FYI: remember that the reason I was induced at 39 weeks was due to Finley's
single umbilical artery and her being at risk for SGA (Small for Gestational Age)
-----------------------------------
The morning of my induction on Wednesday, September 2nd, was pretty uneventful. I woke up feeling excited and pretty nervous, which was funny because I hadn't been nervous about labor and delivery at all up until that point. But I went about getting ready for the day by taking an extra long shower, shaving my legs, doing my make-up and hair very nice, and making myself a nice big breakfast. Then sometime in the early afternoon, I went to the bathroom and low and behold, I had lost my mucus plug! I couldn't believe that this had finally happened and on the day I would be induced! It really made me feel like things were starting to happen and that I would actually be having my baby soon!
Zach got off work early at 3:00 pm and then my parents got to our apartment at 5:00 pm. I'm so grateful that my parents only live a few hours away so that they could be there throughout the whole labor and delivery. I cannot express how much I love them and how thankful I am for all the help they've given Zach and I the past few weeks. We all went out to eat at Raising Cane's (my choice for my last pregnant meal!) and then my parents dropped Zach and I off back at our apartment where we loaded up the car with our hospital bags and Finley's carseat and then we were off to the hospital.
We were both so nervous and so excited at this point! It felt so real as we pulled up to the hospital and walked inside knowing we wouldn't be leaving again without our little girl. We arrived at 8:00 pm and we pressed the button to be buzzed into the labor and delivery section of the hospital. It was funny because when they asked how they could help us over the intercom all Zach said was very bluntly, "We're here to have a baby" and they buzzed us in haha.
We got all checked in and we were led into our room, which was really big and nice. I was told to undress and put on my hospital gown and to leave a urine sample. The nurse went through lots of questions and information that I don't remember and then at 9:00 pm it was time to put in my IV for the Pitocin later. Man, I hated that IV! I blame the pain of having my IV put in for the little amount of sleep I got the first few hours before labor began. After the IV, the nurse checked my cervix (I was still dilated to one centimeter and 80% effaced) and then put in the Cervidil insert. I had looked up beforehand different women's experiences with the Cervidil and everyone just said it felt like putting in a tampon. Well, I don't know what they were talking about because it literally hurt like hell and it burned like crazy for a long time afterward. I bled quite a bit from it too. After all that fun stuff they hooked me up to the monitors to keep track of Finley's heartbeat and also my contractions and then the nurse left so we could hopefully get some sleep.
Like I said, I was in pretty bad pain from the IV and from the Cervidil so it was difficult to get to sleep. Zach had a really hard time sleeping too, one, because the couch was really uncomfortable, and two, because he was far too excited and anxious. He spent a lot of time watching Netflix on his phone with some headphones on. I was able to get an hour or two of sleep until 1:00 am when I started getting some mild menstrual-like cramps and I found myself having to go to the bathroom very frequently with lots of BM's (TMI I know haha). I definitely could tell my body was flushing everything out in preparation for labor.
At around 2:00 am, my cramps were starting to get more painful, but I honestly didn't really think much of it because I'd had similar cramping for a few weeks beforehand. But then all of a sudden I felt a little pop around my lower abdomen and I thought that maybe my water had broken. But from what I had read and heard, if my water had broken I would have felt a rush of fluid immediately. That didn't happen, but I decided to get up and go to the bathroom to check. It seemed like I was peeing quite a bit more than normal that time, but again I just didn't really think anything of it and I went back to bed.
I got a few minutes of sleep here and there, but somewhere between 3:00 am and 4:00 am I started realizing that there was a very distinct beginning, middle, and end to my cramping and they would come and go every few minutes, rising up like a wave to a climax of pain and then slowly subsiding. It was 4:00 am when I finally recognized them as true contractions and I could actually feel my upper abdomen contract during every cramping pain. The pain was starting to get more and more intense with each contraction and so I started breathing slowly in through my nose and out through my mouth through each one. I hadn't taken any labor and delivery classes and had done very little preparation when it came to coping with the pain, so I guess this type of breathing just came very natural to me and it helped a lot. It was around this time that I woke up Zach (he had finally fallen asleep around 2:00 am or so) and told him that I was having true contractions and that I thought I might be in active labor. I had Zach start timing my contractions and they were about 30 to 45 seconds long and about three minutes apart.
