She is almost three weeks old now. Delivery was honestly the best experience, especially in comparison to my first. Everything went so incredibly smooth. I absolutely loved the hospital and would probably have 100 babies if I could have all of them at California Pacific Medical Center. Although induction is quite convenient, I loved the experience of going into labor on my own.
Mostly for myself:
Thursday morning I woke up feeling nauseous and did not want to leave the house. However, I forced myself to do the stairs on Lyon street with friends because I figured that would make me feel better. I finished the stairs and took McKay to playgroup at the park by our house. I was getting contractions, but had been contracting consistently for the previous week, especially after exercising. My doctor called while I was at playgroup because she wanted to schedule an induction the following week. I really did not want to be induced, but my doctor felt like I should if I did not go into labor on my own that week. I said a little prayer that I could go into labor on my own. Friends started trickling out of the park because it was time for lunch and naps. I couldn't get myself to get up. I was hurting, but finally lugged my child from the park and headed back to our apartment. I hurt all afternoon, and started to feel done with pregnancy. It sounds weird, but I actually enjoyed pregnancy pretty much up to this point. Bryan kept pushing me to get induced earlier and was really anxious for the baby to come. Of course I wanted to meet her, but up until this point I was comfortable pregnant and knew she was growing and doing just fine for the time being. I was also slightly terrified of taking care of two kids. I had contractions inconsistently until about 6 pm. Then, I did not really have any pain and had a random spurt of energy. I danced with McKay and intensely cleaned for about an hour. Then Bryan got home at 7 and we had dinner and put McKay to sleep. Sometime in that time period contractions started coming on stronger. I started timing them after McKay went to bed and they were every 5 minutes. I did not want to wake up my neighbors at 2 am, so we decided to go in at about 1030. I was dilated to a 4/5 and contracting every 3 minutes so they admitted me. I squeezed Bryan's hand when the contractions came and watched Downton Abbey online in between for the first hour or two. Then I was seriously in the shower for like an hour and a half. It was amazing and helped my back so much. The contractions got worse and I got an epidural. The epidural was wonderful and worked completely on both sides, which did not happen with McKay. We finally slept for a few hours, then the nurse checked me and I was ready to deliver. I pushed for three contractions and Jane was born! It was such a relief to know she was healthy. I couldn't believe she was as big as McKay was, since everyone thought she would be a small baby. We all love her so much and are so grateful she has joined our little family.
