Let’s Go Have a Baby! – Part 2

So here we are, seven hours after arriving at the hospital and I’m exactly where I started. I was a little discouraged.

The next intervention was the Foley Bulb. This was by far my least favorite part of either delivery, however, it did do what it is meant to do. Along the way, I was in some pretty serious discomfort so they gave me an IV pain medication that caused the room to spin. I was not able to sleep the entire time except for a very brief time while that medication was in my system. The good news is that the medication wore off and the bulb got me to 4 cms.

Over the next hour and a half, my body, along with the pitocin, allowed another 1 cm of progress. They broke my water, just as they had to do with my first delivery. I think this is when we gave up on the hospital television options, got sick of playing on our phones, and my husband and I tried to start watching Orange is the New Black. Which was super awkward with both my mom and the medical people coming in and out of the room. It was kind of like watching a not safe for work thing at work. At this point my day nurse left, and my night nurse came on. She was a new mom and just as wonderful as the first nurse. I remember I started to have some significant discomfort and within a couple hours I had not made an progress dilating, and I decided to get the epidural.

Somewhere around the time, That Guy had our camera out and took a few pictures. Very innocently, he asked why the camera’s screen was blurry and partially black. A few days before, That Guy had picked up the camera bag funny and the camera had fallen out. Apparently, it hit at just the right angle and the screen was impacted. How we hadn’t noticed when it was checked, I will never know. Luckily, we were still able to use the viewfinder and take pictures. It was just like using a film camera and getting the roll of film developed to see the pictures of this momentous event when we go home and downloaded the pictures. We did have a spare, compact camera and my mom was able to take those important pictures just after That Baby arrived.

Three hours passed after the epidural and I made another 3 cm of progress when I was checked. I was at 8 cm at this point and within 15 minutes they checked me again and we were ready to go. My mom left the room before the doctor arrived and I started pushing. Within seven minutes of her leaving the room, I was holding our daughter, That Baby, in my arms. She was healthy and breathing well after a few seconds that passed like hours. That Guy cut the cord as he did with our first daughter. We were truly blessed! And she was so very long and lean! They measured her a few times and all seemed in disbelief that she was 21 1/2 inches at 36 weeks. She nursed right away to my relief. We were able to snuggle and spend time together just the three of us enjoying every moment, breath, square inch of soft skin, and teeny tiny finger and toe. It was about an hour before we had my mom come back in the room and meet her grandbaby. After a few hours, we said goodbye to my mom and spent our first night together.