This Unfamiliar Road

It's 9:30am...

-I am showered and dressed
-Peyton is dressed
-Eliza is dressed (and asleep!)
-I made a healthy breakfast this morning
-Laundry is in the washing machine
-Dishes are clean

My house needs to be vacuumed, mopped, dusted...well, a really good deep clean. There is kid and baby STUFF all over the house. Things are not perfect...but it's these small victories of my morning that make me confident in my ability as a parent to 2 children.

Rather than worry about keeping up with everything, I am enjoying my day-to-day with my precious girls and my small victories.

This is the story of how our precious daughter entered the world!

At my 40-week check up, we scheduled a cervidil induction for Saturday, Sept 27. Cervidil is a prostaglandin placed near the cervix to help it soften and dilate. The plan for cervidil inductions is to insert it and let it work overnight (about 10-12 hours) then remove it and begin Pitocin to induce or augment contractions. Since this was my second baby, my OB recommended I check in to the hospital later (to give us a chance to put Peyton to bed!) and place the cervidil around 10pm.

So, after several days of long walks, eating pineapple, and rocking on a yoga ball...I realized this baby was not coming on his (her) own. I was super nervous about the induction, but spent the day on Saturday enjoying our time together as a family of 3 and my last day of pregnancy.

We checked into the hospital around 8pm, and I was SO happy to have one of my former coworkers (who now works L&D) admit me. She really put my mind at ease about the induction, and we both joked that maybe the cervidil would put me into labor and I wouldn't need the Pitocin :)


The cervidil was placed around 9:40pm, the monitors were on, and I settled in for a night of rest. Yeah. Right.

My L&D nurse came in about an hour later, and said "Are you feeling those contractions? You are in a good pattern." Yeah, I was feeling them. Not bad but definitely not conducive to a restful night.

Around 2:30am, the contractions really kicked in. I continued to change positions, empty my bladder, and grip the bed rail for dear life ;) After an hour of that, I finally asked for pain meds, which barely took the edge off. Looking back, I don't think my monitor was picking up the strength of my contractions because I was definitely in active labor with strong contractions!
We finally decided to pull the cervidil at 5:30am, allowing me a chance to "get up and shower if you want". No way...I had 7 contractions while brushing my teeth! Time for that epidural :)

At 9:00am, the midwife checked me: 8cm, but Bean was still high in the pelvis. She broke my water and walked out of the room. I immediately felt pressure to push, and asked my nurse to check me: completely dilated and head fully engaged.
After 8 minutes of pushing, our sweet GIRL entered the world at 9:38am. (No Pitocin needed!!)


We learned that the cord was wrapped around her neck two times, which is probably why she never descended into the pelvis until the end!
We also later found out that Eliza had a broken clavicle. I am pretty certain this occurred in the descent, not the delivery. Going from 8cm to complete almost immediately...I think she came in for a crash landing!



  There really isn't any 'treatment' for a newborn broken clavicle besides a sling for comfort. Eliza certainly never showed any signs of discomfort!


The big question: "Were you surprised it was a girl?" Honestly, I was slightly surprised but not as SHOCKED as Ben was :)

After I got settled into my postpartum room, Ben brought Peyton for a visit. Oh she was SO excited to meet the baby, and continues to be infatuated with her little sister.




One of my coworkers and dear friends offered to take some newborn photos before we went home! Here are some of my favorites:







 My recovery has been easy, thankfully! I feel great, although a little tired of course. Eliza has been a good baby, waking to eat about every 3 hours. So far, her personality seems to be "quietly curious".

GIRL!