How to Induce Labor - 101 (aka Liam's birth story)
It's been over 5 years since I last wrote a blog post. In the last 5 years I have:
Moved back to the U.S.
Attended 6 colleges and transferred 7 times.
GCC, PVCC, UVU, BYU, VCC, ASU, BYU, ASU
(& just last week I finished my bachelor's degree!)
Married the sweetest man I know
Bought our first house
Endured 9.5 long months of pregnancy and gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy.
My life right now is pretty crazy. Some beautiful and wonderful, some crappy and sad. All in all, I have discovered my memory is really bad since I got pregnant. As such, I want to try to savor as many of these sweet memories as I can before I forget them! Almost 5 months later, here is the reader's digest version of Liam's debut into this crazy world.
At 36 weeks pregnant, I was done. Completely over it. My mom had given birth to me at 30 weeks and my doctor was convinced I would go early. My body on the other hand had a different plan. It was taking great care of my little nugget. The day I hit 36 weeks, I walked 5 miles up and down hills, only to make myself miserable with braxton hicks. Anyone who tells you braxton hicks never hurt, is crazy.
Fast forward a week, I was trying everything to naturally induce labor. Drinking every herbal tea known to induce labor, bouncing on a ball, doing squats, I even considered castor oil. I looked like I had swallowed a watermelon.
By week 38, I was crying every day. I wanted my body back and I wanted desperately to meet my sweet boy. At 38+3, I got my hair done and during my appt my hairdresser was joking that my water was going to break while in her chair. *I was praying it would* I walked from my hair appointment to my mom's apartment, where she gave me a foot massage, I ate an entire pineapple, did 100 squats and 100 lunges, then I drove to the gym, where I walked on the treadmill for 2.5 hours. I wanted to die. My contractions were back to back but they didn't hurt enough for me to go to the hospital. Not to mention, I had a ready been checked a few days before and I was only "MAYBE a .5 cm dilated". I got in the car, met Jory at chipotle, walked another 2 miles or so after dinner, went home relaxed with my hubby, did some more squats, paced around our house, walked down the street to Danielle's house. Her and her house full of people, yelled at me and told me to go to the hospital. As such, I walked home and helped Jory pack the bags. He was way more frantic than I was. I had the bags packed for weeks with sticky notes on top of last minute things to grab. It was super simple and I had explained the process to him easily 5 times. He paced aimlessly back and forth while I packed everything. Bless his heart, I don't think it was real for him until that moment. On the way to the hospital I said, babe, I'm not in labor. They're just going to send me home.
When I got to the hospital I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced. I was like seeeeeeee, not in labor guys. I practically jogged the halls for an hour. When they checked me again, I was at a 4. They admitted me right away. At this pace I would have a baby in 3 hours. That was until I got in the tub. Next thing you know, I was stuck at a 4 for 6 hours. It was horrible. My doctor came in and told me I could go home and come back when my contractions sped back up or I could stay and they would give me pitocin and break my water. There was no way I was going home, I had made it this far, I was bringing a baby home with me when I left that hospital. My OB started me on pitcin and broke my water.
WARNING TMI ......................
(Don't read further if you don't want to read the nitty gritty details!)
My OB grabbed a tool that look like a crochet hook and dug around for about 3-4 minutes before she was able to break my water. I wanted to scream! That was probably one of the painful parts of the whole experience. They ramped my pitocin all the way up and next thing you know, my contractions were comparable to shattering my femur or my abdominal surgeries. I endured these hellish pitocin induced contractions for about 4 hours before I had them check me. I was only at a 7. There was no way I could do another 4 hours without an epidural. I was exhausted. My body had been through the ringer! I was going on 12 hours of labor in the hospital and had been dealing with my contractions for about 20. I gave in and got the epidural. They said it was a very hard time to give it with my contractions so intense. They reminded me time and time again to stay perfectly still. I did. It is simply mind over matter when you know you can be paralyzed if you even flench. haha Within 10-15 minutes, I was still in an intense amount of pain and focusing my breathing. My nurse was like, "Why are you still breathing like that? Your epidural should be kicked in by now." I looked at her dead in the face and said, "Because I feel like I can push this baby out my butt right now." She said..."Huh...maybe I should check you." Sure enough I was at 10 cm and 100% effaced. She said it's time to push. **Hallelujah..best thing I had heard in months.** My mom had just left the room, so I told Jory to go get her. She came running, the nurse told her not to rush as it would probably be about 3 hours of pushing since I had just gotten an epidural. Little did she know, my epidural never truly kicked in. I began pushing and after less than 10 minutes, she called the doctor and said she needed to be there in the next 7 minutes or I would be delivering this baby without her. Little did I know, my best friend was in her office. When my OB got the call, they both raced to the hospital. Let's just say while I waited the 10 minutes it took for her to get there, I could see baby boy's head. After my OB walked in I pushed 1.5 times.
6 lbs 5oz, 20 inches, of pure perfection. They laid my little angel on my chest who nursed for 30 straight minutes, while staring up at me with those big beautiful eyes.
