By the time we left for the hospital (which was about 2 minutes away) at 5am, I was starting to want to smack my husband whenever I would have a contraction. The contractions were finally starting to hurt as much as the ones I remembered from my first labor, and I couldn't bear the thought of going through HOURS of that misery, so as soon as we walked in to L&D, the first words out of my mouth were, "I am ready for my epidural!" The nurse smirked a little and rolled her eyes, and sent me to get changed. I told her that I felt like I needed to use the bathroom, but she said she would like to check me first. She checked me and said, "How badly did you want that epidural?" I responded, "There's a reason I asked for it as soon as I came in!!!!!" She said, "Well, there's no cervix on this side, and only a little on that side; I don't think there's time." I said, "GET THE ANESTHESIOLOGIST!" He came right away (THANK ALL THAT IS HOLY!) and said that if my water broke there wouldn't be time for the epidural to work. I told him to GET A MOVE ON THEN.
The epidural worked quickly, my water didn't break, I was fully dilated, but the baby wasn't dropping. My beloved doctor arrived, broke my water, and, after 3 sneeze-like pushes, Baby #2 was born at 6:37am with the cord wrapped firmly around his neck (The moment when the baby's head was out and the doctor said, "Oh stop pushing!" was a moment I was VERY GRATEFUL for that epidural!!!!). The doctor had to cut the cord to get him out, and he wasn't breathing, so, once again the baby was whisked off before I could hold him. THREE WEEKS EARLY, Baby #2 weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.
I COULD NOT BELIEVE how good I felt! I laughed and laughed because I couldn't believe THAT WAS IT, and now it was over! I would have gotten up and gone home right then if they would have let me. I did not feel like I had just been run over by a bus! I had heard of women who had given birth and then immediately looked at their husbands and asked when they could do this again, and I FELT LIKE THOSE WOMEN! If my pregnancies, labors, and deliveries could all be like THAT ONE, I could have LOTS of kids!
While they were checking the baby out anyway, I asked them to check his mouth, since I DID NOT want a repeat performance of my first nursing experience. No tight frenulum!!!! When they finally handed me the baby, I again waited for that magical bonding moment, and again I thought, "I know I just watched you come out, but you don't seem familiar..." This time I made sure they didn't take the baby before I nursed him, but this hospital had rules about taking all of the babies to the nursery at certain times, and I DID NOT APPRECIATE the times they took him and didn't bring him back for hours.
We had worked harder on the naming issue this time, but we still hadn't settled on anything. This time when I looked at the baby, a name did pop into my head that seemed just right, and we were very excited to have picked out the name on THE FIRST day, instead of having the poor boy being called "Baby Boy Best" for two days. For the purposes of blogging, I will call him "David".
Ian was brought to the hospital to meet his new brother. He seemed excited that he could now see and hold the little person who had been "the baby in Mama's tummy". In order to
We left as soon as they would let us out this time because I really did feel good, I couldn't sleep at the hospital, the food was awful, the nurses were
I am TOO CUTE FOR WORDS and so tiny compared to my giant brother! |