L2's birth Story

OK, L2 will be two weeks old tomorrow (What????) so it's time to get his story down before the details become to fuzzy.....

Keep in mind that although L2 is my second baby, I really never did the whole "labor" thing with my first one. With L my water broke, we went to the hospital, I had the epidural and 17 hours later he was here. There was no timing of contractions.... there were really no contractions period. I never labored at home or did my yoga breathing or anything. To be honest, it was kind of nice and I was hoping for the same thing this time. There was no guessing as to whether or not I was in labor, no going to the hospital only to be sent home. When your water breaks that it..... baby is coming one way or another.

With L2 things were very different. I had been having pretty strong braxton hicks contractions for about a week and was so ready for this baby to come! His due date was October 29th and my mom came in to town on the 22nd to help me prepare and be there in case he came early. She was also there to help with L while we were in the hospital. My sister was also pregnant and her baby was due the 27th of October, so while my mom was with my, my dad was with her and then they were going to switch. Because of this, and because I was so uncomfortable, I had talked to my Doctor and made the decision to get induced on the 28th if baby wasn't here yet. It didn't seem to make much sense to wait around and have the baby come late after all our help had left!

Anyway, with all this in mind, I decided to let the Doctor strip my membranes on the 21st, hoping it would send my into labor over the weekend. For those of you who have children you probably know what "stripping the membranes" entails..... for those of you who don't, I won't go into all the gory details. But in a nutshell it is a way to "manually" induce labor and it hurts like hell. I was certain that between that and all the contractions I was having, and the fact that I was already 3 centimeters on that Friday that I would go either that night or sometime Saturday. It didn't happen and I was frustrated so on Sunday I dragged my mom, S and L to the mall with me and we walked and walked and walked. The contractions were still coming, but not consistently and not strong enough that I couldn't talk through them. Then around seven o'clock that night, right as I had settled in to watch "The Real Housewives of New Jersey: The Reunion" the contractions started coming a lot stronger. Like the freaking hurt! But they were still about 20-30 minutes apart. They went on like that all night, and I didn't sleep at all. But I still wasn't sure if I was in labor because they were so spread out. It was like one would hit and it would hurt soooo bad and I would be telling S we needed to go to the hospital now.... but then it would be over and I would feel fine for 20 minutes. We already had a Doctor appointment the next morning at 7:30 to strip my membranes again (which I was dreading!) so S said we should wait till then to see what he said since they were still so far apart. So at about 6 I finally got up for good, showered, put on makeup and got ready. Hey, if I was going to the hospital I wanted to look good! My mom came over around 7 to watch L and we decided we should probably take all our hospital bags with us "just in case". To be honest I was hopeful but I didn't really think it was about to happen. L came right on his due date so I wasn't optimistic that L2 would come 5 days early.

When we got to the Doctor I told him I thought I might be in labor and that the contraction were painful but still far apart. While I was telling him this a contraction hit and he told me that he would check me, but that if I hadn't moved from 3 centimeters I might want to consider getting induced sooner than later, since I was in so much pain. I told him if I hadn't advanced from 3 centimeters after the night I had just had I would probably kill someone! He checked me and said the magic words, "you're at a 6..... go to the hospital!"

After that everything went fairly quickly, especially considering how long L took. We checked into the hospital around 8:30 and by 9:00 I had the epidural (Thank you, thank you, thank you God and whoever invented this miracle drug!!!!) At this point I daresay the next few hours were the most  comfortable and relaxing I'd had in several months! S and I talked, we watched a movie, and I read magazines! Since I was for numb from the waist down I felt no pain or discomfort! At 12:30 the Doctor came in to check me and told me that I was at about a 9.8 and that we would start pushing soon. I swear 2 minutes later he came back in with nurses and a gown and they told me it was time! I pushed for half and hour and at 1:02 L2 came into the world and was placed in my arms!!!!! A tie for the best moment of my life, along with when L came into the world.

Overall, my labor and delivery with L2 was so much easier. Even though I had to go through a night of pretty intense labor pains, I'm glad I finally go to experience it! At least I know what to look for next time! With L I remember getting the epidural really hurt, and then even though I was grateful for the numbness I couldn't move my legs at all which freaked me out. Also with L's epidural, I distinctly remember it hurting when L crowned and being able to feel alot more pain and discomfort, even though I was numb. With L2 the epidural didn't hurt very much (even with S sitting behind me saying "Wow, that is a huge needle!!!" Thanks babe.) and even though I was numb I still had some movement in my legs which was nice. And honestly, I didn't feel a thing when I pushed him out. Maybe that has to do with this being the second time I've done this..... but overall it was a lot less traumatic then the first time!!!!

So that is the story of L2's birth. He came 5 days early and mommy was more that ready for him! Everything went perfectly and it really enforced in my mind that, while I really hate actually being pregnant, I could do this all again in a heartbeat!!!!