Kids

While it’s scary in the moment when you don’t know how things are going to play out, in hindsight my labor really couldn’t have gone any better.

For the majority of the time, I didn’t feel a thing and even when I did I thought it was manageable. The timeline was much speedier compared to Jackson, and while my blood pressure was initially a concern, it turned out to be fine throughout.

Pushing lasted about half an hour, a big improvement from 2.5 hours with Jackson!

This time around, I could feel when a contraction was starting so I had a better idea of when to push, rather than just relying on the machine (which apparently is a few seconds delayed).

At approximately 1:57 a.m., I thought I was just doing another regular push when I heard all the nurses reacting.

Wait, what’s happening??? Is the baby coming? Was the baby born?!

You’d think I know the answer. But I did not… and I’m pretty sure I even said that last one out loud…

Then I saw a baby in the doctor’s hands! And Justin announced: It’s a boy!!!

“No way!!!”

I was so surprised — I had been thinking girl — but was thrilled nonetheless.

“Another boy!!!”

I was also surprised that they then handed him straight to me. I wasn’t sure if that was really a thing or not. (Jackson had needed some immediate assistance so that didn’t happen with him.)

Enjoying our first little baby snuggles, I couldn’t get over how teeny his little body was.

He was perfect!!!

I tried to warn everyone that this was going to be awhile. Justin and I were certainly mentally prepared for the long haul. (Jackson, after all, took three days to make his debut!) But still the doctors and nurses were surprised when hours passed in the hospital without much action.

Apparently, among themselves, the nurses call it a “labor loser” — when they start their shift at 7 a.m. and don’t end up delivering the baby by the time they leave at 7 p.m. Sorry, Winona! Maybe next time you’ll bring home a W!

When we arrived at the hospital that morning, a big storm was brewing and Winona told us it was already a busy day on the labor and delivery floor. Something about the inclement weather, she said, draws more women into labor.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for me. But my induction was underway and the pitocin was rolling by about 9:30 a.m.

I was very happy that I did not have to come in the night before and get that dreadful balloon inserted — as I had to do with Jackson. Shaving off that time and jumping straight to pitocin sounded like a much better plan! But as with Jackson’s birth, I didn’t initially feel anything from the medication.

By around 3 p.m., I had maxed out and reached the highest allowable dosage.

“On a scale from one to 10, how would you rate your pain?” Winona asked.

“Zero.”

Sorry Winona!

The good news, though, is that I was actually making some progress during this time. I started out the morning at 2 cm dilated, and to my surprise, I gained another centimeter throughout the day, despite feeling totally fine. That eased my nerves because I was worried that nothing was happening at all, and we were just slowing inching toward a c-section.

Meanwhile, through the walls we could hear the distinct sound of a baby’s first cry.

“Up, there goes another one!” I said, pausing from my slow loop around the room with my IV in tow and yet another HGTV show on the television.

One by one the other moms came and went, and suddenly that busy day for L&D was not so busy any more.

For me, next up on the schedule was breaking my water.

The doctor came in for what I thought was just a cervix check. But next thing I know he grabbed a long rod and asked if I wanted him to break the bag — while he still digging around for my cervix. Ummm, what??? I couldn’t even breath, let alone think or ask a question or give an answer. Not exactly the right time for a discussion!

Thank goodness Justin jumped in. He asked if that would start the clock ticking for a c-section, which is what I remembered from Jackson and exactly why I was hesitant. The OB stopped — finally — and I could breath again. He said it’s 24 hours from the time you break your water, which is more time than I thought, but to me it still felt like we were so early in the process. It’s still Day One, and only the afternoon — we basically just got started! (Like I said, we were mentally prepared for the long haul.) So we put the brakes on that and waited a bit longer.

Around 6 p.m. he came back again, and this time I was ready. I had gained another centimeter during that time so I was now 4 cm dilated. Breaking the bag was not exactly comfortable because apparently no water (or at least very little) actually came out so he had to double-check to make sure it was done. In other words, it took twice as long as usual — but yes, it had in fact been broken.

So at this point, I was having contractions, just not feeling them. And my water broke, but nothing came out. How bizarre is that??!!!

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?”

Winona was back. It was just before 7 p.m.

“Zero.”

Sorry Winona!