When we found out we were pregnant with our second child we were elated! I remember feeling so incredibly happy and thankful. I was overwhelmed by what a gift it was to be able to carry another baby. My first trimester was relatively similar to what it had been with Harrison. I felt I was a little more nauseous this time around, but never actually had to throw up. Harrison and I had a lot of slow mornings and spent a lot of time snuggling on the couch together. I was also a bit more emotional throughout the entire pregnancy. Right before Christmas we got to have an ultrasound to see our baby and it was so wonderful to get to see the heartbeat! We were so excited to get to tell our family and friends about this new baby. We told our parents and siblings at our Christmas gatherings and then slowly started sharing with more friends and family as the first trimester came to a close. The second and third trimesters flew by. We bought a house in April and moved in when I was 34 weeks pregnant in June. The next weeks were a blur of unpacking, organizing, and checking things off of the house and baby to-do lists.
After having a C-section with Harrison, I was absolutely thrilled when I found out this baby was in the head down position at 36 weeks. This meant that I would be able to pursue a VBAC which was something I really wanted. Getting to experience a real labor was important to me and I was thankful that it looked like I would get the chance to do that!
My parents decided to come up to visit the weekend before my due date. They arrived Friday night with frozen lemonades and we talked about what we could do the next day for fun. I went to bed that night expecting to get a good night of sleep because I hadn't noticed any real pattern to contractions I was feeling. Some of the days earlier in the week I had contractions that would be somewhat regular for a little while and then would taper off. I remember waking up around 3:30 or so to use the bathroom and had contractions off and on for the rest of the night. Harrison came into our room around 7:30 and had soaked through his diaper so I got out of bed to get him cleaned up. As soon as I stood up my water broke. My water breaking was the only experience of labor that I had with Harrison so it was a familiar feeling, but I wasn't convinced enough to call the hospital until about 8:00. They said I should come in and see if it was in fact my water that had broken so I woke up Michael and filled my parents in on what was happening. I was also tracking my contractions but just as it had been the previous days, any pattern that I saw eventually tapered off. It took us a long time to leave our house. Michael apparently didn't realize we were told to go in right away so he was taking his time wanting his hair cut, trimming up his beard, and leisurely getting ready for the day. Meanwhile I was finishing packing hospital bags and making sure my parents had everything they would need for Harrison. Once Michael was ready, I jumped in the shower fast and he finished packing his things. We finally got to the Mother Baby Center at 10:00 and got checked in. Our nurse Lori took us to an exam room where I changed into my hospital gown and got hooked up to monitor our baby and my contractions. Then she ran the test to see if my water had broken and checked to see how progressed I was. It was determined that my water had broken and I was 60% effaced and 1 1/2 cm dilated. We also spoke to Lori about things that were important to us with our birth plan like Michael announcing Baby's gender and getting to cut the cord, skin to skin after birth, and pursuing a natural labor without pain medications if possible. We were open minded about the potential of needing pain medications since I didn't know what to expect, but we wanted to avoid them if we could.
At this point the doctor who was on call (Doctor Webster) came in to talk with us about our VBAC plan and to answer any questions we had. My water breaking before any real labor contractions had started made it more likely that my labor would end in a repeat c-section because if my body didn't kick into gear and start contracting there wasn't a lot we could do to help push my body along. We all agreed that if at any point the baby was in distress we wanted to have the c-section because a safe and healthy baby was our top priority. She didn't give us any kind of time limit for how long she would let me labor for, but said we would just be watching to see how Baby was handling labor and how my body was progressing. It was decided that they would give me four hours to see if my contractions picked up and then we would talk about whether we should start a low dosage of Pitocin. Michael and I were happy with this plan.
I had tested positive for Group B Strep at my 36 week appointment so the next step was getting me hooked up for an antibiotic for that and then we were moved to our labor and delivery room around noon. After that Michael ran out to get some food for himself and contacted some family and friends to fill them in on what was happening. I ate some peanut butter toast and drank some water because I had forgotten to do that at home with all the hustle and bustle to get ready to go. They didn't want me eating anything more substantial just in case I had to have a c-section later. I also contacted a few people, did some Bible reading, and Lori had me try walking around the halls to see if Baby could be monitored well out there, but it was determined it would be best to do labor in our room where we could best see how our baby was doing. I did have relatively consistent contractions during this time and they were a little bit stronger than some of the earlier contractions I had been having, but they in no way made me need to stop and concentrate on working through them.
