Pregnancy is a funny thing, especially when you get close to your due date. Your body does all kinds of weird/gross things. For me, I thought I was going into labor 3 different times. Briar kept telling me I was crazy, and he was right! one of the times he asked "what percentage do you think you are actually going into labor?" I replied "80%"....well guess what, I didn't actually go into labor, stupid Braxton Hicks! The night before they day I was induced, I was going to take a shower and I swear my water broke, but guess what, I must've just peed. Pregnancy plays tricks on you, I think its because you get so miserable that you hope and hope its going to happen, and then it doesn't, but eventually it really does. So after I thought my water broke, we had our friend come over, since we needed someone to stay with Hadley, and she just decided to stay the night, just in case anything happened (she is so sweet!) Contractions never started so we all went to bed around 11pm.
The next morning we left to the hospital around 7:40 since we needed to be at the hospital at 8AM. We got put in a room with a beautiful view in L&D, but were moved due to construction that would be taking place below the room. This new room didn't have as good as view, but it did the job.
They checked my cervix when we first got there and I had dilated from a 3 to a 4. They started Pitocin and said they would break my water when I got to a 5. During this time we watched the new jumanji movie, it was pretty funny, and Daddy's Home. Briar's mom and my mom both were there and had made it from Tri-Cities at this point. I was having contractions, but nothing too serious.
Around 2 PM they came in and broke my water. 10 minutes later I was having very intense contractions where I couldn't talk or stay still. The nurse came in and asked if I wanted an epidural, earlier we had discussed what my birth plan was, and getting an epidural was the only thing on it. I hesitated saying yes, due to the fact that I felt like I could still tolerate contractions. The nurse was very frank, and said you could be delivering soon and it could be too late to get an epidural, she easily convinced me and I said yes! 15 minutes later they were starting the epidural, I expected it to be super fast and instant pain relief, like with Hadley's, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. It took a few contractions before the epidural started working, but even then there was a window in my lower left abdomen that the medication was not touching. The pain was so severe and unbearable. I was scared to death I would be delivering without pain relief. With Hadley I had a 3rd degree tear, and I did not want to feel that if it happened again. After tossing and turning in pain, the anesthesiologist came and said she had given all meds she could at this point and if I didn't feel relief in 10 minutes, she would redo the epidural. Thankfully, 10 minutes later I had relief, and I was only feeling some pressure.
Around 4:30PM my midwife came in and checked me and I was dilated to a 10 and baby was crowning (I got to touch the head.) They got all setup and had me start the pushing process at 5:00PM. The plan was for me to not push so much and let the baby come out slowly and smoothly to decrease tearing. After a total of 3 soft pushes, rowan made her grand debut at 5:09PM. We were all in awe of her when we first saw her. When we did skin to skin she had some hair that she shed in my uterus come off on me (hairy girl.) About an hour after she was born they weighed her in at 8lbs 6oz and a height of 20.5 inches.
They eventually moved us to the mother/baby unit, which they so Kindly gave me the biggest room. It was massive, and made it so nice when family came to visit.
I don't think this whole experience could have gone any better. The doctors, nurses, and midwives at Kaiser were beyond amazing. They constantly were making sure all my needs were being met and that we stuck to what I wanted. They were all so kind and gave me the royal treatment. Kaiser is the only place I think I will ever want to have a baby again!
They were a little concerned about jaundice, but we were able to overcome that without any interventions other then feeding baby lots!
Rowan is just the sweetest baby! She only cries when she is hungry, and even then it is more like a growl. Everyone in our family, including Hadley, just can't get over how cute and sweet she is. We are all so in love with her.
I love my family of 4!
A huge thank you to my sister Jessica for flying out from Colorado to capture this moment for us!
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