After spending a week here in Florida, my dad left on Saturday, October 26th
fully expecting me to have the baby the following day. I, on the other hand, was not so sure.
My mom and I got pumpkin spice pedicures then ran errands in the afternoon.
I had nothing more than maybe a few Braxton Hicks contractions all day.
We had a couple friends over for a visit, then headed down to our community Halloween festivities.
After dinner, Michelle came down to visit and I bounced on my exercise ball for hours.
We chatted about everything related to this baby and when we thought I was going to go into labor.
I was convinced that I would have to start having contractions in order to head to the hospital
because it’s so rare that my water would break (it apparently only happens in 8-10% of women).
I have several friends whose water just broke, so I didn’t think that would happen to me.
Greg and I ended up going to bed around 10:30pm. I had a couple contractions laying in bed,
but nothing that I felt like I had to stay awake for, so I went to sleep.

Two and half hours later, I woke up and my water broke almost immediately.
I looked at the clock.
1:04 am
I shot out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
After evaluating the situation, I went back into the bedroom to wake Greg.
He was completely out of it having worked late the two nights before. I finally woke him up
and told him what had happened. He asked me if I was sure?
Yes, I was sure.
I got in the shower and we gathered our items to head to the hospital.
Thankfully, my mom was still in town, so she stayed at the house with Kenley.
In the car, I began timing my contractions as they started pretty quickly after my water broke.
They were between 5-10 minutes apart by the time we arrived at the hospital
around 2:00 am, almost exactly an hour after my water had broke.

Once we were in Labor & Delivery, the nice nurse started asking me questions about my water breaking.
We got to our room and she had to make sure my water did indeed break.
I understand this is standard procedure, but through my contractions, I wanted to just yell, YES IT BROKE, I’M SURE!
Finally, she confirmed it and I was strapped up to the monitors and had to begin filling out paperwork.
As soon as they strapped on the heart rate monitor for the baby, I asked Greg what the baby’s heartrate was reading.
120bpm.
I told him, it’s a boy. I know it.
This was a complete 180 from what we had thought leading up to this moment,
but I was sure of it. We were having a boy.

I got a different nurse at this point for the rest of the night shift and she informed me I was 2-3 centimeters.
Around 3:15 am, I asked how close my contractions were together and she said 4 to 4 and a half minutes apart.
I asked if there was any reason to not get an epidural at this point (for fear that it may slow down labor),
she said no, and I requested to get one. We were the only couple in L&D so the anesthesiologist came right in,
unlike last time when I had to wait two hours. I definitely did not remember it hurting as badly. Dang.
On the other hand, it took about 45 minutes to kick in. During this time, Greg was busy buying Keurig K-Cups on Amazon.
He was very excited about a deal he found in the middle of the night and just couldn’t pass it up…
I, surprisingly, could care less what he was doing and just wanted the epidural to kick in.
Once it did, we tried to get some sleep, but I don’t think either one of us slept really.
I laid there, completely numb, wondering what it was going to be like to have a boy.

The nurse came in a few more times as the hours passed.
Around 6:00 am, she said my contractions were slowing and she wanted to start pitocin.
I was not thrilled about this since I wanted a completely different birth experience than last time,
but I obliged and rolled with the punches. Before she started, she informed me I as “a good 5 cm”.
In my head, I thought I would have this baby by noon if I continued to dilate 1 cm per hour as a good rule of thumb.
I was on the pitocin for about an hour and we went through the shift change with the nurses.
At this point, I was still very numb from the epidural and Greg kept having to put my leg back up on the bed.

Just after 7:00 am, our new nurse Jean came in to check on how we were doing.
She suggested that I reposition myself to my side and she moved my monitor that was tracking contractions.
She didn’t want to keep going with the pitocin if my contractions were picking back up.
Once I moved to my side, I felt SO much better. I was starting to get some feeling back and wasn’t feeling
completely numb. I was able to tell when I was having contractions now since I could feel the pressure.
By this time, Kenley was awake at home. We were able to FaceTime to talk to her and see how she was doing.
Both Greg and I were so worried about her. We felt so bad that her life was going to change so much
and she really had no idea. She seemed to be doing just fine at home with Meemaw though.
I updated my mom on how things were going and told her that I felt like I could start pushing.
Every contraction brought intense pressure and made me want to push.
She said to tell my nurse that as soon as she came back in.
We said our goodbyes and that was the last time we talked to Kenley before she was a big sister.

Jean came back in to check my progress. I was hoping for a good 6-7 cm at this point,
but was absolutely floored when she so nonchalantly said “your cervix is gone”.
She didn’t want me to do any practice pushes until the doctor had arrived on the floor.
I guess second babies DO come faster!
As she was leaving the room, the on-call doctor called to check up on me and she informed her I was ready.
They spent the next hour or so preparing the room for delivery, calling the nursery nurse, etc.

The doctor arrived shortly after and started asking about my previous labor with Kenley.
I told her that I pushed for 90 minutes last time. Once she assessed the situation,
she told me that she definitely didn’t think I’d be pushing that long this time around.
That was music to my ears and she was sure right.
Four contractions later and just under five minutes at 8:40 am, baby was here!
Her first comment was “big baby!” then “it’s a boy!”
I started sobbing. I couldn’t believe he was here already… my water had just broken seven hours before.
Greg and I just took him all in before we passed him over to the nursery nurse.
They weighed and measured him and kept commenting on how good his color was.
She said that he wasn’t stressed at all coming out and that he must have been ready.

In addition to Greg and I, there were only two nurses and the doctor in the room with us.
The sun was beaming into our room as it had just come up. The entire experience was completely
different this time around. It was much more quiet and peaceful.
The next two hours were spent getting feeling back into my legs and snuggling our sweet boy.
Greg called our family, most of which had no idea we were even in labor.

After we moved up to our room, we were anxiously waiting for one little girl to get up from her nap
and come visit us. It was hard to believe we had just seen her the night before when we put her to bed.
Now, we had two kids. We still kept thinking that she had no idea how her world has changed.

Kenley was such a rock star and a great big sister. She loved “baby Crosby”.
She loved touching, kissing, and hugging him.
They stayed for a few hours before heading back home.
We enjoyed a very short stay in the hospital and were home the next evening.

Crosby’s birth was completely different from Kenley’s birth.
Both were perfect.