He's Here!

George Warren
Born Saturday, November 11th at 6:00 a.m.
8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20.5 inches long



George was due on Sunday, November 5th. After Betsy's successful VBAC, I thought George would probably also be late, although of course I was hoping he arrive a bit sooner! It was actually pretty fun to have another weekend before welcoming a new baby. I went to the movies twice, with my mom and with Adam. My mom and I got pedicures and Adam and I went on a grocery shopping and coffee date.

By Monday I was starting to feel antsy. This time around, I resolved not to stress myself out by trying a million natural induction methods. I limited myself to one per day. On Monday, I raked all the leaves in the front yard, which involved lots of squats. On Tuesday, I went to prenatal yoga. On Wednesday, Adam came with me to my OB appointment. After the doctor informed me that nothing had changed from the previous week and swept my membranes again, we walked up all 18 flights of stairs at the hospital.

On Thursday, I woke up with contractions every 10-15 minutes apart. We went on a long walk around the neighborhood, during which I spent most of the time walking with one foot on the curb and one on the street. Apparently this can help baby settle into a good position. The contractions continued at the same pace all day Friday, except my calves were super sore from all the curb walking. By Friday evening, I decided to bring out the big guns and try one of the few natural induction methods I hadn't done before - using the breast pump to stimulate things and hopefully bring contractions closer together. I read online to do fifteen minutes on one side, fifteen minutes on the other, take a ten minute break, and repeat for about three hours.

So, we rented Wonder Woman, which was a pretty funny female empowerment movie to watch right before giving birth, and got started around 9:00 pm. Contractions quickly moved to three or four minutes apart. I only made it about ninety minutes before pumping got too painful. We decided to finish the movie and see if contractions kept up at the same pace. Thankfully, they did, and we headed to the hospital around midnight. I've read lots of blog posts about what to pack in your hospital bag. By our fourth baby, we are extremely minimalist. We just brought our camera!

We arrived in triage around 12:30. I was dilated to a four and 50% effaced. Once I was moved to a delivery room, a resident came to have me sign consent forms for a trial of labor and a c-section, should it be necessary. An anesthesiologist came to talk about epidurals. The nurse placed an IV and fetal heart monitors, which are kind of annoying but necessary for a VBAC. Finally, we were left alone. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to get an epidural first or have my water broken first.

I was worried about getting the epidural too early and things slowing down, because you can't receive any Pitocin with a VBAC. Since I came in just dilated to a four, I thought I should wait until I was further along. But, it was also the middle of the night and I was exhausted, so getting the epidural first ultimately won out. I am very, very glad it did. The epidural was placed at 3:00 am and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep before the anesthesiologist even left the room.

When the doctors came into break my water at 4:30, I was "complete with a lip." By the time they came in again at 5:30, I was definitely feeling a lot of pressure. Everyone assured me George was so low I'd just need to push through one contraction and he'd slip right out, which wasn't exactly the case. I'm not quite that efficient! But twenty minutes later, at 6:00 am exactly, he was here. I was so happy to finally meet him, so relieved pregnancy was over at last, and honestly just in awe that his delivery had worked out how I'd hoped. It almost felt more surreal than my first VBAC with Betsy. I mean, anything can happen once, but for things to go smoothly twice? We are very thankful to have a great hospital nearby that is so supportive of VBACs after two c-sections.



After a couple hours, we moved to a room on the postpartum floor, where we napped for a couple more hours and then Adam went home to get Grandma and George's big sisters. They were all very excited to meet him, even Betsy. She is about the same age as Claire when Maggie was born. Claire didn't really seem interested in her new sibling at first, but Betsy is so much more verbal and, as the third child, so much more aware of the world. Of course, she eventually lost interest and found every button to press in the hospital room.



We've had our children in three different hospitals thus far and every time we've been frustrated with how vague they are about discharge procedures. There was a sign in my room that said discharge would be at noon, but to let your nurse know if you'd like to leave earlier. Right away, we told the nurse we'd like to go home as soon as possible. Guess how early we got to leave? At 11:30. But since last Sunday afternoon, we've been enjoying having George at home. And Adam too, because he'll be off on paternity leave until the new year. The real hero of this story is my mom, who has been so amazing over the past few weeks that she deserves her own post!