At 2:00 Lori checked me again and said I was now 80% effaced and at a "good two". She also said that it felt like there was still some of my bag of waters that had not broken that was under the baby's head and that maybe it had broken up high. She went to ask the doctor if she would prefer starting the low dosage of Pitocin or if she would like the rest of the bag of waters broken. Doctor Webster liked the Pitocin option best since I was only at a 2. She had explained to us that morning that she would be willing to only go up to a level 5 for me with Pitocin because she didn't want to cause extra stress to my scarred uterus and it was determined that we would start at a level 2. The hope was that the Pitocin would coax my body to start contracting with more strength and regularity with it and that maybe at some point we wouldn't actually need the assistance the the extra Pitocin anymore. So at 2:00 I was at 2 cm dilated and began a level 2 of Pitocin after that (easy to remember with all those 2's together--haha!).
We updated people about the Pitocin and we settled in to see what the next few hours would hold. My contractions started to pick up in strength and frequency pretty shortly after we started the Pitocin and by around 4:00 I stopped replying to any messages that I was receiving from others because my contractions were taking more focus from me to relax and work through. We had tried a few different laboring positions before and after the Pitocin started because it seems that Baby was posterior (head facing the front of my body) and we wanted to encourage baby to turn around into the anterior position (head facing the back of my body). We tried laying on both sides for an equal amount of time, standing leaning over the bed, and spent a little bit of time on the birthing ball. Baby's heart rate monitoring showed us that she did not like when I was doing any bending over and was happiest when I was laying on my left side so I was spending this time laying on my left side. I didn't really mind this position because it made it relatively easy to relax during contractions, but I was a little disappointed because I knew that I didn't have gravity working for me while I was laying down and that made it seem like it was going to make labor take that much longer. We also started playing Jaipur around 4:00 to pass the time. My contractions seemed to be anywhere from 2-4 minutes apart at this point and so we would play a turn or two and then my contraction would start and Michael would have to run around to my side of the bed to apply counter pressure to my back. This obviously made game play a little slow and I was starting to feel more fatigue in between contractions so it was more difficult to concentrate. The contractions were definitely more serious work than they had been before and while I felt like I was handling them pretty well it was a bit daunting to consider how much longer we thought we would be in labor for. Neither of us expected that we would have the baby until Sunday at some point so it seemed we had a lot of time and work ahead of us yet.
Lori continued to check in from time to time and told me how pleased she and Doctor Webster were with my contractions and around 5:00 she asked if I wanted to try standing up again. I was really excited about this because I was really starting to get uncomfortable and thought the change of position would maybe help me to better deal with my contractions. I also thought that a new position could help to move things along more just in case we weren't progressing much in the side lying position. Lori let us know that Doctor Webster wanted to check me again at 6:00 to see how I was progressing and that sounded good to us. With the strength of the contractions and how often they were coming I was feeling desperate to know that I was progressing. At the same time I was trying not to get my hopes up for too much progress. I was beginning to wonder how sustainable this no epidural thing was going to be if I wasn't dilated very far because the contractions had been getting pretty intense. I also asked Lori if it would be all right to have a hard candy to suck on just to have a different taste in my mouth. She said that would be fine or we could do juice or a Popsicle. I tried a Jolly Rancher and that was no good so then we moved on to the Popsicle and I have never appreciated a cherry Popsicle so much! Unfortunately I could only have it in between my contractions and they were coming so regularly at this point that I didn't get to enjoy it for very long. Sometime between 5:15 and 5:30 I started feeling a lot of pressure during my contractions so I had Michael call Lori right away to tell her about that. She stayed in the room with us at that point and wanted me to tell her if I kept feeling pressure because then she would do an exam before 6:00 to see where we were at. Michael sent a few texts to family around 5:30 telling them that things seemed to be speeding up and at this point things started to feel like a blur to me. The contractions were coming in really strong waves and the pressure continued to the point where I was fighting the urge to push (which was a bit overwhelming when I didn't know how far dilated I was). By 5:45 Lori had me get back into the bed to check where I was and we found out I was at a 9 1/2! I could hardly believe it! I mean, don't get me wrong, the contractions felt like I should be that far along, but the timeline of it all was so fast! Finding out we were so close to the end gave Michael added enthusiasm in his coaching and supporting me during my contractions. He had been doing a great job before, but he really stepped up as I was beginning to feel like I didn't know if I could get the rest of the way there. At some point my water broke the rest of the way which definitely added to the pressure I was feeling during contractions.
