And Taylor makes 4!

Per a dear friends request, I'm going to recall my second birthing experience. I'm really glad my friend Lauren thought of this because I had completely forgotten! Maybe this will be the start of future blogging? We'll see! Since I wrote last, Jake has aged to the age of 2 (Almost 3) and can walk, talk, and use an iPhone like an adult! And as of April 21, 2013 he can boast the title Big Brother! A little backstory, we somewhat tried to get pregnant this time around (just like last) but hadn't really timed everything out. We definitely wanted Jake to have a sibling somewhat close to his age. We moved to North Carolina and Dewayne was in and out of schools and going TDY so we did what we could when we could (LOL!) He was in a school in Arizona and we were chatting on the phone when he asked me about my monthly visitor. I have never been good at keeping up with it so I had no clue when to expect Flo but I did recall that it had been a while since she had reared her ugly head. I had a test under the bathroom counter so I humored his requests and took it. That darn thing turned positive. Just recalling the night makes me smile so big! We laughed and chatted about how we couldn't believe we were about to do this again and I ran down the hall to tell my mother-in-law who was asleep in the guest bedroom. We were going to have another little one!! Fast forward a couple of months and I am 100% convinced that I am having another boy. I had the exact amount of nausea I had with Jake and everything felt the EXACT same. We signed up for an elective ultrasound to find out what our second little bean was going to be and I just knew I was going to see another "turtle" on the screen. With Jake, there was no denying his boy parts. The ultrasound tech told us within a minute or so that he was a HE. This time around, the tech took a little longer to scan. "So, I'm having an even more stubborn boy this time huh?" <- that's what I thought to myself. All of the sudden she asks if we're ready, we say yes, of course. "You're having a GIRL!" .....huh??? I was so convinced she was a boy I called the ultrasound lady back a couple weeks later and she rescanned me for free!! Still a girl! I said, well let the bow buying commence! By this point, I had swapped to Fayetteville Women's Care and started seeing Dr.Davis (well you get to see all the Dr's so that you know one of them will be delivering your baby no matter what.) I did this because I wanted to know who would deliver me and I wanted to deliver at Cape Fear Valley, where my mother-in-law works in the Postpartum unit. I was so happy with this choice. Their office was fantastic! Now lets zoom ahead to about week 38. I'm trilled because I'm 1 maybe 1 1/2 cm dilated and I'm sure I'll go into labor before my due date. Please please please!!! 39, no change. 40, no change but I get my membranes swept but it doesn't work. At this appointment they discussed inducing at 41 weeks and gave me the instructions on what to do. I was to call L&D that Sunday, April 21st, and make sure there was room for an induction. I was like yeah yeah yeah, I'm going to go into labor and won't need this info. (Dr. Miner was going to be on-call that day and I really wanted Dr. Davis to deliver me) Saturday night, me and D got all of our stuff together to go to the hospital the next morning...lol! Taylor Reece was dead set on staying in there. At this point, my dad and niece were in town and my mother-in-law had taken off of work. Dad was going to sit with Jake until I was close to delivering and then bring Jake out and my mother-in-law was going to be in the room while I delivered just like with J. A brief sidenote: I was deathly afraid of being induced. I did not want pitocin because my sister had scared me by saying it gave her the worst contractions she'd ever had and I absolutely DID NOT want a c-section. I'd already given birth once and had that area a mess, I didn't want a scar as well. Sunday I get up extra early and call up to the hospital (I was supposed to wait until 7 AM and I think I called closer to 5 AM) and they were wide open and told me to come on out. We gave Jake a kiss, put our bags in the car, and headed to the hospital. They told me to go ahead and eat a light breakfast so we dashed into Dunkin Donuts and grabbed a bagel and a sprite. I was incredibly nervous. This seemed too scheduled and unreal! We parked, did some initial paperwork and then got placed in room 5. Our nurse, Jessica K. (or JK, lol) came in and introduced herself. She gave me my gown and did some general Q&A. I explained to her the horror story of my 5 sticks while getting my last IV and she assured me that wouldn't happen again. She was right, the IV gal tried and couldn't get my vein so she took over and in one stick they got it in there. It took a little while (and I got lightheaded) but they got it. We discussed that I wanted an epidural and that I was afraid of having a section. They hooked me and T up to monitored and hung the pitocin (EEK!) I started feeling some contractions but nothing terrible. They checked me and I was at a 2 I think? I was told that whenever I'm ready I could