The nurse came back to check on me around 5:00 or 6:00 am and I asked her how much she thought I might be dilated now. She said that because my contractions weren't very long still she assumed that I might be at a two if I was lucky. I did not like hearing that. I felt like my contractions were getting fairly intense and they were pretty close together and I obviously really wanted to be farther along than that. She came back at 6:30 am, unhooked me from the monitor, told me to go to the bathroom and pull the Cervidil out and to get up and walk around for 30 minutes or so. During those 30 minutes, I washed my face, brushed my teeth and hair and continued to breathe slowly and deeply through my contractions. It really surprised me how during a contraction I had to stop everything, close my eyes, and just breathe through the pain, but then as soon as it was over, I was completely fine! I hadn't expected that at all. They still seemed to be happening about two minutes or so apart, which seemed pretty quick to me so I still hoped that I might be a bit farther along when they finally checked me again.
At 7:00 am, my new nurse, Vicky, came in and checked the monitor to see how things were going. I absolutely loved Vicky. She said she'd been working in labor and delivery for 38 years and she was just so nice and friendly and kept us feeling upbeat and positive. She noticed how much pain I was in and said that she wouldn't be surprised if I had progressed quite a bit, but we had to wait for my doctor to come before I could be checked. Close to around 8:00 am, my doctor still hadn't come yet and my contractions were getting more and more intense so Vicky finally decided to just check me herself. This honestly hurt really, really bad. No one really prepared me for how much getting my cervix checked would hurt while I was in the middle of intense contractions. But it was all worth it because I had dilated to a three!! I was SO happy that all of these contractions were actually doing something! Then not too long after that my doctor finally arrived and checked me again. I was at a four!! At this point, my contractions had become so all consuming that I would hear Zach and Vicky talking, but it felt like I was in a completely different world battling out the pain. So when I heard I was at a four I almost cried from happiness.
Now that my doctor had checked me and I was dilated far enough, I could finally be put on Pitocin and get my epidural. But first, my doctor had to break my water. She went to strip my membranes, but then said, "Did your water break already? There's nothing there!" That was when I realized that my water really had broken at 2:00 am! The doctor and Vicky were both super surprised and said no wonder I was progressing so quickly! Then I finally was put on the Pitocin and the anesthesiologist arrived to give me my epidural.
Now, ever since before I got pregnant, I knew I wanted an epidural. I had decided that because I had no idea what the pains of labor and delivery would feel like, I didn't want to tell myself I could get through them without drugs only to discover they were too much for me to handle. So I knew I wanted to get an epidural as quickly as I possibly could. Props to all those mommies who have been able to give birth naturally--my mommy included! But that's just not for me.
The Pitocin had made my contractions come much more quickly and with a much greater intensity so when the anesthesiologist entered the room I was so relieved. They had me sit up on the edge of the bed with my shoulders hunched over so that they could put in the epidural. The pain of the epidural was nothing compared to the three contractions I had while getting it. But I just continued my slow and steady breathing and got through it. I also noticed while sitting up that the pressure of Finley's head had gotten a lot stronger as well. It took about twenty minutes for the epidural to fully kick in and oh what a relief! I couldn't believe how much better I felt! I could still feel the contractions in my abdomen, but I was finally numb to the pain. I was no longer in another world haha!
Not too long after the epidural, they put in my catheter, which I had been slightly nervous about, but ended up not being a big deal since I was completely numb. Zach had gone to the cafeteria to get some breakfast and to avoid watching the catheter being put in, and he met my parents there. When he came back to my room, they came with him. It was really nice to see them and it kind of broke the tension in the air. With the epidural, I was back to my normal self again and I was able to get some much needed sleep. Around 11:00 am my dad, unfortunately, had to go back to Houston so we said goodbye, knowing that when we'd see each other again I would have a baby! I decided to tell my mom to just stay in the room with Zach and me and I also told her that she could stay in for the delivery too if she wanted, which I'm so glad I did.
