Well......the last you heard from me, I was 41 weeks and going in for a biophysical profile u/s on Tuesday. So, I left home early, went to work for lunch with some friends - felt very relaxed. Met DH and we went to the u/s place together. They did the scan and the girl commented that my fluid looked low (which she said would be "normal" for how far along I was) and also that she was having trouble getting lots of "big movements" out of the baby. She said she was going to call my OB's office with the results and to wait for a few minutes...
She finally came back and said that she couldn't get a hold of my OB - the office was closed - and so she'd just called triage at childbirth at the hospital - and they wanted me to come in for a NST. I went there and did that and my strip come out really well (baby was moving around, heart rate was good), but when they called my OB to get his opinion, he asked that they admit me and prepare for induction. The OB on call came and put in a Cook's catheter to assist in opening up my cervix - this hurts like you know what when your cervix is in no way ripe!
I was admitted and got in my room and eventually started contracting, but they wanted to try to keep the catheter in for as long as possible so it could do its job, so I layed down to see if they would subsde (and also to see if I could get some rest) and they went away.
My OB came to remove the catheter (( was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced) and break my water at around 9am the next morning. I was put on an Oxytocin drip, but hard, regular contractions didn't start until noon. I muddled through until about 3 when I got an epidural (I found the birthing ball REALLY helpful when I was working through the contractions, along with some lower back massage by DH). The epidural I had last time numbed EVERYTHING......while I could push, I couldn't feel when I was having contractions. This time, I was stuck at 4-5 cm dilated for awhile and it didn't look like I was progressing....I rested for an hour and a half and by 10pm I was feeling pressure. No pain, just PRESSURE. My nurse checked me and I was 10 cm!!
I waited for an hour - to rest and so they could get everything ready - and then it was time to start pushing. Because I could feel when I needed to push, I found this part so much easier than last time.....in half an hour, the baby's head was crowning and they were calling the OB in.....
It was then that our stubborn baby FINALLY had to show us that he was BOY!!!! GIl David was born at 11:47pm on Wednesday, January 27, 2010, weighing 6lbs, 11ozs and measuring 20.5 inches long. He came out wailing (our older son hadn't.....he'd actually scared us by not crying right away, so after that and the concerning biophysical profile results, we were SO relieved to hear his little lungs working!!)
He's a healthy, sweet little boy. Despite the unexpected admittance to the hospital on Tuesday and the worry over whether he was doing ok in there or not in the end, it all turned out wonderfully and we are so happy to have our newest little boy home :-) We were kept in the hospital for 36 hours because his birth weight was on the low side for his gestational age, but his blood sugar levels were perfect every time they checked. Breastfeeding is going great, too!