Baby Story #2

This seems an appropriate day to start typing this since I was pregnant with baby #2 ten years ago today when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked.  In fact, the very week that the attacks happened was when I first started feeling the little guy bopping along in my uterus.  To be experiencing that exciting proof of new life while watching all the deaths on the news every day was tear-wrenching indeed.

So, here is how it all went down with baby #2.

I will start with February18--President's Day.  It was first day of my official maternity leave, a week until my due date, and I had my weekly appointment.  I got to my appointment, and my belly was bulging on the right side, so the baby seemed to be in a weird position (normally I bulged to the left).  The nurse had a tough time finding a heartbeat.  Then when she felt my belly, she was having a hard time figuring out the positioning of the baby.  After much internal poking and prodding (while pushing DOWN on my belly), she announced that I was 2 cm, but she just couldn't figure out the position of the baby's head.  So, she sent me to get an ultrasound.

The baby's head was down, no problem.  So...whew!  OK, there!  The sonographer said baby was about 7 lbs, 6 oz and everything was golden.

Tuesday, I had DD1 home from the day care because she had a fever.  We hung out in our PJs all day.  I shampooed the rugs (nesting, anyone?).  DH came home from work exhausted and took a nap.  I put Mary to bed, took a shower, and stayed up to read.  And fell asleep on the couch.

Around 10:30 or so, I woke up and decided to head to bed.  But I felt as if I had to go to the bathroom (kinda crampy).  I was not too successful with the bathroom trip, so I decided to get a snack.  But instead of being a smart pregnant lady and grabbing an apple, I was a craving pregnant lady and grabbed the salt and vinegar ships.  Anyway, my back was feeling kind of "funny," so I decided to do a couple of those pregnancy back exercises (trying to prevent another posterior birth!).  I still felt weird, but I decided to try to sleep again.  I couldn't sleep and the next bathroom trip resulted in a bloody show.  OH!!!!  It was around 11-11:30, I woke up DH and told him I thought we might be having a baby soon.

I lay back do, but then very gradually, I started feeling contractions.  I started timing them around 12:20.  I nudged John and told him I was going to pace the floor downstairs to make sure they were the real thing.

It was after 1:00 AM when I asked DH to come down and help me time the contractions.  They were three minutes apart lasting about 40 seconds.  After another half an hour, I had DH call the answering service while I got dressed and got a few things ready.  Within minutes, the doctor called back.  I made DH answer the phone because another contraction was hitting, and I was to the point where I couldn't talk through them anymore.  The doc said to come on in to the hospital.

DH and I immediately started calling our day care provider/friend to wake her before we took DD1 over there as arranged.  We called and called and no one answered the phone.  She did say that if this were to happen, we should just drive right on over and pound on the door if it was locked.  It was just after 2:00 AM when we finally woke up DD1 and packed her and everything else into the car.  She was NOT happy.  "Put me down!  Put me down!" she kept crying--poor kid!

We drove over to our friend's house and John started pounding on the doors while I kept calling from the cell phone.  No answer!  I finally decided to put the back-up plan into effect.  My boss lived just around the corner--but I didn't have her number on me!  I DID have a co-worker's number, so I eventually got it.  The boss answered--yay!--so we headed over there.  Poor DD1 had such a pouty little look on her face when we left her--like, "How could you do this to me?"

It was getting close to 3:00 AM when we finally got on the road to the hospital.  I started timing contractions again--2 minutes apart!  I also had to change my breathing method as the relaxed breathing was no longer helping (I wonder how much of the STRESS of finding a place for my older kid contributed--LOL).

So, it's quite a haul from our place to the hospital, and we're going 55 down a 40.  You know what comes next.  Yep, we got pulled over.  I'm sitting there trying to breathe through a contraction, and DH is getting all white-knuckled while we wait for the cop to get to the window.  "Hey, how you guys doin'?"  DH, "Well, I'M fine, but my wife's in labor!"  The cop shines his flashlight at me.  I just raise my hand and smile weakly, "Hi."  Cop, "BYE!  Drive safely!"  And we were off again!

So no more impediments on our trip to the hospital, thank goodness!  After we finally found the triage room (yeah, we never got around to visiting this new hospital), and I get my belly buckled into the band, and questions answered ("What was the last thing you ate?"  *blush*  "Salt and vinegar potato chips."), the resident checks me, and I'm at five centimeters!  "Do you want anything for the pain?"  "I want this to be as natural as possible."  "Well, good!  It probably won't take long since your first labor wasn't very long."

