I still can't believe I'm writing Russell's birth story when I'm supposed to be 37 weeks pregnant right now. But there's a healthy little boy snuggling with Grandma right now and I'm one week into recovery so I guess it's true! This is long because I needed the catharsis of writing it out. If you just want to scroll and look at pictures, be my guest.

BACKSTORY 

Luckily extreme nesting set in and I had freezer meals made, the pack n play bassinet set up, my bag packed, Scotty instructions on the fridge and everything mostly ready at any moment.



I had a feeling of uncertainty about this pregnancy ever since the 20 week ultrasound where they said I had low-lying placenta and I'd need to be back at 30 weeks for a re-check. Then the 30 week recheck didn't go well so they rescheduled a final check for 36 weeks.



Here's the biology in case you're unfamiliar: after the egg and sperm meet in mom's fallopian tubes it heads down to the uterus to implant in the uterine wall. For some reason some eggs implant really close/on top of the cervix (the uterus's exit). The placenta, or sac the baby grows in and gives the baby all the blood and nutrients from mom, is blocking the exit.

The maternal fetal medicine doctor told me a really large amount of blood goes through the placenta every minute so if placenta breaks away from the uterine wall and starts bleeding you can potentially hemorrhage really really quickly. Mom bleeding and baby not getting oxygen/nutrients is not an ideal situation.



Anyway when the placenta is completely over the cervix it's called placenta previa and means an automatic scheduled C Section and potentially bed rest to extend your pregnancy. My placenta was 1.6 centimeters away from my cervix at 36 weeks so I didn't even have a partial previa, just low-lying placenta. According to the research you need the placenta to be at least 2 centimeters away from the cervix for the odds to be good for a safe vaginal birth. But my doctor thought since I was so close to 2 centimeters, didn't have any bleeding and had a previous vaginal birth that I was a good candidate to try a vaginal birth and we could switch to a C Section if needed.

So we'd scheduled an induction for March 12, when I'd be 39 weeks and 2 days. That way my doctor could monitor me and make sure she'd be available if we needed to change plans. I was a little worried I'd go into labor before than because at 36 weeks I felt like I was as large as I was when I delivered Scotty. At that last ultrasound they estimated he weighed six pounds ten ounces, which is crazy because Scotty was born on time at seven pounds five ounces.


Tuesday, the day before I had him, was pretty low key. Scotty and I Face-Timed with my grandparents, I actually took a nap when Scotty did, made tacos and went to book club. I'd been slowing down in an effort to avoid contractions which had been coming pretty strong on days when I'd been carrying Scotty around and doing projects around the house.

I didn't have any contractions that day or the few days previous and at my last appointment I was only 1 centimeter dilated. I did not expect to have him at 36 weeks and 5 days and definitely not the way it happened.

Part 2