Baby #2 is on the way

Rhett was a beast when he was born (and continues to be a beast until this day) - so the doctors decided to induce Aubrey a week early to prevent her from being torn in half. We had this induction scheduled for about a week or so - which makes things pretty convenient because we were able to arrange a rotating squadron of animal-handlers to help keep Rhett contained today. We were #1 on the list, and were expecting to be called this morning around 6:30 AM. At around 8:00 AM, Aubrey called the hospital, and they said “Oh, come on in.”

8:30 AM

Admitted, and in the room. We have a nice view of the valley.
By hospital standards, the deliver rooms here are gigantic. In the bathroom, it even has a jetted tub - which is a nice feature that I’m sure one person uses every few years. I thought about bringing a speedo and hanging out there for the first few hours today, but I decided that the speedo wasn’t necessary. Everyone here is medically trained and is used to seeing naked people, so I am going to

8:45 AM

Dr. Reese, Aubrey’s doctor who is on call today, dropped by and said “Hello.” He talked to us for a few minutes and answered a couple of questions. He said that the second baby usually comes faster - so maybe we wont be here as long?

9:30 AM

The nurse comes in and introduces herself. Her name is Linda. She starts putting an IV in with saline solution. Linda has worked at this hospital for 31 years.

9:35 AM

Marie calls me. She’s at the hospital now, but in the wrong building. I go meet her by the gift shop and show her where my car is parked. (She’s taking my car because she’s the 3rd shift today on Rhett duty)

From the parking lot, I figure out which window is ours and take a picture.

10:00 AM

Linda is back and starts the pitocin IV. She shows me where the ice chip machine is.

10:10 AM

Aubrey remarks: “That didn’t take long” as she starts another contraction. “Well, that one was weak” - after it’s over. Last night, Aubrey was having contractions every 20 minutes or so. She’s not watching her movie anymore and is going to try to sleep. Neither of us slept very well last night - her, because she was pregnant and such, and me- because I was playing around with my computer. (I wanted to empathize with her for the loss of sleep)

10:18 AM

Aubrey realizes she probably wont be able to sleep because the contractions are coming so frequently now, so she turns on the movie again.

10:35 AM

A pair of nurses came in and are taking over for Linda. (Linda has to give a lot more attention to someone else, it seems). One of the nurses seems like she might be in training. They just upped the pitocin drip and are going to start getting things ready in the room.

11:14 AM

The contractions are becoming stronger, and Aubrey will probably ask for an epidural soon to avoid getting it too late.

11:30 AM

Nurses came in. Upped the pitocin dosage. Doctor Gardner is on his way with the epidural.

11:35 AM

Epidural is in now. We talked to the nurses for a while. Ashley is from Ohio and has been a nurse for a year and a half. Sandra is a new nurse and is from Maryland.

11:59 AM

Dr. Reese is here now to rupture the membrane and get things moving along faster. They haven’t had to increase the pitocin for a while, and are going to keep it where it is.

12:35 PM

To better monitor the baby, the nurses have put in internal monitors. Aubrey’s seems to be doing pretty well. This time around, I’m pretty much doing nothing. I think I’ve stood up from my chair three times now to shake hands of people who have come in, but they haven’t even given me token tasks to make me feel relevant like they did last time. Perhaps it’s because I’m telling them to “keep it down, I’m trying to work over here” every time the nurses are in the room?

1:00 PM

One of the internal monitors is not reading well (the contraction monitor). It doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but they’re probably going to do something to fix it. Aubrey’s at 6cm right now.

1:24 PM

They are cutting down the pitocin again because she’s coming along quickly. It’s down to a 6. They say that they wouldn’t be surprised if the next time they check her, that she’s up to 9 or 10cm. That’s my cue to go eat! They fixed the monitors.

2:00 PM

Wow. The baby’s head is there. Dr. Reese is coming. Baby is “complete +3″ right now apparently.

2:25 PM

They paged the doctor a while ago, and he’s on his way. Should be here soon

2:31 PM

Dr. Reese was in a c-section at another hospital and is now on his way. He should be here in 15 minutes or so. If they need another doctor because she’s really far along, there is one nearby that they will have do it.

2:46 PM

They were going to call another doctor from her same practice, but Dr. Reese thinks he can beat him here. The nurses are glad she has an epidural, because otherwise Aubrey would probably be going nuts right now. They also say that it should be like - maybe one push (if that) once the doctor gets here.

3:00 PM

Doctor Reese came by and she came out relatively quickly. Aubrey did have to push a few times to get her out - but I could definitely see the head popping out when Dr. Reese came here.

She was 7 pound 3 ounces. When she was born, she was extra cheesy and they asked Aubrey “Do you want her on your belly or do you want us to clean her up.” and Aubrey’s response was pretty quick: “You can clean her first.”

She’ll be in the room with us for a while and then they’ll take her to get cleaned up. (Aubrey has been holding her for about 10 minutes and she just asked me: “Why don’t they clean her now?”) With Rhett, I remember very quickly being whisked away down to the nursery with him to get him cleaned up.

I’ll post pictures when my card reader decides to work.