Reagan Porter is here! My birth story!

On Monday August 8th I had my 39 week appt. We had planned inducing at 39 weeks since we lived somewhat far from the hospital and my history of rapid labors. Well my cervix wasn't really changing so on Monday the 8th we were finding out if I'd be induced the next day or not. Josh's parents had come down that day so that they were already here for the induction to watch the kids. Well I go to my appointment and my cervix was still at a tight 1cm and still very high that he couldn't even strip my membranes so he canceled the induction and rescheduled it for the following Tuesday. I was crushed. My cervix had never changed prior to inductions and I never had an issue being induced but I understood where he was coming from. Josh's mom decided she'd still go ahead and stay the night since she hadn't seen the kids in a few weeks and already had her overnight stuff with her.

Over night I had woken up several times with gas like pains. At first I thought it was just gas pains but then I realized they weren't constant and were coming and going. I still figured it was braxton hicks since I had gas cramps like this prior but they never did anything. Around 4:30am they got even stronger and were about 15 minutes apart. They were uncomfortable enough that there was no way I could go back to sleep so I just laid there. We got out of bed around 6am and I went to the bathroom and there was pink when I wiped. I never experienced that before. Josh started getting ready for his appt at 8:30. They were intensifying but still very far apart. I decided to just walk laps around the house and bounce on my ball to see if they did anything. I was still really convinced it was nothing since I had never gone into labor by myself with any of my other kids. Josh was hesitant to keep his doctors appointment but since they were still not getting any closer together I assured him it would be okay for him to go ahead and go to the appointment. Weeks before, my doctor advised me that if at any point I had labor signs to call and come get checked in office or l&d since my labors go quick so I decided to give the office a call. I left a message and decided to take a shower. As I was getting out, the nurse called and said to come in immediately so they could check me so I called Josh and told him to come back home (I felt bad because he drove all the way to the doctor at this point). So he came home and picked me and we headed to the obgyn's office. On the way there I only had like one contraction and just thought I was about to look like a fool since they're going away and getting even farther apart. So I get there and had 2 more. The dr checked me and I was still 1cm but baby was lower and now a loose 1cm instead of a tight 1cm like I was the day before. The doctor said that he wanted me to head over the L&D to be monitored because the way my face looked during one of the contractions made him think that this could be the real deal. So we head to L&D but decide to stop and get something to eat first. The contractions were getting even more intense but still like 10-20 minutes apart. I get to L&D and get checked and am 3cm but the midwife on call said that she wanted to monitor me for a while before saying I was for sure in labor and admitting me. So I walked around the room and bounced on a ball for an hour. She checks me again and I'm still 3cm but 50% and a lot lower at 12:10pm. She didn't like the change but could tell that I really did not want to be sent home so she said she'd check me again in 45 minutes and if I hadn't progressed then they'd likely send me home. At 1:45 she checked me again and thank goodness, I was 4cm so they admitted me. She said that they'd break my water but we agreed that I should get the epidural first since I would likely go VERY fast after they did. The contractions were so painful at this point. I couldn't walk or talk through them. I had to wait for bloodwork to come back before they'd give me the epidural but the nurse gave me something else in my IV to help with the pain in the meantime. It made me feel so loopy. Around 2:45 I got the epidural and it felt amazing! haha. As soon as the epidural kicked in my contractions immediately got closer together and were about 1-2 minutes apart. I was so drowsy I could hardly keep my eyes open. At 4:25 the midwife checked me and I was 6/7cm dilated and she broke my water. I immediately started feeling more pressure so she checked me again at 4:38 and I was 8/9cm so they started getting ready for me to push. Within a few minutes I was 10cm and I pushed twice through one contraction and he was born at 4:48pm. The midwife even let me help pull him out once his head, shoulders, and arms were out. I got to do the same with Bentley but this was a much better experience since I wasn't in a ton of pain.  He was born with a true knot in his cord and it was wrapped once around his neck.   He was blue and very quiet. It scared me to death. He was my only baby that looked like that but the nurses kept assuring me that he was alright. After a few minutes (felt like forever) he started crying. I could immediately tell that he was smaller than Bentley but we did skin to skin for a while and he immediately latched and nursed for 45 minutes. Once he was done Josh held him and we realized that he had pooped all over me while he was nursing haha. He then went over to get wiped down and weighed/measured. He was 7lbs 11oz and 21.25" long.