I cannot believe that it has been nearly a month since our dear little Weston John was born! I had so many of you following along over on Instagram, waiting just as impatiently as me for him to make his appearance. I was induced with Brody at 39 weeks due to high blood pressure, so going until nearly 41 weeks (40 weeks, 6 days) was so much harder than I expected. The anticipation, the uncomfortableness, and the worry made the wait unbearable.
Let’s get started! I went into my 40 week appointment with my OB so ready to have this baby, but also still kind of wanting to go into labor naturally as I didn’t have that experience with Brody. I had been 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced for the last two weeks, and at this appointment I was 3 cm dilated and 90% effaced with a bulging sack of water. I had made some progress but obviously baby still wasn’t ready to make his appearance. However, this is where my OB dropped a bomb… she was leaving on a week long vacation the next day! She said that she was going to offer to induce me that evening, but the hospital was too busy and not allowing elective inductions so that was off the table. I left that appointment kind of devastated. In reality, I knew that there was no guarantee that I would get my OB when it came time for delivery (If I went into labor at night or on a weekend I would get the OB on call), but knowing that she wouldn’t even be in town was hard to hear. So, I was to wait it out over the weekend and if I hadn’t gone into labor by Tuesday (it was Thursday of Memorial Day weekend) then they would set me up with an appointment with the only other OB in town.
Over the weekend I tried just about every natural induction method (besides caster oil, that was a no go in my book) to encourage baby boy to make his appearance. Over the weekend there was no progress, not even a few contractions. So on Tuesday morning, at 40+5 weeks, I called my OB office to get an appointment set up with the other OB in town. I went into the appointment that afternoon and got to meet with the OB that would be delivering this baby. I was nervous, and I think that he could tell. I was also a little annoyed (and I think so was the new OB even though he didn’t let on) that my OB office did not forward any of my medical records to them. Thankfully, I had a very normal uncomplicated pregnancy. So after talking with the OB, he said usually at this point in pregnancy I ask my clients if they would like to schedule an induction. By this point I was SO ready to be done being pregnant and was planning on asking for an induction, so I gladly said please schedule my induction. They put me down for the next day (June 2) for an 8 am induction.
That evening Clayton and I spent the evening enjoying our last day as a family of three. We had arranged for Brody to stay with my mother-in-law while we were in the hospital and would drop Brody off to her that next morning. So, come that next morning we got up, ate a good breakfast, dropped Brody off, and headed to our induction. However, on our way in I had a voicemail on my cell phone (we don’t have cell service at our house) saying that my induction had been postponed! Yet again the hospital was too full to accept elective inductions, plus they had three inductions on their list for the day. So, with a lot of disappointment we headed home to wait for a phone call to come into labor and delivery. The wait of staying home all morning waiting was killing Clayton, he is not use to sitting at home, and since we don’t have cell phone service around our house he didn’t want to leave in case I got the call to come in. Finally, around noon we got a call to come in at 2:00 for our induction!
Once we got to the hospital and got all checked in, the nurses got ready to place my IV port. At this point, I warned the nurse that last time it took the nurses an hour to try and place my IV and in the end they ended up having to call ICU to come with an ultrasound machine to place the port. So the nurse said that she would try once and if she couldn’t get it then she would call ICU down. Well surprise surprise, she couldn’t get the IV placed, so down came ICU to place my IV port. This time was much more enjoyable though, because I wasn’t being poked and dug at for an hour before getting it placed.
Once I had my IV port placed and a baseline reading of baby the nurse started me on a dose of cytotec to help finish ripening my cervix. This was the same thing they used on me with Brody, and I remember it not doing anything to progress labor with him, so I wasn’t expecting it to do much this time either. All there was to do after the cytotec was placed (around 3 pm) was to wait and see. After starting the cytotec, there were contractions registering on the monitor, but they didn’t have any intensity. They really just felt like menstrual cramps. At around 6 pm, the OB came to check on me and not to my surprise I had not made any progress. However, the contractions on the monitor made them think that the cytotec was doing it’s job even if I couldn’t feel them. So the wait was back on.
Finally, at a little before 10 pm the OB came back in to check on me. Again, no progress had been made, so he opted to break my water (we had previously discussed this being the next step after the cytotec). Right after the doctor broke my water I knew that things would probably start intensifying, so I asked the nurse to start the birthing tub so that I could get in it after my 15 minutes of monitoring. Less than 5 minutes later I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I went from not feeling anything to very painful contracting hitting less than a minute apart. All I remember thinking is after the doctor broke my water with Brody it was still four more hours before I was ready to start pushing and there was no way that I can do this for several more hours. So, I called the nurse back in and asked for an epidural.
The wait for the anesthesiologist was a blur. I just remember trying to make it through contractions that didn’t seem to have a break between them. Once the anesthesiologist did arrive, we got into position and trying to stay still and arch my back properly was not fun at all. At one point the anesthesiologist asked me if I felt like it was placed in the middle vs to the side and my response was “I don’t know I can’t concentrate on that right now.” Clayton said this was not the answer he was looking for and looked very annoyed at me. Finally, the epidural was placed a little after 10:40 pm and I looked at my nurse and said “I think I have to poop.” she checked me and said “Ok, so you are complete, I’m going to go call the doctor.” I remember closing my eyes, and then the doctor was there. Afterward Clayton said he must have ran the entire way from the parking lot, because he came sprinting in the door and looked out of breath.
I remember looking at the clock just before 11 pm when I started pushing and sweet little Weston was born June 2 at 11:12 pm. I remember when I was pushing the nurses and doctor saying that he was a big baby (not exactly what you want to hear as you are pushing), but he was only 7 pounds 2 oz and 20 inches long. Clayton and I were certain that Weston was not going to make his appearance that day, and the next morning the nurses told me that no-one had expected me to have Weston that night either but I guess he decided to prove everyone wrong.
Looking back, I wish I would have known that I would have been ready to push just 30ish minutes after my water breaking, instead of the hours that I was expecting. Everyone kept telling me that since I had been dilated and effaced for so long that my labor would be quick, but “quick” is different for everyone. Looking back it makes me curious if I would have had my water break at home if we would have even made it to the hospital (we live 30 minutes from the hospital, plus the time it would take to get Clayton home would be closer to an hour to get to the hospital).
Thank you for sticking through and reading my birth story! It makes me want to sit down and write out Brody’s birth story for a permanent place besides my brain. Tell me a little bit about your birth story! I love to hear about others experiences.
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