Harper's Birth Story

I was convinced that Harper would be my early baby. And after being induced with my first two, I was determined to go into labor on my own this time. (Pitocin is a nightmare that I seriously wanted to avoid.)

So naturally, on the night before Harper's due date I had an epic meltdown, complete with tears, food medicating, and Matt taking the kids to his choir booster club/parent meeting so I could wallow in solitude.

I went to bed with crazy contractions for the third night in a row but went ahead and reserved tickets for us to go to the Perot Museum the next day to get my mind off things (plus Avery had been begging to go for weeks). 

And then at 7:45 on Wednesday morning  my water broke. Y'all, that is weird stuff. I totally thought I peed on myself. (Lovely, right?) My doctor's office doesn't open until 9, so while I waited to call them, I started packing up our hospital bags and let my mom know that she needed to make her way over to watch Avery and Landon. After talking to the nurse at my OB's office, I confirmed that my water really had broken, and we headed out the door.

But we didn't go straight to the hospital. Priorities, people. We made pit stops at my chiropractor's office (thanks for the last minute adjustment, Dr. T!), the library to return books, the kids' MDO to pay their tuition, and Chick-fil-a for lunch because I knew that once we got to the hospital they'd go all ice-chips-only on me and who wants to go that long without eating actual food??

We made it to Labor and Delivery around 11:45, and they were all wondering what in the world took us so long to get there. Chick-fil-a, that's what. Also, my contractions weren't super strong or close together, so we just weren't in a rush.

The triage nurse who admitted me was super nice, but then she informed me that my doctor wasn't going to be there and I had a doctor I'd never even heard of, much less met. Dr. D had told me at my appointment on Monday that he was on call for the next 12 days, so that was a huge letdown. They told me I was dilated to almost 5, so I was hopeful that it would be a pretty quick labor.

We met our L&D nurse, and she was new to the hospital, so she was working with another nurse (who I'd had before and loved), but she seemed nice enough. I talked with her about how I wanted things to go (namely, avoid pitocin if at all possible), and she said they'd give me a couple of hours to walk around, use the birthing ball thing, etc. But first I had to get a dumb penicillin IV since I'd tested positive for group B strep.  By the time she'd practically burned my arm off with her incorrect ratio of antibiotic to fluid (after she'd missed my veins and had to get a backup IV-stabber) and entered all my info into the computer, she announced that my two hours were up and we needed to start pitocin.

Um, no ma'am. After my protest they let me have my actual two hours, and the other nurse was all you're doing the right thing, while my nurse was all just get the dang pitocin and get this show on the road. While I was frustrated that I felt like I was fighting my nurse for the majority of the day, I was thankful that one nurse was supportive and my substitute doctor wasn't rushing me.

Unfortunately, we could not get my contractions to strengthen or get closer together (probably because I was so frustrated with my nurse and the fact that my doctor wasn't there), so around 5:00 we started a super low dose of pitocin while I continued walking to see if that would help. I was trying to hold off on an epidural until the contractions got unbearable, but Matt talked me into getting it after they started the pitocin (he apparently had a better memory of my first two deliveries, haha).

I was SO glad I listened to him because once the anesthesiologist got there I thought I was dying. And keeping with the theme of the day, I got the worst anesthesiologist ever. It took him three tries to get the needle in, and then the anesthesia only worked in my legs. I still felt every single ridiculous pitocin-amplified contraction.

After nurse shift change they checked to see if I'd made any progress, and my new nurse informed me that I was only dilated to a 5. What the heck?!?! All day long and I hadn't progressed at all?? My nurse left for a few minutes and returned to inform me that Dr. W said I could have some statol for pain relief, but I was like I don't want to be drugged up, I just want this dang epidural to work. Also, I think you need to check me again because this is ridiculous and there is no way I am at a FIVE.

She obliged and immediately went to the phone to stop Dr. W from going to the c-section that she'd already scrubbed up for because thirty minutes after the last time she checked me, I was ready to push. (I knew I wasn't crazy!)

And about ten minutes later at 7:54pm, Harper Kate joined us and was absolutely perfect. She weighed 8 lb 9 oz (my smallest baby!) and was 21.25" long. And after holding our healthy baby girl in my arms, I quickly got over all the stuff that hadn't gone the way I had expected.

Avery and Landon got to come in first to meet their baby sister, and they were SO excited!

AND my whole family (minus Chelsea and Evelyn) made it back in town from campmeeting (which I had to miss this year for only the third time in my whole life) just in time to meet sweet Harper!

(And thank you to Allison for capturing so many great pictures for us! It was almost impossible to narrow them down for this post. Even more can be found at this post on her blog.)

We had lots of visitors on Thursday, but the first one was Dr. D. He came in and gave me a huge hug and apologized profusely for missing my delivery. He had been waiting for the hospital to call him to tell him I was there, but when they didn't, he assumed I'd been sent home because my water hadn't broken after all.  Apparently Wednesday was his day off, but even though he was planning on delivering Harper, the doctor that he was covering for later in the week had arranged for Dr. W to cover him so he could have the day off. The only problem was, nobody told him that. I was so upset about him not being there, but there wasn't anything I could do about it at that point. He was really complimentary about Dr. W though and said she practiced really similarly to him, which I could totally see. I was thankful that he took the time to stop by.

Uncle Vernon

Pastor Fred

Kari and two-week-old Ella

Amy

Proud big brother

I loved my night nurses in postpartum, and the hospital food is ridiculously good, but we were so ready to go home. My recovery has been SO much easier this time around, and I didn't even need a hydrocodone prescription to take home. :)

We got to leave on Friday (Harper looked so tiny in her car seat!), and now the fun part of adjusting to being a family of five begins. It's already been an adventure (and not always a fun one), but we're so thrilled that this little girl has joined our family!