TaylorMade: Pippa is here!

Welcome to the World Philomena Luetta Taylor

None of my babies have been born in similar ways, so the 4th was all new too. And I think it was my favorite!

I had been holding steady at about 4 cm for a few weeks, but I made sure to schedule to be induced as soon as they would let me. Baby girl's due date was Halloween but they went ahead and scheduled me for Monday October 24th and I was praying everyday that we'd make it until then. I was a little anxious about what we'd do with 3 other kids who needed to be various places at different times throughout the week so being able to have the sitter all lined up was my ideal. And we made it! So 6am on Monday morning had us driving mostly the speed limit to the hospital (all new!) and I was even able to talk coherently to the check-in person. Everything was super chill and after getting all set up in our delivery room the nurse said "You know, I had to check twice because I didn't believe it, but you are actually 6cm dilated which means you are technically in active labor. Are you sure you don't feel anything?"

No.

So we decided to wait on the pitocin and see if just breaking my water would get things moving on their own...but first we had to wait for the shift change for my doctors so that last night's on call doc could sleep in (insert eye-roll). So we sat around and watched HGTV marathons (HUGE eye roll). Somewhere in the waiting I did get an epidural because they knew as soon as my water broke I was going to need some drugs. That's quite a different experience when you aren't in super painful labor. Of course we had the nursing student in there so the anesthesiologist wanted to explain what she was doing as she was doing it. Ack. I was ok with the mild pain, but I really didn't want to hear all about the giant needle and the layers of spine it was poking through and I was getting anxious. Apparently I wasn't the only one because the delivery nurse looks at me and says "Is he going to be ok?" nodding at Phillip. I'm the one with the 6 inch glass needle ("It needs to be tactile so I can feel when I'm in the correct layer" Please stop talking!!) in my back and Phillip has to go sit down because the explanation was making him light headed. Well. We all made it through and remained conscious.

One thing similar to Watson's birth: the hospital was busy and there was no one available to break my water. So they sent a lower-level guy and he couldn't manage it. More waiting. OK, finally the pitocin because I'm done with the waiting and the nurse could give that to me right away. Not long after a higher-level hospital doctor comes in to break my water and manages just fine. More comments about "7cm! Are you telling me you would've just been walking around at home for the next week 7 cm dilated?" And then things start moving along. My doc finally decides to make an appearance and says he's going to check on another patient but he'll be back to check my progress in 20 minutes. Yay more waiting! But when he came back in the promised 20, things got exciting. Before he's quite ready he says "Let's check your progress" but the nurse says "I don't think you need to check...there's her head." He runs to change clothes and comes back quick so that Phillip makes a superman joke or something. I laugh and what do you know. She about comes out. So they all freak and say "Don't laugh!" while the doc frantically pulls his gloves on. Of course that makes me giggle and there we go. Head's out. Doctor sits down and arranges things, and then delivery is over. Best.labor.ever.

I couldn't get over how tiny she seemed. I couldn't tell if she looked itty bitty because I was used to giant toddler Maris or if she really was smaller than my past babies.