of restless hours of sleep before the nurse came back in.
At 2:30am on Monday morning, my second dose of Cytotec was placed. Still no dilation at all, so we tried to rest a little more.
At about 4am, I woke up starting to feel cramps and mild contractions, which I worked through on my own using my labor techniques that I used with Addie’s labor (I will NEVER not drink Red Raspberry Leaf Tea before labor! I only drank it the day before and day of and it helped so much!), so that Michael could rest a little more. By about 4:45am, I had to wake him up to help me get to the restroom because I felt like I needed to go very urgently. While I was up, I was pretty sure that my water broke, which was new for me! With Addie, my doctor had to break it and I was already numb so I felt nothing. I called the nurse in to test for amniotic fluid, and she said I was dilated to a 2(ish). The test came back positive that my water had, in fact, broken. We went ahead and called our parents to come back to the hospital at that point.
Contractions picked up in intensity and I went ahead and asked for my epidural because they were getting pretty painful. With my history of going quickly, the anesthesiologist came pretty much right away.
At 6:20am, my epidural was in and starting to work. My doctor got to the hospital about 30 minutes later, checked me and found that I was already dilated to an 8. Our parents arrived and got to visit for a few minutes with us, and then I realized that I felt a ton of pressure and we had to kick my poor dad out of the room. My epidural just barely numbed me in time! Things went very quickly from here.
At about 7:15am, my doctor checked and said her head was pretty much all the way through the canal and told me I can push when I am ready. I pushed through 2 sets of contractions, so for about 10 minutes. And then little Lillie just came shooting right out! Easiest. Labor. Ever! If they all go that way, I’d have 200 babies!
We did some skin to skin and took about 1,000 pics while Dr. Jackson got everything handled from there. It was such a beautiful moment filled with so much love and joy!
Seriously, we hit the jackpot with this man. Everyone deserves an OB that listens to them, knows them well, cares about them as a person and not just a number, and most importantly to us, loves the Lord. I mean how often does an OB deliver a baby and then come back to pray over the family and the little life that just came into the world?? I would venture to say that it is rare and we are so thankful for him and all that he has done for us over the last 4 years.
As a thank you to our fantastic labor nurses for all that they do, I took them a batch of custom cookies. I mean, they do the dirty work! They take care of needy, scared moms during labor, they clean you up after, they make sure you adjust to life with your baby. They truly are heroes and deserve all of the thanks!
I will say it again, I cannot sing the praises of Red Raspberry Leaf tea enough! I drank it religiously before having Addilyn, hoping it would start labor. It did not, but my induction went incredibly quickly with her.
This time around, I did not start drinking it early because I didn’t want to go into labor until we had done Addie’s birthday party. I started drinking it the day before my induction, and drank a strong brew on Sunday afternoon. My labor with Lilliana went from no dilation at all, to baby on my chest in less than 9 hours! With about an hour of laboring pre-epidural and only 10 minutes of pushing. I could say this was just my personal results, but I have recommended it to a few friends and they have seen very similar results! I am a believer! If you are expecting a baby soon, definitely order you some! (Here is the best brand that I have found!)
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