Reagan Jane was born October 11, three days after her due date. Those three days may have been the longest of my life! I'd been anxiously watching for signs of labor for a couple of weeks preceding her due date and the days were passing
so slowly by this point. On Monday morning--my due date-- I had a doctor's appointment and we decided that if nothing occurred before Thursday morning, I would come in that day for a non-stress test and we would decide what to do then. I told my doctor that I'd like to be induced that day and she was fine with that. She was pretty certain that I'd be headed to the hospital well before Thursday because I had experienced some signs of early labor and was dilated to a 3. I just hoped she was right!
On Monday evening, I experienced contractions while I was making dinner for the boys and hustling them to Jake's soccer practice. The timer app I was using told me repeatedly to head to the hospital but the contractions weren't getting stronger even though they were anywhere from four to ten minutes apart. Plus, Deric was still at work, we were at soccer and I didn't have any of the boys' things packed for staying with their grandparents. At soccer practice I let my friends know and we were all certain that I'd be headed to the hospital at some point that evening. When we got home, we put the boys to bed like usual and packed their bags and cleaned up the house. At this point, the contractions had been consistent for a few hours but they still weren't feeling even remotely painful, just uncomfortable. So I sat down on the couch to watch tv for a bit and the contractions disappeared, almost completely. I was so disappointed but as I went to bed I figured they would probably kick back up sometime overnight. You can imagine my disappointment when I woke up Tuesday morning and realized nothing had happened overnight!
^my friend Lindsey took our photo Monday night after soccer, when we were all so sure this would be our last night as a family of four!
All day Tuesday, I was in such a terrible mood. I kept hoping for contractions to start again and nothing happened. Wednesday-- same story. So on Thursday morning I headed to the doctor's office for an 8:00am non-stress test. I wasn't honestly sure what the purpose of the test was but followed orders and just prayed we'd get to induce that day as planned. As it turns out, Reagan technically failed the non-stress test because she didn't move as much as she should have (although I could feel her moving so thankfully, I wasn't worried!) I was still only dilated to a 3 but the doctor said because she failed the test, we'd definitely go ahead with the induction. I left the doctor's around 10 and was told to be at the hospital at noon. I headed home where Deric had been cleaning up the house and getting the boys ready to go. We played a few puzzles with the boys, they ate an early lunch and we went to drop the boys off with Deric's mom and go to the hospital.
Once we got to the hospital we went through all the routine prep-- paperwork, pitocin, an epidural shortly after because I'm a total wimp. ;) All of that was finished around 2:00 or 3:00 and we settled in to wait. I assumed this induction would be similar to Reid's and we would be waiting a full twelve hours before the baby came. We chatted with our really friendly nurse, watched HGTV, I texted family any updates but by the evening, nothing was going on. Around 6:45pm, my nurse checked and I was only dilated to a 4. I was so disappointed. I clearly remember laying on my side and texting Sarah at 7:05 that I was still only a 4 and that I was so bored and hungry.
Just a few minutes after texting Sarah, a different nurse came in and said she wanted to check a few things on the monitor. I told her that I was actually starting to feel the contractions again and asked her to increase the epidural. She told me she was going to check to see how far dilated I was--just in case-- and she gave me oxygen as well. She checked and told me I was actually at 10cm and that I was going to have the baby soon! I was completely thrown off and she hustled out of the room to get things ready. (Deric told me later that as she left, she told me not to push.)
(Side note: After Reagan was born, I was trying to piece together what happened and I asked our original nurse why a different nurse came in to check on me. She explained that she'd gone to the cafeteria to get dinner and as she was about to get her food, they paged her for delivery. She said she didn't believe that I was already ready to deliver and had to sprint upstairs to get back in time!)
Right away our doctor came in and got suited up, nurses got everything ready and all the sudden I was being told to push when I felt a contraction! Thankfully the epidural was still working enough that I could feel contractions but they weren't unbearably painful. So when the next contraction hit, I pushed. As soon as the contraction waned, my doctor told me that the baby was crowning already. I pushed through the next contraction and it took me a minute to realize that Deric and the doctor were talking about her cheeks-- they could already see her face! The doc said one more good push to get her shoulders out and she was outta there. So I pushed as hard as I could on that last contraction and there she was! I was in such shock from how quickly things had escalated that I could hardly believe I was already holding her. She was born at 7:23pm-- in less than twenty minutes! I'm so thankful for such a quick and easy delivery (that definitely makes up for being overdue!)
Reagan was a perfect baby right from the start. She laid on my chest for a good while and eventually nursed so easily. She slept well those first few nights and woke up when she needed to eat with no problem.
I'm so grateful that she's finally here! I would take all the nighttime nursing sessions and laundry piles
over being pregnant any day. ;) Reagan is the best addition to our family!
