On Tuesday November 19, 2019 I saw my doctor for my 38 week check up and she told me I was 1 cm dilated and scheduled me to be induced Monday, November 25 when I would be 39 weeks. She said that because of my blood clotting disorders she wasn't comfortable letting me go past that point. (Plus, baby was already measuring 6 pounds 14 ounces at 36 weeks!)
Wednesday evening Crockett suggested we go for a walk to try to get things moving. We walked almost a mile and when we got home I was feeling a lot of strange things, but the baby was moving like crazy and had been having Braxton Hicks contractions so it was hard to tell what the pain was from. I went to bed around 10 pm and woke up at 11:30 pm with cramps. This wasn't completely abnormal for the end of my third trimester so I managed to get back to sleep not thinking much of it. At 2:30 am I woke up again and the cramps were stronger and I was nauseous. I went to the bathroom and felt horrible. I ran a warm bath because that really helped me last time I was in labor, but the bath didn't help at all because I was in more pain from the nausea than the cramps.
Around 3 am I was feeling super sick and the cramps were becoming more regular so I woke Crockett up and started timing the contractions. They were 5-7 minutes apart. My doctor had told me to come to the hospital as soon as I thought I was in labor because second babies tend to come fast so I told Crockett I thought we should go ahead and go. I called my sister to come stay at our house (her kids were already sleeping at my house) and called my mom so she could start the 1 hour drive to the hospital from her house. We got to the hospital around 5 am; they checked me and I was 1.5 cm dilated. I was settled into a room but not admitted until I was determined to be in active labor. They told me to walk for an hour and they'd see where I was.
My mom and I walked around the labor and delivery floor for about 30 minutes while Crockett got some sleep. I was able to walk and talk through the contractions and they weren't that bad. After 30 minutes I felt like I needed a rest. My plan was to sit for a few minutes and then I'd keep walking. As soon as I sat in the bed I felt sick again. I went to the bathroom feeling horrible and when I came out i immediately vomited. I stayed in bed for the next half hour and didn't walk again. I thought it would slow my progress, but I didn't care because I was so sick.
After being there an hour the nurse checked me again and I was 3.5 cm dilated! They officially admitted me and called for my epidural. At that point the pain wasn't unbearable, but I was afraid it would take a long time for the anesthesiologist to get to me so I wanted it sooner rather than later. He came in around 9:30 am and gave me one of the worst experiences of my life.
They cleared the room of everyone except my two nurses and the doctor. He started the procedure of inserting the catheter and I was immediately in excruciating pain. It was shooting down my left side, then my right side, and finally the middle of my body. It took him almost 15 minutes to do it and even when he was done I was in pain. I laid down and started to feel the medicine taking effect. I also started feeling really dizzy. As my blood pressure plummeted to 60/30 I lost my vision and hearing. They immediately flipped my bed upside down and started moving around quickly. When I started to regain my hearing I heard, "Is the baby ok?" and then silence. Someone was shaking my belly saying, "Come on. Come on." Apparently the baby's heart rate also got dangerously low. As my blood pressure started to return to normal so did his heart rate. They finally brought my mom, sister, and Crockett back in the room and I explained to them what happened.
The transition nurse came in to introduce herself at this point. As soon as she said her name (Lakin) Crockett and I looked at each other and immediately knew we wanted to change the baby's name from Rowan to Laken. We couldn't believe we were actually considering changing it after all these months of calling him Rowan, but we did!
After this I labored painlessly until 2:45 pm. My nurse checked me and determined I was 8 cm. dilated and saw that my water had broken. They called for my doctor to come. About 5 minutes later I told her I felt pressure and she checked again. I was complete and ready to push! I waited for the doctor for a few minutes and as soon as she got there they had me all ready to go. I pushed 3 times for a grand total of 6 minutes and Laken Lane was born at 3:16 pm weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 19 inches long.
I labored for a total of 13 hours which was only 4 shy of last time, but I'm grateful for another "textbook" labor. Everything went very smoothly and my recovery has been super fast. I was up and on my feet after only 2-3 days of walking funny. :) Thankfully I didn't almost pass out when going to the restroom for the first time either. My nurses were great. Laken did have to have 12 hours of photo-therapy due to jaundice our second night in the hospital. That was a ROUGH night, but he's been clear ever since then.
I'm so incredibly grateful to the Lord for giving me not 1, but 3 answers to prayer. My beautiful girl and 2 precious boys are more than I deserve and more than I could ever have hoped for. There were so many days, months, and years that I thought motherhood would never be mine and here I am with these blessings. Laken is the final piece to our story and I'm so glad he is here. It was a long road to get here. His story has been blessed from the beginning and my heart could just explode with the love I feel for him. From a first round fertility treatment success to a perfect labor and healthy baby boy; he is another miracle.
