I understand that every mom’s labor and delivery is different, but this is our story with baby #2.
I was induced at 37 weeks. I had to be induced because Nixon had IUGR which is IntraUterine Growth Restriction and it is safer for both mom and baby to be induced due to other complications that could arise if you wait until you are full term, or 40 weeks with new found research. It was not worth the risk to wait another week for my contractions to start and my water to break naturally and possibly lose the baby.
Well we did it again! Please check out my Labor and Delivery with my first born here and how it compares with this one. That post also has some really great information regarding Inductions and Advice for first time moms and dads. I also share my thoughts on having a baby during a Global Pandemic. This time around was a little different as we already had one child and she could not go with us to the hospital, so we had to leave her for the first time ever. It was extremely hard for me. I had written two pages full and multiple post its of “things.” I wrote out things like: what the routine is, how she eats, what to do at bed time, and everything else in between. The packing was also stressful as I knew I would most likely be gone 3-4 days and possibly 5. I had to pack the following: Clothes, diapers, wipes, toys, books, snacks, sippy cups, silverware, and teething supplies. That was la lot to get packed. I knew she was in good hands, but as an overprotective mama I could not help myself to be emotional not to mention the raging hormones that come with being a pregnant woman. I immediately bursted into tears as we walked in the door to Josh’s parents house to drop her off for a few days. There is something so emotional about leaving your children over night somewhere when you’ve spent every single night of their life with them keeping them safe and sound. I am glad that day has came and went as I was dreading it for nine months. She is very loved by her family and they took exceptional care of her. We are so blessed by them being our children’s grandparents. Involved grandparents are definitely an underrated blessing and not one to be taken for granted.
Preparation
This time around I had all the time in the world to be prepared spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, the whole bit. It was hard to get prepared physically for another labor and delivery while working and taking care of my very precious little peanut, Nevaeh. She was six months when we found out we were pregnant with our second child. Six Months! There are a lot of changes already going on with me as a new mom spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. This was not a surprise as we were trying because we wanted to have another child close in age with Nevaeh, God willing. Working and taking care of her was my workout. I did not hit the gym or do any kegels. LOL. Knowing what we know now having gone through having a child before, I discussed everything from birth to postpartum with my husband Josh for months prior so we were both on the same page with everything and what expectations we each had for one another. Everything was crystal clear and I am so thankful for having good communication and understanding of one another. I talked to God and prayed for this sweet little babe every single day. Anyways I felt as prepared as I could for another labor and delivery. I even felt prepared for the postpartum part of birth as well. Thank you Lord.
Location
Mercy Hospital: The Mother Baby Center in Coon Rapids, MN
Total Time
Labor: 25 Hours and 16 Minutes
Delivery: 3 pushes and 1 Minute
My Birth Wishes
I had the same Birth Wishes this time around as I did with Nevaeh. It was still great to have a list of the things that I would wish to have during the process if all goes accordingly, and they ask you what your hopes are with the birth anyways. I had an open mind about anything and everything as I knew things could potentially take a turn in another direction other than what I was expecting. I thought it was best to have no expectations vs be disappointed when something didn’t go my way.
My Induction Process
- Cervidil: A vaginal insert that contains a type of medication called a prostaglandin. It helps jumpstart labor by softening the cervix and preparing it for birth. That’s why it’s typically used in women who need to have labor induced but whose cervix is closed or hasn’t “ripened” yet.If you want to read more information regarding this method of Induction, you can do that here.
- Cytotec: A medication given in pill form to induce contractions, administer 1 pill every 6 hours. I had three pills total and my contractions were close enough and cervix was dilated to not have to have any other additional medications to ripen my cervix such as Pitocin or Foley Balloon. Thank you Lord!
- Membrane Stripping: A membrane sweep is when your healthcare provider sweeps a gloved finger across the membranes that connect your amniotic sac (a fluid-filled sac that contains your baby) to the wall of your uterus. To put it in simpler terms: The doctor literally sticks his or her hand in your vagina and twists their hand/fingers around in a circle and makes you feel pain. It was painful AF!
