Our pregnancy was
rather uneventful which is a great thing. As of the last few sonograms Landry's
head and weight were measuring large for her gestational age so we decided to plan an
induction date as to not let her go past her due date and get too big. Our
induction date was planned for Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 5:00am.
Since we had a
scheduled date, I decided to make my last day of work May 3, 2012. That gave me
a few days off work with nothing to do but relax. On Friday I had lunch with a
great friend, Lisa, and got a pedicure to begin the relaxation before the big
day. Bentley and I then had a nice dinner on Friday night, relaxed on Saturday
and Sunday and then saw a movie on Monday. It was an exciting and strange
feeling to know that we would no longer be a family of just two, but would soon
be a family of three! We already love this little girl so much and hadn't even
met her!
The delivery day
was a complete whirlwind so here is a run down of our day:
Bentley and I set
our alarm for 3:00 AM to have plenty of time to get ready and make sure we had
packed everything we needed (although we didn't use most of what we took). We
were told to call the hospital at 4:00am to be sure there was an available labor and
delivery room. Bentley called and luckily there was room, so off we went to the
hospital to meet our baby girl! We were checked in to the hospital by
5:30 AM and got settled into our room around 6:00 AM. The nurse checked me at 6:00 AM and said I was dilated to 2cm (ultimately I needed to be a 10 before I could
delivery Landry - so I thought it would be a while until we would meet her). We had been at 2cm for the past week, so this was not a surprise.
We were blessed
with a great nurse named Gale who turned out to be exactly what we needed and I
feel really helped us to have a speedy delivery. At 6:30 AM we started the Pitocin, which caused the contractions to begin immediately. I didn't realize the medicine had
already been started and began feeling contractions. I thought what
a coincidence, my contractions started at the perfect time - but little
did I know! At the beginning they weren't that strong or uncomfortable so
we had both Bentley's and my parents back to visit before the action
started. It was nice to see them before Landry arrived. By 8:00 AM, Dr. McClure broke
my water and said I was dilated to 3cm. We were really excited to be making
progress towards Landry's arrival!
Just minutes after my
water broke the contractions ramped up in intensity and frequency. The
contractions were coming so quickly and were so painful that the epidural could not
come soon enough. Unfortunately, before I could get the epidural, I had to receive at least two bags of fluid which took about 45 minutes to complete. With contractions about 3 minutes apart...well you do the math. Bentley was absolutely amazing at talking me through each of
the contractions and helping to take my mind off things until getting some pain
relief. Once I finally got the epidural the pain relief was incredible. Around
10:00 AM I was feeling much better and our parents came back to visit one last time
before Landry would be born. Around 10:15 AM Bentley and I were able to relax
while my labor was progressing. I would have never expected to have time to
relax but it was really nice since I didn't sleep at all the night
before.
At around 11:30 AM the nurse checked me again and I was already dilated to 8cm and 100% effaced! Our
nurse was really excited about the progress and felt we would be meeting Landry
sometime that afternoon. At 12:30pm the nurse checked us again (at my urging
because I felt the strong need to push) and she was shocked to find that I was dilated to 10cm and ready to go. She could easily feel her head and confirmed that she did indeed have a head full of hair. The nurse had been in contact with my doctor
all morning to let her know we were progressing faster then they had
anticipated. I pushed through one contraction to see if things would continue
to progress and in just one contraction we could see the hair on Landry's head.
The nurse immediately called Dr. McClure and told her we were ready to begin
really pushing and for her to get there quickly. It took her only 15 minutes (yes we were timing) to get to our room and she was ready to go almost immediately. At 1:27 PM,
I pushed through the first contraction with the doctor, and Landry made very considerable progress. We were both able to touch her head which was a very surreal moment. We will never forget that first time we were able to touch her.
The second contraction came and she was even closer. We were both still doing fine, so they didn't want to rush her out. Dr. McClure said "one more push should do it." But we had to wait till the next contraction because this one had already ended. The next two minutes or so seemed like an eternity. I remember looking at Bentley and I know we were both thinking this was about to be a reality. She would be in our arms in a matter of a few minutes. Bentley was watching the monitor and let me know that the next contraction was starting to ramp up. As the third contraction with the doctor was reaching its peak, I was instructed to give a strong push. Landry must have been eager to get out because this was all it took for us to be holding our sweet baby girl in our arms.
The second contraction came and she was even closer. We were both still doing fine, so they didn't want to rush her out. Dr. McClure said "one more push should do it." But we had to wait till the next contraction because this one had already ended. The next two minutes or so seemed like an eternity. I remember looking at Bentley and I know we were both thinking this was about to be a reality. She would be in our arms in a matter of a few minutes. Bentley was watching the monitor and let me know that the next contraction was starting to ramp up. As the third contraction with the doctor was reaching its peak, I was instructed to give a strong push. Landry must have been eager to get out because this was all it took for us to be holding our sweet baby girl in our arms.
On May 8, 2012, at
1:34pm, we welcomed our precious baby girl, Landry Nicole Hudson into our
family. She weighed 7 lbs and was 18.5 inches long. After 9 long months of dreaming of this very moment, we could not
believe it was finally here. Holding her for the first time was better than we could have ever imagined. The
hospital we delivered at really encourages immediate skin-to-skin contact so
Landry was immediately placed on my chest, calmed down and was so
peaceful. After we had some great alone time with Landry, our families were able to come back to our room and meet our sweet girl.
Bentley and I feel
so blessed that God made us Landry's parents. We are so happy to now be a
family of three! We love you Landry Nicole Hudson!
First family photo
Our sweet girl not long after birth
Landry wide awake at 3 days old
Bentley and Lisette
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