I thought I would write about R’s birth story. It is, in fact, a short one. The night before his birth JD and I went out on a “date night.” I thought that we would soon be home bound with a newborn, so I was trying to get JD and I out and about a bit before having the baby. Upon coming home, our baby-sitter asked how I was feeling – any indications if the baby was coming – I laughingly told her that no, I was feeling fine and no birth twinges – that we would have to force this baby out! JD took her home and I settled in and walked the dogs. Later that night, at about 2 a.m., my back was hurting and I had to go to the bathroom. When I came back to bed I was really uncomfortable. Contractions started almost immediately after I returned t the bed. I was thinking that they were the fake kind, so I tried to go back to sleep. These contractions were very close together, very hard, and were not stopping, so I woke JD at about 2:30 and asked him to begin timing them. He rolled back over and went back to sleep. At least that was what it felt like – I believe that he was actually watching the clock each time. Unlike with C, where we kept meticulous notes, and tracked every contraction to the minute, this time JD just kind of kept an eye on the clock. We are totally second time parents this go around!

At about 3:15 a.m. JD suggested we call the midwife and let her know the contractions were running about 5 minutes apart. We called the midwife who told us we should come on into the hospital. At this point, I started to get nervous and re-think the whole having a baby idea (too late!)…I called our babysitter, who we had on call for the last couple of weeks, to come over and stay the night with C, if we had to leave during the night. She and her mom had her here by around 3:30 and we left for the hospital.

We live very close to the hospital, so we got there less than 10 minutes later (2 big contractions later) (side bar – I don’t know how women who live further away from the hospital stand the ride – it was hard and I felt every bump in the road)…We got checked in and I got checked out. I was about 4-5 cm and needed some pain medicine. Another note, I believe in the epidural – a happy mom makes for a happy baby. The doctor came in about an hour to an hour and half later to give me the epidural; I was about 6 cm along at this point. They asked JD to leave the room, so that they could give me the paid medicine. The nurse helped hold me in position. At this point my contractions were really painful and I was having a very hard time. Unfortunately, the epidural did not work all of the way. My legs became numb, but they could not get the medicine to come up to my hips/pelvis area – where I really needed the assistance. My right hip was in a lot of pain – the baby was on that side and also they had me lying on that side to get the medicine to go to that side.

I was in a lot of pain. I was very uncomfortable with each contraction, it felt like I couldn’t breathe and between each contraction I was so busy worrying about the next one that I couldn’t calm down. Fortunately, a nice nurse came in and talked to me and taught me to breathe through the pain of each contraction. I was so glad that she was so calm, that it helped me calm down. About 45 minutes later, the doctor was sure the pain meds were not working, he suggested doing another epidural, higher on the back, to get the medicine to come up through my hips. We did it – I needed the help to get through the labor.

At about 7:15 a.m. the midwife came to check on me. I was very far along and she suggested that we try to have the baby soon – that it was time. She went to check on another patient, came back, and suggested we try to begin pushing. We did. We joked in the room that we should try to have the baby by 8:02 a.m. (we had C at 4:12 a.m. on 4/12, so we were trying to match that!). I pushed and the nurse told me I would need to work a little harder to get the baby out by “our” time – we missed the time, but we had the baby at 8:13 a.m. – after only 13 minutes of pushing. This labor was different than the labor with C, because by the time it was time for me to push the epidural was wearing off – I could feel more pressure and knew better when to push, unlike with C, the doctor’s had to tell me when to push by watching the contractions on the monitor. Also, this time, I felt the “ring of fire”; at that point there is nothing you want more than the baby to get OUT!

We had R at 8:13 a.m. and got to spend a bit of time with him before they took him to the nursery. I got to hold R, kiss him, and check him out. He was a sweetie and looked adorable. He was not too happy to be “out in the world”…Because the baby was so large, he had to go to the nursery quickly for a blood sugar check. The same had to be done with C, so I was prepared for it. We had to stay in labor and delivery at least until the epidural wore off and then would be transferred to the maternity side. This took a bit longer for me because my legs were basically numbed twice! There was also a back up on the maternity ward side; there were no beds available. The heat was putting a lot of women in labor, as there was a shortage of beds on the labor and delivery side too!

A few hours later I was transferred to another room – a triage room while I waited for a bed on the maternity side. The nurse suggested that I order lunch, so I did to the triage room. I had not been brought the baby back to me yet. I asked the nurse about it, and she said she would have him brought to me. Then another nurse came in and said I was being moved to labor and delivery soon, so I guess the first nurse decided to wait. Meanwhile, my lunch went to a different room – and was sent back down to the cafeteria – and my transfer “soon” to the maternity side of the hospital still had not happened.

Finally around 3 p.m., I got transferred to the maternity side and again asked about my missing lunch and baby. At this point, I had not seen R since about 8:30 that morning, and I was worried about him. I just wanted him to be with me. I kept driving JD nuts asking about him and if he was OK. Upon entering my room, I immediately asked for them to bring me the baby and re-ordered lunch. Both were brought to me around 4 p.m. I was pretty upset that they had kept R so long in the nursery. The nurses had spent more time with him than me. The nurse that brought him to me told me what a sweet baby he was and how she got to feed him twice – not what a new mom wants to hear. I was very upset. I grabbed him from her and basically asked her to leave. I just wanted to get to know my baby at this point! I called family and friends to let them know about the baby and it felt weird to be answering questions about him when I hadn’t seen him all day! Finally I started feeling better and was getting to know the baby. JD returned and brought C and our baby-sitter to meet him. Our baby sitter’s mom stopped by and life started to feel better. R was very sleepy in the hospital and was not hungry or fussy.

Our baby-sitter ended up spending the day, the night, and most of the next day with C. She was awesome. She is great with C and really put my mind at ease while I was in the hospital. I was (and still am) so grateful for that. We were able to go home with R a day early, so late on Friday, after he was discharged. It was wonderful to be home. I was still tired and sore, but gathering home with all my men around me was just what I wanted…

And that is how R became a member of our little family…