On the morning of December 17th, 2016, we woke up much later than normal. My mom had kept Amelia overnight because we went out to dinner the night before so we didn’t wake up until well after 7am. When I went to get out of bed around 8 am, I noticed something strange and ran to the bathroom. My water broke, again! I was 38 weeks to the day- exactly when my water broke with Amelia (read Amelia’s birth story here)! I called to Joe that my water broke and that we should probably head to the hospital and then called the doctor. I was more anxious than I thought I would be, and was also really sad about not being able to see Amelia before we left, but I tried to calm down and pack some last minute things so we could head out the door as we had at least a half hour drive to the hospital. We face timed Amelia in the car (I’m pretty sure I cried through the whole call and for a bit afterwards) and we were there before I knew it.

Once we arrived at the hospital, got admitted and hooked up to the monitors, I had to get an IV almost immediately. Because I had tested positive for Strep B, I had to get started on antibiotics and was to get a dose every four hours until I had the baby so as to avoid it passing to him during the birthing process (turns out I was able to get 3 doses before he arrived- they like to get at least 2 in). I was still feeling pretty anxious and the IV honestly bothered me more than the actual epidural (I don’t like IVs anyway but this one was in my arm rather than my hand and it bothered me every time I moved- they actually took it out as soon as I moved out of Labor & Delivery and over to the maternity suites instead of leaving it in for the usual 24 hours because it was so inconvenient and, at this point, bruised), but once that was in I felt a little better. I was having really mild contractions but they were really irregular and I could hardly feel them so they started me on Pitocin pretty quickly, too. My doctor kept telling us that we would be having the baby by nighttime and I really didn’t believe him for a while, since I was in labor with Amelia for 22 hours, but they kept upping the Pitocin and I progressed pretty steadily and next thing I knew I was 5 cm dilated! I honestly still wasn’t in too much pain at this time, like only mildly uncomfortable, but I decided to call for the epidural then mostly because I was nervous that I’d miss my window of opportunity and not be able to get it if I progressed too quickly after that (I didn’t, but was glad once it was over and I felt so much more relaxed after so was happy I got it). I didn’t feel any more contractions once I got it and was pretty comfortable for the time being. I don’t think we slept at all because it was midday but luckily things were mostly uneventful. At one point I had to lay on my side for a while because they noticed the baby’s heartbeat was dropping a bit (nothing serious) and I, of course, was my typical nervous and anxious self, but things resolved on their own and we were ready to push soon after that. I knew because I started to feel an enormous amount of pressure, to the point that I thought the epidural stopped working, but I don’t think it lasted long before they got my doctor and told me we could start pushing. I remember asking how long they thought I’d have to push for because I wasn’t sure how long I could last (I know, the drama!) but he was out within 10 minutes! Having a baby is so surreal. Literally the whole time I was pushing, even though I’d done it before, I kept thinking that there was no way I could push out this baby. How amazing our bodies are! What an empowering, incredible, humbling, awe-inspiring, and beautiful experience. I couldn’t believe it was so quick (with Amelia, I pushed for 2 hours!)! They laid him immediately on my chest and I remember looking at Joe in disbelief that he was ours! He was perfect and we spent the next hour or so just cuddling him and talking about how lucky we were to have two beautiful babies (and that the NICU team wasn’t called in this time!).

Joseph James Monroe IV was born at 7:42 pm, 6 pounds 4 ounces, and 19 1/4 inches (also exactly how long Amelia was!)! Welcome to the world, sweet baby! We are all over the moon in love with you!

❤Britt