Maggie's Birth Story

I was 39 weeks and 1 day on Friday, May 8, when we were scheduled to be induced to meet our second baby girl. It was just like any other day in our household: getting us all ready, out the door and Emma to Nana's. Except this day we were dropping her off as a family of three and next time we would see Emma, we would be a family of four with two daughters.

Let me say this on Maggie's delivery: thank goodness it was NOTHING like my pregnancy. To be honest, if we were to have more and I could be guaranteed not to have another pregnancy like I did but have a similar labor and delivery, I would have another in a heartbeat. (Ssshhh….don't tell Matt!) It was quick and pretty uneventful.

We checked into the hospital at 7:30 and were taken to where I would labor and deliver. The hospital is under construction, so you labor and deliver on the Birthways floor, but recovery is in the new part of the hospital so that construction isn't disrupting the baby and family. Our room had a window being installed next door and you could hear construction guys out replacing the brick, it wasn't crazy loud or bothersome since I was clearly pre-occupied, but can see why the move us once the baby is born.

Dr. Lines came in and broke my water at 9:05 a.m. and I was 90% effaced, five centimeters and her head was so incredibly low. She said again that she thought I would have had her by now and that while she was at the hospital the weekend before, she made notes in my files that if I were to come in with contractions 10-12 minutes apart, to keep me and call her. I was relieved when she said she wasn't wanting to do Pitocin (nor was I) and thought contractions would come on their own in the next two hours. She knew I wanted an epidural eventually and encouraged me that if I wanted to not miss the window of getting one, to request it the minute I start getting uncomfortable.

At 10:45 and by the second "lap" of the hallway, I started feeling a lot of pressure and felt like I could feel her head dropping. I was done and ready to hang out in the room for the rest of it. At 11:15 contractions were coming five to seven minutes apart and getting painful. I requested the epidural and started getting hooked up to fluids at 11:40. Matt told me I better request it now and reminded me that I could miss the chance for it if I waited much longer. The anesthesiologist came and administered the epidural at 12:20 (exact same time I had one with Emma) and by then the contractions were three to five minutes apart. This time around I couldn't feel anything - no pressure or urge to push.

Dr. Lines came to check me at 1:25 and laughed and said I was nine and half centimeters and pretty much complete. She said the epidural was the magic drug for me and must relax me enough to dilate so fast. Dr. Lines had our nurse get everything ready and call the baby's nurse to the room, she would be back in five minutes to deliver. Matt and I laughed and looked at each other not thinking it was going to be that fast again.

At 1:30 Dr. Lines was back in the room and we started pushing. Again, I had no idea when I was having a contraction, so she told me when to push. After 10 minutes and seven pushes later, our little Maggie Claire was born at 1:40 measuring 21.5 inches and 8 pounds 11.5 ounces. She was healthy and perfect.

I told you it was quick and uneventful. The most happened post delivery as I lost quite a bit of blood and my uterus wasn't contracting. I started getting light-headed and they handed Maggie to Matt while they gave me a shot (Hemabate) in both my cervix and thigh to help. It took about 30 minutes to get the bleeding to normal and for my uterus to start contracting. Honestly, this was the most painful part of day. By this time my epidural had worn off and they were pushing on my stomach constantly during this 30 minutes - I was crying and shrieking in pain. It's bad enough when they do it every hour after delivery, but to have it be constant right after was enough to send me over the edge.

The next few hours were getting everything under control, getting me up and walking around, Maggie cleaned up and measured and things together to move rooms.

Stay tuned for Emma meeting Maggie for the first time, visitors and the rest of our hospital stay…..