- Break Water: The doctor ruptures the amniotic sac using a little plastic hook to break the membranes. You don’t feel this at all. All you feel is a gush of fluids flowing out at a rapid pace.
- Epidural: A procedure that injects a local anesthetic into the space around the spinal nerves in your lower back. Pure MAGIC!
Timeline
7:45pm
Arrive at the hospital and go through medical questionnaire with the nurse. I wasn’t nervous at all upon arriving to the hospital. I knew I got this and that everything would be okay. We checked in at the desk and were given a sheet of paper, clipboard, and pen to complete Nixon’s birth certificate. We had already pre-registered for the Hospital a week prior as that’s when I found out my scheduled Induction date and time. It was a swift 2 minute wait until we were happily greeted by the nurse to bring us back to the hospital room. Once we were in the hospital room, the nurse showed us where we could put our things. Josh neatly tucked away our things in the cupboards and sat down on the couch with his laptop. The nurse handed me a hospital gown and hospital socks to put on and left the room and gave us time to get situated. I went to the bathroom and put on the hospital gown and hospital socks. Josh and I took a couple of mirror pics in the bathroom for fun. Josh also snapped a picture of me on the hospital bed for the gram! The nurse also took a photo of the two of us for the memories.
8:45pm
Finish medical questionnaire and begin the selected method of induction. Since I had to be induced with Nevaeh and I had a great experience with her I was really hoping to have the same outcome with my son and that’s why I wanted to do the Cervidil again. I did not have my induction scheduled with my primary OBGYN as it wasn’t her night to be at the hospital, so it was added in my notes in my patient chart that I had a good experience and it worked well for me. I was glad they allowed us to do this Method of Induction as a lot of OBGYN’s are using the Foley Balloon and I was terrified of that. I also knew the position that my son was in from the most recent ultrasound on the previous Thursday morning and that the Foley Balloon would be very painful. His head was facing forward in an abnormal position, so his head was pushing on my back and tailbone the whole time. That explained why I was having so much pain in my back and tailbone leading up to the induction. I was like, “My son is already causing me pain and he isn’t even here yet…” LOL. I knew the Doctor that was on call the night we went in as he was the same Doctor that delivered Nevaeh. He came into the room and let us know what method of induction we would begin with. We reminisced and I was grateful that he allowed me to start with Cervidil vs the Foley Balloon. The chances were very slim for him to deliver sweet Nixon Dean into the world as his shift ended at 7:00AM the next morning. That would be a very fast induction if Nixon Dean came in the middle of the night or early in the morning. The induction process can sometimes take up to 3 days total. 3 days! That is a really long time to be in labor. You have to remember that induction is not a natural process and you are forcing your body to do something that it isn’t ready to do. I was optimistic that my labor would be shorter this time around as I wasn’t pregnant too long ago with my first. My body should remember what to do right? LOL, wrong. I posted the moment to Instagram. I was so excited to let the world know that it was happening and eager that it would be quick and that I would be holding my son so soon!
8:45pm-8:45am
Please don’t put that IV in my arm. I do not like IV’s and honestly think they are worse than the contractions. It is just such a pain to me. I have insufficient veins, so they are very uncomfortable. I wanted to wait as long as possible to have that thing in my arm. Thankfully the nurse listened to my wishes and held off as long as she could. I had an extra hour without the IV in my arm. I will say it bothered me the whole time it was in and I couldn’t wait to get the IV out. Contractions began at 11:00pm, but I wasn’t really feeling them until about 4:00am. I thought to myself, “Welp we are off to a great start.” The nurse thought I was superwomen as I could hardly feel the supposed “strong contractions.” I told her, “I don’t know I guess I have a high tolerance for pain?” She said, “Yeah you must!” That was good news.
