I had a doctors checkup Thursday (September 8th) where I was told I was dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced. The doctor was convinced I would have the baby over the weekend, which got Jason and I really excited!
Well, long story short, I had false labor for several hours every single night that weekend. It was exhausting! Jas and I would get all ready to leave for the hospital thinking "this is it!" when the laboring would stop. Suddenly it was Monday and still no baby.
At this point I had accepted that I wasn't going to go in to labor on my own before my induction date, which bummed me out because I wanted to have that experience, but I wasn't willing to push out my induction date any further (1. because I had been really struggling through this pregnancy and 2. my maternal grandmother, who passed away when my mom was a child, was born on September 13th and I would have loved for my daughter to share her birth date).
Anyway, I woke up in the morning and started to get ready for the day when I began to have contractions that were 20-25 minutes apart around 9 AM. Jason felt like it could really be labor and said we should get everything ready to go to the hospital. (He thought this because my contractions usually began in the evening and would be gone by morning). I was sure it was false labor again, so I ignored his comment and decided I wanted us to go out to breakfast.
We got to Kneaders around 11 AM and my contractions were about 15 minutes apart. I got a text from my mom about going to my cousin's bridal shower that night, so I let her know about the contractions but said "we'd see what happened". I started to wonder if I was in labor but kept telling myself it wasn't real. I didn't want to get my hopes up! Jason, on the other hand, decided we would go home as soon as we finished our meal, pack up our things, and make our way to his parent's house so that we would be closer to the hospital. I didn't really want to because I wanted to cut Ollie's hair, clean the house, and do a little clothes shopping (Ollie is growing out of most of his shirts and I really wanted to get him more!) Jason said "Seriously? You're worried about haircuts and cleaning when you're in labor??". I told him "This might not be real labor!".
I finally agreed to go to the Cooper's house and we arrived at about 1 PM. My contractions were 10-15 minutes apart.
About an hour in to being there, my mother in law, Chris, told me I needed to start really timing contractions as she noticed I was having them closer together. I hadn't been using my contraction timer app at all that day..I was kind of in denial. But, I pulled it out per her request and realized my contractions were about 5-10 minutes apart.
By 3 PM it finally hit me that I could actually be in labor so I told Jason "Ok...I think I need to go get checked at the hospital." I'm pretty I remember Jason saying something like "Finally!" So, we left Ollie with Chris, texted my mom to update her, and made our way to the hospital!
I was sent to triage where a nurse checked me (and she was NOT gentle..I considered a natural birth until she checked me and made me realize I was not prepared for that pain). She informed us I was dilated to a 6 with contractions only minutes apart..and that I was definitely in labor. WHAT!? Jason was sure to say "I told you!" as well as text our families to let them know baby girl was on her way.
My mom showed up and we were sent back to a Labor and Delivery room. My sister in law, Tiffanie, showed up soon after to take pictures for us as well.
At about 5 PM I was dilated to a 7 and was given an epidural. They then broke my water and told me that I would probably get to a 10 pretty quickly.
An hour later I started to feel anxious. I was feeling a lot of pressure and could swear that I felt baby's head pretty low. I wasn't sure because of the epidural's effects, but I was feeling a slight need to push. Tiffanie and Jason told me I should just push the "call nurse" button and have her come in but I worried I was over thinking things and didn't want to look silly. I told them if the nurse didn't come in the next five minutes to check me that I would call her in.
Luckily, they came in about 5 minutes later and checked me. "Wow, yeah, you're ready!". It was time to start pushing!
I pushed once and her head was right there. Even with the epidural, I could feel her and it was NOT comfortable..I was feeling quite a bit of pain and was praying she would come quickly! I pushed about 7 more times when she arrived!
Nothing else mattered.
My sweet Audrey Ann arrived at 6:45 PM. She was 6 lbs 15 oz. of pure beauty.
Ollie was brought in and he was so curious and excited! He gave her the sweetest kiss on her forehead. Then, she started to cry, which made Ollie cry. It was so sad and so funny at the same time.
I am so grateful for my Audrey. I was pretty nervous to have her, unsure of how to care for a little girl, but now that she's here, much like how I felt with Oliver's arrival, it feels right. Like she was always here, even when she wasn't.
