Alice's Birth Story

Night before delivery

Although there were numerous times in the days preceeding Alice's birth that my contractions were increasing in intensity and length my body still held out for my Friday, May 27th induction date. I had an appointment 4 days before she was born and I was already dialated to a 4.

The Quick Version:
Got to the hospital at 6 AM
My water broke on it's own at 9:15 AM
Alice was born after 13 minutes of pushing at 10:13AM.

A 4 hour delivery from start to finish - Loved it!!

The Long Version:
*For journaling and anyone who likes a birth story, otherwise see pictures at the bottom*

Friday, May 27th-
6 AM
Got to the hospital. Started on pitocin. We enjoyed visiting with our nurse Tina, giving her the scoop of how quick my deliveries are and that I would like my epidural before the doc breaks my water. When I first got the monitors on my contractions were only 15 mins apart. With the smallest starting dose of Pitocin my contractions increased to 3-5 minutes.

7AM - Cole and I sat on the bed together and got caught up on the episodes of Modern Family that we'd missed. Got started on antibiotics for Group B Strep.

8AM- Dr. Jefferson (not my normal dr, but I loved her) came to say good morning and that she would be back at 11am to break my water giving me enough time for the antibiotics to be in my system.

8:30 AM - Cole heads to the cafeteria to get his breakfast while I sucked on ice chips!!

9:00 AM - Tina turned up the Pit just a bit and the contractions started to get stronger and much more uncomfortable, but I wasn't quite ready for the epidural. I like to have the the feeling in my legs as long as I can stand. I figured I ask for the epidural around 10am.

9:15 AM - I had my strongest contraction yet and right in the middle of it I felt what I thought was the baby kick me really hard and I heard a faint popping sound.  I gasped. A minute later I shifted my body weight, felt a dribble and told Cole, "I either just wet myself or my water broke." Called the nurse in and sure enough my water had broken on it's own (I've never had that happen before).

Now the race was on. I knew as did the nurse that things would move fast. My contractions increased incredibly fast and were getting terribly uncomfortable. The nurse was able to get the anesthesiologist to come in before he headed for a c-section (thankfully or I would have been without).

9:30-9:40 AM - Leaning over to get the epidural while having intense contractions and my water gushing out onto the floor was a very interesting experience.

9:40 AM - Nurse checks and I am now dialated to 7. She calls the dr to come as I'm "progressing at lightening speed" (as she put it).

9:40- 9:50 AM - Nurses are getting the bed ready for delivery and the baby area ready. I start to feel the epidural beginning to work, but it's not in full effect yet.

9:50 AM - I'm now at a 10 and feeling the urge to push. The nurse assures me she's delivered lots of babies. Not really worried, calm and getting fairly comfortable except one spot in the groin that is aching, probably from the baby's head.

9:58 AM- Dr. Jefferson rushes in saying, "Did you wait for me?!"

10:00 AM - Start pushing. 3 quick yet controlled pushing sessions, with laughing and visiting in between (Cole and the nurses).

10:13 AM - Alice is born!!!

She has a full head of dark hair, is tounge tied (4 out of our 5 kids have been), looks like Tessa, has dimples and is super tiny. She got a 9/9 on the apgar and was only 5lbs 15oz and 18 inches - our smallest baby yet.

My parents brought the kids to visit in the afternoon. The oldest 3 were thrilled and it only took Claire about 5 minutes ot warm up.