Baby Rockwell joined our family in the early morning hours on July 8, 2018. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz. He was my smallest baby yet (by one ounce)! His birth story starts on June 18th when I went to see my Dr. for the first time at 37 1/2 weeks along. We had just moved to Utah and I needed a new Doctor. Thankfully I had a few recommendations given to me and Dr. Bechek was the lucky winner who had room in her schedule. Honestly having her as my Doctor was an answer to prayer because I loved having her as my Doctor. I trusted her and I felt like we became friends quickly even though we had just met. She was the youngest doctor I have ever had, our kids were the same ages, and she had also just had a baby. We had a great time chatting about kids and babies. That first day I met her I asked if she would be willing to induce me at 39 weeks on June 27th.
I am not one who likes to be induced and I LOVE going into labor on my own. But my reasoning for a induction this time was that we would have saved thousands of dollars if we were able to have the baby on our old insurance instead of our new one. But that meant we needed to have the baby before the end of June. McKay was working over an hour away and I didn't want to be too stressed if I went into labor when he wasn't there. Also we were moving on July 11th and I really wanted some time at my parents house to recover before doing another move with 5 kids. To me it feels like people get induced early all the time so I kind of figured it would be no big deal. Apparently I assumed wrong. haha!
After talking it over she agreed to induce me on the 27th as long as my cervix was "favorable". Well that wasn't great news for me since I don't dilate very early. Normally I don't even get "checked" until my due date since I have never had a baby before my due date and usually am not even dilated at all. But this time I was determined to have this baby early so I had her check me (not that that would change anything haha!). I was a 1. Not good enough to be induced so I had some work to do. lol I tried everything I could think of over that next week to get my body to dilate some more.
The next week I went to my appointment on Monday to see how things were going. Well guys nothing had happened. I was the same as before and just not ready to deliver a baby. So my Dr. suggested I cancel my induction. Besides being super bummed I did agree with her. It is just not worth putting things at risk of having a bad delivery. So we set the next induction date for July 5th (the day after my due date).
Once again I spent the next week trying everything I could think of to get labor started. Nothing worked and that next week I was back in my Doctor's office. She checked me again...not much change. Together we chatted and decided to once again cancel my July 5th induction. My body does not do ANYTHING before labor actually starts!! July 5th I went to her office so she could strip my membranes (TMI?!) and low and behold I was progressing finally! (made me wish we hadn't canceled the induction, but oh well?). That evening my mom, Corinne, Mykelti, and I had a girls night out. So fun to talk babies and pregnancy with 3 of my favorite people. During dinner I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart. I was excited and hoping that I was going to head to the hospital that night. BUT when I layed down that night for bed everything stopped and I slept soundly until morning.
July 6th I woke up and felt pretty tired, but no contractions. As the day went on things started to build and once again that evening I was having contractions that were 3-5 minutes apart. This time they were stronger then the night before. McKay and I headed out for a walk to see if we could keep them coming. I have never had regular contractions before the actual labor so I was assuming this was it. But again when I layed down to go to bed everything stopped and I was able to sleep all night long.
July 7th was a Saturday. We were trying to do everything we could do to distract ourselves from the fact that baby was not here yet. I woke up not feeling great, but tired of feeling sorry for myself (something I had been doing all week) so I tried to make the best of the day. Honestly I don't even remember what we did that day. Just random things with the kids. That evening my contractions came back. They were stronger that night, but not nearly as regular. I truly didn't know what to think at this point. Finally I decided that we should just go to the hospital and get things checked out. These contractions were getting really painful and I wanted to make sure everything was ok with baby.
We arrived at the hospital around 8:50 pm. They checked me and I was dilated to a 4. They monitored me for an hour and then checked me again. I was still a 4, but I had made a little progress. The nurse debated about what to do and ended up calling the Dr. They decided that since this was my 5th baby they would keep me. Yay!! So fairly quickly I got a gown, an IV and an epidural (always scary getting it in, but heavenly once it is there). After getting the epidural I felt like my contractions slowed WAY down. This made me super nervous and I proceeded to have a small panic attack. The nurse wasn't there, but I was concerned that labor wouldn't keep progressing and stop like it had the nights before. At that point I did not want them to have to intervene and give me pitocin. Thankfully McKay was there to help calm me down and help me breathe normal again. Pretty soon after that my contractions picked back up and things were moving along. Yay! At 1:00 am the nurse checked me and I was a 7. While she checked me my water broke. That is when things started moving along. I have never had one of my labors go this fast and it was cool to experience.
10 minutes after she checked me I felt like I was fully dilated. I asked her to check me again and sure enough I was a 10 and all ready to go. 10 minutes guys! Yay! I thought for sure I was going to be laboring ALL night. The nurse called the Dr. and started prepping the room. 20 minutes later the Dr. was there and we were ready to have a baby. Since we waited a while before I started pushing the baby really had time to move right down and was all set to come out. I didn't even give a full push and the baby came sliding out. Definitely a perk to having your 5th baby. :) Baby boy was born at 1:36 am on July 8, 2018. He was perfect in every way which is such a huge relief and blessing. We cuddled and nursed him for those first few hours while we worked on figuring out what his name would be. At that point we were debating between Rockwell and Reegan. McKay wanted it to start with the letter R and I preferred Rockwell if it had to start with a letter R. So Rockwell it was. Rockwell McKay Pace. It fits him well and I love his name now (even if I wasn't so sure in the beginning).
After a few hours we transferred to postpartum and tried to get some rest that night. Tried is the key word because I can never sleep that first day. Too much adrenalin.
What a special day that was. Truly my children's birth days are the very best days in my book. They are what get me through the 9 months of pregnancy and I never want them to end. I am grateful I was able to go into labor on my own and that it was able to be my fastest labor yet (mine have been at least 12 hours in the past). Rockwell you are a sweet little guy and we cannot wait to see who you grow up to be!
More from the rest of our hospital stay in the next post!