Shoutout to @mytribe_studio for the lashes.
Moved back to the U.S.
Attended 6 colleges and transferred 7 times.
GCC, PVCC, UVU, BYU, VCC, ASU, BYU, ASU
(& just last week I finished my bachelor's degree!)
Married the sweetest man I know
Bought our first house
Endured 9.5 long months of pregnancy and gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy.
My life right now is pretty crazy. Some beautiful and wonderful, some crappy and sad. All in all, I have discovered my memory is really bad since I got pregnant. As such, I want to try to savor as many of these sweet memories as I can before I forget them! Almost 5 months later, here is the reader's digest version of Liam's debut into this crazy world.
At 36 weeks pregnant, I was done. Completely over it. My mom had given birth to me at 30 weeks and my doctor was convinced I would go early. My body on the other hand had a different plan. It was taking great care of my little nugget. The day I hit 36 weeks, I walked 5 miles up and down hills, only to make myself miserable with braxton hicks. Anyone who tells you braxton hicks never hurt, is crazy.
Fast forward a week, I was trying everything to naturally induce labor. Drinking every herbal tea known to induce labor, bouncing on a ball, doing squats, I even considered castor oil. I looked like I had swallowed a watermelon.
By week 38, I was crying every day. I wanted my body back and I wanted desperately to meet my sweet boy. At 38+3, I got my hair done and during my appt my hairdresser was joking that my water was going to break while in her chair. *I was praying it would* I walked from my hair appointment to my mom's apartment, where she gave me a foot massage, I ate an entire pineapple, did 100 squats and 100 lunges, then I drove to the gym, where I walked on the treadmill for 2.5 hours. I wanted to die. My contractions were back to back but they didn't hurt enough for me to go to the hospital. Not to mention, I had a ready been checked a few days before and I was only "MAYBE a .5 cm dilated". I got in the car, met Jory at chipotle, walked another 2 miles or so after dinner, went home relaxed with my hubby, did some more squats, paced around our house, walked down the street to Danielle's house. Her and her house full of people, yelled at me and told me to go to the hospital. As such, I walked home and helped Jory pack the bags. He was way more frantic than I was. I had the bags packed for weeks with sticky notes on top of last minute things to grab. It was super simple and I had explained the process to him easily 5 times. He paced aimlessly back and forth while I packed everything. Bless his heart, I don't think it was real for him until that moment. On the way to the hospital I said, babe, I'm not in labor. They're just going to send me home.
When I got to the hospital I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced. I was like seeeeeeee, not in labor guys. I practically jogged the halls for an hour. When they checked me again, I was at a 4. They admitted me right away. At this pace I would have a baby in 3 hours. That was until I got in the tub. Next thing you know, I was stuck at a 4 for 6 hours. It was horrible. My doctor came in and told me I could go home and come back when my contractions sped back up or I could stay and they would give me pitocin and break my water. There was no way I was going home, I had made it this far, I was bringing a baby home with me when I left that hospital. My OB started me on pitcin and broke my water.
WARNING TMI ......................
(Don't read further if you don't want to read the nitty gritty details!)
My OB grabbed a tool that look like a crochet hook and dug around for about 3-4 minutes before she was able to break my water. I wanted to scream! That was probably one of the painful parts of the whole experience. They ramped my pitocin all the way up and next thing you know, my contractions were comparable to shattering my femur or my abdominal surgeries. I endured these hellish pitocin induced contractions for about 4 hours before I had them check me. I was only at a 7. There was no way I could do another 4 hours without an epidural. I was exhausted. My body had been through the ringer! I was going on 12 hours of labor in the hospital and had been dealing with my contractions for about 20. I gave in and got the epidural. They said it was a very hard time to give it with my contractions so intense. They reminded me time and time again to stay perfectly still. I did. It is simply mind over matter when you know you can be paralyzed if you even flench. haha Within 10-15 minutes, I was still in an intense amount of pain and focusing my breathing. My nurse was like, "Why are you still breathing like that? Your epidural should be kicked in by now." I looked at her dead in the face and said, "Because I feel like I can push this baby out my butt right now." She said..."Huh...maybe I should check you." Sure enough I was at 10 cm and 100% effaced. She said it's time to push. **Hallelujah..best thing I had heard in months.** My mom had just left the room, so I told Jory to go get her. She came running, the nurse told her not to rush as it would probably be about 3 hours of pushing since I had just gotten an epidural. Little did she know, my epidural never truly kicked in. I began pushing and after less than 10 minutes, she called the doctor and said she needed to be there in the next 7 minutes or I would be delivering this baby without her. Little did I know, my best friend was in her office. When my OB got the call, they both raced to the hospital. Let's just say while I waited the 10 minutes it took for her to get there, I could see baby boy's head. After my OB walked in I pushed 1.5 times.
6 lbs 5oz, 20 inches, of pure perfection. They laid my little angel on my chest who nursed for 30 straight minutes, while staring up at me with those big beautiful eyes.
Shoutout to @mytribe_studio for the lashes.
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