Knowing the process of induction is long I came prepared. This time around I brought my laptop, a book, my AiPods, and my calligraphy book and pens. I ended up not reading or doing any calligraphy and just rested instead. Leading up to the labor and delivery I had no time to rest as I was working and taking care of Nevaeh. This time around I forced myself to sleep and get as much rest as possible as contractions weren’t too bad. I don’t remember how long I slept, but I know it was a few hours. I woke up and decided to listen to my birth playlist to help get me in a meditated mindset to be focused on the one thing that needed to happen, the birth of our sweet son. I highly recommend going into labor and delivery with a birthing playlist of good songs that put you in a good headspace – especially if you know you are going to have a long labor. What songs were on my playlist? My birthing playlist consisted of only worship songs. I am a spiritual person and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and this was an absolute during my labor and delivery. I listened to the same birthing playlist that I created on YouTube for Nevaeh with Nixon. It was a huge help and reminded me to pray and talk to God not only when things were going well, but during the whole process especially when I got discouraged and in my head. The Lord assured me all would be well. I trusted Him.
9:00am-8:00pm
The waiting game continues. In the morning I was in a chipper mood even though the contractions were getting stronger. I woke up eager to meet my son! I washed my face with my Kiehl’s Cleanser, toner, and moisturizer. I even put a little bit of mascara on and brushed my hair to “freshen up.” As I was in the bathroom, my new nurse came in the room and let me know what the plan for the day was. To my surprise she also had a daughter named Nevaeh. We bonded over that and chit chatted about how much fun daughters are. She was my favorite nurse throughout the whole duration of labor and delivery. She was so nice and accommodating. I was having so much pain from having back labor due to the position of Nixon and my cervix. She asked me if I wanted a massage by the massage therapist. I said, “Sure!” I couldn’t believe I was getting a massage while in labor. I wondered why I didn’t get a massage at the first labor. HAHA. It was relaxing, but I am not convinced that it was effective in speeding up labor as he still didn’t come until hours later. Josh and I ended up watching a full series on Netflix to help pass the time. We watched Season 2 of “Raising Dion.” We liked it and are excited for another Season with how they ended Season 2, so we would recommend it if you are looking for a good show to watch on Netflix. LOL. Honestly being occupied with an activity while contractions are happening is an absolute necessity.
I was given 1 pill of Cytotec every 6 hours to help ripen my cervix and could not eat anything more than crackers with peanut butter and sorbet or popsicles. How nutritious! I don’t want to eat a saltine or graham cracker with peanut butter for a very long time. I loaded up on those as they were the only thing I was allowed. The sorbet was trash and I hated it. The whole time I just wanted some dang Lays potato chips. Both the doctor and nurses checked my cervix multiple times. This absolutely killed me every time because of the abnormal position Nixon was in. The position he was in made it very hard for them to check my cervix as it was behind his head, so they had to maneuver their fingers around that. I had a total of 10 cervical checks and I was almost deceased by them. Uhhh if you’ve had back labor and multiple cervical checks without epidural you can feel my pain. I swear it is one of the worst feelings in labor.
At about 6:15pm I texted a few people and shared my frustrations as I wasn’t progressing in dilation at all, I couldn’t eat or have an epidural despite the amount of immense pain from the back labor and contractions. I was crying in frustration and was saying the following to Josh: “I just want this to be over,” “I’m so annoyed,” “I’m over this,” “Why is this taking so long?” “Is this working?” “I should be holding him by now.” I was not a happy camper. I knew that the process would be long, but as I had gone through this before having an even shorter labor I was even more frustrated and very discouraged by this elongated process. I had to go back to listening to my birthing playlist and spend more time with God as I was about to lose it. Another cervical check. Finally dilated to a 2CM. Yup, a whopping 2CM. I could finally have my membranes stripped and water broken. Praise be! I could not believe how painful the stripping of membranes was. I did not experience this the first time around. The doctor asked me if I wanted her to break my water at that time as well. I responded, “Yes, let’s get this show on the road and this baby out!” She grabbed the tool to break my water and then boom the flood gates to the baby were open. HAHAH it was a huge gush. Prior to my water breaking I was in so much pain and no one believed me because I was too smiley and talking too well. The Doctor literally told me, “You are no where needing the Epidural because you are too smiley and talking just fine.” I thought, “Is she crazy for thinking that I have a high pain tolerance and I’m so ready to meet my son and that’s why I’m still smiley?” I literally could not believe what I was hearing as I was having to take deep breaths through the contractions… An hour passes by and I called the nurse and said, “I want that epidural now!” I knew as soon as I got the epidural I would just relax and the baby would be here ASAP. I understood that epidural can slow delivery if your cervix isn’t ready, but I just knew my body was ready as now the water had been broken and I could just feel it. It is recommended to wait until you are dilated to at least a 3 or 4CM. I made it to a 3CM with Nevaeh, but this time around I was induced earlier and only made it to a 2CM. I was so relieved that they finally agreed to let me have the epidural and get that part over with so I could relax.
