||Havyn Quinn's Birth Story||

I'm so behind on this post as Havyn is a 5 weeks old now. Oops, life! Okay so we had my induction date set for almost 3 weeks and I made a point to get everything ready and spend as much time with Olivia as I could before then. Everything was going as planned and then the night before we checked into the hospital, Olivia caught the dang stomach bug. I had just finished cleaning the house and was getting ready to take my shower and head on to bed as we had to get up early. Then the next thing I knew vomit! Everywhere! As many of you know I have a serious phobia of throwing up. Like I can make myself have a panic attack if I think about it too much. So as usual, I started freaking out thinking I was going to be puking during my entire labor and delivery but the Lord came through and didn't allow me to catch it. Thank goodness. So as you can see a very stressful, sleepless night going into "labor" day. This put a damper on things because my mom was supposed to go to the hospital with us but instead she had to stay home with a sick little Liv.

Bradley and I left our house around 5:20am the next morning and checked in a little before 6am. It was actually nice because the hospital was quiet, minimum staff and patients and it just gave me an overall peaceful feeling. A little before 8am my doctor came in to check me and I was still at 4cm. I immediately asked when I could get my epidural even though the only pain I was experiencing at that point was irregular back contractions. The nurses had to keep increasing my pitocin because labor kept stalling. She was very comfortable in there and was not ready to come out! Around 830am my doctor came back and broke my water. He was confident that it probably wouldn't be long before I was ready to start pushing. During this time, it was just Bradley and I in my room and the occasional check in from my nurse. It was honestly so nice. We had time to reflect on becoming parents to two baby girls and just talk and rest. This time was just so much more relaxing and low key. I guess because we knew what to expect and we love my doctor so much that we literally weren't worried about anything.

Around 1045am the anesthesiologist came in for my epidural. He had a student with him and I was totally cool with him explaining everything to her. It was a teaching moment and I am all about that. My blood pressure was a little low so he had to administer my epidural very slowly and as he was explaining to the student why he was doing that, it totally freaked me out haha! But I didn't say anything. At that point it was time for my catheter to be placed and I let the student do it. It's crazy how much more gentle a student is as they are just starting out than seasoned nurses and doctors haha! I continued to labor more regularly and when my doctor came back to check me at 1130am, I was already at 8cm and a -1. He said we'd have a baby within the hour. Before the nurses got the room ready, we had a little bit more alone time and I am currently obsessed with the song Humble by Kendrick Lamar so Bradley had to play it to get my mind right. By the time he came back around 1210pm I was fully dilated and ready to push! Our doctor is such a nut and seriously takes the nerves and worries out of the experience. As he was getting dressed he was hopping around my room calling himself the gyno-man which made all of us crack up! They got me situated and it was time to push. Bradley was a great cheerleader and he even watched the majority of it this time. I pushed twice and her little head was out with SO much black hair. The minute her head came out everyone gasped at how much hair she had! One more half push and she was out, screaming her little head off which she still does haha! A perfectly healthy baby weighing in a 7 lbs. 9 oz. 19 1/2 inches long born at 12:38pm.

We had a full two hours of skin to skin time and she nursed like a champ. Once she was finished nursing Bradley got a little skin to skin time with her as well before they came in to give her a bath. This time around was just so much easier in so many different ways and I'm so thankful for that. I was starting to get super nervous about it all again because my recovery with Liv was so awful! It was uneventful to say the least in the most perfect way. We are now parents to two beautiful baby girls and we are SO blessed!