Holden’s Birth Story

My doctor recommended an induction for Holden to be done about three days before his due date if he didn’t come on his own.  I asked why just out of curiosity and was given some statistics on women over 35 having babies, blah, blah. But I trust his judgment and went with it. I truly thought I would go into labor on my own since Emmy came a week early on her own. The induction was originally set for Monday at 5 a.m., but I was able to finagle that being moved until 6 a.m. because any time before then seemed inhumane!

Here I am the morning of the induction:

We got to the hospital and checked in, I got into my gown, got my iv, etc. and then was checked for my baseline and was dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced. They started my pitocin around 7ish. I started feeling contractions soon on, but they were manageable. My doctor got to the room to check on me around 8:30 and broke my water and I asked for my epidural then.

I had to have the bag of fluids before the epidural could be administered and was decently uncomfortable, but got my epidural about 30 minutes later. Honestly, afterward, I felt so calm and good. (It was like this too with Emmy.) I could have napped or just relaxed. I felt 1000 times better.

Ann came up to visit before her doctor appointment at 10:30 and I was dilated to about a 6. (Our sweet girls share their birthday!)

About 20 minutes later I was at a 7. (It was so blissful to not feel any of this!)

My sister came up around 11:30 to bring Tommy coffee and the nurse asked her if she was going to stay for the delivery because I was that close. Ha!

At 11:45 the nurse came in to check me, had me push once and then told me I was ready to have this baby and would be meeting him in about 30 minutes! I seriously thought she must be out of her mind since Emmy took FOREVER to push out. She called my doctor and he got there around noon and I pushed like 3 times and the little guy was out by 12:17.

I seriously cannot tell you how night and day the difference was between Emmy’s birth and this one. It was amazingly easy. I felt so much better (probably because I got a decent night’s sleep the night before and didn’t feel a thing) and was able to hold my little guy after he was born. (Emmy’s birth story is here.) Reflecting on this, I think I was a little traumatized after her birth.

Of course, I cannot have tiny babies…he was 8 pounds, 14 ounces and let’s just say it’s probably a good thing he didn’t have another 3 days to gain weight. He might have had a hard time getting out!

Big sister came up to meet Holden that night. She was sooo proud!

We really couldn’t have asked for a better day or experience and we are so in love with our little man and best big sister!