To Induce or not to induce...

I had a wonderful pregnancy with Hunter. It was textbook. No complications, normal and stress free. Until the very end of my pregnancy.

My due date with Hunter was July 2nd. I was soooo excited for this day to come. I couldn't wait to meet the baby inside of me. But I did understand that due dates are not always accurate and don't mean baby will be here on that date. In fact I always had this gut feeling that I wouldn't have the baby then..I always felt that I would be pregnant past my due date.

Thanks to my mother's intuition I was right! July 2nd came and went and no baby. I hadn't had contractions or anything! I remember going to my weekly dr appts and praying that there was progress in the dilation area. Each time...nothing. My Dr finally told me that she would induce me if I wanted, but it wouldn't be until I was at least a week late. When talking with her I got the impression that she really didn't want me to induce. She wanted me to wait until 42 weeks to induce. But I did not want to wait until I was 2 weeks late! I was ready for this baby! We scheduled an appt for the following week and she said I would make the induction decision then. I'm not going to lie...I was disappointed. I remember getting to my car, calling my husband and crying. I was a hot mess.

See the thing was my husband and I decided early on to put all our trust into my dr and whatever she said we would do. I needed it to be this way. I don't trust people in general, but my Dr. I do completely trust. She has been doing this for over 30 years and delivered my husband and brother in law. My mother-in-law had difficulty having children and it was until she saw Dr. R that she had her 2 children. She always says she has her sons because of Dr. R.

So I was torn. My gut was telling me to be induced but my head was telling me to not go against my doctor. I had no idea what to do...

Why we didn't find out the gender of our baby

The biggest question I got during my pregnancy was...

What are you having?

And I would always respond with "a baby!" Then of course the person would say "Well yeah but is it a boy or girl?"

I would then say "We don't know because it's a surprise!"

When I said that I got several different responses from people...

Some people would say how they thought it was great that we were waiting to find out the gender while others were completely perplexed by this decision. They didn't understand why we would wait to find out when we could know now.

Honestly finding out the gender of your baby is a personal decision. But here are several reasons why my husband and I opted to wait...

1. Best surprise ever: I'll never forget hearing my Dr and nurses(who were my best friends during labor) yell out "It's a BOY!!". My husband and I looked at each other and grinned. When they placed that little boy on me I cried tears of joy!
2. You are already halfway there: By the time you can actually find out the gender you are already 20 weeks pregnant. That means that you have already waited 20 weeks without knowing. I didn't think waiting another 20 weeks would kill me.
3. Healthy baby: All that mattered to us was that our baby was healthy. Boy or girl...we didn't care.
4. Extra motivation: Labor is HARD! The hardest thing I've done in my life. The fact that I didn't know the gender of my baby made me that much more motivated to push him out! I was more focused and definitely think it's one of the main reasons I kept fighting when it got hard and didn't give up. I wanted to know if baby was a boy or girl!

5 things I would tell my pregnant self...

Being a new parent is probably one of the hardest things I've done in my short life. Don't get me wrong...it's wonderful...but hard! There is so much change in a short period of time. There is so much to learn in a short period of time. To be honest, there is nothing anyone can tell you when your pregnant that will really prepare you for those first couple weeks at home with baby. I thought I was going to be able to handle it well! How wrong I was! If I could tell myself 5 things I learned real quick during the first couple weeks as a parent here is what I'd say...


1. Get as much sleep as possible now.

        It's hard to get sleep in the last trimester of pregnancy but it's even harder to get sleep once baby is here! You will be up every couple hours feeding the baby or just trying to soothe baby back to sleep. Eventually you will forget what it was like to sleep past 5 am and what it was like to not fall asleep while watching TV at night. 

2. Do my research on breastfeeding.

          I was totally unprepared for breastfeeding. I thought that it would be sooo easy because its a natural thing. BOY was i WRONG! It was sooo not easy! While Hunter did latch on quickly....it was difficult for me to get him in a good position for both of us...and he sucked sooo hard! My nipples looked like a war zone. I ended up stopping breastfeeding after 1 week and started pumping. I wish I had kept with it and tried harder...maybe doing more research would have helped me be better prepared.

3. You think you are worried now...just wait!

      I'm a worry wart...i've been my whole life. I made a conscious decision when I found out I was pregnant to not worry and stress about being pregnant. I did a pretty good job of it and because of it I believe I had a good pregnancy. But that ALL changed once baby got here! It's like all the worrying I didn't do was bottled up and exploded once I had that baby! I was worried all the time the first couple of weeks! 

4. Give your baby a paci!

       Well this is my personal experience...but when I was doing my breastfeeding class I remember the lactation consultant saying that you can't give your baby a pacifier until after 2 weeks because it will cause nipple confusion. Well I absolutely wanted to follow that because that's what she said. I remember going to the pediatrician 3 days after Hunter was born and he was screaming and I was complaining about how my nipples hurt and i've been bleeding...she said "Why doesn't he have a pacifier? Babies like to suck...its calming for them". I told her what the lactation consultant said and she said it was fine and it wasn't going to mess with him. So I gave him the paci. Looking back I think that my breastfeeding experience would have been better if I had given him a paci since birth. Maybe my nipples would have felt a little better. lol

5. You cry at the drop of a hat but that's normal!

        Hormones are crazy after birth. I was an emotional wreck after baby was here and would cry all the time. It didn't matter what it was...I would cry. My husband would look at me and I would cry. I remember sitting with Hunter while he was sleeping on me and I was telling him how much I loved him and sobbed through it all. LOL