Birth Story

Oh yeah...and so I had the baby. It happened like this...

I went to the doctor on a Monday. Things were progressing slowly (ie: another centimeter dilated and a little bit more effaced each week) ever so slowly. I had told the doctor I would rather go into labor naturally and thought she wouldn't intervene until I was good and overdue. But suddenly she says, "I could induce you on Wednesday." I wasn't sure if this is what I wanted, so she told me to think it over and call on Tuesday if I wanted to set up an appointment. If I didn't go ahead with it, she would be out of town for a week and I would have to deliver with one of the other doctors in the practice, whom I have never met.

Now, maybe I am stupid (my mother and husband assured me that I am) but I feel a little weird about choosing the moment of my child's arrival. Like I am playing with fate and might screw up the whole eternal scheme God has already set up. What if I am supposed to be in the hospital on a certain day so that I have a specific interaction with a specific person? How can I choose when to deliver and risk messing things up? If it had been a medical emergency and the doctor had ordered me to be induced, that would be one thing, but me choosing to have the baby just to put myself out of pregnancy misery, that's another.

In the end, after a lot of confused tears (I told you I was stupid) I suppressed my guilt, gave into my selfish desire to not be pregnant any more, and was given an induction appointment for Wednesday at 6 am. My in-laws came and got my other kids the night before so we could show up at the hospital bright and early. Only they thought we were supposed to be there at 5 am and had scheduled the doctor for a surgery at 7 am. It took us about 45 minutes to "check-in"/fill out all of the paper work and knowing that my last labor and delivery had been all of 20 minutes after having my water broken, the doctor didn't dare start my induction until after surgery was over. So my husband and I sat there (IV intact) for 3 hours, doing a whole lot of nothing. Why do they make you have an IV? That is seriously one of the worst parts of having a baby for me. The other is getting the epidural - I am totally scared of that needle and the pain it inflicts. I almost, almost thought about having a natural birth just so I wouldn't have to face that needle.

Anyhow...after putting off the anesthesiologist until 10 am, I finally agreed to get the epidural. It wasn't nearly as bad as I remember it being the first time around, thank goodness. The doctor broke my water and everyone waited in great anticipation for the baby to come. Only 30 minutes later, nothing had happened. Again, knowing that my last one had come in 20 minutes, the doctor decided a little Pitocin was needed to kick start this birth. "Perhaps your uterus is too stretched out from having so many kids that the contractions just aren't effective." Thanks for that, Doc...

Finally at 11:48 am, "Baby Girl," made her entrance. She weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz and was 19 inches long. My kids have progressively gotten shorter and fatter. Hmmm....

The proud parents

It wasn't until much later in the afternoon that we finally agreed on a name - Jocelyn. And since it was flu season, no kids were allowed at the hospital, so it wasn't until the next day that she got to meet her older siblings. And they've been begging to hold her ever since.