SO, this big day arrived. Thursday morning, we all woke up and got ready to go. Cameron had to leave a little earlier than the boys and I so he could get to his surgery. The boys and I loaded up and were at the hospital at 7:30am. It seemed like we were at the front desk forever getting all the paperwork done, but it was probably only about 15 minutes or so. The lady walked us down to labor and delivery and they took the boys and I straight into the room i'd be delivering in. The nurse asked me a few routine questions and then had me change into the hospital gown. When I was in the bathroom, the boys were just wondering around the room while the nurse was setting everything up. She asked Cody a few questions and he was TOTALLY making EVERYTHING up. I could here him tell her he has two sisters and that he has a dog and a few other things. I was just laughing and told her the truth when I came out. I eventually let the boys sit in the big chair next to me and watch a show on my phone while I was getting going and getting into the bed etc. It wasn't too much later that both our friend and Cameron came in the room. They both went out to put the boys' carseats in our friends car and the boys were off. Cameron came back just as my doctor was coming to check on me and get things started. He confirmed that we still wanted to do the induction and then right at about 8am, he gave me the other medicine that he uses(instead of the Pitocin I have always had). At this point I was only dilated to 1cm. From here on out, it was pretty much just a waiting game for the medicine to get things going. My doctor came back at noon, on his lunch break from his office, and checked me again. I was at a 2 at this point and he said he'd go ahead and break my water. I was excited about this because I know with Cody, when my doctor broke my water, that's when things got moving and it went pretty quick after that. Well, my doctor TRIED to break my water. He tried FOUR times while he was there at noon and was never able to! I could't believe it. I had never had that issue or even heard of that being an issue before. I was a little discouraged, but was still thinking there was plenty of time before midnight to give this baby and Grant their own birthdays. My doctor said he would be back after his office hours and would break my water then. A little while after he left, my parents called and said they had picked up the boys from our friends and were going to take them to get some lunch and then come to visit us at the hospital. They got to the hospital around 3:30 and stayed for about 45 minutes before my doctor came back in. We introduced everyone to my doctor and he asked the boys if they wanted a brother or sister. Cody was always wanting a boy, my entire pregnancy and Grant was always wanting a girl and that's what they told him. Grant had somehow come up with the name Stanley a couple months before and I asked him what if it was a girl and he said we could name her Stanalina. He told me doctor this plan and my doctor thought it was the best thing ever. My parents took the boys back to our house and spent the night there with them. Around 4:30, my doctor ATTEMPTED to break my water AGAIN, and AGAIN it didn't work! I could NOT believe it!!! I was dilated to a 3 by then. It was all still happening SO slowly and I was really starting to get a little frustrated and anxious to get things moving. I really had felt no pain and was ready to move things along. My doctor gave me three options at this point. He said I could 1. Do nothing and just keep waiting for the Cytotec to work 2. try a 2nd cytotec pill and see what that would do or 3. start me on an IV of Pitocin. I don't think I hesitated for one second and chose to start the Pitocin. I was convinced that I should have been on it from the beginning and knew that my body had reacted well to it two other times. So we started the "Pit" around 4:30, but the nurse told me that they would have to start it slowly and if they got more patients they might even have to turn it off until someone else delivered since they were short staffed. I was NOT happy to hear that, but didn't think it would actually happen. In fact, my doctor wasn't too happy to hear that either, and kind of told the nurse that she really shouldn't need to do that. so, the piton was started and I could feel it! I know a lot of people hate Pitocin because it kills! My first nurse of the day said she had natural births with her first two kids and with her last, she was put on Pitocin and that it hurt way worse than her natural births. You do have more intense contractions with it, but I LIKE that! I liked that I FINALLY felt like something was happening. I was starting to be in a decent amount of pain around 6:30 when the nurse came in and told me they would have to turn it off because they had someone else coming in to delver! I was highly annoyed and quickly saw any chance of having this baby before midnight slipping away. Luckily, the girl delivered pretty quickly and they came and turned the Pit back on at 7:15. After this I just kept my eye on the clock hoping that I could have the baby before midnight, but unless something picked up really quickly, i knew it wasn't likely. I was in a good amount of pain and trying a few different things like walking and leaning on the bed, or having Cameron rub my back, but nothing really helped at all. I was dying to get to a four, which is typically when most doctors will let you get the epidural. At 10pm, my doctor came to check me and was ACTUALLY ABLE TO BREAK MY WATER! yay! I told my doctor when he checked me at that point "I better be at a 4". He kind of laughter and said "do you want me to lie to you if your not?" He checked me and just after ten, I was finally at a 4. He said I was legitimately at a four and he wasn't just saying that to make me happy. So I said "soooo... I can get my epidural now???" He laughed and said "sure. Ive never been pregnant or in labor so I trust you if you think you need it. I'm not a huge fan of epidurals because a lot of times it makes it harder to push effectively and ..." I cut him off and said "I told you this in your office, but it WILL NOT be a problem for me. I promise. when it comes to getting the baby out, I know I can do it pretty well". He said ok and right then I turned to Cameron and motioned for him to go get the epidural stuff! The issue of who was going to do my epidural had been up in the air for a few weeks before the induction. I kept telling Cameron that I wanted him to do it, but he was a little hesitant. Not because he didn't think he would do a good job, he just thought it might be weird and he was afraid that I'd never speak to him again if it didn't work for some freak reason hahaha! I kept telling him that it would be fine and I thought it would be cool for him to say he had done that for me. When we knew that it was going to be late at night, he finally agreed for sure to do it, since it didn't make sense to call someone in in the middle of the night, when he was sitting right there. My doctor laughed when I made the motion for Cameron to hurry and go get started with the epidural. He said that was awesome. A few minutes later Cameron came back with his epidural cart and put on a mask and gloves and just went into a zone. I seriously had 1000% confidence in him and knew it would be great. It all went very smooth and worked SO fast and SO well. I am totally honest in saying that it was the best epidural I have had out of the three kids. I couldn't feel anything, but could still move when the nurse needed me to. She was actually really impressed by how good of an epidural it was too, and complimented Cameron on it. So the epidural was in at 10:30. The nurse checked me at 12:15(the baby and Grant were officially sharing a birthday at this point, but I was ok with it and was thinking "there's nothing we can do about it. It was meant to be, so we will just make the best of it") and I was at a 5. Still moving pretty slowly so she kept upping the piton. I told her to crank it up all the way since I couldn't feel it now. She said she'd come check me every hour or so unless I really felt like something was happening. All throughout the day and evening, I was texting my mom because she had planned on being there when the baby was born. She had been there for both the boys' births and really wanted to be at this one. She had told us a few hours earlier though, that Grant was up from bed and crying that his ear hurt. I felt so bad that we weren't there to help him, but knew he was in good hands. They ended up giving him some tylenol and finally he fell asleep in our bed by my mom and my dad slept on the floor. The nurse came and checked me at 1:15, I was at a 7. At 2:15, an 8. In between all these checks, Cameron and I tried to get a little sleep, but it didn't really amount to much at all. I texted my mom to see if she wanted to come because it would be pretty soon. She said that she was afraid if she got up and left at that point, that Grant would wake up and she didn't want to chance that since he was't feeling well. I was fine with that. At 3am, the nurse came to check me and I said I thought I was feeling more pressure. Sure enough, I was at a 10. She said "ok, lets do a practice push to see how close we really are before I call the dr in". I pushed and she said "ok, stop. I'm going to go call Dr. Swenson right now. You are ready to go". I was SO pumped to FINALLY be ready to have the baby. Several people all came in and started getting things set up and just a few minutes later, my doctor walked in. he said the he had woken up at about 2am and couldn't believe that I hadn't had the baby yet. He said he was worried that maybe the baby was breach or something and that if he hadn't heard from us in the next couple of hours, he was going to come do an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok and the baby was still head down. He got all set up and all of a sudden I got a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to push as well as I had been telling him. When we were waiting for a contraction for me to push, he said "I see lots of dark hair". Both Cameron and I were totally shocked and I just couldn't picture it. Our boys had very little hair when they were born and what they did have was blonde. I was worried about not being able to push effectively for nothing, because ONE push later, I look down and he had the baby upside down to show Cameron and I the "parts". It was a GIRL! I don't think Cameron or I really said anything for a second. We both were CONVINCED it was going to be a boy. Finally I just kept repeating "oh my gosh, oh my gosh". The nurses were kind of laughing at how surprised we were. He laid her right on my chest and we enjoyed some good skin to skin time. Her official birth time was 3:17am. She weighed 7lbs 13oz. Soon after she was born, Dr. Swenson said "looks like you have Stanalina!" We all laughed and he said he had even told his wife about that after he had gone home for the night. After she was born, the nurses asked what her real name was and we told them it was Shay Margaret. Margaret after my grandma who meant so much to me and who had just passed away at the end of April. It was kind of a whirl wind after she was born. We got lots of time to hold and cuddle her and do skin to skin and then they weighed, measured and bathed her. We decided we didn't want to make any announcement about her being born for a while except to our parents. We called Cameron's parents around 5 and told them it was a girl and when she was born and I had texted my mom just after she was born and told her, but she said that she wouldn't tell my dad and that he could just find out the gender when they brought the boys in. Around 5:30, my sister and a bunch of other people started texting and asking if she had been born yet, so we called all of our siblings and skipped with my sister. It was fun to tell everyone it was a girl and to just talk to everyone. My parents brought the boys in around 8am and it was so fun to see their reactions to having a little sister. We love having Shay in our family and everyone is adjusting really well to the new addition!