8:00pm-10:00pm
Finally epidural bliss. If you read my blog post regarding my first labor and delivery with Nevaeh, you would be well aware that I was terrified about the Epidural. This time around since it wasn’t until 23 hours into the labor that I received that magical medicine I didn’t really think about it until it was time to get it. I made it clear to the nurse that last time around I was terrified and yada yada… She assured me that the anesthesiologist that was on for the night was amazing and will get me a great epidural. Boy oh boy was she right! I remember looking at Josh and starting to cry just feeling the anxiety creep up in my bones leading up to the anesthesiologist coming into the room. Josh was right there by my side to help calm me down. I did it, I received that magical medicine through the most painful contractions. I felt even number this time around vs the last time around with Nevaeh and I had a pretty fricken amazing epidural with Nevaeh also. Thank God. I was so numb I couldn’t feel a single contraction. Apparently you can still feel contractions when receiving epidurals, but I was so numb I could not feel a thing. When a contraction happens that is your cue to push, push, push! The epidural kicked in what seemed like immediately, so I was finally able to relax and decided to sleep a teeny tiny bit. It was a short two hours of much needed rest and relaxation, and then bam I could feel his head descending at an immense pace due to the pressure. His head was literally coming out! I quickly clicked the “Nurse” button on the hospital bed remote and said, “The baby’s coming now I can feel the pressure.” The nurse came in immediately and called the doctor. The same thing happened to me when I had Nevaeh. Can you say Déjà vu? The doctor said push, and that I did.
10:01pm
After one minute of pushing, yes you read that correctly, Nixon Dean entered the world. I was actually laughing while pushing him out. It was a pure blissful moment. I loved pushing both babies out. The pushing is the best part of pregnancy for me. It’s like cherry on the top of an ice cream sundae. Once those babies come out you just feel a surge of energy like you are unstoppable. You did it mama. Everything was worth it. I was so thankful that our son was 5lbs and 1oz of pure angel. I was mentally prepared to not be able to hold him and for him to have to be sent to the NICU as I had a consultation over the phone with the specialist about this potentially happening due to him having IUGR, Intrauterine Growth Restriction, the whole reason I was induced in the first place. The Lord had other plans and we were so blessed to be able to love on him immediately. There is no better feeling meeting your child for the first time. I had the shivers and shakes after he was born thanks to the epidural. It was like I was having a seizure. It was a weird sensation. I was also very hungry since the only thing I was allowed to eat were crackers and peanut butter for a whole day with the medications, so I could finally eat! I was so happy to finally eat something. The hospital had turkey sandwhiches available in the area for patients and their support person. I had never been happier to scarf down a turkey sandwich in my life. Unfortunately that sandwich came back up about 20 mins later and gave me some lovely nausea. HAHA. I instantly felt better once that turkey sandwich came back up and out. TMI? This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth sorry not sorry.
What was the most helpful for me during labor this time around?
Honestly, getting up out of bed, turning on the side, resting, watching Netflix, listening to my birthing playlist, and bouncing on the exercise ball were the most helpful. Also talking to Josh and cuddling up to him helped so much. The first time around I didn’t want to be bothered. I was in full focus mode the whole time.
Shoutout to my amazing husband, Joshua
Joshua was absolutely incredible from start to finish. He was so helpful every single nurse said he needs to become a Labor and Delivery nurse because he was just amazing. I think they thought he was cute too… Anyways, he did everything I asked for and more without any complaints or hesitation. This is why they say marry the right one, and boy I’m sure glad I did because labor and delivery pains are a pain like no other. I am so blessed to have him by my side. I love you Joshua Todd.
Thanks for reading, xoxo.
