Aiden's Birth Story

*On Wednesday the 30th, I had my 39 week prenatal checkup. Dr swept my membranes and scheduled my induction for Monday 4/4. Aiden had been measuring big for March 31st since his 20 week ultrasound, guess he knew when his birthday was going to be but none of us did! Dr said her record is 50% of women go into labor with 48 hours, so while it was a little uncomfortable after the procedure I still thought nothing was going to happen for me this week as it didn't work with the girls. So, I went home but then started cramping a couple hours later. Just thought it was from the procedure. However, I was up all night cramping at least every 45 mins or so. - * Starting about 7 am on the 31st, I was having semi-painful contractions every 15 minutes. At about 9 they turned pretty painful, but I still wasn't sure if it was just discomfort or what as they weren't getting any closer together. I still had daycare kids and just warned their moms that I might have early pickup that day... was to be my last day before a couple weeks off. I lost my mucus plug in the a.m. sometime. Nasty. Suddenly at about 1:30pm, my contractions went down to 10 mins then 7 mins immediately and were very painful. I called Ben, Grandmas & Grandpas, and daycare moms. They all came pretty quickly and my contractions were then 5-6 mins apart. - * We checked into the hospital about 4:30 and got up into our room by 5:00, I was checked and 4cm contracting every 2-3 mins painfully so requested my epidural. I got my epidural by 5:45 thankfully :) Although I could still feel the contractions way more than any epidural I've had before, it just relaxed me enough to progress more quickly. I was 5cm at 6:00 and 6cm by 6:30. Dr decided to give me the minimum dose of pitocin then to speed things up.. the nurse was wondering how fast she wanted this to go as it was already going pretty quickly. I was checked again at 7pm and was 8cm... then the shakes started. I wasn't cold, just hormones mixed with the epidural and meds. It wasn't too bad, just annoying. I was feeling the contractions pretty thoroughly again by now so we pushed the epidural button again. It didn't really do anything more for me but still took the edge off a bit. - * I started pushing at 7:15 and could feel every push and baby in the birth canal.. and on top of that my legs and body were still extremely heavy from the epidural and I still had the shakes. It was a rough 15 minutes and I was just about wondering how in the world I would get out "just one more push" but Aiden James was born at 7:31pm weighing 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. He was pretty purple upon arrival as he had the cord wrapped all over him. He pinked up fast though. He looked huge compared to his sisters, of course he is way bigger then they were at about 6.5 lbs each.. but now he looks so tiny :) - * I had some lightheadedness after labor for awhile so had to lay flat. We wanted to feed him and get his bath before the girls could come and meet him, but it proved a little difficult to try to nurse the first time laying down when half my body was still super heavy. So, we waited through his bath and I could sit up anyway. I itched everywhere but couldn't shower due to the lightheadedness. Finally by midnight I got to take my IV out, they wanted it in there for safety reasons until then since the first time I tried getting up my blood pressure dropped super low and I had to lay down again. Now, we're both doing well and have had no other complications! Just a little sore at the epidural site and normal delivery discomforts. We are all in love with Aiden and so glad he decided to come in his own time even a little bit early :) He's the perfect addition to our family!