Birth Story of #2

It felt like we had waited for the arrival of our newest blessing forever, my due date was the end of August and the date came and went without meeting our newest babe. The doctors would only let me go up to a week past my due date and since the date fell on a weekend, that pushed induction for Labor Day. This was not ideal for many reasons, one being that we and big brother were very anxious to meet the newest member of our family, and two being that my parents were coming in a few days. I didn’t want them to only get a day to meet him or her since that was a big reason why they were coming in the first place. Obviously they would still have enjoyed their visit getting to spend time with Mr. Blue and us, but seeing the new baby was their primary reason for coming - and due to my mom’s job this was the only time they were able to come. So now comes 4 days of feeling like we were on one wild roller coaster of am I in labor or not.

On day 1, things felt different and I was definitely having some contractions but nothing timeable. I called the on call nurse to see if what I was feeling was truly labor contractions or braxton hicks, since I had never gone into labor on my own before. She said it definitely sounded like things were happening but to sit tight until they were lasting about a minute long and consistently 3-5 mins apart. So we went to bed hoping to meet our newest family member in the next day or so. Nic was supposed to work up until the baby came, but the waiting game was driving us both crazy and he couldn’t focus so he took the rest of the week off. On day 2 the contractions had seemed to completely stop and I was going absolutely insane with the back and forth tease of contractions, and I was just done waiting - I wanted to meet my baby. The doctor’s office called and wanted me to come in for a check to see if I had progressed any further. I went in right away and had only progressed about a centimeter and still 80% effaced. Then the doctor, without asking, stripped my membranes which I had EXPLICITLY told her not to due to my previous experience with it. I was beyond upset and just extremely frustrated with the whole visit that day, to be honest she was not my favorite provider throughout the whole pregnancy but the others that I would have preferred were full in my due date time frame. She was also trying to see if they could get me in to be induced that day and as much as I really did not want to be induced it was starting to sound appealing. One being that baby would be here when my parents arrived, and two so that Mr. Blue could stay with our cousins during labor and delivery as I was extremely anxious about leaving him but knew he would be in the absolute best care with them. They decided to have me on a call list that if they had room they would have me come in to be induced, but the call never came. That night contractions ramped up, but again just as I thought they were getting consistent, they started to vary. So we went to bed.

Early in the morning on day 3, about 3-4am the contractions woke me up and were getting increasingly more intense. For about 2 hours that morning they were consistent and getting closer together - and then they just stopped. I was beyond frustrated, I just wanted to meet my baby. Then that afternoon the contractions started back up again. By that night they were definitely getting longer and closer together and we were getting to the point that we needed to decide - should we put Mr. Blue to bed and possibly have to wake him up or just take him to our cousins. We made the decision to just put him to bed since the previous nights nothing happened and we didn’t want to make our cousins have him any longer than they needed to. We got Mr. Blue to bed and then sat around trying to relax and prepare, then came time for us to go to bed but contractions were getting increasingly stronger, longer, and closer together. So, we stayed awake to time them, and keep an eye on things. Around 11pm I said to my husband, I’m thinking it’s time to go! I called my cousin and said we would be bringing Mr. Blue over while Nic got all of our stuff packed up and loaded into the car, then we woke up Mr. Blue and set off for our cousins place - good thing they were just right across the street. Fun fact, going over speed bumps while actively contracting is not enjoyable whatsoever! 

