Archer Louis Reimer

Archer Louis Reimer arrived November 13th, 2017.  It was no surprised, as I knew I was being induced that day.  My doctor was very kind to me and since I was pretty adamant about not having two babies with the same birthday, agreed to induce me.  She was pretty confident that once she broke my water the contractions would quickly follow and baby would come quickly.  I was super nervous about being induced, but I was so ready to get the baby out, and her confidence gave me confidence!  I had been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions and was hoping I just needed a little something to push them over the edge.  Although I had been running almost 3 miles several times a week trying to induce labor and that didn't work!  The day before I was induced I walked hills while pushing the kids in a stroller, then walked an additional 9 holes pushing Brian's golf clubs for him and still nothing! 

 

Brian and I arrived at the hospital at 7am and I had told Brian that if my water wasn't broken by 8am I would be super disappointed.  Once we arrived we had a little paperwork to fill out, and I was check to see how dilated I was - a 3.  Dr. Scott (who delivered Keegan) came in the room and broke my water immediately.  No turning back from there!  Brian and I started walking the hallway of the maternity ward to keep things moving.  We would do about two laps around the floor, then stop at our room and I would go in and do about 10 squats....working with gravity!  After about an hour of that (and my legs feeling like complete jello!) the nurse stopped us and check me again.  4 cm!  They decided that I needed to be started on Pitocin, so they started that and we kept walking laps.  While we were walking we were trying to decide on a girl game....Brian wanted Taylor and I wanted Rayna.  So we were walking and fighting it out and finally decided we would just wait and see what happened...maybe we wouldn't need to fight about it anway!  Another hourish of walking and still not much.  I was having contractions but they weren't even slowing me down while walking.  The nurse decided to crank up the Pitocin, so we upped the dosage and kept on walking.  I think we made it about 3 laps and I could really start feeling the contractions.  Another few laps and I was having to stop walking to breathe through them.  Finally, I told Brian I couldn't walk anymore so we stopped in the room.  Already I was in a lot of pain!  We were in the room breathing through contractions (and I think Brian was watching Moneyball!) and I decided it was some time for Fentanyl around 11am. That really helped me with Keegan so I was really looking forward to that.  Well, it didn't work.  The nurse said that since I was on Pitocin the Fentanyl probably wouldn't work.  AWESOME.  At this point they turned the Pitocin off - it seemed to be doing its job and the contractions were pretty intense.  I was asking for more pain meds, so they decided to check me to see how far along I was.  I was in between a 7 and an 8, so everyone started telling me I didn't need more pain meds, I would be pushing in just a little bit and there wasn't enough time for more meds.  So...after some coaching from Brian and the nurse, it was time to push.  I think I pushed three times and the baby was in my arms!  It seemed like an eternity before someone told me that it was a boy!  Archer Louis was here at 12:25pm and healthy as could be!