Happy Birthday Little Girl!

On Tuesday the 22nd, we welcomed our little girl, Juliana McKinley, into the world at 10:57am (at a measly 6 lb 11 oz!). What a wonderful experience it was! I had a relatively easy labor and delivery with Tyler and thought I wouldn't get off so easy this time, but I was lucky yet again.

I had my last day of work the Wednesday before baby was born because I was so mentally exhausted and the commute to Harrisonburg and back was killing my back. My due date on Friday came and went with no baby and I was super frustrated. Tyler was 6 days early so I was expecting this princess to enter the world early as well, but no luck. So on Monday, 3 days past D-day, I went in for my 40 week appointment and saw Marty, the midwife who delivered Tyler. She knew I was anxious to have baby here, but I didn't want to plan for induction at all. I know pitocen (the drug used to induce labor) causes very painful contractions and I didn't want to deal with that while trying for another natural delivery. We planned to have a non-stress test (where they monitor baby's heart rate) and an ultrasound (to check amniotic fluid level) on Friday to ensure I could safely continue to carry baby, and to set an induction date that day as well. She told me we could plan for 42 weeks (which would be the following Friday) so hopefully baby would have plenty of time to show on her own before then.

Well, she did. That day I cramped all afternoon and at midnight I started to have contractions. They were about 8 minutes apart and not terrible, so I waited awhile to see if it was the real deal. I couldn't sleep and decided to clean around the house and shower and they picked up in frequency and intensity. In fact, I had to get on my hands and knees in the shower to deal with the pain (although it really wasn't as bad as labor gets... maybe a 7/10). Well Tyler woke up coughing (he's been fighting a cold) so I laid with him for a bit and my contractions slowed down but continued to be intense. Once Jordon and I realized Tyler wasn't going back to sleep and my contractions weren't stopping, we decided to take Tyler to Grammie and Da's and slowly make our way to the hospital. By 6:30am we were checking into labor and delivery.

My contractions kept spacing out when I'd lay down, to about one every 8 minutes, but when I was up and about they were about 5 minutes apart. I was nervous that they'd send me home once we got there because they were so far apart when they were monitoring me, but they checked my cervix and I was 6-7 cm dilated, so it was go time! They were going to break my water to speed things up (with Tyler I didn't dilate past 7cm until they broke my water), but Marty was coming on at 8am, so I told them to hold out until she got there so she could deliver. I walked around a bit, used the birthing ball and labored until Marty got on. She offered to break my water and I chickened out because I knew the pain would get so much worse so she told me to walk around a bit more and then we'd check back in a little while.

So we walked the halls and I had some pretty bad contractions, but they really weren't coming any closer than 4-5 minutes apart and then would space out anytime they had me in the bed to monitor me. I finally decided I was ready to celebrate my daughter's birthday, so I asked Marty to break my water. Before she did, she checked and I was 8-9 cm (much to my surprise!) so I knew we wouldn't have to wait long. Marty stayed and helped me labor through contractions in bed for about 20 minutes after they broke my water, and then we decided I should get in the jacuzzi tub to labor more since the contractions were definitely more intense.

I got in the tub and it was wonderful. They told me I could stay in 20 minutes, they'd check the baby's HR, and then if I wanted to stay in another jet cycle, I could stay in 20 more minutes. Well after 18 minutes I felt something drop/pop/ or lock (I really don't know how to describe it), but after that moment I was in a lot of pain and had an intense urge to push. I yelled at Jordon to get someone, and the nurses rushed in to get me to the bed and ran to get Marty. It was time to push and at first I was terrified (because I remembered how much it hurt and I really didn't want to tear) and exhausted from not sleeping at all, so my push attempt was so weak haha. But once I put my mind to it, I was able to push her out in ten minutes. Much easier than my 1+ hour of pushing with Tyler! And no tearing (thank goodness!). We had a little scare because baby's heart rate did start to decelerate and her cord was wrapped around her neck, but my midwife is amazing and handled the situation so well I didn't know until after I delivered that anything had been wrong. I was able to pull her out once her shoulders were delivered (just as I did with Tyler) and hold her for about 40 minutes after she was born before they even took her to weigh her. It was an amazing and really peaceful experience. Definitely easier than my last labor, and I feel like I can't even brag about going natural again because God blessed me with such a relatively easy experience. I saw one nurse in the hallway the next day and she said "Oh you're the natural laborer! You were cool as a cucumber at 7cm!" I wanted to say, "it really wasn't that bad!", but I appreciated the credit haha. Maybe I just have the world's highest pain tolerance or determination. Either way, I'm just happy to have a healthy baby girl now.

We are all at home now and getting used to our family of four. Tyler absolutely adores his sister. The first thing he said when he saw her picture was "she's tiny" and when he met her for the first time he pointed to all her features and said "her eyes... her nose... her mouth..." haha! And while holding her at home the other day he looked up at Jordon and said "I'm happy." It was the sweetest thing. It is definitely harder bringing baby home when you have a toddler, but we are all adjusting and working on balance now.