On March 24th, at 38 weeks, I got my last prenatal massage and got ready for 5 days of jam-packed family time as my sister, brother in law, and nephew were set to arrive the next day. We had an awesome weekend and sat around my oldest sister's dining room table on Monday night taking guesses at baby F's due date, height and weight. Dennis guessed March 29th saying "I know he's going to come in March" and we all gawked at him thinking he was a crazy person. March 29th was only
2 days away! I guessed April 1st, thinking for sure this was my little April baby. That night we got home and I was an emotional wreck. Crying for no coherent reason and sending a passive aggressive text to my husband after I went to bed so he would come up and comfort my crazy hormonal roller coaster. I went to sleep, knowing I had meetings in the morning at work and I needed to not be a complete shit show.
Well, I didn't have a bag packed when I woke up Tuesday March 28th and went to the bathroom, only to find that after I had finished I still had a stream of
something coming out of my body. A little toilet paper test told me that this liquid was clear as water and I couldn't help but get at little excited and insanely nervous. I took a shower and proceeded to get ready for work. We had a false alarm a few days before I went into labor with Duke and I sort of thought this was the same thing. I had a meeting 8:30 and 9 a.m. so I didn't really have time to go check it out beforehand. I woke Dennis up and told him that things had been "weird" so far this morning and something might be happening. He was not picking up on my ridiculous clues so I finally just said ''Did you hear me?! Things have been WEIRD. I'm just saying something might be happening today." I pulled a bag down from the closet and started throwing clothes into it, went to the basement and brought the newborn clothes up to our bedroom so I could grab a few outfits to throw in, and kissed Dennis goodbye, told him to keep his phone close and walked out the door.
I was going to be late for work but still went through the McDonald's drive-thru for a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit
{a super healthy addiction that carried me through this pregnancy} and a medium coffee. I pulled into the parking lot at work at the exact same time as my boss and told him I was a little slow moving when he asked how I was feeling. We walked down the hall and turned our opposite directions to head to our offices and as soon as I got to the corner to turn down to my office I felt a huge gush of water. I immediately stopped and considered making a break for it back to my car when my boss asked if I was okay. I muttered "Um, yea, I think I left something in my car but I need to check my purse first." I hauled ass into my office and felt another gush. At this point, my gray dress pants were doing me no favors at hiding what had happened and I knew I had to get out of the office before someone saw me. One of my coworkers said "Hey you!" as I was speed-walking out of the building and I quickly called "I'll be back in a minute!" and quickly called Dennis as I climbed into the car. I was laughing hysterically and couldn't help but think about the countless articles I had read over the previous months about how rare it is for someone's water to break in general, let alone in a public place like work or the grocery store. My own doctor had told me the week before not to expect my water to break again because it was rare it had happened the first time.
I got home, immediately started unloading and loading the dishwasher while Dennis jumped in the shower and I called my parents to see if someone could come over and get Duke ready for daycare. My dad was completely shocked because we had all just been together the night before and everything was totally normal. I randomly picked up the house and started to feel some different pains and discomfort, mainly in my lower back. The big difference here was that my contractions started fast and furious with Duke, immediately 4 minutes apart and pretty uncomfortable so I was rushing around the house expecting them to start at any minute and nothing as really happening. Without calling we headed into the hospital shortly after my mom arrived. We got some pictures with Duke and snuggled him and kissed him a million times and I was thankful we got that time together before we brought his little brother into the world. He was adorable and rubbed on my belly, as if he had any idea what was going on!
We checked in to the hospital and our doctor told the nurse to take us straight over and get us in a room. We had some room delays but we were totally calm because I still wasn't feeling anything major. Some mild contractions and discomfort but nothing consistent {9:30 a.m. according to my notes}. I got dressed in my fancy hospital gown and Dennis and I started walking the halls at the advice of our nursing staff.
