Fiona was born on June 23! The last few weeks were a wild ride followed by a smooth and surprisingly quick labor.
As my June 10 due date came and went, I started stressing because I didn’t want to be induced. I did EVERYTHING to try to bring on spontaneous labor. Curb walking, eating dates, raspberry leaf tea, sex, pumping, massage, acupuncture, hypnosis tracks, pelvic steaming – at one point I was even hoping the full moon might do it!
We finally decided to schedule an induction at 41 weeks +4, on Friday, June 21. We packed up the car and were about to head to our main hospital, when we got a call saying they were too full and wouldn’t be able to admit us. They rescheduled our induction for Saturday at a different hospital. I was really resistant to giving birth in a hospital I’d never been to, with midwives I’d never met, but my concerns melted away as soon as we got there. It was such a quiet hospital and as we walked up we were greeted by a group of nurses on break out front, “Good morning! We know who you are!”
They showed us to our room and hooked me up to belly monitors and gave me my first dose of misoprostol. We spent the day getting a dose every four hours, watching Parks & Recreation, knitting, and listening to a Hypnobabies track I’d found called “Come Out Baby.” Around 10 p.m. the midwife offered to start Pitocin or do another dose of miso, I chose the latter and decided to try to get some rest.
Around 1:30 a.m. I woke up with surges coming every 2-3 minutes. The miso had left my system by 2 a.m., and we waited to see if my surges would continue. Then around 5:30 the midwife came and took me off the monitors. I was so excited to get off the monitors and hopeful that my body had taken over and my birth plan was back on track.
Chris and I went for a walk and my water broke in the parking lot. When we got back to our room, I got in the tub and things seemed to go from zero to 60. My surges were suddenly a lot stronger and Chris called our doula, Heidi. It was time for a shift change and I met my new midwife and nurses while I was in the tub. I focused on my surge breathing and we put on my Iron & Wine playlist. When Heidi arrived around 8 a.m., I was already feeling the urge to push with each surge. I got out of the tub and she guided me and Chris through different positions. My surges were still a few minutes apart and Heidi told me to be prepared because they would get closer together as the day went on and I’d no longer have a break in between. But a few minutes later I started feeling the “ring of fire.” Everyone thought it was too soon, but Heidi looked down to see my daughter’s head. The nurse called the midwife and the rest of the nursing team rushed in as Fiona was born at 11:15 a.m.
After being so resistant to induction, we ended up having an amazing experience, and we wouldn’t change a thing. We are so grateful for how everything turned out, and so in love with our little girl!
