Second Time Mother

Paul Michael Gardner is here! He came on Friday, May 20 at 5:45pm. The doctors had told me that second deliveries are often easier than firsts, and I thought that meant I'd only be pushing for 45 minutes instead of an hour. Nope. Easier. The official labor story began around 10:00 that morning. Since I didn't go into labor on my own, the hospital called to confirm my induction. They told me to plan on being at the hospital at 7:30am on the 20th, but to call before we left, just in case they had too many women go into labor during the night and didn't have a room for me. I called at 6:45 ish the next morning and they told me the night had been busy and to call back at 8:00. A friend of mine had volunteered to watch Becca, but had had to cancel as she suddenly came down with flu-like symptoms (chills, and sore throat) and did not want to risk passing that on to a family with a newborn. I was sorry that my friend was feeling sick, and sorry that we now had to find someone to impose upon at the very last minute. Fortunately, another friend, Annelise Briggs, graciously accepted my plea and she watched Becca with her two boys. Thus, not knowing exactly when we were supposed to go to the hospital put us in a slight bind as we couldn't tell Annelise the exact time we'd drop Becca off. After calling the hospital again and being told to call in another hour, but to plan on being at the hospital at 10:00, we decided to just drop Becca off and then go to the store to get snacks to sustain us through the hospital stay.

We called the hospital again at 9:30 and were given the green light to come on in. We got there shortly before 10 and got the pitocin started by 10:30. Then we waited. The contractions were not too bad, so I put off the epidural, since I knew it had slowed my labor with Becca and I didn't want this labor going slowly. They gradually increased the level of pitocin until I found I needed to breathe through the contractions. At some point however, even though the dosage hadn't changed, the contractions got way easier, which wasn't really a good sign. I told the nurse, who turned up the level a bit, and then she went to lunch, telling me another nurse would be taking care of me in the mean time. Additionally, the doctor who would break my water hadn't come yet, so we were really waiting for him to get there to hopefully get things going. Within a half hour or so of the pitocin increase, the contractions got a lot harder and I found myself really thinking about the epidural. After consulting Kyle, I rang for a nurse and requested that the anesthesiologist be called. A little while later the doctor came in. When he found I had just requested the epidural, he said we should wait to break my water, since the contractions would get a lot worse and it would be better to do the epidural first. Then, because we hadn't heard anything about the anesthesiologist being paged, the doctor did it. I got the epidural and the doctor broke my water, then we waited some more. A nurse checked me about an hour after and said I was a 6. I was disappointed and prepped myself for another hour or two of labor. About 30 minutes later, the doctor came in and checked me again. We had a short conversation and then he said that I was about to have a baby. Kyle and I both stared at him in disbelief. After assuring us he was completely serious, he set about calling in the nurses and technician who would help with the delivery. This is the part that still amazes me: the doctor had me push 6-8 times and then my baby was completely delivered. It maybe took five minutes. Great news to me was that he hadn't had a bowel movement yet, so I got to hold him as soon as he was clean. I'm also grateful I had the epidural, as there was a minor complication involving a fragmented placenta and the doctor commented that if I hadn't had the epidural, I would have been in a lot of pain as he fixed the placenta issue. I was grateful.

Kyle's parents picked up Becca from Annelise's house and brought her to the hospital to meet her brother. Her first reaction was, "Awww, cuuuuute!" I loved it. While I don't think she fully comprehended what had occurred, she still liked to be close to the baby so she could look at him. We made sure to get a few pictures.

Kyle and my two babies. I think by this point, Becca was past bedtime and I'm pretty sure I bribed her with a mint to get her to smile. Yes, I'm like that for pictures.

This was taken today. Kyle loved the look of Paul scrunched up on my shoulder. We have a few pictures like this. I love holding my baby. My happiest moments have occurred the last two mornings as I've woken up and looked over at my new little baby. Happiness just swells inside of me. I love being a mother. It didn't seem quite real the first day, but that next morning when I saw him, it was right and I loved everything about my newest life changing experience.

Our bundle of joy, leaving the hospital.

Becca was very excited to hold her brother. She has told us multiple times that "He's my friend." Which happens to be one of her newest phrases. Pretty much everyone is her friend, but I was so glad she applied it to Paul also.

So far, Paul is even more relaxed than Becca was, which is hard to believe. I know it's still early, so I have no idea what kind of a baby he will be in the long run, but so far, he eats and sleeps and pretty much only cries when he has gas and/or is frustrated at being slightly congested and trying to eat. Several of the nurses were extremely surprised by his lack of reaction to the various tests they had to do. He didn't cry when he was circumcised, or when they pricked him for a blood glucose test (like Becca, he would not be woken for a 6 hour stretch of time so he could eat . . . he too passed the test). In fact, if he hadn't be gassy and congested, I think he would have possibly earned a reputation for the chillest baby this weekend. He is a very sleepy baby. He spent 95% of the time in the hospital with his eyes closed. He opened them more once we got home. I'm sure he'll start being more alert in the upcoming days.

It's nice to be home now. My mom is on her way to help me adjust this first week home, then I have five more weeks to get on some sort of a schedule before I have to go back to work. I'm not going to think about work right now though, because even the slightest thought made my heart cringe. I'm going to enjoy my time with my babies. Motherhood is fantastic.