We get settled into a room, and the nurse starts the jacuzzi, but it's taking FOREVER.  The water was a funny rust color she didn't like, so she kept letting it out while trying to get the water to run clear--all the while apologizing to DH and me while we're "hoot-heeting" away.  She did give me a heating pad to put on my back and help with the pressure.

DH was great.  He's feeding me ice chips and rubbing my back.  My contractions are so painful now that we switch to a new random method of breathing we'd learned at our childbirth refresher course.  It really helped me a lot

The doctor makes an an appearance sometime during all this.  She's so wonderfully bubbly, I like her right away (I had seen her once during my pregnancy with DD1, but not with this pregnancy).  She reassures me that the birth will go pretty quickly.

I had read somewhere that 2nd labors are usually around 20% shorter in duration than first.  So, I'm figuring in my head that I should give birth around 7:00 AM or so(?).  Yeah, math isn't my strong suit to begin with, but to try it while in labor????  Whatever, it gave me a GOAL, you see!

The nurse finally gets the jacuzzi water the proper color and temperature.  Ahhhh....the power of jettisoned water!  (And it didn't turn green!)

I don't think I was in the tub very long (an hour?  I dunno.), when I started feeling nauseous during contractions and just felt so uncomfortable that I decided to get out.  I got on the bed.

When the nurse came in again, I asked to be checked because I was curious.  The resident came in.  "You're at eight centimeters!"  Wow, already?  She asks if I'm feeling the urge to push.  I'm not sure yet since I'm really only feeling the pain of the (now seemingly non-stop) contractions.

I remember trying to check the clock, but DH told me not to look.  Hey, I needed to check for my sanity's sake!  I had estimated a 7:00 birth, and here it was 5:30.  I needed the reassurance that time was actually passing and that I was actually going to "make it."  Only an hour and a half to go!

The resident decides that it's time to go ahead and break my water.  I warned her that the LAST time my water was broken at 8 cm, I ended up having to push RIGHT AWAY.  She breaks my water and says that there is a "tiny" bit of merconium in the water.  Oh great.  Once again, the baby will be swooped off to be checked immediately and DH won't get to cut the cord.  Anyway, as predicted, as soon as she broke my water, I felt the urge to push.

The resident let me make an attempt to push to see if I could "push past" the last two centimeter.  I didn't, but she said it would be anytime.  She leaves to go fetch the doctor and start setting up for the birth.  The nurse stays behind and helps me concentrate through my transition period.  By now the urge to push is so strong, I'm afraid of a repeat of DD1's scary birth!  The nurse has me flip over to my side and tells me to "grunt through the contractions if you have to."  I also try to panting, but she insists I stick to the breathing pattern DH and I were using.  My legs are shaking uncontrollably, and I'm trying not to panic.  But the nurse tells me I'm doing wonderfully.

Finally the doctor and resident come back in.  I hear something about "pushing past that last little bit," but I didn't catch it all.  All I know is they set up shop and let me start pushing again.  The nurse has a hold and my right leg and DH has my left.  The resident even lets me put my left leg right up against her hip to keep it as far back as possible.

I probably pushed for about 15 minutes or so?  It was so different from my labor with DD1.  When I had to push her out, I didn't feel anything because of the local anesthetic from the episiotomy.  This time, I had had no drugs and could feel the burning/tearing as the baby started coming out (I learned later that's why they call it the "ring of fire"!)  It kind of scared me.  I know I asked the doctor twice if I was dilated all the way and if it was OK for me to push.  "Yes!  You're doing wonderful!"  but the burning was so bad, I started yelling, "It hurts, it hurts!"  Doc, "I know, but you're doing great!"

When the baby crowned, the doctor exclaimed, "Look at all that hair!"  She let me reach down to touch the baby's head to feel it.  After a few more pushes, the head was out.  Maybe two more, and out came the rest.  I heard the baby cry right away.  Doc, "Dad--what is it?!"  DH looked and exclaimed, "It's a boy!"  I sat up and looked at the baby.  He was laying on the foot of the bed and wet and purply and crying!  What a wonderful site!

Yes, he got swooped away, but just like with DD1, DS was just fine. 

DS was born at 5:58 AM on Wednesday, February 20.  He weighed 7lbs, 7oz and was 20.5 inches long.

(I still think it's cool that the sonographer was able to estimate almost to the OUNCE how big he was!)