Allie was due on February 15. At my 37 week appointment, my doctor told me that I could be induced any time after 39 weeks. That was a happy surprise for me. I chose to be induced Tuesday February 16, one day after my due date. He was surprised that I didn't want her out sooner, but I really wanted her born on the 16th. I really like numbers, and with her birthday on the 16th we'd have Connors birthday as 09/13/13 and Allie's as 02/16/16.
This labor and delivery was do different than Connor's. The weeks leading up to it I'd been getting a few Braxton hicks contractions a day. On my due date I got a couple of real contractions, but nothing together or really painful.
Tuesday morning we woke up at 630, showered, ate breakfast, spent a little bit of time with Connor, then went to the hospital. It was so chill; no rushing around or panic. We were so blessed to have my mom in town to watch Connor.
We got there at 730. We did paper work, and they set me up in my room. By the time they first checked me I was already dilated to a 3 (I was a 1 at my last doctor appointment a week ago). At about 830 I got my group b medicine, and they started me at a 1 on pitocin.
At about 9 my doctor came in and.
broke my water, and the nurse turned my pitocin up to a 3. At 955 she turned it up to a 5. I started getting a couple if painful contractions here and there, but I didn't feel much. At that time my contractions we're about 8 minutes apart, but I wasn't feeling all of them. By 1010 I had felt a few petty painful contractions, so I called the nurse and told her I'd be ready for the epidural soon. She had told me to give her about a half hour notice so she could make sure I got all the fluids I needed. I probably could have lasted longer without it, but I didn't know how I'd be feeling in a half hour, so I decided to go in the side of caution. At 1025 my nurse came in and turned my pitocin up to 7. I was feeling all my contractions, and they we're probably 5 minutes apart. These were the type of contractions that I remembered from Connors delivery, not what I'd felt up to this point, which I was never sure if it was Braxton hicks or real labor contractions. At 1045 the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. It took about 15 minutes to get it in. It worked on my right side right away, but it took a little longer to kick in on my left side. Once I got it I felt so good :) At about 11 my nurse turned my pitocin up to 9. At 1135 my nurse put in my cathiter and checked if I'd progressed. I was dilated to a 4, and 85% effaced. My nurse moved my pitocin up to 11. At 1220 my nurse put in my second dose of penicillin, and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. (I wasn't feeling them because of the epidural). My nurse turned my pitocin up to 13.
At 1 I started getting nauseous and dizzy, so I called my nurse in. She said my blood pressure was low. She lowered my pitocin to 11, and gave me some oxygen. Then she said she'd come back in about 15 minutes to see how I was feeling. She came back at 130 and things started happening. She turned off my pitocin, decided to check if I had dilated any more. I was dilated to a 10! She checked allie's heart, and her heart rate was really low te monitor couldn't even register it. Right when the nurse saw that she said "you need to have this baby right now!" That freaked me out. She called to get all the equipment and nurses to my room right away. Every time a nurse or doctor walked into my room my nurse would say something like "she needs to have this baby now". It turned out this exact thing was happening at the exact same time to the girl in the room next to me. Neither of our doctors were at the hospital yet, so the nurse called the on call doctor. He pretty much bounced back and forth between our two rooms checking which baby was in more distress and needed to be delivered sooner. Same with all the nurses, there weren't enough nurses to fully support the two of us who had babies with low heart rates, and the third girl who also dilated to a 10 during that time. Then after about 15 minutes Allie's heart rate went up, and the heart rate of the baby in the other room went up. Also, both our doctors showed up.
We were our of the panic zone, but my doctor was here, I was dilated, and her head was visible, doctor said it was time. I pushed 4 sets of 4 pushes (about 15 minutes total), and she was born at exactly 2 pm. It was all very fast. I didn't feel any pain, but I did feel her head kind of pop out. She has a beautifully round head, no cone head :) then the nurses took her for about a half hour to clean her up and get me cleaned me up. Daniel got it hold her for a while then. I finally got to hold her around 230, and started nursing her. She was so chill. She nursed for about 40 minutes, then she just laid on my chest for a while. She was so quiet and content. Mom brought Connor over at around 4, and Connor was in love with his baby sister from that moment. He wanted to keep holding her. They stayed and loved on Allie until about 530 when the nurse came to check on baby and clean me up again. Then Allie got to sleep on Daniels chest for a while. Then at about 615 I nursed her again. She kept sleeping and nursing, so I nursed her again at 730. We were going to send her to the nursery then, but she'd been sleeping so well and so quietly that we didn't feel a need to send her in yet.
This time with Allie really made me understand why people like to cosleep. While we were sitting there in bed, I'd just finished nursing, she'd fallen asleep, it felt so sweet to have her in my arms. I just wanted to snuggle up with her and go to bed.
Finally around 9 I nursed her again, sent her to the nursery, and went to bed. The nurses brought her in at midnight for me to feed her, then they brought her in again at 230 because she was fussy and they couldn't calm her down. I nursed her, then let her sleep in my arms for like a half hour till I had the nurse take her back to the nursery. Then she slept like a champ. At 7 I started worrying that they hadn't brought her back in yet, and at 730 I called to check on her. The nurse brought her back in, she was still sleeping, but the nurse said it was ok to wake her up and feed her. But she just looked so sweet, so I let her sleep till 8, then woke her up.
Wednesday was pretty laid back. Sleeping, nursing. She did at one point throw up. I think my dinner from the night before didn't settle well with me or her. We had the nurse take her back and clean her up. Then more sleeping and nursing.
My mom brought Connor in around 330 to visit again. He was so excited to hold the baby, but she was still sleeping. Finally at 4 Connor was going crazy (and I had to feed her soon), so even though she was asleep, we let Connor hold her. Oh boy is he sweet and precious with her. He kept giving her snuggles and kisses, and huges. He was stroking her head and patting her tummy. Wow he loves her.
They left around 5. Daniel and I ordered our dinners from the cafeteria, and ate. We sent Allie to the nursery around 830, and then I went to bed.
Thursday was our check out day, and we we're so ready to go. The nurse brought Allie in at 6am, and after I fed her I just kept her in the room because she was so quiet and sleeping so well. We all got up at around 730. We showered and packed up. We were completely ready to go by about 9, but we still had to wait for my doctor to discharge me, and Allie's doctor to discharge her. I also asked the lactation consultant to come in and make sure Allie and I were nursing well. Finally at 1130 everything was done and we were able to leave. Of course, just our luck, at about 11 it had started snowing, so by 1130 everything was covered and the roads were slippery. We had to stop at the grocery store on our way home for food and my medicine.
When we got home mom had decorated our apartment with "it's a girl" decorations. It was so fun :) Allie pretty much slept all day. I had to wake her up a couple of times to nurse. She's a good nurser, but then she just wantes to sleep again. Our first night home with Allie was really rough. She was up pretty much all night. We think her tummy didn't feel great because we could feel it bubbling. Night two was amazing! She only woke up twice during the night to eat. We we're so happy.
We are so in love with Allie. She makes us all so happy, and brings so much joy to us.
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