NOTE: I had no idea how long this post would be. I wrote it all mostly so I would remember everything, so it will not hurt my feelings at all if you just skim through it and just look at the pictures. It's what I would do.
It's funny how different this time was compared to when I had JJ. With JJ, my water broke so we called the doctor, grabbed our bag, and headed to the hospital. From the time my water broke until he was born was about six hours, and 90 minutes of that was pushing. He had the cord wrapped around his neck and body, so every time I pushed he went into distress. It became crucial that they got him out, so the doctor used the vacuum and he was almost black when he came out. I held him for a second and then he was whisked off by the nurse. He was fine, but it was still scary. The thing I remember most about it was how loud and chaotic it all seemed to be. Jared was yelling for me to push and there seemed to be a lot of people rushing around all of the time. In the end, however, we ended up with a handsome, healthy baby boy.
Addison's birth was so different. I went to the doctor on Tuesday, the 25th, to see if I had dilated any further from the previous week's visit. I had been having fairly regular, but mild, contractions, so I was expecting good news. My doctor said that I had progressed a little bit, but the baby was still pretty high. She said I shouldn't expect to have the baby any time soon and that she would see me next week. She even talked to us about when she would induce me, if necessary. Although I was disappointed, it was a little bit of a relief because it was so hard thinking that I could go any day and having that kind of anxiousness all of the time.
The next day, Jared stayed home from work because he wasn't feeling well. I continued to have contractions, but they were still pretty mild. We had a lazy day, spending most of it watching Netflix and laying on the couch. As the day progressed, my contractions were getting stronger, but I didn't think much of it because the doctor had said it would still be a while....
By around 7pm, the contractions were definitely stronger. I told Jared it might be a good idea to start timing them, just to see how frequent they were. Meanwhile, I did some laundry, gave JJ a bath, and even painted my toenails. By 9pm they were about 7-8 minutes apart and lasting between 45 and 60 seconds. At 10pm they were 6-7 minutes apart, and by 11pm they were 5-6 minutes. At 11:30, they were 4-5 minutes apart and lasting between a minute and 90 seconds. And it hurt! I was in a lot of pain, so Jared called and talked to the on-call doctor to see if we should go to the hospital. She said that because I was only 37 weeks and 5 days, it was still a little early to have the baby. She told me to get into the tub and see if soaking for awhile would slow the contractions down. It did not. They continued to get progressively worse until they were about 3-4 minutes apart and lasting up to two minutes. I was in more pain than ever and I knew it wasn't going to stop. Jared thought the same thing and told me to get out of the tub because "we are not having a baby in the bathtub."
By now, it was about 1am on Thursday. We called my mom and asked her to come over and watch JJ. When she got to our house, Jared warmed up the car and threw our bag inside. As we drove to the hospital, I kept hoping that I really was in labor, because I was going to feel pretty dumb if I wasn't. When we got to the hospital, we went in through the ER and I just stood there because it hurt too bad to even move. They brought me a wheelchair and took me up to Labor & Delivery triage so I could be evaluated and see if I was progressing enough to admit me.
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| Ahhh...epidural. |
Shortly after, I was moved to a Labor and Delivery room and they called the anesthesiologist, got my IV started, and got me hooked up to everything. The anesthesiologist, who was awesome!, came in around 4am and gave me an epidural.
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| Our beautiful baby girl. |
After the anesthesiologist left, they checked me again and I was at 8cm! About ten minutes after that, my water broke. The nurse said we would try and wait for my doctor, who should be at the hospital around 8am to start her rounds. She also warned me to let her know if I felt any pressure and the urge to push. I started to relax and watched TV while Jared slept. The nurse came back in around 5:30am and I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure. She checked me and said that the baby's head was right there, so we wouldn't be able to wait any longer. She went and called the doctor and got one more nurse to help her set everything up. The doctor came in, I pushed about six times, and at 6:08am, Addison's head came out. I gave two more soft pushes and the rest of her came out. No tearing or anything. It was that easy!
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| One happy mama! |
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| JJ loves his Nana and his baby sister. |
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| Sitting with Grandpa and big brother JJ |
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| She's ready to go home. |
