Kaden was due April 1st, but was still sitting comfy in my uterus (which I was grateful for given it was Easter and April fools and we had a lot of family plans going on), so I chose to be induced on April 3rd.
Dan and I arrived at the hospital at 10 am, did the usually check-in/medical history questions then waited for my doctor to confirm with the nurses that it was okay to start the induction. I was dialated to a 2 when they started me on pitocin at noon, but I was having regular contractions all on my own, so they kept the pitocin pretty low the entire labor. My doctor broke my water around 2 pm.
I don't remember the exact timeline of how quickly my cervix changed and dialated, but I remember thinking that because it was my second kid my labor should have been progressing much faster than it was. I felt like it spent an eternity in the hopsital before it was time to push! In reality it was only about 7 hours. Dan and I passed the time playing cards and watching GSN.
I opted again for the epidural after experiencing some intense and painful contractions. Power to all you natural birthing mothers out there, but I was not about that life (give me all the modern medicine!!) I am extremely grateful I had the epidural because I ended up getting an episiotomy...more about that in a bit.
Kaden was not doing well each time I had a contraction, so the nurse put a contraction monitor up inside my uterus to get a more accurate reading of my contractions, and they flushed fluid back up there periodically to help him out. I wore an oxygen mask for the last few hours. At one point I was worried and panicking at the thought of something being wrong with my baby and needing an emergency c-section. All of the sudden our room filled with so many nurses and my doctor all fussing with me and discussing our baby's dropping heart rate. My doctor checked me and said Kaden was higher than he'd like and I was not yet at a 10, but it was time to start pushing and get this baby out! So, that's what I did. I only pushed for 20 minutes, and part of that was because my doctor gave me a medilateral episiotomy to get Kaden out quickly. It was something that I did not want or expect going in to labor, but because of the situation it was necessary.
Pushing was such a different experience this time, partly because of the added stress of knowing he was under stress, and partly because I couldn't help but FREAK out at the episiotomy (I'd heard way too many horror stories about them). Also, my doctor had made the comment right as I started pushing that "wow, this kid is a 'moose', you are going to have to push hard to get him out."
7:28 p.m. Kaden was born! I remember that final push and seeing the doctor pull him out and lay him on the table to cut his cord. I remember thinking he was so beautiful and in awe of such a tiny, precious human. He had dark brown hair (which shocked me since Elise was bald!). His head was not cone shaped at all. He had a penis! Ha ha, of course I knew he was a boy since 20 weeks pregnant, but it still took getting used to seeing baby boy parts for a while lol.
Because there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, they had to suction out his lungs before I could hold him. This happened with Elise too, and I hated waiting! I watched as the nurses did their jobs, suctioning, measuring, weighing him. In my mind I was thinking, "okay, can't we do this after I hold him?!!" But I waited patiently for them to finally hand me my sweet baby boy. He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.
Holding him for the first time against my chest was priceless. Looking into his sweet newborn eyes, listening to him breath against my chest, smelling his perfect newborn head... I finally understood what every one had been telling me for nine months...your heart grows with each child and you really do love your second child as much as your first.
The next best moment of the night was when Elise came to meet her new brother. I honestly didn't know how she would react. She was definitely a bit shocked and overwhelmed by everything, I think. She was very sweet with him though! She wanted to hold him and see him, but mostly she just wanted to curl up on my lap and cuddle me. I didn't mind one bit.
The next few days we spent in the hospital to recover before going home. Kaden was a little jaundicy the second night at the hosptial, so they kept him under the bili-lights all night except to breastfeed. He hated them, and screamed the entire time. He lost his voice from crying to hard, so of course, I cried a lot too! Thankfully, his levels were normal after that night and he didn't need to spend any more time under the bili-lights! Our stay was pretty great for being in a hospital. I seriously loved my nurses, and our family was so great to help out with Elise and bring her by for visits every day.
Picture time:
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| Kaden sharing how he felt about leaving his nice warm home in my uterus ;) |
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| Last picture of that insanely large belly |
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| First family picture |
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| Dan's family came to visit right after Kaden was born. I only got a picture of grandma holding him though. |
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| Elise holding her baby brother for the first time |