By 6:00 I was at a 10 and Doctor Webster was in there and we were ready to push. I was both excited and nervous to push because I knew that this was the final step before we got to meet Baby, but facing more contractions seemed very overwhelming let alone the idea of having to actually push out a baby. With the first contraction of pushing Baby was already crowning which was obviously exciting to hear. We had two more contractions worth of pushing where Baby got closer. My fourth contraction of pushing brought out Baby's head followed by the rest of her body at 6:09. Michael was so excited when he announced that it was a baby girl and I could not believe it was done and that I had given birth to my daughter.
She was immediately put on my chest and I just loved her. There is something so surreal about meeting someone face to face who you have had growing within you for nine months. She was so sweet and precious and little and perfect and I was so so happy.
While in our labor and delivery room I got taken care of, we tried nursing Baby (she did great!), and we got her measurements (6 lbs 10 oz and 19 1/2 inches long). Michael and I also made our final decision on her name, Rubyanna Diane (pronounced Ruby-ON-a). We had had a little girl in nursery a few years back with the name Rubyanna and both thought it was such a pretty name and it gave us a chance to pay tribute to Michael's grandma whose name was Ruby. Diane is most obviously after my grandma Diane, but my grandma Karen and two of my aunts have Diane as their middle name as well as myself so it has many roots on my side of the family.
Harrison was able to come to the hospital to meet his new baby sister that night and it was a delight to see him meet her. He was so amazed by how sweet and little she was and it has been wonderful to watch them bond since their first meeting. Harrison often asks to hold Rubyanna and says how much he loves her. He tells her it is ok when she is crying and sings "Jesus Loves Me" to try to comfort her. He always has to know where she is and is such a good helper to me as her big brother.
We are all doing well adjusting to life as a family of four and continually praise God for Rubyanna.
At this point the doctor who was on call (Doctor Webster) came in to talk with us about our VBAC plan and to answer any questions we had. My water breaking before any real labor contractions had started made it more likely that my labor would end in a repeat c-section because if my body didn't kick into gear and start contracting there wasn't a lot we could do to help push my body along. We all agreed that if at any point the baby was in distress we wanted to have the c-section because a safe and healthy baby was our top priority. She didn't give us any kind of time limit for how long she would let me labor for, but said we would just be watching to see how Baby was handling labor and how my body was progressing. It was decided that they would give me four hours to see if my contractions picked up and then we would talk about whether we should start a low dosage of Pitocin. Michael and I were happy with this plan.
I had tested positive for Group B Strep at my 36 week appointment so the next step was getting me hooked up for an antibiotic for that and then we were moved to our labor and delivery room around noon. After that Michael ran out to get some food for himself and contacted some family and friends to fill them in on what was happening. I ate some peanut butter toast and drank some water because I had forgotten to do that at home with all the hustle and bustle to get ready to go. They didn't want me eating anything more substantial just in case I had to have a c-section later. I also contacted a few people, did some Bible reading, and Lori had me try walking around the halls to see if Baby could be monitored well out there, but it was determined it would be best to do labor in our room where we could best see how our baby was doing. I did have relatively consistent contractions during this time and they were a little bit stronger than some of the earlier contractions I had been having, but they in no way made me need to stop and concentrate on working through them.
