Poppy Ruth's Birth Story

So, as you all know by now, Poppy is here! I had promised this blog post early last week but it seems that life with 2 kids and daycare summer vacay, was a bit too much for this new momma. But, I wanted to fill you in on how she made her way into this world and why we chose her name.As you know from my last post, we decided to do a second version. Because she was so mobile, they said if it worked, they would want to induce us then and there to lower the risk of her flipping back to being transverse. After about an hour and a half of one of the best OB/GYN's in the province trying to manually move her, she finally turned head down for him. We then had to wait, wait and see if she stayed down. I laid on my side for that long hour holding her head down with my arm and hand pushed hard against my belly. But, it worked and we started the induction with Cervidil, which is a tampon like tape that is inserted into you to help ripen the cervix. We were warned that this may take 12-36 hours for me to actually start to dilate and had to stay in the hospital as a patient being monitored every 6 hours. This happened at 4:30pm.After that, we were sent to a different floor where we could wait it out. I had not eaten since breakfast so my saviour Rob, grabbed us enough food to make it through the night and morning. We were given a cot and set up the room for a long stay seeing as though 36 hours seemed to be flashing in our heads. But, luckily, at 10:30pm, as we both started to drift to sleep, my water broke. HALLELUJAH!After that, everything was quite quick. The contractions started and around 12:30am, they had gotten bad enough that I decided to let the nurse know I may need some help from something for the pain. Instead of giving me the tylenol she had promised, I was whisked down to labor and delivery. Once there, we had a not so nice nurse who said I was still only 1 cm dilated. She gave us 3 options. We could take a pain med like morphine (which I will never do again after Aubrey), we could get an epidural, but she swore it would slow down any labor I was having to a stop, or we could do a combination of pitocin and the epidural and it could POSSIBLY even each other out. Either way, she said we were in for a very long night. Rob and I decided on the Pitocin and epidural. That was started at 1:30am.With Aubrey, I had been in very strong painful labor for 21 hours before I had an epidural. I was in so much pain, that I don't really remember it. This time, the epidural was so painful, I needed a bowl because I was afraid of throwing up. Everything about it was horrible. But, it was a necessary evil because once it was done, everything felt better. Next thing I know, an hour and a half later at just after 3am, the pressure started. We got the nurse to check and I was 5 cm dilated and moving fast. So much for a long night. By the time my family doctor arrived to deliver Poppy, I was literally holding her in. It was 3:30am, 11 hours in, and I started to push. 20 mins and 3 big pushes later, Poppy arrived at 3:54am. She came out covered in vernix and looking more like a 37week old baby, not 38. But, she was a healthy 7lbs 2oz and 20 inches long. Such a petite little thing compared to her brother who was almost 9 lbs and 21 inches. The next week and a half have been a lovely blur of family time and baby snuggles.Why Poppy Ruth? Having a British family, and Aubrey's name being very old and proper, we were trying to find something that sounded right. My mom had gone to visit our family in England this Spring and when she came back, she told Rob and I about meeting a little girl named Poppy in London. It just clicked. That was her name, just like it did with Aubrey in Chapters, three years prior. As for the middle name, we believe middle names should be family names. Having named Aubrey after my grandmother, Poppy was to be named after Rob's mom Ruth. And so Poppy Ruth was created and we love it. She is such a Poppy too.Now for the entry into being a mother of 2. Wish me luck!