My 3rd Birth Story

I know it's been a little over 3 months since our third baby was born, but I still want to write as much down because as each day passes I feel like pieces of my memory are passing by as I adjust to being a mother of 3!
Since I knew this would be my last pregnancy I tried to savor every moment, every moment of nausea, the immediate urgency to pee late in pregnancy, the first moments feeling the baby move, feeling his hiccups, I tried to remember that good or bad symptom this would be the last time I experience this. It was really hard to savor these moments when I was feeling exhausted and I still had to work and entertain a 3 and 2 year old. Hayden loved to feel the baby moving in my belly and I can still remember her sitting on my lap so I could read to her and she would touch my belly and ask if the baby was moving.
Overall my pregnancy was your run of the mill pregnancy. No complications and nothing too eventful. We had our anatomy scan at 20 weeks and the baby was head up in my ribs and that continued until week 37. I really wanted to have another vbac (as I would have 2 children at home to care for and recovering from c-section, caring for a newborn and two other children seemed like more than I could handle). I asked the doctor what our options were and all along they were convinced he would turn on his own as babies have more room when they are head down. That just never happened for us. I scheduled to have an external version done. I prayed long and hard about doing this and did the necessary research on Google and YouTube. The prognosis was 50/50. I think all along I knew that the baby wouldn't turn on his own, he had been in the same position for so long. Josh and I went to the hospital for this procedure and I received an epidural just in case there would be a need for an emergency c-section. The doctor and her surgical tech came in and within 2 minutes the baby was turned. His heart rate went down for a little bit and I was prepared for that so we had to wait at the hospital for about 2 hours to make sure he was all ok. The epidural was so good that I couldn't walk for nearly 2 hours after the procedure.
My next concern was that I needed to go into labor on my own since this would be a vbac. I went to the doctor at 39 weeks 1 day and I was dilated to 2.5 cm and just experiencing a lot of braxton hicks contractions, nothing too exciting. I did have a night at about 36 weeks when I was sick and I had consistent contractions for an hour and then they just stopped. We scheduled a sort of light induction for that Friday as we were a little concerned about the baby getting too big.  At 39 weeks 3 days I woke up at 1:30am to contractions. I had downloaded this contraction timer on my phone so I kept track of them for an hour (I wasn't too excited at this point as it had happened before and I was still pregnant). They were consistent and getting a little stronger. At 2:30 I woke the hubby and did my hair, you gotta look good right? I still wasn't convinced this was it, but I called my parents to come over to stay with the kids. By the time they got to the house, the contractions were intense but I could still chat with Josh in between them and I was still able to pack my stuff for the hospital (as I had nothing packed, I like to wait for the last minute I suppose). My water also broke while waiting for them, I think it was then that I knew this was it. It was 3:30 by the time my parents got to the house and 4:00 before we were at the hospital.
The whole process of getting admitted to the hospital takes forever and is so annoying when you are in labor. They didn't believe that my water had broken so they had to send a sample off even though when they checked me I was 6.5 cm. When the nurse told me I was 6.5 cm I remembered from my childbirth class with Jackson that the transition from 7-10 cm was the most intense and painful and I was panicking because I wanted an epidural. Of course there was what seemed like hundreds of more medical questions before an order could be placed for an epidural. This was my greatest fear, not having an epidural. I wanted to be able to enjoy the process of delivering my last baby, not screaming because the pain was so intense! I wanted to have this beautiful moment, not be this red face screaming crazy person you could hear down the hallway. None the less, I was that screaming crazy person. By the time I was put in a L&D room I was completely dilated and they wanted me to push. I know I told Josh I couldn't do it several times and he kept telling me I could. The nurse was so annoying, she kept telling me to slow down my breathing or I would pass out and at that point I would have welcomed passing out! They ended up letting me get an epidural even though I was completely dilated. I can't tell you how excited I was! I only got to "use" the epidural for about 30 minutes before our baby was born, but I was then able to enjoy his birth. 4 pushes later we had a beautiful baby boy. He weighted 8lbs 9oz, my smallest baby. I got to hold him for over an hour before they took him to get his measurements. It was amazing, I felt wonderful after he was born!
I have to admit I was a bit sad when he was born, knowing this would be the last time I would be in the hospital delivering a baby. We named him Bennett and he is such a sweet baby! His big sister things she is a mini mommy.
I feel like every day I have to tell myself that I need to enjoy these moments, these moments of craziness because soon my children will be older and not need me as much. It's hard to remember that when they are running around like crazy people or wrestling and pinning each other down. I love the new shape of my family and we are truly blessed by such a loving God!
I suppose I should change the name of my blog to family of 5 now!