We walked and walked, coming back every couple hours to get hooked up to the machine and make sure baby and I were doing okay. The more we walked, the stronger my contractions would get but every time I went back to the room and sat on the ball or in bed, I felt like the pain all concentrated to my back and nothing felt like the low pelvic contractions I had with Duke. At 3 p.m. my doctor wanted to check me
{she was trying to avoid multiple checks since my water had broken and she didn't want to increase any risk of infection} and I was only at 2 cm. I was at 2 cm at my 37 week appointment! And here I was, 38 weeks + 3 days, water broken, in labor for 8 hours and nothing was happening. I was pretty frustrated but not that surprised because I knew the contractions I had been feeling all day were not the ones that really make progress. I truly believe they were helping him get into the proper position and pushing him lower, but they weren't exactly prepping the exit path.
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| My notes throughout the day |
3 p.m. She told me we needed to start Pitocin so I got hooked up to an IV to get things moving and pretty soon the anesthesiologist came in to prep my epidural. I was a little surprised they were doing it so quickly but she said it was better to get it going around the same time as the Pitocin so it would be in place as they increased the intensity. I was really nervous about the epidural because I hardly remembered mine with Duke. I had been having such intense contractions at the time that it was really just another painful thing I tried to block out. Thankfully I had built it up in my head to be much worse than it actually was!
My family was awesome at hanging out and distracting me throughout the day and we watched a million movies and random TV shows. They were troopers and ate in another room throughout the day since I had been cut off to chicken broth, popsicles and water and I was
starving. Aside from the pain, I knew I had to get my baby out soon so I could eat something! ;)
7:30 p.m.
4 cm and 90% effaced. We had to call the anesthesiologist back in because I started to get really uncomfortable so I started moving around and used a giant blow up peanut shaped exercise ball to try to get some relief and hopefully keep Theo moving into position. She was able to get me some relief from the pain and we continued our waiting game.
9:30 p.m.
8 cm and 100% effaced. At this point both of my sisters had left briefly, one to put her kiddos to bed and one to go let Capone out for us. Of course this is also when things started moving
fast. I was absolutely miserable. Crying and writhing around on the bed in so much pain. I felt like my entire lower back and pelvis were on fire. My contractions were coming in one after the other and my doctor and nurses were rushing around the room prepping for the big event. Dennis was really worried about me at this point and could do nothing to help. If he or my mom so much as touched something on the bed I was on, I would freak out. The doctor told us that Theo was face-up
{same as his brother} and there was nothing else they could do at this point to ease the pain, we just had to get him out! At 9:50 I started pushing and luckily knew what this part was supposed to feel like
{it was just 100x as painful this go around}. My doctor continued to encourage me as I cried and put every ounce of strength I had into pushing. Thankfully my pushes were doing exactly what they needed to be and 13 minutes later at 10:03 p.m., my sweet boy entered the world!
I immediately commented on how
tiny he was! He was totally covered in white goo and placed on my belly for some skin to skin time. As the doctor fixed me up, I stared into the beautiful tiny face of my second baby boy and welled up with tears that he was actually here. I could not believe it, but Lord was I thankful to see Theo's face. His cries were so quiet compared to Duke's pterodactyl shrieks and I just knew instantly that this boy would be the calm to our crazy. He nursed for a short while and we spent that whole first hour just admiring our boy. Eventually he was taken to be weighed {7lbs 6 oz} and measured {20 3/4 inches} and got a couple of pokes and prods from the doctor who said what we already knew, he was just perfect.
My mom and sisters made their way back into the room after daddy was able to get some snuggles and everyone kissed his tiny little face before leaving us to get some rest for the night. We all slept pretty well and I nursed Theo a couple times throughout the night. He latched on like a champ and I felt so thankful to know what to expect a little more this time around. My entire pregnancy, labor and delivery were
completely different, but my overall anxieties and fears are a little calmer with round 2. I'll post again soon about big brother Duke meeting Theo and how life has been this first week, but for now I'm signing off to snuggle my little squish. Thanks for reading!
