Forest's Birth Story

At almost 41 weeks pregnant, I was sooooo ready to have this baby. I had been uncomfortable and in pain for months, and after weeks of the doctor telling me I was making no progress towards labor and delivery I was getting downright depressed. But finally (finally) July 26th came and it was time for me to start my induction. 

It was really nice this time around because I'd already done it before! And we were going to have me induced in the exact same way as I was with Finley--with the cervidil cervix softener the night before and pitocin the following morning. But because I knew that this baby was going to be big and since I really hadn't progressed much I was pretty nervous I was going to end up having a c section.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:00 pm and after some paper work and getting my IV (ouch), they checked my cervix again which was still at a one, and then we were ready for the cervidil insert. I remembered how much it had hurt going in with Finley and had really not been looking forward to it and yep!--it hurt just as much this time! One of the nurses had to come over and hold my hand and tell me to breathe because I was so tense during it. Easily one of the worst parts of my entire labor.

By 6:30 we were all done with the insert and all we could do was wait and let it do its thing. At 8:00 Zach and I watched the newest episode of Flip or Flop and then Zach settled in to work on some homework while I tried to go to sleep. 

When I got up to go to the bathroom around 9:30 or so the nurse came in to adjust the monitors on my belly and asked if I was feeling alright. I said yes apart from some very mild cramping and she told me that I was already contracting very regularly 2 or 3 minutes apart. I was so surprised! She said that since I was already 41 weeks along I probably had come in contracting already, but she said that if I kept it up I would have the baby in the middle of the night! I told her not to get my hopes up haha. 

By 10:30 I definitely was starting to feel how regular my contractions were, but they were still super mild. Then about an hour later they kind of just stopped for a while. This was when I finally was able to get a little bit of sleep. Unfortunately, Forest kept moving around a lot and messing up the monitors so the nurses kept having to come in and fix them. So I really probably only got about an hour of sleep the entire night. 

It was around 3 or 4:00 when my contractions really started to intensify. I started breathing more deeply to get through them, but I could still talk through them so I didn't think they were too bad. The nurse came in again around 4:30 and asked how I was feeling because she said she could see that my contractions were getting pretty intense. I told her on a scale of 1 to 10 my pain was about a 4 or 5. She couldn't believe that I was in that much pain and hadn't called for her haha. I didn't think a 4 or 5 was that bad! 

At 5:00 they told me they were going to take out the cervidil a little earlier than they had planned since I was progressing so much. I was then checked and I had dilated to 3 cm! I was so happy that my body was finally progressing! I told Zach that if there's one thing we know for sure, my body definitely responds well to cervidil (even if it is super painful). 

My nurse was super nice to me and told me there was no reason for me to continue to be in pain so she called for the anesthesiologist to come in for my epidural. I was really surprised since we hadn't even started my pitocin yet, but I definitely wasn't complaining either! Getting my epidural hurt a lot more this time around than it had with Finley. With Finley my water broke from the cervidil so my contractions had been a lot more painful. So when I got my epidural, the needle didn't even bother me because I was dealing with some serious contractions at the same time. But this time my contractions were still pretty mild so the needle hurt way more. But I just breathed through it and it was fine. My nurse was super nice and encouraging and made me feel like Wonder Woman because she kept saying over and over again how I acted like the epidural didn't hurt at all. It definitely did! I guess I'm just not a huge complainer when it comes to pain.

We started the pitocin shortly after the epidural and everything was pretty calm for a few hours. At 8:00 am the doctor came in and broke my water and I was measuring at a 4. Now all that was left to do was wait till I was at a 10!

For some reason the nurses wanted me lying flat on my back for a while after my water broke, but after 20 minutes or so of that I started feeling kind of nauseous. I let the nurse know and she noticed that Forest's heart rate was dropping. She thought it might be better if I laid on my side. By that point I was completely numb from the waist down and literally could not move myself at all. I felt like my body weighed a thousand pounds! Needless to say I needed quite a bit of help getting to my side and it definitely was not fun. What also wasn't fun was having to be put on oxygen, not for me, but for Forest since his heart rate still wasn't great. It seemed like he only liked me lying on my right side since that was the only position I could be in where his heart rate didn't drop. 

From there I progressed pretty quickly, which was great because the doctor had told me she had an appointment at 12:30 that she really needed to be at, so if I wanted her to deliver my baby it would have to be before then haha. By 10:30 I was at a 9, and by 11:00 it was time to start pushing. 

I had been really worried that Zach would end up getting queasy again like he had during Finley's birth so I had told him to just stand up by my head and to look at me the whole time. Thankfully that worked and he was able to be with me and hold my hand throughout the whole delivery! They had me do a few practice pushes and then they immediately told me to stop so they could get the doctor because the baby's head was already there! 

Unfortunately it took about five to ten minutes for the doctor to arrive so I had to just lay there waiting. My whole body couldn't stop shaking because even though I was completely numb, my body knew that it was time to get this baby out! When the doctor finally did come around she looked at me and said, "You've got a spotlight on your vagina!" We all laughed and it totally broke the tension. 

Finally it was time to start pushing again and I think about four pushes later, out came our little Forest! I instantly felt so much relief in my belly! The first thing the nurses said was that he had a ton of white blonde hair. And then we all noticed how big he was! When they laid him down on my chest I couldn't stop staring at his hands! They were huge! He definitely has the cutest little man hands haha. Zach and I looked at each other and confirmed that yes, his name was going to be Forest since we really hadn't decided the name until we had gotten to the hospital. 

After a few minutes of skin to skin they weighed him and he was 9 lbs 8 oz. I really wasn't surprised that he was such a big boy since I had felt like my belly was huge. And being a 9 lb 10 oz baby myself I had always expected to have big babies. We told the nurses that our first baby had only been 5 lbs 15 oz and none of them could believe it! 

We spent a few more hours bonding with Forest and getting breastfeeding started before we were moved to our recovery room. Forest took to breastfeeding right away and latched on really well. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and trying to catch a little bit of sleep here and there. We were able to go home the following afternoon.

It's been two weeks now since we brought our baby boy home and wow, has it been an adventure! Two kids is no joke! But slowly we are getting into a little routine and finding our way as parents to these two munchkins. And I feel like I get to know and love this little boy more and more everyday. We love you Forest Daniel! Thank you for joining our crazy little family!