My Labor and Amelia's Delivery

The Story of My Labor and Amelia’s Delivery

April 8, 2010

I was induced 10 days early with this baby. It was elective, and my reasons for doing so are 1. I wanted to have Dr. Benezra deliver my second child and 2. I was over being pregnant. It’s tough being pregnant when you have a toddler at home.
We checked into the hospital at 6:35, we didn’t have to be there until 7 a.m. but we knew we had a better chance of getting a bigger room if we got there early. Again, our neighbor knew we were coming and gave us the third biggest room! It was room 412. She also gave us the BEST nurse, Jane. She was absolutely wonderful.

Dr. Benezra comes into to check me at 7:30 am. He says I need the cervix softener (Misopros) because my cervix was not favorable for birthing a child. He considered having us check in the night before for this to happen, but decided that we should be home with Brooke on her last night as an only child.
The Misopros was inserted at 8:00 am and you must wait 2 hours to see if it did its job. While this happens, you must stay in bed. Chris and I watched “The Blind Side.” At 10:17, Dr. B checks again and my cervix still isn’t ready, so we have another two hour wait. According to my notes, my contractions are increasing, which can happen with the Misopros. The nurse started my penicillin drip at 10:30 because I tested positive for Group B strep.

Dr. B checks me at 12:10 pm and I am finally dilated. It’s only a centimeter, but that is better than nothing! I was able to have some chicken broth and jello, which was wonderful. It’s amazing what tastes good when you haven’t eaten for hours! The pitocin was started at 12:24 p.m. at 6 units. 45 minutes later, it was increased to 12 units. By 2:21 p.m., the pitocin was at 36 units.

We still didn’t have a final name picked for either a girl or boy. I think we were down to three final names for a girl and two for a boy. It’s funny to think we were still indecisive just a couple hours before the birth.

Dr. B came in to check me again at 2:29 p.m., I was 1-2 cm. At this point, he broke my water, luckily the fluid was clear. At 3:15 p.m., the pain was getting pretty bad, but just like my labor with Brooke, I really didn’t want to have an epidural. I asked for Stadol at this time. At 3:16, the pitocin was again increased to 48 units. By 3:18, I was seeing elephants all around the room. They were little tiny elephants and they were mostly situated on Chris’ checkered pattern shirt. I also started getting upset during this time, because I really wanted Brooke to be at the hospital. I didn’t want her in the delivery room, but I wanted her there as soon as the new baby came!

At 3:45 p.m., Dr. Benezra came in and reported everything was going smoothly. He predicted we would have a baby somewhere around 7-8 pm. I was really hoping for much sooner. A few minutes later, Dr. B came back in and did an internal exam, I was dilated 4 cm. He changed his time estimate to 6:15 p.m.

Around 4:30, I asked for more Stadol. The nurse had to check with Dr. Benezra because it had been less than 3 hours in between doses. Dr. Benezra confirmed the dose. As soon as she gave me the Stadol, I knew something was going on. I was in a tremendous amount of pain. The nurse checked me and said I was 9.5 cm. I heard her call Dr. Benezra and say “9 cm, no epidural, ready to have this baby now.” I could barely sit still; I was all over the bed, writhing in pain. Dr. Benezra came in, I pushed for about 8 minutes according to Chris, which was about 4 pushes and our sweet baby came into this world at 4:47 p.m. I was still a bit loopy from the Stadol because I had just gotten the dose immediately before pushing. I thought it took SO long for him to tell us if our baby was a boy or girl, but it was probably just a few seconds. He said girl, and I lit up! I was so happy to have another little girl and a little sister for Brooke. The nurses asked us her name and I said it will be Amelia Lloyd. She scored 9 on both the 1 minute and 5 minute APGAR.
Chris went out to the waiting room to tell our families. This time was different, everybody hadn’t arrived at the hospital yet because we thought we were delivering much later in the day, but I went from 4 cm to 10 cm in less than an hour. I remember answering my cell phone right after I had her. It was my brother, George; I told him the news and told him not to tell anyone because it was just moments before that she arrived in the world. In the waiting room, Chris had a pink and a blue puppy, he held them both up in the air, and again, like with Brooke, he dropped the blue puppy to the ground. He’s hoping that next time, he gets to hang onto the blue puppy, if there is a next time…