It has been one week (to the hour) since my Pitocin drip was started and we anxiously awaited the arrival of our third child. I was a bit incredulous that I hadn’t begun labor naturally since my other girls were very punctual. Although I would have rather let my body do its own thing (and absolutely abhor Pitocin), I was tired of my large, obtrusive belly and the lack of sleep due to pregnancy insomnia and a baby squeezing my bladder all night.
We arrived at our 8am appointment and got settled into the same room where I delivered Juliet – the big corner tub room. After getting all checked in (already at 3cm!) and IV’s started, I spent the next 4 hours in the tub with minor contractions. I honestly thought there was no way I would have the baby while the sun was still up. At 12:40, Ryan left to get some food and immediately after he left, the nurses noticed the baby’s heart rate dropping so they had me lie down in the bed. It was confusing at the time, but now we know it was because the baby was descending very quickly.
Ryan got back around 1pm and shortly after, my contractions went from mild to almost unbearable. Around 2pm, I paged the nurses’ station for some assistance and was met with the remark that my contractions weren’t too close and they would send the doctor in to check in a bit. When they did arrive, they checked and I was at a 9.5. They made note and said they would be back soon. A couple huge contractions later, they rushed back in and began prepping for delivery. They called the doctor who was a couple rooms down, but the resident took over when he saw that I was not waiting. He broke my water (I almost protested to try for an ‘en caul’ birth, but just wanted the baby out).
3 intense, painful pushes later (waiting for those contractions while baby is right THERE is so miserable) while complaining to Ryan that “this SUCKS!”, our beautiful Cora Peace came into the world. She came so quickly through the birth canal that she still had fluid in her lungs and nasal cavities, so they had to work her over a little before we finally heard her cry and get to hold her. She spent the next couple days with the cutest little snorts because of the inflammation. My doctor arrived minutes after her arrival and couldn’t believe it went too fast for him to walk over.
What no one talks about concerning birth is the fact that anything regarding the uterus after delivery is extremely painful. The uterus has to contract afterwards to stop bleeding (oxytocin from nursing does this), and mine wasn’t. The doctor called it a lazy uterus and ended up shooting pitocin right into it and aggressively “massaging” my stomach. I say massage, but it felt more like abuse. Thankfully, after about 30 minutes of working on it, they were able to stop the bleeding and I was able to begin recovery. The only consolation of going through all that is being able to hold my baby in my arms.
The girls are in love with their new sister and Maggie asks to hold her all the time. She is truly the best newborn we’ve had yet. She surpassed her birth weight within one week, is sleeping 4-5 hour stretches, and is a content baby. We debated on her name for months, even making spreadsheets and ranking our favorites. Cora means “maiden” and I fell in love with the gentle, antique sound of it. All of our children’s middle names are qualities of God and Peace rounded out our three perfectly. We are completely smitten with our new sweetheart and can’t believe we are now a family of five.