Over the course of the next hour, I started feeling just the tiniest bit nauseous and I was getting really shaky too. My mom thought that I might be getting close to delivering. When the doctor came back to check me again around 12:00 pm, we were all very surprised to find that I was at a ten!! I had progressed from a four to a ten in just four hours! My doctor and Vicky were both amazed that everything was going so quickly, especially because it was my first pregnancy. In total my labor and delivery ended up only taking sixteen hours.
It was finally time to push Miss Finley out! Vicky put my legs in the stirrups then came over to my left leg to hold it for the pushing and told Zach to do the same to my right leg. This is when things started going downhill for Zach... After standing there holding my leg for a minute or so, he told my mom to come over and take his place because he was starting to feel nauseous. He then went to the bathroom and stayed in there dry heaving throughout all the pushing. Poor guy haha. He doesn't handle the whole bodily fluid thing well. I called out to him and asked him if he still wanted to cut the umbilical cord and he said that he did. So I started pushing with the help of my mom and Vicky. I'm so glad my mom was there for me while Zach was feeling sick. Such a huge blessing! I would have been really sad if I had been alone with two nurses on either side of me while pushing.
The pushing actually turned out to be quite easy for me. I had been really nervous about pushing because I hadn't practiced anything and I didn't really know how I was supposed to be pushing correctly. But my doctor helped me a lot right beforehand by asking me one simple question: "Do you know what it feels like to be constipated?" I said yes. And she said, "Just imagine that you are constipated and trying to push the largest poop out of your life." So that's what I did haha! And it worked really well! The doctor told me to push until the head was crowning and then she would come back to catch the baby. Vicky coached me through the pushing, telling me to push three times per contraction for ten seconds at a time. I put every ounce of energy I could muster up into those pushes and I ended up only having to push for about fifteen to twenty minutes! Again, Vicky was very impressed with me since this was my first time doing this. She said I was made to have twelve kids!! Haha... never gonna happen. I think the pushing went so quickly because Finley was so small and because her head was already down so low. When she was crowning, Zach came out of the bathroom to watch her come out haha.
Finally, the doctor came and after just a few more pushes, there she was: our sweet, tiny wide-eyed baby girl Finley. The first thing I noticed was her eyes. She literally came out with the biggest, widest, brightest eyes and immediately started taking in her surroundings without making more than a whimper. The nurses couldn't believe how alert she was! The second thing I noticed was how tiny she was. I felt like she was the littlest baby I'd ever seen. I couldn't help but start crying as soon as I saw her and Zach and my mom walked over to me both crying as well. It was honestly a very spiritual experience for me seeing her for the first time. I was so grateful that she had made it through her complicated time in the womb and that she was finally here, alive and well.
Right after she came out, the doctor said that she had an extremely short umbilical cord. Vicky said that in all her years as a nurse, she had never seen one so short. The average umbilical cord length is about 50 to 60 centimeters. Her's was about 15 centimeters! So because it was so short, Zach didn't want to cut the cord and I'm glad he didn't because the doctor acted like it was pretty difficult to do. So basically my body just grew a really crappy umbilical cord haha. Another reason why I was so grateful that she was finally here with all that mess finally behind her.
She easily passed the Apgar with a score of nine and they wiped her down and laid her down on my chest. She was so sweet and so alert! Her eyes continued to stay wide open and she just looked up at me, staring. It was the best feeling in the world to finally hold my daughter. After a little while they took her again and weighed and measured her: 5 lbs. 15 oz. and 19 inches long. I could not believe she was so small! At my last ultrasound two weeks earlier they had said she was 5 lbs. 12 oz. so I had been expecting her to be at least 6 or maybe even 7 lbs! Well, obviously they had been a bit off!
Once they cleaned Finley up, they placed her on my chest for some skin on skin time. I loved snuggling my girl. After a little while they had me try breastfeeding and that was... stressful haha. Even though I had taken a breastfeeding class and done a lot of research and preparation, it was still pretty difficult to get her to latch. With the help of the lactation consultant and the nursery nurse, we were able to have her latch on for a little while, but I don't know if she even got anything from it. Then the nurse took her away for a while to run some tests on her in the nursery.
