One day before my due date, at 5:00 in the morning, I found myself in the car with my husband, on the way to the hospital to have our baby. I spent the whole trip praying that we wouldn’t be sent back home once we got there.
When you’ve already been induced at 41 weeks with your two previous babies, you don’t get your hopes up that your next one is coming early… even just one day early! I was prepared to wait until a week after my due date again with this one, our first little boy.
I had already been up all night. I’d had Braxton Hicks contractions for several months already at this point, so I wasn’t surprised when I started having contractions again this night. I just drank some water and took a long bath.
But the contractions were getting really close together, and were strong enough that I couldn’t sleep through them. After a super long shower around 1 am, I finally lay down on the floor and started using the app on my phone to time the contractions. I realized that they were consistently 1-2 minutes apart, so Kevin called my doctor, who told us it was time to come on in.
When we got to the hospital, we went to the labor triage room for monitoring. To my dismay, the contractions seemed to be slowing down and getting weaker.
Finally, my doctor came in and made an announcement: since my contractions were getting farther apart, I could go home and plan to come back in 8 days on my induction date. My heart instantly sank. I was so hopeful that I would get to have my baby that day!
Then the doctor continued, “Or, since you’re already here, you could stay and we can induce you today.”
Of course, I picked the second option!
I was absolutely thrilled when we got to move into a delivery room. Now it felt real! This was the room where we would be having our baby… today!
The next several hours were a whirlwind of IVs, contractions, and the Friends marathon that we found to watch on TV. 🙂
By mid-afternoon, though, things got a little scary. My doctor came in and let us know that the baby’s heart rate was dropping with each contraction, and she thought that it was because the baby’s cord was wrapped around some part of his body, and compressing with each contraction, which was limiting his oxygen.
Well, that sounded a little terrifying to me! But my doctor was extremely calm, and even laughing and joking with us the entire time. She did warn us that we might be heading towards a C-section, though, and commented that it was time for the baby to be born… now! (Quite a surprise to me, since I was only 6 cm dilated at the time.)
Regardless of what I thought I knew about the magical 10 cm goal, when I was told to start pushing, I did. A cheerful NICU team had already arrived, and after a few minutes, baby Andrew was born! His cord was wrapped around his neck, and one of his arms, but he was 100% healthy, and totally fine. I had been imagining the moment I would get to see him for so long, that I just couldn’t even believe he was here.
And just in time, it turned out! Our doctor told us afterwards that she had been watching the clock, and she had given Andrew a deadline- 9 more minutes, and she would have been wheeling us down the hall for an emergency C-section.
The next few days felt like a dream to me. It was surreal that the baby I thought would still be in my belly was right there in my arms instead. And to have him be perfectly healthy after such a scare during his delivery reminds me of what a gift from God this baby truly is.
We’re back home now, recovering and settling into our new normal, whatever that is. Welcome, Baby Andrew! We could not possibly be more thrilled to have you. 🙂
More from this pregnancy:
maternity photos
my weekly baby bump pictures
second trimester pregnancy update (and nursery pictures)
gender reveal
pregnancy announcement
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