Once we got there they met us at the door so we didn’t wake their kids up and we took one last picture as a family of 3. Mr. Blue was most definitely still half asleep as we handed him off, but it made it much easier since it was extremely hard for me to leave him. But, we knew we were finally about to meet our newest baby and he was in excellent hands. On the short drive to the hospital we decided the silence and peace of just the two of us (and our cousins) knowing we were going to the hospital was kind of nice and we were not going to tell anyone we were going in. We had called ahead to let them know we were coming in and it was about 12:30am when we arrived. And here is where we start day 4. Once at the hospital we had our masks on but were given different ones once our temps were taken. Then we were taken up to the maternity ward to get checked in. The first room they put us in was to gather some basic information, check my progress to decide if they were going to keep me, and do the COVID test. The test was negative and I was 5cm so we were there to stay. They started my IV and took us to our next room - delivery! The admitting nurse was wonderful and our delivery nurse was so laid back and cool. We didn’t have to have our masks on the whole time, which was a huge relief for me. I opted to have an epidural as I was already pretty uncomfortable and exhausted from mostly not sleeping the past 48 hours. We had the best anesthesiologist, he explained what he was doing and why throughout the whole procedure which was very cool. Then it was time to relax and wait until I reached 10cm. They had me lay on my side with the peanut ball between my legs to help with progression and they would have me switch sides every so often to help speed it up. Unfortunately my progress had stalled so they started me on a little of pitocin. But, it worked quickly and the next thing we knew the doctor was on her way and it was time to start pushing. This sweet babe made delivery a breeze, I pushed for under 10 mins and less than 10 pushes and Nic joyfully announced we had another BOY. At 4:31am the Doctor laid this sweet baby boy on my chest and I was instantly overcome with so much love for yet another. Nic cut the umbilical cord while I just laid there in awe over this sweet child and nursed him for the first time. My handsome, big boy, came weighing in at 9lbs 10oz and 21.5in long - and absolutely perfect!  

We relaxed for a while and just reveled in the moment before being moved to our next (and final) room. It was about 6am and Nic and I were absolutely exhausted from the lack of sleep the past couple days, add in the exertion from labor and I was completely spent. We were also very hungry so we were able to order breakfast since it had finally opened up for orders for the day. We had hoped to be able to eat and then get some rest, but boy were we mistaken! Between the nurses coming in to check on either me or baby boy, we didn’t get more than a couple hours of sleep - practically the whole time we were there. So after we ate we video chatted with the grandparents to surprise them as we hadn’t told anyone we were at the hospital. We started it as a ruse that Mr. Blue had something he absolutely needed to show them. They were overjoyed! From then, we shared the news with the rest of our family and friends. For the remainder of our time in the hospital we still barely slept. It was still the onslaught of nurses and doctors coming in for me, or baby, hearing codes on the intercom, nursing baby boy, just one thing to the next. I had never wanted to leave a place so badly. At least the food was amazing and I ordered a dessert (or 2) with every meal - a breastfeeding momma’s gotta eat!

Finally came the time for us to leave (day 5). I was very anxious to get home. Not only to be out of the hospital and hopefully get some sleep, but to see Mr. Blue and have my two boys finally meet! Unfortunately, leaving was not happening as fast as we would’ve liked. They were incredibly slow with getting discharge papers and everything and we thought we were well on our way to getting out of there - he had seen the last doctor but then a new doctor came in and said oh that was just the resident, we’ll get your discharge started now (a whole 2 hours later, when we thought we would be getting out within the hour). Needless to say I was not at all happy, my parents were currently in the air on the way there and I wanted time to be able to go home and get settled, maybe take a nap before going over to pick up Mr. Blue, and then give them some time before my parents arrived. As it goes, life had other plans. We got home, introduced our dog to the newest baby, got unloaded, and Nic immediately went over to go pick up Mr. Blue. As soon as he got home he ran right to baby brother and wanted to squeeze him (don’t worry, we didn’t let him squeeze too tightly, we let that wait a couple months). He just wanted to hold his baby brother for the rest of the day and show him allllllll of the toys. He still wasn’t sure why Mr. Orange couldn’t play with the toys with him. We had about 45 mins for the two of them to get to know one another and then Grandma and Grandpa W had arrived! They spent a week with us, but stayed at my aunt’s house to give us some space, and we just got to enjoy each other’s company and they got to love on their grand boys. They left and a few days later, the next set of grandparents came to meet the newest baby boy. In hindsight, we think it may have all just been too much for Mr. Blue - and me to be quite honest, it was a lot of commotion and changes all within a short time span and did not give him adequate time to try to process it all - but that’s just how it was and we just knew for next time to NOT do it that way. All in all, we had a pretty good birth experience and were looking forward to settling in as a family of 4 and finding our new rhythm.   

XOXO, mischief managing momma  

Oldest (1)- Mr. Blue

Middle (2) - Mr. Orange

Youngest (3) - Mr. Green