Welcome Rory Jane

Well, I don't know about you but I love a good birth story. Mine have not been as dramatic as those I tend to binge read but I need to recap it nonetheless for my own memory.

I made it to my 39 week doctor's appointment after not progressing at all in previous weeks. I was happy to hear that I was at 2 cm (or 3 really) and we were starting to discuss a birth time frame. I was completely taken aback when my doctor asked if I would like to be induced like I was with Caroline, assuming that he was going to say after my 40 week appointment. Instead he suggested "how about Thursday"... it was Monday. I said as long as he thought I was ready, I was game. And he said he would have his nurse set it up.

I walked out of the doctor's office feeling a little stunned, a little panicked, and VERY thankful. Up until this point I was a little apprehensive as to what we would do with Caroline and which scenario we would use depending on when new baby decided to join us. It was so nice to be able to call my parents and the in-laws and formulate a plan for Caroline while Ben and I would be at the hospital.

I got a call from the nurse a few hours later letting us know we needed to be at the hospital at 5am for induction and that the hospital would call me if something needed to change because we would be considered "voluntary", but we were at the top of the list and it was not likely we would be bumped. Well in true our luck fashion we got a call right before leaving for the hospital saying there were too many laboring women at the moment and they would call us back. We both felt a little defeated but hopeful because we were bumped for a few hours when we were about to be induced with Caroline.

We, thankfully, went back to bed and got a good nap in because later that morning when Ben was getting us some breakfast at Whataburger we got a call saying if we could "come right now" then we could still be induced that day. My mom was already in town and I was so happy that she didn't drive all the way up to watch Caroline, for us, for nothing.

We hardly ate anything Ben had picked up for us because the adrenaline started kicking in as we were driving to the hospital. We listened to a little music on the short drive to get our minds off of our growing nerves. (had to play the same music as with Caroline of course) We arrived at the hospital a little before 11 am and they got us all set up in our room.

Everything at our new hospital was so much more relaxed I felt like. They let me know my doctor would be in around noon, to break my water, so they were going to go ahead and start pitocin and get my epidural started before things got going. Yay for not feeling a single one of those pesky contractions!! The whole time nurses kept commenting that I was going to be a quick labor since my doctor insisted that would be the case. I was really hoping they weren't jinxing me, it was about 5 hours start to finish with Caroline so I was nervous this would be a completely different experience. Ben got to stay in the room with me this time when getting my epidural which was nice, and it was so easy when not having to sit still through contractions too.

I had been having really low blood pressure readings throughout my pregnancy so one of the labor nurses let me know that the epidural might cause my blood pressure to bottom out since it was already so low, but she had some medicine ready for my IV in case she needed to bring it back up.  Well I was glad she was so prepared because mid sentence my mind started going blank, and all I could do was focus on breathing and trying not to puke. I needed a couple of doses of her wonder meds, but thankfully stopped bottoming out after a bit. My doctor came in at noon and broke my water, and said he would be back when I was ready to push.

Everything else went according to plan, epidural worked its magic and I couldn't feel any sensation from the bottom of my ribs down. My legs literally had to be lifted by whoever was around me and just flopped around, gave everyone a good laugh. I laid on my right side using a peanut ball which, I hadn't heard of before, for about an hour, at which point they checked me and I was 5 cm. They then flipped me to my left side and let me go another hour or so and when they checked me that time the nurse said I was way past ready to have a baby. They paged the doctor and while they were waiting on him what seemed like 8 nurses came into the room to get things prepped and ready to go. It was weird having such an audience because we had fewer people the first time around.

I got really anxious as they were setting up because everything was happening so quickly and I didn't think I was ready. I was so numb it was hard for me to breath at times when I would have to lay back so I was grateful when they let me sit up a bit more. Well two or three contractions later with just as many pushes, Rory Jane made her debut! She did indeed come faster than her sister, three and half hours start to finish. Praise the Lord for easy and quick labor and deliveries.

7lbs 8oz, 20.75 inches of pure goodness. She has really been the best baby.

Caroline couldn't stand to wait until we got into our recovery room to meet her baby sister, so my mom brought her up to the hospital soon after we delivered. She was immediately in love. She had been telling me every day for months that she was going to hold her sister at the hospital and I kept assuring her that she could, indeed, do that. She was a little apprehensive when she saw me in the hospital bed and was completely quiet and still while she was in the room but you could tell she was so in love.

Not sure where my head was but I didn't get any pictures of her visitors (the grandparents) holding her or of us as a family of four. Second child syndrome already? Gosh I hope not! More to come :)