Hello! It has been such a long time since I have been on here but, as I’m sure you know, I have been super busy getting a grasp on being a mom. There have been so many things to learn and so much love to share, but I am so happy to be here today to share the best day of my life – Emmett’s birth day.
March 21, 2019
Ahhhh, our scheduled day to head to the hospital for induction prep. The day started normal – Bry headed to work and I had my daily coffee + breakfast + morning news… aka Live with Kelly and Ryan. I spent a majority of the morning packing last-minute things for our hospital bag before heading out to meet my sister-in-law and nephew at the dog park with our pups. Let me tell ya – taking 2 extremely hyper dogs to a dog park at 40-weeks pregnant was one hell of a workout so naturally I followed this trip with a vanilla frosty (don’t judge my basic taste) from Wendy’s.
Once Bry got home we headed to Torchy’s Tacos for our last date as just us. By the way, this ended up kind of being a HUGE mistake because it was followed by major heartburn that lasted through the night so I would not recommend stuffing yourself with tacos, queso and soda before getting induced. Once we got home I showered, curled my hair and then we headed to the hospital around 9:30p.
After getting checked in at the hospital, the nurses got everything started pretty quickly. Overnight they gave me two tablets to help soften my cervix then at 4a I got an epidural, which hurt less than the IV in my hand, and by 6a I was on Pitocin. My doctor came to check on us shortly after and broke my water with a freaking crotchet hook of all things! The doctor was actually laughing at me because I was so chatty with the nurse and Bryan while he was breaking my water. He said “WOW, that epidural must be really working!”. I’m extremely thankful that it did though because a crotchet hook to break my water isn’t something I want to feel without meds.
March 22, 2019
Throughout the day I didn’t feel pain at all (again, thank God for that epidural!) but I definitely felt more pressure as the contractions got stronger. My nurse was amazing and gave me this huge yoga ball shaped like a peanut to help with the process. She knew exactly how to position me and when to flip me in order to help me dilate quicker.
Side note – I lucked out and actually knew my labor and delivery nurse from the women’s center that I interned for while I was getting my master of social work. It’s crazy how the world works and how God puts certain people in our lives at the right timing!
At 12pm I was about 8cm dilated, but still had a ways to go since her head needed to drop waaaay lower before pushing. By around 2 o’clock I was exhausted and my mom and Bryan helped get everybody to the waiting room (I had visitors in the room pretty much the entire day) so I could nap. I never would have imagined in a million years that I would be napping during labor but there I was!
Around 4pm the party started getting fun and I began dilating more and feeling a WHOLE LOT MORE PRESSURE. By 5p I was fully dilated but they still wanted to wait for her had to drop down a little bit more before I started pushing. During this entire time I had to consciously stop myself from doing any kind of pushing, which was such a crazy feeling because the epidural legit numbed everything below my middle back yet I still got cues from my body for when it was ready to push her out. By 5:15p I had what seemed like the entire hospital staff in the room with all of their equipment ready for showtime. It took 3 contractions and 8 pushes for our sweet girl to come along. Emmett June was born at 5:30 PM at 9 pounds 9 ounces and 21 inches long.
It took 3 contractions and 8 pushes for our sweet girl to come along. Emmett June was born at 5:30 PM at 9 pounds 9 ounces and 21 inches long.
My Experience with an Elective Induction
I was very nervous about this decision after our doctor presented it to us. Thankfully, we had an amazing experience with the induction and owe the staff at Memorial Hermann Katy many thanks for everything they did to help with this process!
If you are contemplating an elective induction and feel uneasy about it, my only advice is to make sure that you’re staying true to yourself and doing what you want after you have all of the information you need. I personally read through the Arrive study, which is the groundbreaking study that spurred doctors to begin suggesting elective induction’s more openly. I also moved my induction back a week (from week 39 to week 40) just to give our little girl more time in case she wanted to come on her own. For whatever reason, I felt like I was missing out on an experience and felt a little guilty at first about choosing when she’ll come along. After praying on it, talking to my husband and tossing these thoughts around in my own head for days, I came to have my own feelings about it despite all of the varying opinions on inductions. I eventually decided that my doctor and nurses were put in my life for a reason and that I needed to have faith through this time. After I decided that I was going to have the induction with a faithful heart, I shut down every worrying thought I had leading up to that day and replaced it with a quick prayer for strength and found myself much happier and content with my decision by the time it was time to head into the hospital.
Most importantly, please remember that this is MY EXPERIENCE and that every woman has a different experience in childbirth. No single body is the same and each one reacts differently to pain medicine, Pitocin and labor differently.
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