I had my doctors appointment on Thursday the 29th and my due date was the next day. I had already had my membranes stripped the two previous appointments and I got them stripped again that day. I was dilated to a four and almost 90% effaced when I left the doctors office around 11:30 that afternoon. Not even an hour later I started noticing my contractions coming closer together and more often than normal, maybe every 15-20 minutes or so. We had a busy day planned that day, my mom had gotten here just the day before and we were running some errands and going to dinner that evening at my favorite restaurant, Tia Rosas.
Around the time we went to dinner (about 6:00 pm) I started timing my contractions, they were consistently about 10 minutes apart at that point and by the time we left dinner about 8 minutes apart. I was somewhat in denial that I was actually going into labor (even though it was early labor) because I didn't feel the contractions were painful enough to be labor.
We got home and put Isla down for bed and started a movie. It was hard to pay attention to the movie because my contractions just kept coming closer together and I started to get excited that this baby was getting ready to be born. By the end of the movie they were 5 minutes apart and getting more painful. I wanted to labor at home as long as possible since my plan was to not get the epidural. I got in the bath (which really helped) then got ready and started packing my hospital bag.
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| Leaving for the hospital. |
Finally my contractions were around 2-3 minutes apart around 11:30 pm and since my doctor recommended I head in when they were 5 minutes apart we decided to go:)
We left the house at 12:00 am exactly the day of my due date, how crazy is that. As we were driving to the hospital my contractions really amped up and decided to get seriously painful! We got to the hospital and went right into triage, my contractions at that point were 2 minutes apart but I was only dilated to a 4 1/2 and they wanted to keep me in triage for as long as possible because the hospital was so busy with babies being born that night. In the hospital they play a little lullaby over the speakers every time a baby is born and we heard three in a five minute period plus a lot more throughout the night!
I was experiencing insane labor pain and walking around for a while in triage. I listed to my hipno birthing CD's which helped a lot until I started experiencing really bad back labor along with everything else. The baby was posterior I believe? Any way, after an hour and a half in triage I couldn't take the pain any more, I felt like I was getting no relief and just wanted to cry every time a contraction ended because I knew another one would be coming again shortly.
I yelled (literally) for the nurse and told her I needed to be checked in immediately so I could get the epidural. At that point I was dilated to a 5 1/2 and almost 100% effaced. They got me back pretty fast and I got the epidural:)
After that I just tried to sleep for a bit which didn't happen but Steve had no problems with that at all. He was out quick (this was around 2:00 am). About an hour later my Doctor came in to check me. He was already there and had just delivered two babies right before me. I was dilated to a 7 at that point so he broke my water. A little less than an hour after that I started to feel some serious pressure and right as I started to think about calling the nurse my Doctor walked back in to check me again. Sure enough I was dilated to 10 and 100% effaced! The Doctor wanted me to start pushing so I attempted to wake Steve up. I say attempted because he was very hard to wake up, I tried multiple times before it actually worked:)
One I started pushing it went pretty quick and easy. I was pushing for about an hour and pretty tired because I had been awake all through the night at this point and used every ounce of energy I had and it wasn't producing much result in my head. Finally the doctor asked if he could use the suction thing because I was so close I just needed a little extra help. I was nervous about that because it sounded dangerous and scary but he reassured me by telling me it was totally safe and I could have her out in only one more push.... I was sold when I heard I only had to push one more time:)
Everything about this experience was easier! The labor, the birth, EVERYTHING, and how grateful I am for that.
A few hours after Ivy was born we introduced her to her big sister. Isla wanted nothing to do with this small human and insisted upom throwing a major temper tantrum on the floor of our room right then. (Pic below).
We had to kind of distance her from Ivy at first so she would be happy again. She sure is a daddy's girl in every way. Steve played with her a bit to cheer her up.
We had heard from various people that it was a good idea to give the older sibling a gift when a new baby arrives so that they can feel special in the hospital so once Isla calmed down and was happy again we gave her her present.
A new stroller for her little baby doll. She loved it so much and had so much fun taking her baby on walks with dad around the hospital halls.
The only way we could get Isla to sit by Ivy was to show her Elmo video's on the phone. One and only picture of them sitting by each other in the hospital.
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| Getting her ready to take home. |
I am happy to say now Isla loves Ivy and loves to walk around the house pointing at everything that is Ivy's saying "baby Ivy, baby Ivy!" Everything is going really well for us and are growing family and we are so grateful for that.
