Taylor Reese’s Labor and Delivery Story

I had Taylor via elective induction on January 5, 2019. I felt guilty and also not guilty for scheduling the induction. I read a study that found that after 39 weeks, there is no proof that inductions yield more c sections than natural births do. Because my labor progress with Logan was fast for a first time pregnancy, I was crippled with fear that I would not be able to arrange childcare for him quickly enough in the event of spontaneous labor. I wanted my husband with me in the hospital and for family to watch Logan.  Believe it or not, but I have never spent the night away from my 2 year old before. I didn’t want just any friend or neighbor to watch him while I would be gone for who knows how long.

We scheduled the induction for Saturday, January 5th at 7 am. I woke Logan up at 6 am to get one last goodbye in with snuggles and a nursing session in before I went to the hospital. I wanted to soak up every last second of Logan being my only child. I cried a lot and missed him all morning long. Once we got to the hospital, I got dressed into the hospital gown and chatted with Ethan until my nurse came in. There was a shift change so we had about 30 minutes to ourselves before anything happened. After my nurse introduced herself, we started pitocin around 8 am. The comtractions barely hurt! I told my nurse my pain level was a 2 out of 10. This went on for 4 hours and I had only dilated one more centimeter (~4.5 cm dilated). My doctor made the call to break my water around 12:30 pm to speed up my labor. At this point I still didn’t have nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to calm my nerves so I was nervous that breaking my water would hurt. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel any pain at all and the waters gushing out was actually pretty exciting.

Then things took an unexpected turn. Huge painful contractions began immediately with no break in between. I was clutching the side of the bed and freaking out because I went from no pain to 100. I felt so much pressure on my butt and it honestly felt like I had to poop. I thought hemorrhoids were popping out but my nurse said, no that’s your baby! She called my doctor not to go anywhere, checked my cervix, and said you are 10 cm dilated! I went from 4 to 10 cm dilated in 15 minutes. I frantically requested to get nitrous oxide NOW because I was freaking out. My nurse had some difficulty setting it up because she has only used it twice before. As soon as I breathed in a couple breaths of nitrous oxide, I had to push. I told my doctor I’m scared I’m going to tear and she said, “Don’t worry. I will apply counterpressure to minimize tearing.” And I trusted her. My mind went blank and I heard beeping and sounds like ocean waves roaring around in my head and then I heard my doctor say, “Jane! Open your eyes! You need to look down at your baby and push!” So I opened my eyes, pushed, and for the first time that day, screamed out as the baby finally made her exit. She was born only 23 minutes after my water broke. 3 pushes compared to 2 hours of pushing out Logan. My doctor didn’t have time to change into her delivery gown and told me that I am the fastest labor she has witnessed in all of her years practicing. My nurse told me I reaffirmed her faith in her job and natural labor and delivery. My doctor was so glad we scheduled the induction because if I went into labor spontaneously, I would not have made it to the hospital. All of my guilt for scheduling an induction vanished after I heard that. She joked that if I ever have a third child, I will just need to live at her house.

Because Taylor was born so quickly, she was bruised purple and had a hematoma bump on her head. But her apgar score was an 8 and everything else was perfect. Taylor Reese Lai was born on January 5, 2019 at 12:59 pm; 7 lb 11 oz and 20 inches long with a head full of long, dark hair. My perfect daughter ❤️