While I’ve been learning first hand that no two children are the same, the same seems to be true of giving birth. When our first son, Nathaniel, was born, I had labored for nearly 30 hours, finally getting the chance to meet him after more than three hours of pushing. I was so exhausted my entire body was shaking and I could barely keep my eyes open. I now fall into the category of women whose second labors are much, much easier (thank goodness!).
Due on my dad’s birthday, February 1, Noah decided he would prefer to have his own special day, and in doing so also avoided his cousin’s birthday on the second. I went to see my doctor the morning of the second and was dilated to a “stretchy 3” with no contractions. It wasn’t until shortly after 9 p.m. on the second that the first contraction hit. I knew labor could take a long time to progress, so I laid quietly in bed for a bit wondering if I was actually going in to labor or if it would stop altogether. When the next two contractions seemed to come quickly I decided perhaps it would be wise to time them in order to get a feel for whether they were consistent. They were seven minutes apart.
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| 39 weeks pregnant |
At about 9:45 p.m. I put a call into Matt to let him know I didn’t think he needed to come home right away but that I was pretty sure labor had begun. He insisted he would come home. At around 10 p.m. I called my mom and we decided she would drive from their place to ours to spend the night with Nathaniel in the event we ended up going to the hospital, which we did around midnight.
Walking down the long hallway towards the labor and delivery unit labor didn’t feel real. This pregnancy had been so miserable physically. As we walked I remember thinking the contractions were painful, but they didn’t seem nearly as bad as I had remembered. I thought for sure they were going to send us back home. We were checked in at about 12:15, monitored for about an hour to see if I was progressing, then admitted shortly after. We were going to have a baby!
Shortly after being admitted I received an epidural, still feeling like the pain wasn’t as bad as I had remembered. Following that, labor was a piece of cake! I wasn’t feeling any contractions after the epidural and remember the nurses telling us to “get some rest”. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep and within a couple of hours asked Matt to get up because I thought I had felt my water break. Sure enough it had. The nurse came in to check my dilation and informed me I was a “10” and told me we could “push this baby out” as soon as the doctor was finished delivering the baby next door.
The doctor came in and a few pushes later (literally about four pushes later), I watched, still having full strength, as Noah, all 7 lbs 2 oz and 20 ½ inches of him, was born.
In the recovery room shortly thereafter I was delighted to have him in my arms and to feel better physically than I did even several days after Nathaniel had been born. Then I hemorrhaged. I wouldn’t call the experience dramatic for me but apparently I gave a nice scare to the staff and of course to Matt. I had a nurse in the room with me at the time it happened, doing a regular check of vitals, etc when all of a sudden I started loosing my vision. Within seconds of me telling her I couldn’t see anything suddenly couldn’t hear anything but muffled voices. The doctor ended up removing handfuls of blood-clots that had formed in my uterus, placing them on a baby scale to estimate the levels of blood loss. When the emergency was over I was thankful the labor and delivery had gone so smoothly and with ease because I was left feeling incredibly weak from the loss of blood, something that would take nearly two weeks to rebuild.
So, Noah is healthy, happy, and growing like mad and I’m nearly completely recovered. I’m so thankful my baby boy is here!
