The weekend of September 8-9, 2018 I was 38 weeks pregnant, ready to have my baby and hoping to go into labor that weekend while my Dr (and the same one who delivered Lacey Belle) was on call. I remember telling Robbie that weekend, "Just watch I'm probably going to start having contractions on Monday just because it will be the day after my Dr isn't on call anymore." Sunday came and went and I went to bed...and I started having contractions in the middle of the night. I don't remember what time they started because they were hardly painful so I just kept sleeping through them. I started timing them at about 5am on Monday, Sept 10th and they were about 10 mins apart. I decided to get up and go about my day with Lacey Belle (when she woke) and wait for the contractions to get closer together and/or more painful. I was afraid of going too soon and getting sent home. But I had also heard stories of friends and family who say after you have 1 baby the rest go faster so I did want to be cautious and not wait too long either. Robbie went to work and I told him I'd call him when I was ready to go to the hospital.
I got up with Lacey Belle at 8am, ate breakfast and was moving around. The contractions grew closer between 2-5 mins apart by 9am but still the same pain wise. I decided to go ahead and pack the rest of my hospital bag, have Robbie come home but still wait a little longer to make sure they were consistent with the timing. At 11:30am we (Robbie, Lacey Belle & I) headed to the hospital to get checked out. My friend Jess was lined up to watch Lacey Belle but had just gotten off working the night shift--I wanted her to be able to rest and to not waste time driving up if I got sent home--so we took Lacey Belle to the hospital with us to see if they would admit me. At the time we went to the hospital my contractions were between 3-6 mins apart.
At about 1pm they checked me and I was 3cm dilated. They kept me in triage for 20 mins being monitored then let me walk around the hospital for about 40 mins to see if I progressed before checking me again. Poor Lacey Belle was meltdown central (thank you no lunch and no nap) and at that point my mom had said she would drive down to help watch Lacey Belle and my friend Jess had been able to nap and said she would just come over. So I finally told Robbie to just take Lacey Belle home so she could nap and he could just stay there with her til Jess got there by then we should know if they would admit me or not. As Robbie and Lacey Belle headed home, I continued my walk around the L&D department that consisted of a small circle going around and around the same hall and nurses/station every couple mins lol. Towards the end of my walk I felt like there was a slight trickle down my leg but didn't notice much so wasn't worried. Then before being monitored again I went to use the bathroom and had a little more then usual discharge. Again, I didn't think much of it and just assumed it was because I didn't have underwear on. At about 2:30pm they took me back to triage and hooked me up to monitors again.
My triage nurse's plan was to wait until Robbie got back to the hospital to check my dilation again that way they could either admit me or he could just take me home. While being monitored in triage the contractions became a lot more painful all of a sudden. The pain I remembered well from being in labor with Lacey Belle and I knew something had to have changed/progressed for it to be so bad. Robbie was gone a lot longer then we thought so at about 3:30pm the nurse checked me again. I was at 4/5cm dilated and she asked if I felt like I had been leaking at all. I said not really and she said she thought I was leaking fluid so she did a test to find out and confirmed that my water had broke. I was officially admitted. The nurse moved me into a labor and delivery room (the last one available) and I told her I wanted an epidural ASAP so she began prepping me with fluids and everything as soon as we got to the room. After hearing stories from my sister and some friends who had labor progress so quickly the 2nd time around I didn't want to risk not being able to get an epidural.
The anesthesiologist came for my epidural pretty quickly which was a huge relief as the contractions were getting so painful I was having a hard time with them. Just as the anesthesiologist was about to be done he said "You're not going to like this." to which instant panic started setting in as I asked what was going on. He told me that he had inserted the needle into the wrong place and it was hitting something it wasn't supposed to so he had to remove it and do it again. He said that happens about once in every 20 times he admits an epidural and I guess I was just the unlucky one that time lol. But he got it reinserted correctly the 2nd time (yay!) and at about 4:30 it started kicking in and I started feeling much more relaxed. I was now at about 6cm dilated and just so thankful I was able to get my epidural with plenty of time to spare.
Robbie finally got back to the hospital around 5pm and we were playing the waiting game. My nurse kept peeking in to check on me and ask if I felt any pressure to push yet to which I didn't so the reply was always "nope". So she'd say alright let me know when you do then she'd duck out again. After the new nurse change at 7pm the new nurse on call (who also happened to be one of the ones I had with Lacey Belle) asked how I was feeling and my response was the same--just waiting for the pressure to push but feeling great thanks to my epidural. She then said she wanted to check just to see how my progression was since they hadn't checked since I got the epidural.
At about 7:45pm they checked me again and said I was fully dilated and baby's head was in the right spot and ready to go. My nurse said she was going to have me do a couple practice pushes but Baby was so low she was afraid if I did that he'd be born so they called for the Dr to come in and started prepping everything for delivery. I didn't feel any pressure to push or anything at all. My epidural was that strong.
Turned out that the same midwife I saw regularly during my pregnancy with Lacey Belle was on call and she was the one who came to my room and delivered Weston. I was so happy to have a familiar face and someone I loved. As soon as the midwife arrived into the room I started pushing and Weston was born very quickly after. They had to tell me when I was having a contraction and when to push because I couldn't feel a thing. It was a very different experience then Lacey Belle's birth. (The epidural this time took until 4am to wear off even for me to be able to get up and go to the bathroom).Baby had his umbilical cord a little around his neck at birth but nothing scary and he was alright. Baby was born at 8:11pm on Monday, September 10, 2018. He was 2 oz and a quarter of an inch smaller then Lacey Belle and had a bunch of dark hair (unlike sister's blonde hair). Overall it was faster delivery but just as special :)
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