have my epidural, but it was ideal to wait until I was making steady progress so that it wouldn't slow me down. I got into a really good contraction pattern and JK joked that she barely had to wave the pitocin under my nose and my uterus took it from there! Marilyn said I had the best contractions on the board compared to the other laboring patients, lol, yes that is a point of pride! So I labored somewhat comfortably until around 11:30 and Dewayne and Marilyn went to the cafeteria to get some lunch. At this point, my thought was that this was going to take a while. I wasn't even hurting yet and I was in such pain with Jake. Wouldn't you know it, while they were gone and I'm by myself, Dr. Miner and JK came in and said "Welp we're ready to break your water!" ...hmm?? Dr. Miner explained how he would break my water with this little crochet looking hook and I should start changing more rapidly and in turn my pain would be kicked up a notch. Ah hahhh, this is when I was going to feel that pain. He broke my water and it was clear (yay!) and I told him I'd like to go ahead and start working toward getting my epidural. (I think I was a 4 at this point) D and Marilyn came back and D apologized over and over for being gone while that was going on. Lol it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it was going to be. So not too much longer, the CRNA came in and explained how the epidural was going to go and asked Marilyn and D to step out of the room. Let me stop right here, my husband is a man set in his ways. He was in the room while I got my epidural with J and was determined to be in the room while I got this one. However, their policy said otherwise and Dewayne made a slight scene over being asked to step out. lol! I was a little embarrassed but it was also sweet at the same time that he wanted to make sure we were alright. When D stepped out, the CRNA joking asked how Dewayne leaves for work in the morning if he can't be away from us that long. JERK! I didn't say anything thought because he had the drugs and at this point I had been in hardly any pain and I really wanted to keep it that way. This is all happening around 1:30 PM. Epidural went smoothly and the slight pain I was feeling was totally gone. About an hour later, my dad couldn't wait any longer and he, Kylan, and Jake all headed out to the hospital. I was a little worried at first because Jake is a lot to handle but I'm glad he did go ahead and come out because a lot happened in the next 2 hours. (I've always thought Dad had mothers intuition over me and this proved it) Around 3:15 PM, Dr. Miner said my contractions weren't showing up properly so he inserted an internal monitor just to make sure I'm still progressing. At about 4PM I started having pain that was making me cry. I was close to 7 cms and they called the CRNA back in to give me a boost on my epidural. Unlike with Jake, these boosts did take the edge off but with each contraction I knew I was getting closer and closer. I didn't know how close! Recap: I was 7 cms at 4 and I had Taylor at 4:57. I changed 3 cms in less that one hour. I felt it too!! My nurse never left my bedside and at one point she said "I know I just checked you but the way your acting makes me think your fully dilated" And I was :) I think I started pushing at about 4:45PM and this time it wasn't chaotic like with J. The room was very calm. I was somewhat calm and very determined. I requested the mirror this time so I could see my progress. (I thought I wouldn't want to see but it's not as gross as you'd think.) With each and every push I made progress. At one point, I heard Marilyn go UHHHHHHH!!! The doctor wasn't in his gown yet and I wasn't pushing but Taylor was coming on out on her own! lol! I had expressed to Dr. Miner that I wanted to have skin-to-skin time with Taylor for as long as possible because I failed to breastfeed Jake and I was determined to breastfeed my little dumplin! When she was born, she was placed directly on my bare chest and stomach. My baby girl!!! She was absolutely gorgeous and looked identical to her brother! I was sure she was going to be tiny, the Dr even guessed less than 7 lbs. But there she was, 20.5 inches (same as Jake) and 7 lbs 14 ounces (2 ounces more than J.)Dewayne cut the cord and they placed a blanket on top of Taylor and there we laid. Bonding, snuggling, and trying to nurse. It was so great! We had some difficulties getting latched but I took a deep breath, listened to my wonderful nurse (who stilled nursed her baby and had nursed 3 babies prior,) and stuck with it. After about an hour, Dewayne went and got Jake so we could introduce the new siblings! Taylor had so graciously gotten Jake a big brother gift of a huge Tonka Front-end Loader. He loved it and has taken on the role of big brother just like he'd always been one! He loves baby sister and shows no jealousy! I say this a lot but I'm not sure why God has chosen us to be the parents of such wonderful children, but I'm glad He did! Taylor and I are still going strong with nursing, maybe that journey will be my next blog post. I think I'll also post about her heart woes. But until then, I'm out!