Pregnancy was not as easy as it was with William. But labor and delivery was easier this time. Partly because I knew what to expect and also because I chose to do it differently this time.
Starting at 20 weeks I could feel Braxton Hicks contractions. A week before he was born, they increased dramatically. I had planned on working right up until Gabriel was born, however due to the increase of contractions and major discomfort I had to quit that week before he was born. So I had a whole week home with William, just waiting for our baby to make his appearance!
I had an OB appointment which showed very little progress towards labor starting soon. Made an appointment for Monday May 19th to reassess and possibly set a date for inducing labor. Thankfully that appointment did not come :)
Throughout this pregnancy I had trouble sleeping. If it was a good night I'd sleep 3-4 hours straight, some nights I would be awake all night long. So Friday night, when I couldn't sleep I just figured it would be another sleepless night as usual. However, starting at about 3:30 am the contractions started. They were different than with William, so I wasn't sure if it was actually labor or not. So after an hour I timed them, and they were anywhere from 2 minutes apart to 1 1/2 minutes apart. Around 4:30am I woke Matt up and he continued to time them, and he called the Dr after a few contractions because they were so close together. Matt's mom and step dad came to stay with William (who was still sleeping) while we went to the hospital. The Dr said to come and see if it's really labor or not. So when we arrived around 6:00 am we weren't sure if we'd be staying or heading home for a while. They were busy at the hospital, and it took a while to get a triage room. Once there the nurse and an intern did the usual stuff and we got to hear his heart beat, see him in a sonogram (looked like he had a huge nose!)...Intern said I was 5cm and 80% so we were happy that we would be meeting our son that day!
Once we got a room, we walked the hallways round and round many times. I hadn't decided yet if I wanted an epidural or not so we just kept walking. Around 9ish I decided yes to an epidural, 7cm. I wanted to enjoy Gabriel's birth as much as possible. Times are a bit fuzzy. Once I had the epidural it was wonderful! I could still feel a little but was so much more comfortable! Cherith arrived around 10:00 to be there for Gabriel's birth! I was a little nervous about having her be traumatized after experiencing it, but she did great!
After 2 hours the epidural wore off, so they hooked up a pump for me. This did not work well at all, so for a while I could feel contractions again. The epidural did end up slowing down labor, but that was okay as things were still progressing. The Dr ended up having to break my water to get Gabriel's head to come down. Once again my baby decided not to drop before being born! While I was managing contractions well through breathing and positioning I missed the epidural :) Poor Matt thought his hand was going to break from me squeezing him so tight! And at one point my hand cramped so bad that he had to force my fingers shut as I couldn't move it. Strange! So she came back and gave me one more dose. This numbed only my right side ha ha! So I could still feel everything on the left side. Still quite painful, but my body could relax in between contractions.
I finally felt like it might be time to push, but due to the epidural I wasn't 100% sure, so I didn't say anything. About 5 minutes later the Dr came in, looked at me, and said, "Oh, it's time!" I was so excited at that point to have him be born! As soon as the team was ready the contractions stopped for 2 or 3 minutes! Then I only had to use 2 contractions to push him out! However, after the first contraction I had to push in between them. The nurse had the monitor on listening to his heart beat. When he moved she was trying to find it again and couldn't. I still don't know if it was due to his position at that time or if something was wrong. But I watched the Dr and nurses' faces and knew they should be hearing his heart beat at that time. Dr said I need you to push right now, so I did and the nurse said oh I see his hair! I was surprised by this as William had very little blonde hair at birth. Second push and his head was out...thankfully he was breathing fine and heart beat was normal! As his body came out, so did the rest of the fluid, and splashed the Dr quite a lot! Gross! It was awesome to hold him in my arms and finally meet him! We were so happy! And couldn't believe all the dark hair he had!
We stayed in the hospital until Monday morning. The night after his birth I had to have help walking around, because my right leg was still numb and felt like jello trying to walk around. We had lots of visitors on Sunday! And Gabriel passed all tests with no problem! The team we had for laboring was awesome! My nurse was so good! She was laid back and comfortable with what she was doing, encouraging and helpful, yet not overbearing. Our Dr was so good too, and was more involved. The nurses aid was really great too, and a big help after birth! Our nurse all day Saturday was amazing as well. Overall our experience with Gabriel's birth was great!
We are so thankful for this second son God has blessed us with! He is handsome and healthy and a good baby! William loves his baby brother, for that I'm also thankful! Our adventure as a family of 4 is going to be a fun one!
