The Reynolds Fam: Caroline's Birth Story!

Well our sweet Caroline is now 3.5 weeks old and I’ve been meaning to get to writing her birth story before it starts to slip from my foggy mind.

I raced from my office over to the OB for a routine appointment on Monday 3/14 at 11:15. I was expecting everything to be normal and to get back to my office for a meeting by 12:30. Caroline had other plans for us! I spent the majority of the appointment discussing induction vs going naturally and ultimately we decided just to wait for everything to happen naturally. The very last thing she did at the appt was check for her heartrate which oddly was around 110-120 which was not normal at all for Caroline. My doctor was somewhat concerned so sent me down the hall for a quick NST to make sure everything was fine.

The NST office felt like total déjà vu. I’m sitting there watching contractions on the strip every 3 minutes though they were not painful at all. I was texting Andy telling him I knew they were going to end up keeping me if only for all the contractions. Her heart was initially reactive but then was somewhat unreactive for the rest of the time. The doctor came back after about 30 minutes, showed me one spot where she had a deceleration and told me I needed to go to OB triage for further monitoring. She said that if they saying anything else then that would be ‘it.’ This made me cry because I thought she as implying a csection immediately but she quickly explained that’s not what she meant but that they would induce.

I headed over to the hospital, called Andy who ran home to grab the cord blood kit and called our nanny to throw a couple things into my hospital bag that I had not completed packing. At OB triage I continued having nonpainful contractions about every 3 minutes, was still dilated about 3-4cm which was unchanged. The attending there said that she had talked to my clinic doctor who felt they should keep me for an induction. Basically, they were like, you’re full term, we’ve seen two things that are somewhat weird with her heartrate so how awful would it be if you go home and something happens. We called Dad who also said the same thing and then ultimately decided to stay! I was excited when I found out that my regular OB would be the one there all night too J

Around 5PM they finally moved me back into a room in labor and delivery. After answering a ton of questions they started antibiotics at 6PM. I finished up tasks from clinic for a couple hours then settled in to watch the bachelor finale… haha J At 10 they started a very low dose of Pitocin that didn’t do a whole lot but their goal was to move her down a little prior to an epidural/breaking my water. At 1230, anesthesia was free from the OR so came to do my epidural. It was a second year resident, whose name was Dr. Doctor! Haha… he did a great job and it really wasn’t bad at all.

The pitocin got cranked up a bit while the epidural was kicking in and then the resident came in to break my water around 2AM. Everyone took predictions of when I’d deliver after that- Andy guessed 3AM, the nurses guessed after shift change… I had no clue. The numbness feeling was just so weird that I really had no idea what was going on. After breaking my water the resident said just to call when I wanted her to check me again or if I felt like I wanted to push. I told her that I couldn’t feel anything at all so I really wasn’t sure if that would happen but she assured me it would happen but to just try to take a little nap for now.

Andy settled in to nap but after about 20 minutes I was having a ton of pressure with every contraction. I didn’t know what to do so just laid there in the dark and tried to relax. I didn’t want to call and ask them to check me so quickly and nothing have happened. A nurse came in after about an hr to check on me and I told her I was having a ton of pressure with each contraction but she said to wait until the pressure was basically nonstop.

Around 4AM the resident came back in to see how things were going and said that she would go ahead and check me since I had delivered so quickly previously. Sure enough I was fully dilated though she said to wait to push until the attending came in from home. After only about 15 minutes the attending got there and they took a couple minutes getting all gowned up. After everything was ready they said to push with the next contraction and with one push, there she was, born at 4:23AM - 6 lbs 15 oz and 19.5 inches! She came out crying and they immediately handed her to me. We were so excited to meet her and I got tearful – I was just overwhelmed by everything and it’s just such an awesome thing to meet this little person that was in your belly just moments before. I do believe Andy got a little teary eyed also J I couldn’t believe how quickly it happened and was just relieved that she was there and seemed healthy!

We immediately thought she looked a lot like Harper, was very tiny and had a lot of dark hair. Holding those sweet brand new babies is one of the most special things and something I never forget about each of my kids. I especially love it after everyone finally clears out of the room and it’s just me and Andy and the babe J Such a special little time. We were exhausted not from the labor itself but just the process of being up all night getting antibiotics, epidural, etc. While it was totally different than delivering quickly like the other two, it was still a great experience. And I’m definitely on team epidural if there’s time!! Haha J

We took turns snuggling sweet Caroline and dozing off and on throughout the morning until all her visitors started pouring in. I was so excited for both of her big sisters to get there though they might have been even more excited than me. They both took turns holding her and kept saying how she was ‘so cute.’ They sang rock a bye baby and it was the sweetest thing J Caroline was so content and would kind of ‘purr’ leading to Harper deciding to call her ‘Caroline Kitty cat’.

We were released from the hospital the following day and I was so anxious to get home and get settled. Though being in the hospital seems like a total break from the real world I just do not rest well there at all so could not wait to get into my own house! The big girls were excited to have us all home and we were excited to settle into life as a family of 5!! J