. . .induced.

It’s a tough question to answer. And one I don’t take lightly.This time we decided to go ahead and schedule an induction for July 18th, one week before my due date of July 25th. There were a myriad of factors we, Mr. Ferrero Rocher, the doctor and I, looked at before deciding.

My past labor and deliveries:

Daughter #1 – was born exactly one week early after my water broke and 10 hours of labor. She was 7lbs exactly.

Daughter #2 – born five days early after a five hour labor. She was 8 lbs. 12oz. BIG jump from daughter #1. I had to be on oxygen throughout labor and delivery. This was by far the hardest delivery I have had.

Daughter #3 – was scheduled to be induced three days after my due date but I ended up having contractions walking in to the hospital. No induction necessary. After a five hour labor she was born weighing 9lbs. I was never tested for gestational diabetes during this pregnancy but the doctor was pretty sure I had it. The baby had a hard time regulating her blood sugar after being born and she was SO BIG! I measured small (35 weeks) even though I was 40 weeks 3 days. This delivery was easier than the previous one, but not by much.

Daughter #4 – 5 days before my due date my water broke, an hour later the contractions started, two hours after that she was born weighing 8lbs. 9 oz.  I was border line gestational diabetes during this pregnancy. FAST labor and delivery. It was great!

Daughter #5 – I was scheduled to be induced one day before my due date. At 7:30 am the doctor decided to just break my water instead. She was born at 10:10am weighing 8lbs 4oz. Another fast labor and delivery. Perfect. I passed all gestational diabetes tests with flying colors this time around.

Daughter #6 – Went in for a doctors appointment 3 days before my due date. He asked if I wanted to have the baby that day. Sure! Walked over to the hospital straight from the doctor’s office. He broke my water at 3:30 pm. She was born a little after 6pm weighing a very light 7lbs 8oz. I passed all my gestational diabetes tests this go around too but was really good at watching my sugar intake throughout the pregnancy.

Daughters 1-6 were all delivered by the same doctor. Then we moved to a new town.

Son #1 (child #7) – I was borderline gestational diabetes again. We also live 40 minutes from town, 13 miles of it on a gravel road. Because of my history with fast labors I was induced using pitocin 2 days before my due date. After a 4 hour labor he was born weighing 8lbs 2oz.

Daughter #7 (child #8) – Borderline gestational diabetes again. Was induced with pitocin two days after my due date. After a five hour labor she was born weighing 8lbs 9oz. This time around labor wasn’t difficult but delivery was a little more so than usual as it had been three years since I’d had a baby and the previous three had all been smaller.

The labors with both of these medically induced deliveries was not any harder or more painful than the others. I have heard horror stories but so far I’ve never personally dealt with it.

Son #2 (child #9) – We decide I should be induced one week early. I already have a history of bigger babies but with my gestational diabetes the risk is even greater. All of my doctors have told me that technically my body isn’t designed to have babies weighing more than 8lbs. Ha! I’ve proved them wrong at least 6 times. 🙂  I’m guessing that this one will still be between 7 1/2 – 8 1/2 lbs even though he is coming a week early. I do worry about having one larger than 9 lbs. That was definitely close to my limit and my body could tell. Anything larger and the risk for a C-section sky rockets.

Baby is already in perfect position. My ribs are just starting to get sore from his kicks. There is still the factor of living further from town and having faster labors. My SIL has already had the experience of having a baby in the car and I don’t wish to follow suit, although I have had a few dreams lately of having this baby in the parking lot of the hospital!

The last factor we looked at was my doctor will be out of town from July 20 – 24. If I do go into labor on my own while he is gone there would be a different doctor delivering my baby. There are two other doctors here in town. I have been to one before when I had a miscarriage (my doc was out of town) and completely disliked him. There was no bedside manner, no sympathy or anything from him or his staff – completely different from my doctor. There is a 50/50 chance he would be the one delivering my baby and I DON’T want that. I’d much rather be induced and have my doctor there. He knows I know my own body and tells the nurses to let me do whatever I want. If I want to walk around or just stand, I can. No questions asked. We really like my doctor!

So there you go. The reasons we decided to go with being induced.

**just a note about my labors** When contractions start they have always been 15 minutes apart. Then they progress to about half that for a while. Suddenly they’ll drop to 2-3 minutes apart. When that happens the baby has always come within 20 minutes. I’ve seriously been blessed to only have about 20 minutes of hard labor every time, not enough to justify having any pain meds in my book, so I’ve never had them except with daughter #7 – and then, of course, they didn’t kick in until after she was born!

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