This was the glass of Pinot Noir that greased the wheels. The night I went into labor with Alex, I had a glass of wine with dinner, so this time I thought, why not? Worth a shot, right? I ate a huge lunch that day and had no desire to eat dinner. So I had this one glass and shortly there after, I fell asleep on the couch. Henry usually wakes me up to move into the bed, but this time I woke up on my own at 1 am. I got into my pj’s, climbed into bed, and just as I’m starting to doze back off, I had the first contraction. And then another. Then another Watching the clock, I see they are only 7 to 10 minutes apart. I got up to pee, and I guess the movement helps, because the contractions were now 3 minutes apart and I’m doing the whole leaning on the bathroom counter/bed thing until they pass. My folks promptly came over and we are out the door around 2 am. When we check into the hospital they do the normal stuff. I get hooked up and “checked”. To my delight, I’m already at 4 cm!! Hell ya! Almost halfway there! Once I get to the actual room we’ll deliver in, I get the epidural. Let me go on the record and say this: It is the best thing in the whole wide world!! If I could, I would have that thing on a drip 24/7. Sure the dead legs are kind of weird, but its such an amazing high when you first get it.
After the drugs are hooked up for awhile, the contractions slow down a bit so I get some Pitocin to help things move along. I kinda lost track of the chain of events around this time (thank you epidural) but I went from 6cm to 10cm super quick. The epi also sort of wore off which stinks to feel the contractions again, but it really helped when it came time to push. After 30 minutes of pushing, she was here!! I was way more nervous the weeks leading up to the birth this time than with Alex. Not sure why, but I was so worried about something going wrong. I was so relieved when she was put on my chest and we both made it through without a hitch. This experience was so much easier, I’d venture to say it was borderline enjoyable. I almost felt like a pro at this. (No, it did not make me want to do this again).
We were able to leave the next evening around 7 pm. It could have been sooner, but the nurses were waiting for both me and Chloe to PEE. How hilarious is that? She had only had poop diapers and I was having problems from either the catheter or the epidural making my bladder “lazy”.
Anyways, long story short….birth was fantastic, she’s here and beautiful, I feel great, and I have another sweet, sweet baby. Life is good.
Between contractions with my bag packed and ready to go.
