Little A’s Birth Story

Little A’s birth story

I know everyone knows that I have said this before, but I don’t really enjoy being pregnant. It is a blessing that I am able to get pregnant, but those last few weeks are the worst. I hate not knowing when baby is going to be born because even though I can get everything ready, it is awful just sitting and waiting. Especially when you are having lots of braxton hicks contractions and they keep coming and going and making you crazy.

I had been having braxton hicks contractions starting around 31 weeks. I didn’t feel any with Little J, so it was different and a little scary because we had a lot of traveling to do in July and the beginning of August. So once all the traveling was over at 35 weeks, I was ready for our little girl to be born.

We found out at 37 weeks that I was strep B positive, and because I delivered Little J so fast, the doctors said that I could probably be induced at 39 weeks just to make sure that I was able to get antibiotics in time and so that our baby would be okay. I was having so many braxton hicks and it was really frustrating when they would be 5 minutes apart and then just stop, so I said yes, please!

We scheduled my induction date at my 38 week appointment for September 3rd, and then we pushed it back to the 4th so that the Mister could come and be at the hospital the whole time (darn medical school rotations). On Tuesday, Little J and I went to the zoo, and on Wednesday, we tried to do every last thing we could together before we added a new little to our family. On Thursday morning, six days before my due date, we got a call at 6:15am that the hospital had a room for us and to be there at 7:30am. We got dressed, had some breakfast, and headed to the hospital.

After we were all checked in and everything was ready to go at 8:30am, I was started on a dose of Pitocin. They kept increasing my dosage because while I was having contractions, they weren’t painful. Around 12:30pm, they stopped increasing the dosage because they started getting painful. They still weren’t bad, but the dosage must’ve been a good amount because they kept getting worse. At 2:05pm my doctor came in and broke my water (a very weird feeling). My contractions were getting more and more painful, but not nearly as painful as when I was in labor with Little J. At 3:35pm I asked the nurse for my epidural and the anesthesiologist came in and gave it to me. I was never in too much pain, and the epidural worked perfectly. However, I wasn’t dilating very quickly so they turned up my dosage of Pitocin again. They turned it down again after a while because my contractions were getting too close together and I wasn’t dilated enough. My mom was in town to watch our son, so she and Little J came to the hospital around 7pm (I was at 5cm at this point). We couldn’t go a whole day without seeing our little boy! After they were there for a while, the nurse turned up my dosage again, and after about 20-30 minutes I felt a very strong pressure. The nurse came in and told me I was at a 10 and ready to push! My mom and Little J went out into the lobby, the doctor came in, I pushed through a few contractions, and Little A was born at 8:10pm!

The Mister and I were both surprised by how much dark hair she had! We were both imagining a blonde little girl since Little J is so blonde, but nope! I got to hold her right after she was born, which I didn’t get to do with Little J so I really liked that.

After we were both all cleaned up, my mom brought Little J in around 8:40 and he got to meet his new baby sister. The first thing he did, without us even telling him to, was to lean over and kiss her, and then pat her. He is the sweetest.

It was a really great experience, and we love our new little girl so much. She is almost two months old now, and she has brought so much joy to our family. Little J is really sweet and kind to her, and he loves to lay next to her and to play with her hair. He is such a good big brother!

We feel really blessed to have this sweet baby in our lives, and are enjoying every minute of it.