Luna Opal's Birth Story

Luna Opal is three weeks old today. She celebrated by partying all night long and therefore I am sustaining myself with a laaaarge mug of coffee and that led me to think that I would share with you some of her birth story before sleep deprivation takes away the entire memory...


I scheduled an induction for September 18th, a Sunday. My previous two births were both inductions due to being overdue and I felt comfortable going through the experience again since I never seem to experience Braxton-Hicks or false labor (I had about two hours of contractions the previous Thursday before induction day with this pregnancy, but they tapered off after eating).

Another reason I chose induction was so my dad could be here to watch the boys and meet Luna when we came home from the hospital instead of in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico for work. This worked out very well, although he was really tired after that much time with the boys!

Okay, so we went in on Sunday morning at 10am. After an hour of all the questions in the world, they checked my cervix, which ended up being an absolutely horrible experience. I thought I knew what to expect since this wasn't my first time having a child, but apparently my cervix was tilted towards the back and so the check was INCREDIBLY painful. I ended up forgiving the nurse because she was very sweet and gentle in all other regards, but this was a discouraging note to start off on. I was only dilated to a one and then the whole tilting nonsense...but at least I was thinned out! Then the time came to start the Cytotech.

Four hours later (I think) I endured another painful cervical check only to discover that not much had changed. These checks were so painful that I was biting my own hand to stop from screaming. I didn't think the Cytotech would change much, as that stuff usually does nothing for me. The doctor on call ordered the Pitocin. After this point, my whole concept of time went out the window, as is usually the case in my birth experiences. At some point, Mike compiled this lovely chart of our family (and the nurse's) guesses on birth time and weight:

My doctor didn't come on call until 7pm, but at the rate things were going she would definitely be there by the time I delivered the baby. She came around 7:30pm I believe to check on me again and I went through the last painful cervical check. She told me I was at 3cm and asked me if I wanted her to break my water. I was hesitant because I like to wait until 4 or 5 cm to do it because I lack confidence that I'll continue to progress and the last thing on Earth I want to undergo is a C-section, but for some reason I felt okay saying "yes" this time. She broke my water and said she'd be back later...

I did what I always do after my water breaks and just giggled. It's the weirdest thing. Soon I wasn't laughing any more though as the contractions picked up. I ordered an epidural at some point because it was coming up on the 24 hours mark of me being awake and not eating, so I was getting tired. The man who gave it to me this time inserted the first try wrong. This was also painful and I thought Mike was going to scream at someone for hurting me because he was very upset by how much pain I was being put through while they had to go through the whole process again. Truthfully, it really hurt a lot, but since I knew that in the end I would be feeling much more comfortable, I didn't mind the whole debacle as much as those horrible cervical checks.

As hoped, I soon could barely feel my legs and felt very relaxed. I asked Mike if he would read to me while I rested my eyes. This was my favorite part of my whole labor. I half-listened to Mike reading me a mystery novel while the other half of my brain was occupied with visualizing the birth and encouraging myself for what I hoped would come next.

After an hour my doctor came back to check on me. I told her to go for it as far as checking me went because now that I was numb I wasn't scared. Surprisingly, her assessment was that I was fully dialated! In just an hour! I was ecstatic and no longer questioning that any of my choices were wrong.

I felt that they got me ready to push super quickly after that. I didn't feel the same pressure to push that I did when Otto was born, but I knew I had done this before and well, so I followed instructions and started pushing & practicing breathing from some place deep within myself. I must also add, this doctor is the same one who delivered both my boys and I am very comfortable with her, so that helps a lot too.

It always seems to go so fast compared to the first birth where the pushing took near two hours...Otto was a little quicker at about 5 minutes of pushing...Luna took between 7 and 10. We were all laughing as she was born, because it was going to be very close as to when her birth day would be...Sunday or Monday? She picked to come at exactly 12 am--which means I won the guess for her time of arrival :)

It takes forever now for you to find out the baby's weight and all that. I was really concerned about getting her to eat right away, but when she did, she did just fine. We did about an hour of skin-to-skin before they cleaned her up a little bit. I was surprised to find out that she was my largest baby yet! 7lbs, 12 oz and 20 inches (for comparison, Orion was 7lb 9oz and Otto was 6lb 8oz).

Since she was born on Monday we had to stay an extra full day in the hospital so she could be looked after & have all the appropriate tests and what not done. That part of having babies is always stressful, but we came home on Tuesday around noon.



The brothers love her and always want to be near her and she is a pretty easy baby. She has a tiny bit of reflux and we are still having an occasional night where not much sleep happens, but I think it is normal for her age. I'm holding her a lot and taking it slow on getting things done around here because not much else is as enjoyable as holding a new baby. A lot of discussion goes on about who she looks like and I'm leaning towards Otto.

Luna

(almost three weeks old)

Baby Otto 

(two weeks old I think?)

We are so happy she is here and healthy! Thanks to everyone who has wished us well, sent cards, gifts, food, etc. We are blessed to have you share in our joy. I will try to get back to writing here soon...Life is really weird right now and sleep for me comes first on the "free time" activity list!