Jillian’s Birth Story

I was fascinated by reading birth stories when I was pregnant with Hadley years ago, so I made sure to write down my own birth story with her and shared it here on the blog. I then did the same with Sadie, and now here we are rounding things out with one more story: how we came to meet Jillian.

My original due date was July 8th, but after an early ultrasound that measured her a week behind, the doctors officially pushed my due date back a week to July 15th. (Adding a week of pregnancy to an already long nine months didn’t thrill me to say the least, but I wasn’t too concerned because I figured she’d come on her own anyway, so it didn’t really matter.)

Well, mid-June the doctor offered me an induction date for July 11th, since that would put me at 39w3d according to the ultrasound. I originally told them to pencil it in but that I’d likely decline it since I had no reason to be induced before 41 weeks. I really wanted to go into labor on my own.

After talking with Jamie though, we decided to have the hospital pen in the induction date. A few reasons: it would be mid July and super hot, it would make things easier with planning his leave time, we had a great induction experience with Sadie, and I’d technically be overdue according to my original due date (July 8th). But I still hoped I’d go into labor on my own prior to this.

At my routine appointment on the morning of July 10th, the doctor confirmed that I was only 1.5cm dilated and 50% effaced, meaning that my body wasn’t quite ready for labor. She wasn’t feeling great about me coming in that night for induction, which was a huge bummer for me, and she knew it. We discussed my previous induction with Sadie and how it was social induction, meaning I was only induced because Jamie was home from Kuwait for 10 days. At the time, I was only 1cm dilated, but the induction still went super smooth.

My doctor liked hearing this and agreed that moving forward with an induction that night was okay. I practically bounced out of the office and was just so excited that we’d finally be meeting this babe!

On Wednesday I did all the things, wrote a blog post where I spit out every thought in my brain, and nervously headed to the hospital for a midnight check-in. I was super anxious for everything that night/next morning would hold (ignorance isn’t bliss when it’s your third baby LOL), but I knew that we were inching closer to Jillian.

Once at the hospital, the nurses confirmed that I was 2.5cm (I was shocked in a good way!) but that the baby was still really high; High enough that they wondered if she was possibly breach.

And here is where I started silently freaking out that being induced was the wrong decision.

They figured out fairly quick that baby was head down and simply just high; much higher than babies usually are around their due dates who come in for inductions.

We skipped the typically medicines that soften your cervix (like Cervidil) since my body didn’t respond to them at all with Sadie and went straight for the Pitocin at 4 a.m.

Slowly but surely the contractions started but were never more then moderately uncomfortable.

At 5:30 a.m. the nurses came in and asked if I was ready for the epidural (they knew I had no intentions at trying this thing natural!) Though I felt a little silly getting the epidural before any significant pain started, I went ahead and accepted the epidural at that time, which was a great decision because I didn’t feel a thing when my water was broken by my doctor at 7 a.m. (which hurt like haaaaaaail with Sadie).

The epidural was super quick and then the nurses got me all situated on my side in a super comfy position. I had lots of pillows and blankets and was propped up perfectly. At this point I was feeling completely elated because the epidural was successful, my body was progressing, and I was mega comfy in that bed watching Good Morning America. I talked with my mom and things with the girls were good at home, so I was just high as a kite that this was all happening and going well. I couldn’t wait to meet Jillian soon, though I didn’t realize quite how soon!

Around 8:50 a.m. the doctor and nurse came in to check me and I was 5.5cm. I’ll never forget the smile on my doctor’s face as she said “Baby by lunch!”

I quickly let my birth photographer Christine know what was going on and told her I’d continue to update her. She only lived 10 minutes down the road.

Before the nurse left the room, she told me to buzz her immediately if I felt any pressure. I was all “What! I can’t feel anything!” And she was like “You should feel something if baby is getting close, so let me know!”

This FREAKED ME OUT because I immediately envisioned myself having this baby plop out without feeling a thing. I had never felt pressure in the past with Hadley and Sadie, so I was legitimately worried that I wouldn’t be able to identify what felt like pressure.

Because of my concerns, I asked Jamie to tell me when I was having a contraction spike according to the screen, and I tried to identify if my body felt any different. It did a tiny bit, so I then looked away from the screen and tried to identify that same pressure feeling on the next contraction. Jamie confirmed that I was right and that I was having a contraction, so we called the nurse. Mind you this was only two (maybe three) full contractions after she’d left the room.

She came in a minute or so later and checked me, and sure enough I was 8cm. Holy moly! She told me that things were likely about to move fast. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, but let me know if you feel any more intensified pressure before I’m back.” I went ahead and texted my birth photographer to go ahead and start making her way.

With one more contraction, I felt the pressure she was talking about! It was sure enough VERY easy to identify! Ha! Jamie called the nurse back in, she checked me, and then calmly said “Let me go get the doctor!” I said “Am I complete?” (aka 10 cm) She said “Oh yeah, you’re having this baby now!” I gave Christine the update and felt so bad because I knew she was probably freaking out and trying to hurry! I wasn’t upset about her not making it because no one expected things to happen this fast!

I was already shaking from the epidural (always a reaction I get from it, barfed a couple times too WOOHOO), but now I was really violently shaking from absolute shock and excitement. I could not believe this was happening already! Best labor ever!

The doctor and the team came in, got me situated, and I gave one decent push. She told me on the next push to lighten up significantly since she was about to pop out. Sure enough, after just a few seconds of lightly pushing, she came out hollering!

I stayed in labor and delivery for about 2.5 hours before they moved us over to Mother Baby (mainly due to waiting for my epidural to wear off), and that 2.5 hours was the sweetest. Jillian nursed like a champ (such a miracle to me how that’s so natural to a baby after birth), met her big sisters and my parents, took her stats/did footprints, had lots of quiet skin to skin time with Jamie and me, and was eventually bathed right before we left L&D. It’s amazing to me how everything on her skin soaked right in by bath time. Everything about birth just floors me!

No two birth stories are the same, so you never quite know how things are going to play out. The unknowns of this birth had me weirdly anxious this time around, so I was extra elated once she was here that everything went so well, something I will never take for granted. When I think about my first labor experience vs. my last labor experience with Jillian, it’s super comedic how different the experiences were. I experienced all kinds of pain and sheer chaos with Hadley, so it was nice to have a couple births that went a bit better than that first one did. 😉

Ah, and that wraps up Jillian’s birth story. I love that all three are documented here. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as well!

More: Hadley’s birth story, Sadie’s birth story, the rollercoaster of being a first-time mom, and a follow-up post four years later to my “rollercoaster of being a first time mom” post