harper's birth story.

october 22.

My doctor likes to induce a week early (and by the time i'm 38 weeks pregnant, i'm all for it too!) But we asked to go a couple of days earlier than that so that i could be at closing for our house on wednesday. Plus the 22nd is sean's dad's bday, and we thought we'd give him a grandchild for his special day :) PLUS doc was predicting another big baby, so the sooner we got her out, the better!

At my last appointment on the 20th, i was dilated to a 2. Nothing huge, but doc said we were still on for the induction. The next two days were spent frantically trying to prepare for a baby, settle into our new place, clean out the old house, and give serena lots and lots of love and attention.

We left serena with grandma on thursday night and had a sleepless night. My sciatic & hips were driving me crazy at the end there. But we knew we would have a few days to lay around the hospital and relax. Seriously, we always love our staycation at the hospital!

We checked in at 7:30 a.m. on friday. I got my IV and only had minor drama associated with it, unlike last time. I'll have to post a picture of the first hand they tried the IV in. Sean told me to tell him i was punching him during labor. . . If only he had black eyes to match . . .

I got started on pitocin around 9:00, and doc came and broke my water at 9:30. We just layed around for the next little while, waiting for my contractions to get painful enough to ask for the epidural. Right around 10:00 we started hearing a woman in serious distress, screaming at the top of her lungs and yelling "HELP ME!!". The nurses informed us that this girl was not planning on going naturally, but the anesthesiologist was in the OR and wasn't able to get her the epidural in time. Sean was seriously traumatized by this (and he wasn't the only one... apparently 2 other women who were planning to naturally that day changed their minds after hearing the crazed lady!) and wanted me to get the epidural asap! We told our nurse to send him in as soon as he could. That turned out to not be until around 11:30, so we were glad we asked when we did. By that time i was feeling the contractions pretty badly. The nurse checked me around 11:00 and i was dilated to a 4.

I got the epidural and everything went well for a while. Doc came back and checked me around 1:00. I was still only a 4. This was pretty discouraging. I didn't want to be in labor until 8:00 at night, like i was with serena, but it was starting to look like that might be the case. Right around 1:00 i started feeling a lot more pain. I could tell that the drugs were wearing off because i had feeling in my toes and could move my legs really well. I clicked the button at 1:15 to get another dose. Nothing happened. I was starting to have full feeling back in my abdomen. . . Right where you don't want to be feeling anything! I clicked the button again at 1:30. Still nothing. I told the nurse and of course the anesthesiologist was nowhere to be found. Around 2:00, his assistant came in and gave me another dose. Nothing. It was making my legs numb, but not my abdomen. At this point i was not a happy camper. I just wanted to cry and hunt down the stupid anesthesiologist to give him a piece of my mind!

Contractions were getting closer together and more painful and just as my nurse came in to check on me and tell me they had found the anesthesiologist, i started really feeling the pressure to push. Great timing, right!? The nurse checked me, and sure enough, i was dilated to a 10 and ready to push! They called my dr and told him to get to the hospital quick! The dang anesthesiologist showed up right around 3:00 and gave me a huge dose. Lucky for me, in the few short minutes we were waiting for the dr, the epidural finally kicked in! Hallelujah!

The nurses did a practice push with me while we were waiting, and quickly told me to stop after counting to 2! As soon as the doctor was there, i pushed through 2 contractions and baby harper was here at 3:08! We were SHOCKED when they told us her weight. 2 lbs smaller than serena was. What?! She is so tiny.

So far she has been just a sweet little thing. We don't even mind the sleepless nights :)

Serena doesn't think much of her new sister. She's coming home from grandma's tonight, so pretty soon we'll know what she really thinks!

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