Ford’s Birth Story

I’d read and heard all about how your second baby comes faster than the first, but I never imagined it would happen quite as fast as it did with Ford.

While I was fortunate to have my delivery with Callie go exactly as I’d hoped (natural, unmedicated birth), things were quite the opposite this second time around.

His due date was November 9th, so I decided to work through the end of October and start my maternity leave on November 1st - giving me a little over a week to finish prepping for his arrival. I was mostly hoping to make it through Halloween so we could trick or treat with Callie, but our little guy had other plans.

Read on for a timeline of baby Ford’s arrival:

Tuesday, October 31st

2:45pm - My contractions started just as I was wrapping the day up and sending my last emails out. I sent Chris to pick Callie up from school and started to time the contractions to see how things were progressing.

(I used this free app in both pregnancies and found it to be so useful in the midst of contractions. I recommend it to all expecting mamas: https://apps.apple.com/app/id877303791)

For my first pregnancy, the doctor recommended heading to the hospital when contractions were 4-5 minutes apart but for second/subsequent pregnancies, 5-7 minutes apart.

I did my best to gather my things and get ready to go in between the contractions but spent most of my time in the bathroom, breathing through each wave and ultimately throwing up my lunch, which happened during contractions with Callie as well.

3:30pm - By the time they were back from pickup, my contractions were already 4-5 minutes apart so I told Chris we needed to go ASAP. He immediately started loading the car, called his mom to help watch Callie and called the hospital to let them know we were on our way.

Luckily, my mother in law lives just a few neighborhoods away so she was at our house within minutes. She also took Callie trick or treating with my mom later that evening which I was so grateful for.

My mom then stayed with Callie and helped watch her for the rest of the week with my dad while we were at the hospital.

4:15pm - We were out the door and racing to the hospital. My contractions were so intense that all I really remember from the drive was looking at the speedometer and hoping we wouldn’t get pulled over (or else we’d have ourselves a cop chase all the way down to those hospital doors!).

4:45pm - We pulled up to the front of Saddleback Women’s Hospital and were greeted with a wheelchair ready to bring me up to labor and delivery. With contractions already so close together, they skipped the routine triage and took me straight to one of their birthing suites.

As soon as the nurse checked me, she announced I was fully dilated and more surprisingly, that she did not feel a head!

You can imagine how shocked I was to hear this, considering baby had been head down in each of my weekly appointments leading up to this (he was still head down at my 38-week check on the Friday prior).

They called in a doctor for a second check and sure enough, he confirmed that baby was breech. In the midst of it all, I asked if I should start doing some bridges to try to get him to flip… unfortunately, it was a little too late in the game for that.

At this point, they immediately started getting me ready for a C-section (which I had just told Chris on our drive down that I was 100% ok with if it meant the safest delivery for me and for baby). Next thing I knew, I was being wheeled down to the operating room.

5:00pm - Not expecting to deliver by C-section, I really didn’t bother to read or learn much about them. What I did know was that most C-sections are performed while the mother is awake with an epidural AKA local anesthesia from the waist down.

Because I was progressing so quickly, we didn’t have time to wait for the local anesthesia to kick in. I remember being told not to push while receiving a general anesthesia to knock me out for the procedure.

5:16pm - Ford Paul Violas was born. Our healthy, strong boy was delivered at 7lbs 9oz and 19 inches long.

I am beyond grateful for Dr. James and the team at Saddleback Memorial for taking such good care and keeping Ford and me healthy and safe throughout the entire process (special shoutout to our nurse, Jenner, who was also there for me two years ago in Callie’s delivery!).

We’ve been enjoying these sweet first weeks with him and adjusting to our new life as a family of four. Planning to share more about my own recovery in a separate post soon - stay tuned!