Bryce Nicole’s Birth Story

Bryce was born April, 17^th 2012.

It was decided very early in the pregnancy that I would be induced early in order to avoid the complications that I had during my labor with Breckin. When I expressed that I would like to go into labor on my own this pregnancy and was told that as long as this baby was smaller than Breckin they would consider it but if the baby was the same size or larger I would have to be induced early and they proceeded to explain the complications that can occur from having a large baby. Apparently we dodged quite a few bullets with Breckin. I was lucky that I was the only one who suffered complications because apparently quite a few things could have gone wrong with Breckin. We were blissfully unaware of what could go wrong while pregnant with Breckin. This time having that knowledge was a lot to carry around.

At almost 37 weeks I was given a growth scan ultrasound. Her labor was going to be planned based on what the ultrasound told us. She had already been measuring quite large and I was warned the week before that she was likely going to be bigger than Breckin. She was measuring 8 pounds even and two weeks ahead at the ultrasound. I sat in the room waiting for the doctor crying, expecting her to say that I had hit the size limit already and was going to have to have a c-section. The earliest insurance will allow you to be induced based on size is 38.5 weeks. I was two weeks away from that milestone and was afraid that she would reach a larger size than the Dr was willing to let me deliver. When she came in she assured me that she was going to do whatever she could to give me the delivery I wanted and scheduled the induction for the earliest date she was allowed. Even though Bryce was measuring large she thought that we would still come in a whole pound less than Breckin.

On the day before the induction I went in to pre-register with the hospital and have blood work done. We later picked Kevin up from work so he could leave his work van there and we went out to have our last dinner out as a family of 3… and likely our last dinner out for a long time. We went to the Olive Garden (like we did the night before Breckin’s induction) and then picked up cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I wasn’t allowed to eat after midnight so the plan was for me to eat the cheesecake as a treat right before bed. We came home, gave Breckin his bath and put him to bed. I shed a few tears knowing that I would be away from him the next couple of nights. We went to bed at 11pm and luckily I fell right to sleep.

I woke up about 4am. I dressed and paced nervously around the house. Kevin called the hospital to make sure they had enough beds. Kim came over around 4:30am to be with Breckin. We went over last minute instructions with her, gave her the monitor and she went back to sleep for the few hours before Breckin needed to be at day care. I went up and gave Breckin a kiss. He woke up long enough to kiss me and give me a hug and we were off to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at 6am. It is so surreal walking into the hospital knowing that when you leave you will have a baby with you. We got into the room and they set me up on all the monitors. The Dr. hadn’t sent in any orders for me so we had to sit and wait for her to come in at 7:30. When she came in she checked me and I was a good 3cm and 75% effaced. They put in me on antibiotics for my Group B Strep and started me on pitocin. Every half hour they upped my pitocin. The contractions were strong but not strong enough. After about an hour on the pitocin I was up to 4cm but I then sat there for 2 hours. The dr. decided to break my water because she believed it would really kick up my labor… which it did. Within minutes of my water being broken I was in terrible pain. I could stand the contractions at that point and didn’t want to get an epidural too early but I was afraid I was going to dilate to a point where it would be too late for me to get one. I told the nurse how incredibly painful my last labor was even with my epidural that I was afraid I would pass out without one. She explained to me based on how I described my labor with Breckin that it sounded as if my epidural didn’t take and I actually gave birth without it. I told her that after I received my epidural they raised my legs in order to take the pressure off my cervix and the nurse said that that likely caused my epidural to settle in my chest and not in my lower region like it should have. This convinced her that I would be able to do this labor with an epidural… it didn’t convince me. Like a switch I was all the sudden in incredible pain and asked for my epidural. The dr. administering it took quite a long time to get to me and I had to work through extremely strong contractions without it. The nurse was an amazing couch. I was just about ready to push by the time the dr. came in. The nurse set up for me to push but I screamed for my epidural. I wasn’t going to do it without one! I was already feeling pressure, so once I got my epidural they let me “birth down,” meaning they let my body pull Bryce down on it’s own so I didn’t have to push as long. After about 30 minutes the Dr. came in and got me ready to push. They set up the mirror so I could watch Bryce come out. With Breckin I pushed for 3 hours. This time the doctor said our goal was minutes not hours. When I started to push she was coming out face up. Breckin was face up and it makes the pushing much harder. I continued to push and she did a big twist and we saw her turn over into the correct position. It was an amazing thing to see in the mirror. After pushing for about 10 minutes I reached down and pulled her out and onto my chest. I held her tightly as she cried. I cried. I was present at this birth. It was amazing. With Breckin I was so tired and in so much pain that I was in a completely different place when he was born. I got to pull him out onto my chest but I wasn’t really aware what was going on, and then all hell broke loose and I started to bleed. Everything was very calm this time around. It was beautiful. After a few minutes they took Bryce to do her APGAR test. The Dr. delivered my placenta and actually showed it to me and opened up the water sack that Bryce was in to show me that as well. It was amazing. It truly was a beautiful experience

Bryce weighed in at 9 pounds 8 oz. 2 oz less than Breckin and induced a week early.