Delivering my Second Child, Part 1

On June 5th 2012 a new little blessing entered into our lives. I've decided that I'd better write down her birth story before any more time passes and I forget too many details. ;-)

Before I can start on the birth story itself, I need to back up and give a little background information.  First off, this baby's due date was actually June 20th!  When I went in for my regular pre-natal check up in the beginning of May I found out that the 1 hour glucose test I had taken last time had come back elevated so I needed to take the 3 hour test.  This was quite a surprise considering that I hadn't gained very much weight this time and didn't have an problems relating to gestational diabetes.  So I took the 3 hour test and it too, came back elevated, though just barely.  And I got the unhappy diagnosis of gestational diabetes.  It still doesn't make any sense to me, especially since my baby wasn't growing super big.

Me at 37 weeks

Later, when I went in the day after making it to 37 weeks, we found out that I needed to have special ultrasounds done to keep track of the baby's weight and growth because of the diabetes.  Usually the midwives would do them twice a week at their office, but since we live so far away from them, the one I was seeing decided that I would only need to get it done once a week if I went to the hospital right then and had a more extensive ultrasound done.  Even though it was late in the day, she called over and was able to get me in before closing time.  After the ultrasound was done, I needed to head back to the midwife office to pick up my appointment card for the next 2 visits plus ultrasound times.  When I got there, the midwife wanted to talk to me.  So while Zack kept little miss Angel Cakes outside to play in the grass, I went in to talk to my midwife once again.

Turns out that the ultrasound showed my baby's abdomen being too small.  About 3 weeks too small.  Very strange considering that the ultrasound I had 3 weeks before showed everything to be perfectly normal.  The reason this could be a problem was that if it was true, then my placenta might not have been working properly.  This would cause all the nourishment that was getting through to go straight to her brain, not to the rest of her body.  The risk was that if the placenta wasn't working right, then it could decide to stop working altogether at any time, meaning we could lose the baby. The midwife had put a call into the OB they all worked under and was waiting to hear back from him.

Long story short, they decided to keep me in the hospital over night to monitor the baby, then give me a second ultrasound in the morning, Friday.  This ultrasound showed the same result as the last one.  Tummy 3 weeks too small.  So it was decided that the safest thing to would be to induce.  Since I was only just barely into my 37th week, and the ultrasound showed that the baby would be fine for up to 4 days, the OB felt it would better to wait until Monday night to begin that induction.  That way the baby would have that much more time for her lungs to mature.

All this was really hard to take in.  I really wanted to have as natural a labor as possible this time around, plus delivering early meant that things weren't quite ready at home for her arrival either.  My main prayer during this time was that the Lord would make me more flexible.

I was told that there were two different types of inducing methods that could be used, an IV drip, or a pill that would dilate my cervix.  The OB preferred the IV drip because if the baby didn't like it, they could turn it off right away, whereas with the pill, once it dissolved, there was no getting it back.

When I got home I asked on a forum that I'm on for some advice for preparing for an induction.  Amongst the replies I discovered the IV drip referred to Pitocin.  Reply after reply told horror stories of Pitocin, and how I would definitely want an epidural.  There where a few ladies who said it was possible to be given Pitocin and deliver without any pain medication, but since I don't have the greatest pain tolerance in the world, I really didn't think it would work for me.

So, Monday arrived, and I got ready to deliver my second daughter...  To read part 2, click here.