Hi friends! Sorry I haven’t had a chance to blog since last week. If you follow us on Instagram, then you might have seen that our little boy was born last Wednesday! It’s been a whirlwind week filled with sleep deprivation, baby + toddler cuddles, and nursing. I always love to hear about other people’s birth stories, so here’s our baby boy’s birth story…
Planning the Induction
When I went to my 40 week prenatal appointment, my OB really wanted to induce sooner rather than later. After a quick cervical check, she let me know that I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. I hoped to go into labor on my own, so we compromised and decided to schedule the induction for 40 weeks + 3 days. She advised that if I started experiencing any painful contractions, then give them a call and head into Labor & Delivery ASAP.
Early Labor
The next morning, I woke up to some pretty painful contractions. I told Ben to hold off on going into work until I had a better idea of whether or not it was “go time.” My contractions picked up in frequency and intensity and were averaging every 2-3 minutes. We decided that I would give my OB a call after we got packed up and ready to go to the hospital. My brother-in-law picked up Finley to have a play date with her cousins for the day while we finished up packing and I took a quick shower. Holy moly, I knew that saying good-bye to our toddler would be super emotional, but I didn’t anticipate how terrible it would be. After some major ugly-crying and saying good-bye, I sat on the couch to call my OB. Well, contractions stopped. False labor is such an emotional roller coaster!
My induction was already scheduled for 5am the following day, so Ben and I were determined to get the show on the road NOW. Plus, I already said my good-byes to our little one and I really didn’t want to repeat the whole process the following morning. We decided to go for a walk to hopefully kick start contractions.
Well, it didn’t work. I felt so discouraged and emotional. I figured that labor wasn’t going to happen naturally, so we headed to my sister’s house to pick up Finley. As we visited with my family at my sister’s house, contractions started to pick back up! Once they progressed to every 5 minutes for about an hour, I gave the OB a call and she advised me to come into the hospital.
Getting to the Hospital…
Of course, contractions decreased in frequency and intensity at the hospital, but at least I progressed to 4 cm and 60% effaced since the prior day. My doctor was hopeful that I could jump start labor on my own, so she let me walk around and bounce on a birthing ball for a few hours. Although I was experiencing some contractions, I wasn’t in active labor, so we decided to start pitocin. I really wanted to avoid pitocin this time around, but birth plans don’t always go as planned 😉
Soon after starting pitocin, my contractions got pretty intense. I decided to get the epidural sooner rather than later. I waited too long for the epidural when I delivered our daughter and it totally backfired. Although it took the edge off, it didn’t fully work and I felt almost everything. Can I just point out how amazing the epidural is when it actually works?!
Labor & Delivery Birth Story
At this point, labor went crazy fast! I received the epidural when I was 4-5cm dilated, and immediately after I progressed to 5-6cm. I was able to get some rest, but we had a bit of a scare with our baby boy. After every contraction, our baby’s heart rate dipped. My nurse let us know that contractions were causing the cord to pinch, so she kept having me switch positions to relieve the pressure. Needless to say, I felt super worried and kept looking at the monitor after every contraction while also trying to get some rest.
I’m so grateful for our amazing L&D nurse. She did a great job of providing updates while still keeping me calm. My doctor came in to break my water at 7-8 cm dilated and 30 minutes later, our little guy was born after about 5 minutes of pushing (thank you epidural!)
Welcome Baby Beckham
6 pounds 13 ounces and 20 inches long – this little guy is perfect in every way 🙂
It’s been an adjustment, but Finley is loving her new big sister status. She loves her little brother and tries holding his hand and giving him lots of hugs. Can I just say that my heart literally melts when I see them together?
Birth Story Questions:
What was your birth story like? Did it go accordingly to your birth plan (does it ever?!)
As a heads up, my blog posts might be a bit all over the place in the next few weeks. I’ll check back in (hopefully this week) for an update on adjusting to life with a newborn, toddler, 2 frenchies, 10 chickens, and 2 goats!