When she came back, we were told that she had failed her glucose test meaning she had low blood sugar. The cut off was a level of 50 and I think Finley was at a 43. A lot of newborns have low blood sugar at first, so they didn't seem too concerned about it. The nurse wanted me to try breastfeeding again to see if we could get her blood sugar up, but breastfeeding was still not going too well at that point. Both Finley and I were still learning. After trying to feed her for a little while, they took her away again to do another glucose test. Meanwhile, I went to the bathroom for the first time post labor (man, that was a mess) and was moved from the labor & delivery room to my postpartum room.
When the nurse came back, she didn't have Finley with her. She said that she had failed her glucose test again, dropping down to a 38. Since her levels were falling and not rising, and because she was so small, they were getting pretty concerned. So they told me they were going to be supplementing her in the nursery with formula. Zach asked the nurse what would happen if she failed a third time and she said that Finley would be headed for the NICU. All of this was a bit nerve wracking and it made me really sad because she had to spend four or five hours in the nursery. After all the pains of labor and delivery, I just wanted to see my baby! My brother-in-law, Jeremy, happened to be in town that day so he came to visit us in the hospital and to see our new baby, which was a nice distraction from everything going on. Thankfully, Zach was able to spend a lot of time in the nursery with her and was there for her first bath too. I think Zach really fell in love with her over there in the nursery. He is absolutely obsessed with her and is the best daddy ever.
Finally, several hours later the nurse came back with Finley and told us that her glucose levels had shot up to a 67! We were so, so happy she didn't have to go to the NICU! She was able to stay in the room with us where we continued to figure this breastfeeding thing out (it only took about a day for Finley to get pretty good at latching!) and then a few hours later they did one last glucose test. Her poor feet were pricked so many times! Her levels were still high so she finally didn't need any more testing and she could just stay with Zach and I where she belonged.
The next day and a half in the hospital was spent just recovering and feeding Finley a lot. We were told we needed to continue supplementing with formula so we started having Zach feed her 10 to 20 mL of formula after every feeding. We've continued to do this since leaving the hospital to help her gain weight quicker since she's so small.
On Saturday afternoon, we were finally discharged from the hospital. We were so happy to finally bring our little Finley home. It's honestly incredibly difficult to describe how much we love this little girl. Our love for her is truly what unconditional love is all about. I feel like I now understand a tiny bit better what kind of love our Heavenly Father has for each of us. We're so grateful that He has allowed us to watch over one of his precious spirit daughters here on the earth. We absolutely love being Finley's parents and we can't wait to watch her grow and change and become her own little person throughout her life.
I'm so grateful that my labor and delivery went so incredibly well and that Finley is happy and healthy despite her size and her crappy umbilical cord. I couldn't have done it without the help of my sweet husband, Zachary, my amazingly supportive parents, my wonderful doctor and nurses, and of course my Savior, Jesus Christ. We have been so blessed.
Now that my doctor had checked me and I was dilated far enough, I could finally be put on Pitocin and get my epidural. But first, my doctor had to break my water. She went to strip my membranes, but then said, "Did your water break already? There's nothing there!" That was when I realized that my water really had broken at 2:00 am! The doctor and Vicky were both super surprised and said no wonder I was progressing so quickly! Then I finally was put on the Pitocin and the anesthesiologist arrived to give me my epidural.
Now, ever since before I got pregnant, I knew I wanted an epidural. I had decided that because I had no idea what the pains of labor and delivery would feel like, I didn't want to tell myself I could get through them without drugs only to discover they were too much for me to handle. So I knew I wanted to get an epidural as quickly as I possibly could. Props to all those mommies who have been able to give birth naturally--my mommy included! But that's just not for me.
