At 6am, they started an IV.
At 7:35 they started the pitocin. I asked my nurse, Kris (she is a friend of Sandy's and is so nice!), if she could check me before we started. She said I was nice and soft, about 2 centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and baby was nice and low, about a -1 station. This was re-assuring because I had been nervous about not coming in the night before to do the cytotec like last time, but my stats were pretty similar to what they were with Hud when they started the pitocin so I was feeling pretty good about it. We had also started the pitocin around 7:30 with Hudson so I was interested to see if things would progressed similarly or not.
By 8:10, I still wasn't having many contractions, not a lot was happening. Dr. Nelson came in and broke my water. Nic had left to go the bathroom so he missed it. I was all excited because having my water break was one of my favorite parts last time. It was so weird and a bit gross, but also really cool. Well, this time it was a bit of a let down. There was no big gush. In fact,she wasn't even sure if she had broken it. She had to ask the nurse to push on my stomach to see if anything would come out. Only when I sat up did a little bit of water trickle out. It was kind of scary actually and at that moment I knew we had made the right choice to have the induction. After they broke my water, they also upped my pitocin.
At 9:30, I started to feel contractions. It felt similar to the night before my polyp surgery (like really bad period cramps), I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes. I don't remember being hungry at all last time, which is strange because I didn't eat for almost 24 hours, but this time I was starving!
By 11am, the contractions were getting stronger and more painful. Because I had had my epidural so early last time, I really wanted to experience labor. I literally had been in no pain the entire experience and even though I had felt contractions, they had only been slightly uncomfortable, nothing worse than period cramps. This time, I was strangely enjoying the "experience" although I knew I still wanted the epidural at some point.
By 12, I could still talk through my contractions, but was starting to want to breath and focus through them, so I mentioned to the nurse that I wasn't in a rush, but whenever they were ready I was up for getting the epidural. Last time they asked me and I sort of had to get it really early. This time it was strange because they never asked and part of me wanted to keep going until the pain was unbearable, but Nic kept reminding me that it was better to get it put in before the pain was bad so I could hold still for it, plus we didn't know how fast things might go and I didn't want to miss out. It still sort of felt like I was being a wimp asking for it when I knew I could handle more pain. I asked the nurse to check me before I got the epidural because I wanted to know how far I had gone without it. I was at 4cm dilated and 80% effaced. I was happy with that since last time I was only about 2-3 cm dilated. I was hoping for the same anesthesiologist as I was really happy with my epidural last time, but she wasn't working that day. It was a bit more painful when the needle went in this time. I'm not sure if it was because the contractions were stronger so I was having to focus harder on being still. It still felt cool when the cold trickled down my spine and slowly each contraction got less and less painful. As soon as I was pain free and relaxed I realized how silly I was being trying to wait as long as possible for the epidural. I had obviously forgotten how wonderful it was last time! :)
By 1pm, the epidural was finished and the nurse checked me again as she inserted the catheter. I was about 5cm and 90% effaced. She said she could feel his head starting to poke through. She got me situated to one side and reminded me that they would have to flip my legs every hour then she left. Nic set me up with a movie on the ipad, What to Expect When You're Expecting, then he left to get himself lunch. I was so relaxed and happy. Ready to enjoy my movie and the next few hours....
Pretty soon after everyone left, I started to feel a really low pain with every contraction. I thought something must be wrong with my catheter or something and I must be feeling it. I started breathing through the contractions, then finally I decided I should call the nurse, so at 1:40, I called her to tell her that my epidural must not be working and I was feeling a really low, sharp pain with each contraction. She came rushing in and said it was probably the baby's head. She checked me and I was at 9+ centimeters dilated. I was also starting to get a slight urge to push! I was so not prepared for things to happen that fast! I quickly texted Nic to tell him to get back up to the room, then texted our photographer Jade to see where she was at. Luckily Nic was already heading back to the room, but Jade was still about 20 minutes away.
At 1:52, I was 10 centimeters dilated and baby was at +2. I had the urge to push, but really wanted to wait for Jade to get there. The nurses said as long as I felt ok waiting to push, I could wait. So I did. I started breathing through each contraction and tried to distract myself.
By 2:05ish, Jade arrived. Then the nurses seemed to take forever to get everything ready. I'm not exactly sure why they didn't prep while we waited for Jade, but they didn't. (It probably wasn't much longer that I waited after Jade arrived, but when you are trying to hold in a baby that is ready to come out, it obviously feels way longer). The nurses explained the pushing to me and then had me start pushing. By the second push, they told me to stop so they could get Dr. Nelson and Mindy, the baby nurse. So I had to wait yet again. My doctor works across the street so I asked if she drives over, but apparently she walks! Last time, Dr. Nelson was all ready and came in fully geared up, but this time she rushed in and started putting her gear on in the room. The nurses kept saying if I sneezed the baby would come out, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. Especially after Hudson and his giant head last time around!
I'm not sure what time I started pushing because everything was happening so fast. I did the 3 pushes and Nic told me he could see Luc's head. He was already crowning. I did 3 more and suddenly the nurses and Dr. Nelson seemed concerned. Apparently his arm was up by his head and I heard a mention of his heart rate dropping. I asked if I should just keep pushing. I obviously had tons of energy and didn't need to take breaks if we needed to get Luc out quickly. They nodded, so I immediately went into my next set of pushes. I did 2 more pushes, then they told me to stop. I always close my eyes while pushing and focus all my energy on getting the baby out. So the nurse told me to open my eyes and there he was! They pulled Luc out, did the bulb thing, then placed him on me. I only had a slight tear this time from Luc's arm (Dr. Nelson called it a skid mark and said it wasn't even necessary, but she put in a couple of stitches).
Luc was born at 2:31pm. He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 22 1/2 inches long. Nic says that they said 22 inches out loud, but they officially recorded 22 1/2. His head was 13 3/4 inches (Hudson's was 14 1/4). His apgar scores were 8 and 9. Nic cut Luc's umbilical cord, they cleaned him up, then brought him back to me for skin to skin and nursing. Nic said his umbilical cord was quite different from Hudson's.
The whole thing happened so fast that it is all honestly a huge blur! I am so thankful that Jade was there to capture this special and very overwhelming moment.
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