I waited to call the doctor, for about an hour and a half as they weren't really painful yet. I finally called the doctor at about 5:45pm and he said I should go in a get checked out. In the meantime, my Mom came over to care for Jack while we were gone. We left for the hospital at 6pm and wondered, "Is this really it?" or was this just another Braxton Hicks fakeout? The last thing I wanted was to be sent home!
We arrived at the hospital, got checked in and sure enough, I was in real labor and dialated to a 3 cm. I got an IV and shortly was dialated to a 4 and I was able to get an epidural. Shortly after the epidural started to kick in the doctor came in a broke my water as it wasn't going to on its own. Then things started to slow down, so they gave me a drug called Pitocin to speed up the contractions. After this, things started to speed up. I quickly went from 6cm dialated to 9 and the baby was starting to make some big moves. During this time contractions and pressure really started to get strong and painful so they upped my epidural dosage to a stronger medicine. Pretty soon I was dialated to a 10 and ready to push.
The doctor came in again and I was asked to push 3 times after each contraction. I did this about 4-5 times and there Henry came! It was a wonderful moment and almost surreal as it was so much more relaxing than Jack's birth-even though it was 3 hours longer! They placed him on my chest and I knew we had another little one to love. What a wonderful thing it is to be a parent!
Henry and his proud "Big Brother" Jack
