My mom came up Friday afternoon and I went for a 3 mile walk and met Steve after work. The back pain fizzled out. We took advantage of my mother being there and went out to dinner in Davis Square. Although I continued to efface, no contractions! Two more links on the baby chain...
Kate and I had some good cuddle time in the "mama nest" as she calls it
Saturday came and went..more walking (probably 4 miles), more effacement, rose hips tea, beer, and stairs, but no contractions. Grandma was there for our Sunday AM pancakes (pink this week). We did more walking (3 miles or so) on the terrible icy streets on Sunday. I seriously had to hang on Steve's arm so I wouldn't slip. Not the best conditions for labor walking! More effacement, but no contractions. We sent my mother home Sunday afternoon so she could watch the superbowl with my dad.
Kate got more use out of my birth ball over the weekend than I did! She LOVES it.
We let Kate watch a bit of the "Puppy Bowl" on Animal Planet. She thought it was great.
Just about the time Kate was going to bed (8ish) I started to feel crampy. I had a suspicion it would happen that night, but after all my waiting wanted to be sure. At 9 the cramps felt more like contractions so I started timing them as we watched (well Steve watched) the Superbowl. At 10 I looked at my data and saw they were consistently 10 minutes apart and were lasting 45 seconds. I called my mother at 10:30 and she drove in.I was bummed that I couldn't go for a walk like I did during Kate's labor. It was just so cold, icy, and dark out there. So I sent Steve to bed so one of us would have some sleep come the birth! I knew I could go it alone for a while. I timed them, rolled around on the ball, took a shower, got dressed, finished packing my bags, ate a ton of Greek yogurt, drank water and watched Forrest Gump on TV (the ONLY thing on).
The contractions started to get the best of me around 3 and I woke Steve up to take over timing them. At this point they were 6 minutes apart and lasting 1:15. I couldn't talk or move during them and was only happy on my knees hugging the ball. As was the case with Kate, I NEEDED absolute silence during the contractions. I would look at Steve and say "And we're on" and he would know to time them and be really quiet :-). I wished I had a sensory-deprivation chamber!
My contractions-timer.
My contractions-timer.I wanted to wait until at least 5 to wake Dr. Hardiman up. This is the funny thing about having a solo-practice OB. With Kate, I had no reservation calling the midwife at 3 AM because I knew they were at the hospital on duty. With Beth, I knew I would be waking her up out of bed and that she probably had a full caseload of patients to see that day.
I called her at 5 when the contractions were 4 or 5 minutes apart lasting 1:15. She wanted me to go right in to beat Harvard Sq traffic. I agreed; anyone who knows my road rage would know Harvard on a Monday AM rush-hour during labor would be hell! We left at 5:30ish and by the time we met Beth up on the labor unit it was 6:15 or so.
My mom snapped this as we left. I look tired!
The birthing tub was taken so I did not have the option for a water birth. I thought this would really upset me, but I was actually OK. With Kate, I spent over 8 hours laboring in a tub. With Alex, I only took one shower. I had no desire to get into the tub. I guess every labor is different.
We did get a room with a jacuzzi (but it wasn't sterile so I would have to get out to push), but I needed to be monitored for a half an hour before getting in. Beth then checked me and I was 9 cm!! I couldn't believe it. I had been in labor for 9 or 10 hours, but I thought I would only be 7 or so. With Kate, it took me about 13 hours to get to 9 and it was PAINFUL. I mean earth-shattering. This labor was much more manageable.
I then decided against getting in the tub because I knew I would be pushing soon. I actually felt great side lying in the bed (shocker since I couldn't even look at bed with Kate I was in so much pain...I hated lying down). I labored like that for another hour or so until I knew it was time to push.
Again, this was very different from Kate's labor. It didn't come quite so strongly and I needed to focus more. I pushed for over an hour as my contractions slowed down and were sometimes wimpy. I had incredible low back pain and couldn't quite get in the zone I needed to to make real progress. This is unusual amount of time to push for a second baby (usually less than 30 minutes) but oh well, my labor wasn't so bad! I had Beth break my water to see if that would help speed things up. I guess it may have? Hard to know. My water broke naturally 30 minutes before Kate was born and made things much more intense.
Alexandra was finally born at 8:59 AM after a 12 hour labor. She was perfect! They placed her on my chest and she nursed for an hour. She latched right on and I could tell right away I had a champion nurser. I really enjoyed the 'skin-to-skin' and was happy they didn't whisk her away to get weighed, etc. for over an hour.
We then ordered a breakfast for champions and ate like Kings. Labor makes you VERY hungry.
All and all I was very happy with the labor and delivery. It really was so much easier the second time and less stressful. I wonder if it is because your expectation of the pain the second time is realistic (i.e. you know just how intense and all-encompassing it is) therefore you deal with it more effectively, or if subsequent labors just hurt less?
Mostly I have heard that the pushing is better with the second, but I have never heard anyone say they labor is less painful. For me the pushing was almost worse than #1, but the labor was better.
Well enough about labor, let's see some Alex pics!!
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