She's Here...and How I Got Her to Come Out!

The newest addition to our family arrived Saturday, December 13, at 2:39am.
Cecilia Rose Kok 

What a whirlwind!  We are in love.  

It is no coincidence that her birthday is 12-13-14.  

Our first daughter, Alexia, was due October 20th, 2012.  I went into labor on October 10th and Alexia was born the morning of October 11, giving her the birth date of 10-11-12.  

What were the chances of this happening with out second daughter?? Pretty good it seems! 

Baby Cece was due December 24th, 2014.  Based on my labor and deliver with Alexia, I had a C-section scheduled for December 17th, but I never made it that far!

I have many natural labor techniques that I employed at the end of both pregnancies.  Since Alexia was almost 2 weeks early, instead of waiting until 37 weeks to start my techniques, I started at 36 weeks with Baby Cece.  

The following are a list of natural induction techniques that I have personally tried.  I am not a doctor so please follow the instructions of your medical professional! 

I utilize each of the following techniques starting around 36 or 37 weeks of pregnancy:

• Pineapple - each day I consume several servings of fresh pineapple
• Figs - each day I eat 7 figs
• Raspberry tea - each day I drink 3 cups of raspberry tea
• Black Licorice - I eat several servings a day (this also helped with my heartburn too)
• Sex - self-explanatory 
• Walking - My daily goal is 10,000 steps/5 miles whether I'm pregnant or not! 
• Squats - I do 10 squats every time I go to the bathroom
• Spicy food - I try and eat moderately spicy food several times a week

Now, The Hubby started graduate school several months ago, and was finishing up a class this semester.  His exam was on December 10th, and he DID NOT want me to go into labor before then, but I persisted in my techniques, knowing that many natural remedies take a while to actually work.  

I even went so far as to schedule an induction massage with a masseuse who helps put women into labor or at least help them relax in the days before the big event! I had an appointment scheduled for Friday, 12/12 at 1pm which I concluded gave me the perfect opportunity to put Alexia to sleep one last time, go into labor, go to the hospital, and have a baby just in time on the 13th.  It didn't go exactly like that, but pretty close.

I started having contractions on Tuesday, the 9th, much to The Hubby's chagrin, as his graduate class final was the next evening! The contractions ended up being nothing, but it prompted me to finish packing my hospital bag, and make any final preparations.  Two days later, on Thursday, the 11th, I woke up feeling terrible - achy, had a headache, I described the feeling as having the flu - without the flu.  I was certain I would go into labor any minute now, so certain that I called and had my massage changed from Friday at 1pm, to Thursday at 7pm.  I made it to my massage, through the snow, and enjoyed an hour of relaxation where she massaged pressure points, and overall helped ease the aches and pains of 38 weeks of pregnancy.  I left feeling good...too good...I awoke Friday morning feeling good.  No aches, no headache, no flulike symptoms.  I thought maybe the masseuse had relaxed my baby into staying a couple more weeks! 

I continued to eat my pineapple, figs, black licorice, and drink my raspberry tea.  Even though my back hurt like crazy, I called some friends to see if someone wanted to join me walking the mall.  I met up a with a friend that morning at 10am and we did laps and laps around the mall for an hour and a half.  I went home, still feeling good, though maybe slightly more sore.  

At this point, I thought a birthdate of 12-13-14 was out.  It was the night before and I had no signs of labor starting.  BUT, around 10pm, contractions started coming fast and strong.  So strong, that I found myself crouched on the ground in weird positions to help with the pain.  I waited an hour, timing the contractions at every 2-3 minutes.  I called my OB and she told me to come in - this could be it! We called our "on-call" babysitters to come stay at our house and watch Alexia, and a friend arrived to sleep on our sofa until family returned to relieve him.  

Now, early in the week at my doctor's appointment, I had measured 2cm and 80% effaced, pretty good, but nothing if there are no contractions.  I didn't know what to expect when we arrived at the hospital. My contractions were still coming fast and strong, but when they checked me, I still measured 2cm! Womp womp!  

(With Alexia, I arrived at the hospital at 6cm and the pain I was feeling this time around felt the same, with contractions even closer together!)

Since I was scheduled for a C-section 4 days later, my doctor gave me the option of having a C-section then, or going through a "trial-of-labor" since I was in fact in labor, but far from 10cm.  I went to the hospital that evening not knowing if I would attempt a VBAC or not.  I would say it was a goal, but not at the expense of the baby or the rare instance of uterine rupture.  I also knew that methods of speeding up labor were not in my best interest since I had a previous C-section.  After a couple minutes of consideration, we decided to go ahead with the C-section, instead of laboring for hours with perhaps the same outcome.  

2 hours later I was wheeled into the OR, and 30 minutes later, we had a real, live baby girl on our hands!  What a whirlwind!  

I am not going to say that my techniques absolutely brought our baby girl out, but I certainly did not mind eating some pineapple, drinking some tea, and getting a relaxing massage, all with the goal of going into labor! 

We now have 2 daughters, with the easy-to-remember birth dates of 10-11-12 and 12-13-14 :)  And what a joy they are! - says the village idiot