Why Women Have 3 Children

So I promised the story of my induction - so here it is! We woke up early the morning of the 28th, showered, ate, and had everything ready before calling the hospital. They told us to come in at 7:15 to get started.

By 7:45 I was hooked up to an IV dripping pitocin to get my contractions started. And we waited. I started having regular contractions (every 3-5 min or so) almost immediately - but nothing too painful. At 11:30am my doctor came in to break my water. Which really, was no big deal. I'd heard lots of people say it was painful - it was nothing. I was dilated to 4 cm at that time.

Within half an hour (noon) my contractions were incredibly intense and painful! Worse than I'd felt with my first. So I asked for my epidural. By 12:39pm the epidural was complete and I was feeling quite a bit better.

At 1pm I was pain free and dilated to 5 cm. So Ryan left to grab a bite to eat. I told him not to bring it in to the room because I was starving! Ice chips just don't cut it. I also told him I was going to take a nap.

The nurse said she'd come back at 2pm and check me again.

By 1:10pm I was feeling painful contractions through my epidural again...weird. The baby's heart rate had dropped so the nurse came in to check on things. I told her I could feel the contractions so she checked me again - this is around 1:15pm. I was dilated to 9 cm!! From a 5 to a 9 in 15 minutes! Crazy. No wonder I could feel the pain.

Ryan hurried back (luckily he was just eating in the hall). The nurse frantically told me not to push - since I felt like I needed to - while she rushed around the room prepping everything and calling my doctor at the same time.

My doctor was 5 minutes away from the hospital.

As the nurse prepped the room I kept thinking - really!? Already!? I was just so amazed at how fast everything happened. I thought we still had a few hours to go - so did the nurse and doctor.

When he arrived I was fully dilated. After 3 minutes of pushing through 2 contractions my Little Man joined our family at 1:39pm! 3 minutes!! That is a HUGE improvement from the 2 1/2 hrs I pushed with Little Miss.

Some other things that were different...

With Little Miss I had 3rd degree "star" tares - I tore in 3 places, really bad. Recovery was super painful and took a long time.

This time around only one 2nd degree tare. Much better! Your body just does so much better the second time around - and that is why people have the third kid. Each time it just gets easier!

I also told my husband shortly after my epidural that "I love epidurals, I would marry one if I could" - yep. Not sure how he took that. =) Really though, I don't know how women give birth at home without pain meds. It amazes me.