Trevor's birth details...

I have to say that if all of my deliveries could be guaranteed to go as smoothly as this one did I would probably consider having 12 kids or so, but I know that it will probably not be so smooth and fast again!

Each week for the last four weeks I've been one centimeter further along so on my last appointment on Thursday I was already dilated to a 5 and 70% effaced. My doctor had been planning to strip my membranes on Thursday which I was pretty sure would bring on labor because my body felt so ready, but when I showed up she refused to do it because she was leaving town for the weekend and didn't want me going into labor when she was gone (we sure showed her! :) I was pretty disappointed because I had finally mentally prepared myself to probably have a baby in the next day or so and because I wanted to give my body a chance to go into labor naturally instead of being induced which was scheduled for Monday. Plus, an induction would mean that Paul would have to take a full day off of work and I wanted him to have the 2 vacation days that we can spare to help me at home after my mom leaves.

I became determined to do anything in my power to encourage Baby Trevor to join us- I walked a lot, went up and down stairs, did squats, washed the car, swept the garage, planted trees, cleaned a lot, and chased Lyla around. Who knows if any of that really helped but I woke up early Saturday morning and knew things were going to progress. I woke up at 12:30 feeling something going on but was able to keep sleeping until 1:30 when the contractions started. I kept trying to rest until 2:45 when I took a shower. Paul woke up and we started getting things together. The contractions were 3-6 minutes apart and lasting for about 40 seconds. They weren’t too strong yet so I kept cleaning and straightening- delaying out departure for the hospital cuz I was getting nervous! We finally called our sweet neighbor who got there around 3:30 and we headed right out. We arrived at the hospital around 3:45 and I was dilated to a 6 and 100% effaced. I was wanting to try to avoid an epidural at least as long as I could since I had already progressed so far. The contractions were getting stronger and I decided a hot bath sounded nice and it really helped so much with the pain! I got out after 10 minutes because the doctor stopped by after seeing another patient. He wanted to break my water and I was already a 7 by then which gave me hope! After he broke my water, I had to stay hooked to the monitors for about 15 minutes and then went back to the tub which was appreciated since the contractions were really strong and hard to get through. Paul was such a great support and kept giving me pep talks and helping me find helpful thoughts to focus on. After less than 5 minutes, I suddenly felt the awful need to push and started freaking out. Paul and the nurse quickly got me back to the bed and started getting everything ready. The pushing feeling was not my favorite- it was so intense and painful. The doctor was quickly suiting up along with Paul who got to catch the baby. After about 10 very challenging minutes of pushing and screaming, Trevor was born at 5:10 and was completely healthy. I was exhausted but so relieved that it had gone fast. He weighed 7 lbs 1 ounce and was 20 inches long.

I was especially grateful that I didn't have an epidural after the delivery because I was able to move around and shower and didn't feel groggy. I'm not sure that I would be able to do it again if I knew the labor would take longer, but I'm glad it worked out this time. It was a nice day of relaxing and it’s been so fun to see Lyla interacting with Trevor. She already loves him and is so sweet to him! Paul is staying at home with her so it’s a little lonely here at times, but it's been nice to rest as much as possible.