It's so hard to believe that my baby girl is already over a month old! Time has flown much quicker this time around. Another kid means another hospital story so without further anxious waiting...
The due date of November 12th came and went with no signs of an arrival. Fast forward to my 1 week overdue appointment where an ultrasound is done to check amniotic fluid levels and a non- stress test to check baby movement. The amount of fluid they like to see in utero is a minimum of 7 oz and I had 18 oz!!! The non-stress test showed a few contractions that I wasn't feeling and plenty of baby movement. So in short little Evelyn was incredibly comfortable. The midwife then wanted to schedule an induction date just in case things didn't progess on their own since they don't allow anyone to go past 2 weeks overdue. I decided to schedule induction for Monday, November 26th which was the 2 weeks.
After leaving the doctor, Mark called me asking to move up the date so he wouldn't have to miss work. Friday, November 23rd is now was....nothing like spending Black Friday in the hospital because there was no way I was going to go shopping. Iowa State also had their last home game that same day. Fast forward to the morning of November 23rd.
We checked in at 7 am and started to get settled in my room when in comes the nurses. I was blessed with an incredible nurse with Lane and I was equally blessed this time too. There was some training going on so I actually had 2 nurses this time and funny enough, one of them I used to show horses with and graduated high school with Mark. I thought that it might be a little awkward but it wasn't at all. There was a few contractions but I couldn't feel them..and was dilated to a 2. Definately no recipe for a quick baby arrival without some help. So they started me on Pitocin at 7:30 am to see how things progressed. This dang child was laughing at the Pitocin induced contractions because after 3 hours I was finally feeling contractions but they weren't very strong and I wasn't progrssing.
Finally around 10:30 am they decided to break my water. Breaking my water proved that there was A LOT of fluid because they kept bringing towels to soak it all up. Almost instantly the contractions tripled in strength and I was asking for an epidural. My nurses wanted me to get up and go to the bathroom before the epidural was inserted and holy moly did that make the contractions intensify even more!!! By this point I was really struggling. The anesthesiologist arrived about 11:45 am and this was by far the worst part of my entire day. 45 minutes and 3 tries later I finally felt comfortable. I have no idea what the problem was but she really struggled.
It's now about 12:30 pm and my awesome nurses and midwife decide to turn of the Pitocin in hopes that things will progress on their own. OF COURSE they don't because my daughter is incredibly stubborn and she's still not ready to join the world. Pitocin eventually gets turned back on and now all things are finally a go! I'm itching all over (side effect of the epidural) and I feel as though it's feezing in the room (last delivery nurse with lane said it's another side effect of the epidural but the nurse this time said I'm finally in the transition phase of labor - sign we're getting really, really close.) Now the nurses (mine and babies) are coming in and out getting things ready for delivery. At about 1:45 pm I tell the nurses that I'm starting to feel pressure so they call the midwife in. Well what do ya know?!?!? My little girl is finally ready to come out. So at 2:15 pm they call the baby nurse back in because they think it's going to be a quick delivery and at 2:20 pm I'm finally being told to push. 9 pushes and 3 contractions later baby Evelyn is here at exactly 2:30 pm. Just in time for kickoff of the ISU football game. No episiotomy snafus and only a small tear. For those of you who are wondering....yes Mark held a leg once again and watched it all :)
We had a great group of nurses taking care of us, joking around and watching TV during the day. They all took a guess as to her weight and they all guessed about 7-7.5 pounds. EVERYONE was shocked to hear 8 lb 14 oz. That's all for now....there are 2 kids that need to get down for a nap so I can try and put this house semi back together.
