Baylor Rae's Birth Story

Ever since Jonathan was given a start date of September 9th, my biggest concern was if he would be here when I had the baby.  Basically, the plan was that if I hadn't had the baby by 38 weeks we would schedule an induction for 39 weeks so he could be here. (He could have up to 3 days off, so we were hoping to combine it with a weekend to really make it count).  He informed me about a month ago that the weekend I'd be 39 weeks (Oct 17ish) really wasn't the most convenient weekend, but October 8th would be the perfect day.  He could make up being gone and he was already planning on coming home for that weekend since he also had Labor Day off the following Monday.  I laughed at him and told him there was no way they would induce me at 37 1/2 weeks.  Friday Sept 28th and Friday Oct 2nd at both of my appointments I had them check me and I was dilated 3 and 90% effaced.  This is quite typical for my pregnancies; I dilate long and early.   I had a lot of contractions the following weekend and really wanted to get checked before Friday the 9th.  So I managed to get a Wednesday appointment where they told me I was dilated 5 and fully effaced and kept commenting that the baby might fall out and I shouldn't sneeze or cough.  I told the doctor about my dilemma with Jonathan being here and got the impression she thought I'd have the baby soon.  So after MUCH deliberation, I called Jonathan and said to leave after classes got out.  This was really a HUGE gamble since I wasn't even having regular contractions at that time.  My biggest fear was that he would come up and I wouldn't have the baby and he wouldn't be able to come back when I actually did have the baby since he'd already used his days off.   In fact, after talking to Emily (who said she was dilated 5 and very effaced for a month with her last two pregnancies), I texted Jonathan and said I was having second thoughts about him coming, but he said he had already put things in motion to leave and he was going to come.  So I said we'd hope for the best.

He got home Wednesday night and still no contractions.  Thursday morning we went to Furman where I did a lot of chasing Corben around the lake.  A few contractions, but nothing regular.  We went to get a free pumpkin and I went to pick it up the lady was like, "Let me get that for you!"  I said, "Oh, no, I got it.  I'm trying to have a baby today!"  Seriously trying everything.  Went to Walmart and when we got home tried a few more things and within an hour I was at least having regular contractions about 6 or 7 minutes apart even if they weren't bad.  So we decided to head to the hospital in hopes that I was dilated more and they wouldn't send me home.  I was also afraid the contractions would stop by the time we got to the hospital, but thankfully they did not.  However, when I got there they checked me and said I was still just dilated 5.  A 'stretchy' 5, but 5 nonetheless.  We told them our situation with Jonathan only being here a limited time and they agreed to admit me, but said they couldn't do anything (i.e. pitocin) to help labor along.  Dr. Thurston was on call and came to check me about 6:30.  She knew the situation, too, and thankfully 'aggressively' checked me...stripped my membranes, stretched me to a good 6 and said to wait and see if that helped.  By 7:00 my contractions were getting much worse, but they still didn't want to commit to delivery by giving me an epidural, so for about 2 hours every 5 minutes I had horrible contractions, but something about where they had placed the monitor wasn't really picking them up or "giving me credit' for them as they said, so they really didn't realize how bad it was for a couple hours.  By 9:45 I was dilated 7/8, so they said I could get an epidural and I thankfully slept a few hours.  At 2:30 Dr. Thurston broke my water and I slept a few more hours.  With Corben, they had to do the epidural twice and I couldn't feel a thing.  This time it was perfect; I could feel my legs and even move them and feel the contractions, but they weren't painful.  Around 7:00 Thursday morning things started to feel a little different 'down there' when I'd have a contraction.  I told the nurse that it felt like something might be coming and she asked if I felt the need to push.  I really didn't know, so she didn't take me too seriously.  I texted her again about 8:30 because it was feeling more like needing to push to me.  About 9:00 Dr. Thurston came and barely stuck her hand in was like, "There's a head! Let's have a baby!"  So they prepped everything and less than ten minutes of pushing and Baylor Rae was born at 9;16!  Another successful VBAC in the books.  She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long.  Lots of dark hair just like Rylee & Corben, although Baylor has somewhat of a mullet going on with a receding hairline.  I'm hoping it all falls out eventually like Rylee's did so it can grow back in nice and somewhat even.

They told us we'd be discharged Sunday morning, but since Jonathan had to leave Monday we didn't want to spend a lot of time at the hospital, so we left early Saturday morning.  While I didn't have her Oct 8th, I cannot believe that everything worked out so perfectly to have her on the 9th.  I'm so, so grateful that Jonathan was able to be here.  And I'm thankful that Dr. Thurston was so understanding because I feel fairly confident that if she hadn't helped things along I would not have had a baby that day.  We're all in love with Baby Baylor, especially Rylee.  She wants to hold Baylor constantly and give her hugs and kisses.  Corben just comments about how "Baby Baylor is so cute!"

Baylor is now 2 weeks old and I can't believe how fast it's gone by!  She is a pretty good baby; still sleeps most of the time.  I have to wake her up every 3 hours during the day to eat, but she wakes up on her own like clock work every 2-2 1/2 hours at night.  Figures. ;)  We're working on it. :)

2:30 am...just before they came to break my water

Dr. Thurston