London's Birth Day

After my appointment on Wednesday, I emailed my doctor to ask about my fluid level and if I needed to do anything before my appointment the following week. She was on vacation, but gave me a call Thursday saying that she would like me to go in for biweekly non-stress tests, just as a precaution. She asked that I start those the next day, on Friday

Friday morning I went in for my first non-stress test. London was moving a little slowly at first, but responded well once I drank some cold water. After passing the NST, I had an ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid. Apparently it dropped from 8 on Wednesday (which was low-normal) to 3.5!! The nurse told me calmly that we needed to walk over to Labor & Delivery and have a baby! I was totally shocked. Before this week, I hadn't given any thought to amniotic fluid levels, and I was expecting this to be a quick appointment before heading back home to hang out with Brandon & Hudson.

I called Brandon and told him the news – he thought I was joking – and checked in to be induced 3 weeks early! I guess London felt that it was appropriate to be born during all the craziness of the royal wedding in England! Luckily I had just packed my hospital bag and put the carseat in my car the previous day!!

At 10am I started on pitocin. The contractions started, but weren't painful. The nurses kept coming back to check my pain levels, and I kept telling them, "Um, a 3? Really not bad..." and it literally stayed that way for about 15 hours. That entire time I was only dilated to 3 cm. The nurses kept upping my pitocin and even had me take a 1-hour break and start again. I was getting really frustrated to hear that I wasn't making any progress.

At 3am (Saturday), the midwife came in and broke my water. Almost immediately, my contractions started getting stronger and stronger, and by 4:30am I was getting my epidural. I got a little sleep after my epidural kicked in, and at 7:30am the midwife came back to check my progress. I was relieved to hear I had dilated to 6 cm.

At 8:30am, I was starting to feel a lot of pressure, so I asked that the midwife come back and see what was happening (even though it hadn't been that long... and actually, one nurse tried to tell me I wasn't about to have a baby). The midwife came in and said I was complete: 10 cm, 100% effaced and baby had dropped. (Told you, know-it-all-nurse!) She wanted to wait 30 minutes to see if the baby would drop a little more, and at 9:30am I started pushing.

I felt a lot more this time around that I did with Hudson. In fact, in many ways this labor was opposite from when Hudson was born. Even though I was induced both times, the experience was totally different.

At 10:10am, after 30 minutes of pushing, we met our baby girl! London Lorraine was 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful, with lots of blonde hair! And for being 3 weeks early, she is pretty big and perfectly healthy! We are so blessed.

London Lorraine

6 lb 11 oz

19 inches

4.30.2011