I'm happy to say that Harlow's delivery was so smooth it was almost, dare I say, easy! I made the decision to be schedule to be induced to avoid laboring for days with painful contractions like I did with Tav. I scheduled it at 39 1/2 weeks (because you have to wait til 39, but I also wanted to work around my mom's work schedule so she could be there), which was August 14th.
The hospital called me the night before the 14th and said to come in at 7. We had Chris come over and stay at out house til Tav woke up so we wouldn't he to wake him early, then he took him to Amanda's for the day.
I took a sleeping pill the night before, but I was so anxious (not to mention uncomfortably pregnant) that I hardly slept. I woke early and took the time to get ready (I wanted to look good in my pictures and redeem myself after being such a mess in Tav's). It felt so strange to just calmly drive to the hospital with no contractions or pain because I was in such agony with Tav. Shad said a prayer in the car (he'd given me a blessing the night before-I was really freaking out!) and we went inside.
They took us to our room and had me change into a gown. I had two nurses working with me and they could tell I was so worried and kept reassuring me this time would be so different and so much better-it was really nice. One of them put in my IV and it only took her one try (I was left with huge bruises after multiple attempts with Tav). I got a bit woozy (typical for me when needles are involved) but got over it in a few minutes since I was laying down and comfortable. The other nurse hooked me up to some heart rate and contraction monitors and then they left us for a while. After about an hour my main nurse hooked me up to pitocin and got the contractions started. Around the same time my doctor came in to check on me and asked if I was ready to have my water broken. (I was like, I don't know, should I be?). I trust him so I said yes and he broke it. I was super worried it would hurt but it didnt at all. (TMI warning here!) It was just a LOT more water than I was expecting. It just kept flooding out like all day haha.
After a few hours on the pitocin I started feeling the contractions pretty intensely. They'd told me I could have my epidural whenever I wanted, but it felt too easy? I couldn't think of a reason not to just get it so I told my nurse to let the anesthesiologist I was ready. I was really stressed about getting the epidural put in too (surprise surprise) but it went just fine. Even getting the epidural put in was less dramatic than the first time. I didn't have the kick go off in my leg and I didn't feel the medicine flood in so intensely. I got a little woozy, yet again, but it only lasted a few minutes again. I really liked this epidural better because it was a lot less strong. It kept the contractions really mild, but I could still feel and move my legs.
The rest of the day I just spent relaxing (!) and talking to my mom. The nurse checked me every few hours to see how dilated I was and the doctor came by mid-day to see how I was doing. At three I was dilated to a 4 1/2. The nurse said she'd check again at 5.
She came in at five and surprised me when she said that I was completely dilated and ready to push! She actually had me try a few pushes right then I guess to see how ready I really was. She went to call the doctor to come in, but he conveniently showed up to check on me right then. It took about 10-15 minutes for both of them to get set up and we got started! My doctor was only around for the last few minutes of pushing with Tavvin so this was really different, but nice!
I pushed every time I felt a contraction coming, every few minutes. Because my epidural was a lot less strong I could feel better what was happening and what I was doing, which I think helped the process go faster. I pushed through maybe 6-10 contractions-three ten second pushes each- to get her here so it was really fast! Towards the last few pushes I could feel a ton of pressure, much more than with Tavvin, but that's the only part of the whole process that hurt a little more than with Tav. The doctor waited until the very last minute to do the epesiotomy to make sure it was necessary and could be as small as possible, for which I am very thankful! Because of that the cut was really small and my recovery has been much easier!
After the cut was made, Harlow arrived with only a few more pushes. She was so perfect and got a 10 on her first APGAR test, which all the nurses said was unheard of. The nurse who gave her her bath later was so amazed at how healthy and perfect she was she said we should just call her 10! It was cute. We were so proud (as if any of us had done anything to help her do so well haha). The nurse laid her straight on my belly (another difference) on a towell and cleaned her off. When she was cleaned up a bit I did skin to skin for a while. I loved it.
I had asked all the family to wait to visit until I had a day to recover, and it worke out really well because I felt like we were busy the rest of the night. I tried to have her nurse about thirty minutes after she was born and to my astonishment she latched on perfectly and did 10 minutes on both sides. I was so so happy because Tavvin had the hardest time latching and almost never did without a shield.
Everything about the whole experience was so much easier than my first time. My recovery has also been so much better and easier and Harlow is still nursing like a champ! We absolutely adore her and are so happy to have her in the family!
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