Natalie was born at 4:37 am on August 12 (her due date). She weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz (1 oz smaller than Olivia) and measured 21 in long (1 in longer than Olivia). Before I forget, I wanted to record the details of Natalie's birth. It was fast, intense, and different in almost every way from Olivia's birth.
For a few days beforehand, the Braxton Hicks contractions that I had had throughout my pregnancy started coming much more frequently. They were slightly uncomfortable, but not painful. This was my only real sign of "early labor". Starting Sunday morning (August 11), I began having contractions that were a little more uncomfortable and coming about every 10-20 minutes. Even these weren't enough though to keep us from going on about our day like normal. We ran out to Target and JoAnn's, stopped by Panera, and then went to my parents house to hang out. Sarah had just gotten into town from Chicago the night before so we wanted to visit with her. We all went out to lunch, then Sarah, Yusaku, Olivia, and I headed up to Town & Country to walk around a little in the hopes that we would encourage things to progress.
After this, we decided to head to the pool. It was a hot, sunny day and I figured (correctly) that it would probably be the last time I'd get to go for the rest of the summer. We followed up the pool with dinner with my parents and sister at their house. After dinner, we went for another walk...this time just around the block. Then, we headed home to put Olivia to bed. Right before I put Olivia to bed, I told her that maybe when she woke up, Maga would be sleeping in Daddy and I's bed and if so, that would mean Daddy and I had gone to the hospital to have Natalie.
 |
| the last picture of the three of us the night before Natalie was born |
Finally, around midnight I told my mom that it was probably better if she just came over now, so that I didn't have to wake her up in the middle of the night. She got to our house around 12:30 and at that point, Yusaku and I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. We walked for about a good 40 minutes. During this time, I called the midwife on call from my practice and talked her about when she thought would be a good time to come in. I also called Family Beginnings, the birthing center where we planned to deliver, to let them know that we'd probably be coming in within the next couple of hours. Even as we were walking, I was still in a pretty good mood. Yusaku was timing my contractions and they were coming about every 5 minutes (or a little less). For some reason, I was still having trouble believing I was actually going to have a baby soon. As the walk wound down, I was starting to need to stop during each contraction before continuing.
We got back home a little after 1:00 am. From then on, the contractions started coming much stronger and closer together. Yusaku called the doula around 1:30 and told her to start heading this way and that we would meet her at the hospital. Around 2:00ish, we left for the hospital. Unlike when I was pregnant with Olivia and walked in from the parking garage, this time I had Yusaku drop me off at the door before going to park. They knew we were coming since we had called ahead and I was met at the door by a woman with a wheelchair. I quickly "checked in" and was wheeled straight up to Family Beginnings. The fact that we didn't even have to make a pitstop at triage this time was awesome. They had a room all ready for us when we got there, with the birthing tub all filled up and ready to go. The nurse checked my blood pressure, the baby's heartbeat, and how far dilated I was (only 2 cm).
Shortly after, Lauren arrived. I tried sitting on the birthing ball and walking around the hallway before I decided I wasn't a big fan of doing either of those things. The contractions continued to come closer and stronger, feeling to me like they were just one right after the other with little break in-between. The nurse had told me that I couldn't get in the tub until she checked me again. They want to make sure you're at least 4 cm dilated before you get in the tub because otherwise you could get too relaxed (ha ha) and then your labor could stall. My doula told me that I could go ahead and get in even though I hadn't been checked by the nurse. She knew I was in active labor. Even though I don't usually like to break the rules, I went ahead and got in.
After a short while in the tub, I felt like my water had broken, so Lauren went to get the nurse to check me. The nurse told me I wasn't supposed to have gotten in before she checked me, but once she checked me and I was already 5-6 cm, she quickly let it go. This was about 4 am. I could kind of hear the nurse in the background giving directions to call the doctor and start getting things ready. As it turned out, the doctor on call wasn't able to get there in time. The resident on call showed up and was there for maybe 5-10 minutes before Natalie was born. The whole thing happened so fast. It was very painful and intense. Unlike with Olivia, where I pushed for an hour and a half; this time, I felt like my body just took over and I had no control. I just pushed involuntarily and with probably three pushes, she was out.
I remember opening my eyes just in time to see her floating up towards me. I grabbed and got to sit there and hold her for a few minutes before they cut the cord and took her away to clean her up and weigh her. As painful as it was, I'm glad that I was strong enough to be able to deliver her naturally. It was a goal I set for myself that I was a little nervous I wouldn't be able to achieve, but I'm proud that I did. I have found that physically, it's been much easier to recover this time around than it was with Olivia. I feel like I've been able to bounce back and feel more like myself more quickly, which is a good thing when you have an energetic almost three-year-old at home. :)
I'll end this post with pictures of all our visitors at the hospital.
No comments:
Post a Comment