At 2:00 Lori checked me again and said I was now 80% effaced and at a "good two". She also said that it felt like there was still some of my bag of waters that had not broken that was under the baby's head and that maybe it had broken up high. She went to ask the doctor if she would prefer starting the low dosage of Pitocin or if she would like the rest of the bag of waters broken. Doctor Webster liked the Pitocin option best since I was only at a 2. She had explained to us that morning that she would be willing to only go up to a level 5 for me with Pitocin because she didn't want to cause extra stress to my scarred uterus and it was determined that we would start at a level 2. The hope was that the Pitocin would coax my body to start contracting with more strength and regularity with it and that maybe at some point we wouldn't actually need the assistance the the extra Pitocin anymore. So at 2:00 I was at 2 cm dilated and began a level 2 of Pitocin after that (easy to remember with all those 2's together--haha!).
We updated people about the Pitocin and we settled in to see what the next few hours would hold. My contractions started to pick up in strength and frequency pretty shortly after we started the Pitocin and by around 4:00 I stopped replying to any messages that I was receiving from others because my contractions were taking more focus from me to relax and work through. We had tried a few different laboring positions before and after the Pitocin started because it seems that Baby was posterior (head facing the front of my body) and we wanted to encourage baby to turn around into the anterior position (head facing the back of my body). We tried laying on both sides for an equal amount of time, standing leaning over the bed, and spent a little bit of time on the birthing ball. Baby's heart rate monitoring showed us that she did not like when I was doing any bending over and was happiest when I was laying on my left side so I was spending this time laying on my left side. I didn't really mind this position because it made it relatively easy to relax during contractions, but I was a little disappointed because I knew that I didn't have gravity working for me while I was laying down and that made it seem like it was going to make labor take that much longer. We also started playing Jaipur around 4:00 to pass the time. My contractions seemed to be anywhere from 2-4 minutes apart at this point and so we would play a turn or two and then my contraction would start and Michael would have to run around to my side of the bed to apply counter pressure to my back. This obviously made game play a little slow and I was starting to feel more fatigue in between contractions so it was more difficult to concentrate. The contractions were definitely more serious work than they had been before and while I felt like I was handling them pretty well it was a bit daunting to consider how much longer we thought we would be in labor for. Neither of us expected that we would have the baby until Sunday at some point so it seemed we had a lot of time and work ahead of us yet.
By 6:00 I was at a 10 and Doctor Webster was in there and we were ready to push. I was both excited and nervous to push because I knew that this was the final step before we got to meet Baby, but facing more contractions seemed very overwhelming let alone the idea of having to actually push out a baby. With the first contraction of pushing Baby was already crowning which was obviously exciting to hear. We had two more contractions worth of pushing where Baby got closer. My fourth contraction of pushing brought out Baby's head followed by the rest of her body at 6:09. Michael was so excited when he announced that it was a baby girl and I could not believe it was done and that I had given birth to my daughter.
She was immediately put on my chest and I just loved her. There is something so surreal about meeting someone face to face who you have had growing within you for nine months. She was so sweet and precious and little and perfect and I was so so happy.
While in our labor and delivery room I got taken care of, we tried nursing Baby (she did great!), and we got her measurements (6 lbs 10 oz and 19 1/2 inches long). Michael and I also made our final decision on her name, Rubyanna Diane (pronounced Ruby-ON-a). We had had a little girl in nursery a few years back with the name Rubyanna and both thought it was such a pretty name and it gave us a chance to pay tribute to Michael's grandma whose name was Ruby. Diane is most obviously after my grandma Diane, but my grandma Karen and two of my aunts have Diane as their middle name as well as myself so it has many roots on my side of the family.
Harrison was able to come to the hospital to meet his new baby sister that night and it was a delight to see him meet her. He was so amazed by how sweet and little she was and it has been wonderful to watch them bond since their first meeting. Harrison often asks to hold Rubyanna and says how much he loves her. He tells her it is ok when she is crying and sings "Jesus Loves Me" to try to comfort her. He always has to know where she is and is such a good helper to me as her big brother.
We are all doing well adjusting to life as a family of four and continually praise God for Rubyanna.