The Pitocin had made my contractions come much more quickly and with a much greater intensity so when the anesthesiologist entered the room I was so relieved. They had me sit up on the edge of the bed with my shoulders hunched over so that they could put in the epidural. The pain of the epidural was nothing compared to the three contractions I had while getting it. But I just continued my slow and steady breathing and got through it. I also noticed while sitting up that the pressure of Finley's head had gotten a lot stronger as well. It took about twenty minutes for the epidural to fully kick in and oh what a relief! I couldn't believe how much better I felt! I could still feel the contractions in my abdomen, but I was finally numb to the pain. I was no longer in another world haha!
Not too long after the epidural, they put in my catheter, which I had been slightly nervous about, but ended up not being a big deal since I was completely numb. Zach had gone to the cafeteria to get some breakfast and to avoid watching the catheter being put in, and he met my parents there. When he came back to my room, they came with him. It was really nice to see them and it kind of broke the tension in the air. With the epidural, I was back to my normal self again and I was able to get some much needed sleep. Around 11:00 am my dad, unfortunately, had to go back to Houston so we said goodbye, knowing that when we'd see each other again I would have a baby! I decided to tell my mom to just stay in the room with Zach and me and I also told her that she could stay in for the delivery too if she wanted, which I'm so glad I did.
Over the course of the next hour, I started feeling just the tiniest bit nauseous and I was getting really shaky too. My mom thought that I might be getting close to delivering. When the doctor came back to check me again around 12:00 pm, we were all very surprised to find that I was at a ten!! I had progressed from a four to a ten in just four hours! My doctor and Vicky were both amazed that everything was going so quickly, especially because it was my first pregnancy. In total my labor and delivery ended up only taking sixteen hours.
It was finally time to push Miss Finley out! Vicky put my legs in the stirrups then came over to my left leg to hold it for the pushing and told Zach to do the same to my right leg. This is when things started going downhill for Zach... After standing there holding my leg for a minute or so, he told my mom to come over and take his place because he was starting to feel nauseous. He then went to the bathroom and stayed in there dry heaving throughout all the pushing. Poor guy haha. He doesn't handle the whole bodily fluid thing well. I called out to him and asked him if he still wanted to cut the umbilical cord and he said that he did. So I started pushing with the help of my mom and Vicky. I'm so glad my mom was there for me while Zach was feeling sick. Such a huge blessing! I would have been really sad if I had been alone with two nurses on either side of me while pushing.
The pushing actually turned out to be quite easy for me. I had been really nervous about pushing because I hadn't practiced anything and I didn't really know how I was supposed to be pushing correctly. But my doctor helped me a lot right beforehand by asking me one simple question: "Do you know what it feels like to be constipated?" I said yes. And she said, "Just imagine that you are constipated and trying to push the largest poop out of your life." So that's what I did haha! And it worked really well! The doctor told me to push until the head was crowning and then she would come back to catch the baby. Vicky coached me through the pushing, telling me to push three times per contraction for ten seconds at a time. I put every ounce of energy I could muster up into those pushes and I ended up only having to push for about fifteen to twenty minutes! Again, Vicky was very impressed with me since this was my first time doing this. She said I was made to have twelve kids!! Haha... never gonna happen. I think the pushing went so quickly because Finley was so small and because her head was already down so low. When she was crowning, Zach came out of the bathroom to watch her come out haha.
Finally, the doctor came and after just a few more pushes, there she was: our sweet, tiny wide-eyed baby girl Finley. The first thing I noticed was her eyes. She literally came out with the biggest, widest, brightest eyes and immediately started taking in her surroundings without making more than a whimper. The nurses couldn't believe how alert she was! The second thing I noticed was how tiny she was. I felt like she was the littlest baby I'd ever seen. I couldn't help but start crying as soon as I saw her and Zach and my mom walked over to me both crying as well. It was honestly a very spiritual experience for me seeing her for the first time. I was so grateful that she had made it through her complicated time in the womb and that she was finally here, alive and well.
Right after she came out, the doctor said that she had an extremely short umbilical cord. Vicky said that in all her years as a nurse, she had never seen one so short. The average umbilical cord length is about 50 to 60 centimeters. Her's was about 15 centimeters! So because it was so short, Zach didn't want to cut the cord and I'm glad he didn't because the doctor acted like it was pretty difficult to do. So basically my body just grew a really crappy umbilical cord haha. Another reason why I was so grateful that she was finally here with all that mess finally behind her.
