Submitted by Upstate NewYork (read more by visiting here)
On Wednesday I had an appointment in the early afternoon, so I sent all my kiddos home at one pm and Big Brother, Hubby and I went to Wendy’s for lunch. Hubby and I knew that we would be discussing induction at this appointment. We were very on the fence about when we would want her to do it. I was scared of needing pitocin and wanted to avoid it, but I knew Baby Sister needed to be born. I knew she could not wait more than another week. Hubby is a teacher and his students come back this Wednesday. That would have been the very last day that they would have done the induction, so we didn’t really want to wait that long. We were very nervous, not knowing fully what to expect, wanting this little girl to come and feeling so unsure of what we even wanted.
Well, all of our worrying was for nothing. We go in on Wednesday and they put me on the monitor to test her heartbeat and my contractions. They check my blood pressure and all is doing well. So, my midwife comes in and says, “Let’s see if we can have a baby today. Get on the table and I will check your cervix.” So, she does and I was 4 cm dialated, so she stripped my membranes (she asked and I said she could) and said that I should head over to the hospital. She was going to come over after she finished with her appointments for the day and would break my water if necessary. I knew that doing all this meant a possibility that I could eventually wind up on pitocin, but it was also likely that that I would never need them to go that far. Big Brother was so excited when he heard we could go to the hospital and have Baby Sister. He was all smiles and practically jumping up and down. It was so cute.
Before leaving for the hospital we called our doula. Normally doulas have a bigger role in making sure women get good medical care, making sure women get what they want out of birth and things like that. Ours was a certifying doula who we hired to help with Big Brother. The birthing center we were going to required we have someone there in case he needed anything while I was a little busy. They wanted Hubby to be able to focus on me. So, she got to the hospital a little while after we did. She helped Big Brother make Baby Sister’s birthday cake. He was insistent that she get a cake. After all, it was her birthday.
So, she did break my water at about 5:30 pm and then we just waited. At around 9:30 pm I started having contractions that were a little stronger. I was still able to move through them and talk, but they were definitely stronger and getting closer together. They were about 2 minutes apart. The nurse suggested that I take a bath, so eventually I gave in to her and did. Well, within ten minutes of being in the tub (this was about 11:30 pm) the contractions were coming every minute and a half and I started to feel a lot of pressure. We told the nurse and she checked me and now I was dialated to 8cm. So, things were definitely moving, but we were not there yet. They called my midwife and she came in around midnight. She checked me and then we waited. The contractions got really bad and I was having a hard time not pushing at all, but my midwife said to go ahead and push, or do whatever felt natural. Then around 1 am, it was time to push her out.
We woke Big Brother up, he had only reluctantly gone to sleep that night when we promised to wake him up when she was coming. So, our doula picked him up and held him to watch during the pushing. She was so great with him. I started pushing at 1 am and Baby Sister was born at 2:35 am. Big Brother sat in the doulas arms and watched the whole time. The nurses and the midwife were saying things like “you can do it. keep going, just a little more.” and all of a sudden Big Brother started saying “Keep going mommy. You can do it.” It was awesome.
After her head and shoulders were out my midwife looked at me and said, “okay, pick up your baby.” I was actually able to reach down and pull (and push) her the rest of the way out. I had her on my chest as they cleaned her and cut the cord. She was stubborn and would not cry for them, so they had to take her and suction out her lungs. They got a bunch of phlegm out but she still would not cry. But her lungs were clear and so they gave her back. While she was being suctioned I had to push out the placenta. That was really weird. I was expecting to have to push it out, but it still took me by surprise. All of a sudden I felt a little pain again and as I moved to try to make myself comfortable I pushed a little and I felt a big blob fall out. They showed me the placenta later and it was way bigger than I had thought it was going to be. That may have been the weirdest part of the whole thing.
After they gave Baby Sister back, she almost immediately started nursing. She took to it really well. The nurse had to show us how to get her on, but all in all she did really well. The doula left around this point. We were sad to see her go. But of course she isn’t going to hang around forever. When Baby Sister was done eating, we all sang happy birthday to her and ate her cake. Obviously, she did not have any, but Big Brother ate her piece. 