She easily passed the Apgar with a score of nine and they wiped her down and laid her down on my chest. She was so sweet and so alert! Her eyes continued to stay wide open and she just looked up at me, staring. It was the best feeling in the world to finally hold my daughter. After a little while they took her again and weighed and measured her: 5 lbs. 15 oz. and 19 inches long. I could not believe she was so small! At my last ultrasound two weeks earlier they had said she was 5 lbs. 12 oz. so I had been expecting her to be at least 6 or maybe even 7 lbs! Well, obviously they had been a bit off!
Once they cleaned Finley up, they placed her on my chest for some skin on skin time. I loved snuggling my girl. After a little while they had me try breastfeeding and that was... stressful haha. Even though I had taken a breastfeeding class and done a lot of research and preparation, it was still pretty difficult to get her to latch. With the help of the lactation consultant and the nursery nurse, we were able to have her latch on for a little while, but I don't know if she even got anything from it. Then the nurse took her away for a while to run some tests on her in the nursery.
When she came back, we were told that she had failed her glucose test meaning she had low blood sugar. The cut off was a level of 50 and I think Finley was at a 43. A lot of newborns have low blood sugar at first, so they didn't seem too concerned about it. The nurse wanted me to try breastfeeding again to see if we could get her blood sugar up, but breastfeeding was still not going too well at that point. Both Finley and I were still learning. After trying to feed her for a little while, they took her away again to do another glucose test. Meanwhile, I went to the bathroom for the first time post labor (man, that was a mess) and was moved from the labor & delivery room to my postpartum room.
When the nurse came back, she didn't have Finley with her. She said that she had failed her glucose test again, dropping down to a 38. Since her levels were falling and not rising, and because she was so small, they were getting pretty concerned. So they told me they were going to be supplementing her in the nursery with formula. Zach asked the nurse what would happen if she failed a third time and she said that Finley would be headed for the NICU. All of this was a bit nerve wracking and it made me really sad because she had to spend four or five hours in the nursery. After all the pains of labor and delivery, I just wanted to see my baby! My brother-in-law, Jeremy, happened to be in town that day so he came to visit us in the hospital and to see our new baby, which was a nice distraction from everything going on. Thankfully, Zach was able to spend a lot of time in the nursery with her and was there for her first bath too. I think Zach really fell in love with her over there in the nursery. He is absolutely obsessed with her and is the best daddy ever.
Finally, several hours later the nurse came back with Finley and told us that her glucose levels had shot up to a 67! We were so, so happy she didn't have to go to the NICU! She was able to stay in the room with us where we continued to figure this breastfeeding thing out (it only took about a day for Finley to get pretty good at latching!) and then a few hours later they did one last glucose test. Her poor feet were pricked so many times! Her levels were still high so she finally didn't need any more testing and she could just stay with Zach and I where she belonged.
The next day and a half in the hospital was spent just recovering and feeding Finley a lot. We were told we needed to continue supplementing with formula so we started having Zach feed her 10 to 20 mL of formula after every feeding. We've continued to do this since leaving the hospital to help her gain weight quicker since she's so small.
I'm so grateful that my labor and delivery went so incredibly well and that Finley is happy and healthy despite her size and her crappy umbilical cord. I couldn't have done it without the help of my sweet husband, Zachary, my amazingly supportive parents, my wonderful doctor and nurses, and of course my Savior, Jesus Christ. We have been so blessed.
click HERE to read the birth story from Zach's perspective
😠I just love you guys! I'm loving all these pictures! She is SO pretty!! And her cheeks are so rosy and chubby and sweet!! I just want to meet her so bad!!! I'm SO glad you had everything go smoothly with delivery!! Ours was super quick too, and it was such a relief after all the horror stories of the 3-day-long labors! They underestimate us first-timers!! Haha But dude, poor Zach! That is the worst!! They had to give me an episeotomy and Mitch made the mistake of watching that.. Hahah I've never seen him so white...
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