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| Fresh from the womb - June 18th, 2017 at 1:32pm |
This is exactly what I saw when I first laid eyes on him. My own baby boy! Such a surreal moment, but I couldn't believe how tiny and cute he was! Through tears I said "oh my gosh, he's so cute!" He looked so perfect - either my doctor was a pro at cleaning up babies in 1 second, or he was not as bloody as they often come! Rewind to what brought us to that culminating moment... The story is different in a lot of ways (but better) than how it happened with his sister so it's fun to think back on...
I woke up around 4:30am on Sunday (Father's Day) and went to the bathroom. I went back to bed and wondered if I might start having contractions soon. My mom had arrived at 10pm the night before and I was due the following day (Monday). It felt like go time, but since not a single thing happened to my body with Maeve without help from the doc, I was skeptical that I could go into labor on my own. But I was still excited/nervous at the thought of it. I couldn't believe my ears when I was actually dilated to a 1 at my doctor's appt at 38 weeks. When I went in at 39 weeks I was dilated to a 2 and the cervix was thinning out some so my doc scheduled for me to be induced on my due date if nothing happened before then, though he thought there was a good chance. Anywho, back to Sunday morning, I went back to sleep and sure enough 25 minutes later at 4:55am I woke up to a contraction. I had a lot of back labor with Maeve and this contraction was actually in my back as well this time around. I continued to feel every single one in my back thereafter as well, which is so interesting to me that it can happen that way. I couldn't believe this baby boy had impeccable timing, wanted to come on his own, and would likely come on Father's Day! I didn't expect regular contractions yet but knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep so I started watching a show on my phone. Just 2 minutes later, I had another one. I started to feel nervous cause this was actually happening and potentially faster than I thought and couldn't focus, so I turned off my show and woke up Adam up. I kept timing my contractions and they were consistently 2-3 minutes apart for an hour. I called my doc and he told me to come in. I got ready and ate some pancakes and off we headed to the hospital at 7:30am.
When we got there, they checked me and I was dilated somewhere between a 3 and 4, so this thing was really happening and I could stay! 🤗 Unlike with Maeve, my doc told me I could get an epidural right away if I wanted to. I'm not sure if I didn't have that luxury with Maeve because he had to get me dilating from a 0 and didn't want to slow the process down with getting an epidural too soon, but that is what I suspect. I had 3 hours of very painful contractions with Maeve before I could get the epidural so I was quite pleased to know it likely wouldn't be as bad this time. At this point, my contractions weren't too bad yet. Probably at 8am they asked me if I wanted to get it and I opted not to. They asked me if I was sure since it takes some time to kick in and I still said I'd like to give it a little more time. At 8:45am my water partially broke (my doc checking to see if it had broke actually broke the rest) and the contractions started to ramp up some so at 9:15am I got the epidural. Pretty soon I was feeling great and unlike with Maeve it wasn't late at night, so I felt like I could just kick it and relax now. Adam turned on Boy Meets World for me on his computer and I ate some ice chips, which I had to ask a couple of times to get. Unfortunately it was pretty clear I had a new nurse who didn't really know what she was doing yet, so I'm just grateful I was already familiar with the process and all was going so smoothly because otherwise it would have made things much worse to have a clueless nurse. I LOVED my nurse with Maeve, so I'm just glad it wasn't reverse! Anyway, eating my ice chips I was feeling great!!
At 10:20am they came into check me again and I was 5cm dilated. They gave me another hour and checked again and I was 7cm. I was so pleased with my steady progress and couldn't believe he could be coming pretty soon if things kept up! They did notice the head was posterior though, so they had me rotate onto my side. At noon, they came in and told me the rotating had helped and positioning for the baby was good and now I was 8cm. Probably at 1pm, I told them I felt like I could feel the head wanting to come out and there was an urge to push. They checked me and sure enough were like "Oh yep, it looks like it's go time" - just like with Maeve, it took just a few rounds of pushes! Before my last round of pushing, they told me the head was partially out, so I was almost there. The nurse was like, "do you want to see? it might help you keep up the energy if your husband takes a picture and shows you" - I was a little hesitant, but said "I guess so!" and so he showed me the picture and I will say it wasn't the prettiest sight, but it was both motivating and made me feel a little queasy at the same time. 😂 I powered through the last round though and out he came at 1:32 pm! It was so amazing to have him here and in my arms and it felt like a baby Maeve all over again. It was killing me how big Maeve was getting, so it was perfect timing to have a sweet new babe to snuggle.
This is where it might be a little TMI just to forewarn, so you can read or skip... But with Maeve, right after I delivered I had some pretty insane diarrhea. I think it was because I had didn't get to have dinner the night before she was born and so I had taken advantage of chicken broth and jello and juice and such to get me through the evening hours without feeling starving. Once that baby girl came out, it just cleared me right out!! 😂😂 I was nervous it was going to happen again this time around, but to my pleasant surprise it did not! 🙆♀️I also bled A LOT with Maeve and had to take some meds to get it under control. This time around with Rowan was complete opposite and after the initial bleeding from him coming out, I actually bled very little -probably less than normal. But hey, I was not complaining!! After the initial holding and breastfeeding, they weighed him and did the APGAR testing. He was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long and passed all the tests with flying colors. In fact, he got a perfect score on skin coloring and the nurse said she basically never gives a perfect score but his color was that good - go Rowan! Probably around 2:45 we finally got to order some lunch and I must say, food never tasted so good!! With Maeve, that first meal actually made me feel a little queasy and I couldn't even eat it all, but man I couldn't get it in fast enough this time around!!
All in all, everything was easier, smoother, and quicker this second time around - and my experience with Maeve's birth wasn't totally horrible either, so I was feeling very lucky and blessed! The rest of the hospital stay was great - he was more content than his sister was that first night, he just required holding if he was fussy but was completely content in our arms. I was exhausted and ended up falling asleep with him in my bed after one of his feedings when he wasn't settling back to sleep - they tell you the baby is not supposed to sleep anywhere but their bassinet - oops, he survived. The picture Adam got is worth it!
The past 8 months with this sweet little boy in our family now have been the best! Well, except for maybe months 1-2 when all he was doing was throwing up large volumes of milk around the clock. It was like he was giving me a warm glass of milk right back after I fed him - such a lovely gesture. 🤗 Joking aside, if I'm being honest, it was hard to think about anything else for that month. I was so worried about him and spent every last minute formulating possible reasons in my head for why he was struggling so much to keep the milk down. I felt weighed down by it all and at such a loss for a while, but responsible to figure it out as his mom! Needless to say it was such a relief when we figured out it was dairy and I could mentally and emotionally relax again. Actually, add physically to the list because I know for a fact my muscles were always stiff and tense because I always had my guard up knowing throw up could come at any second. 😂😂 NEVERTHELESS, he has still been the greatest addition to our crazy little family and seeing how much Maeve adores him just melts my mama heart. He has been different from her as a baby in a lot of ways and it's been eye opening to really realize how different every baby is. No baby is the same as the next, which means they're all going to require slightly different mothering and I've been reminded of that many times. It's a wild ride that's for sure, but a rewarding job that I wouldn't trade for anything else!!
When we got there, they checked me and I was dilated somewhere between a 3 and 4, so this thing was really happening and I could stay! 🤗 Unlike with Maeve, my doc told me I could get an epidural right away if I wanted to. I'm not sure if I didn't have that luxury with Maeve because he had to get me dilating from a 0 and didn't want to slow the process down with getting an epidural too soon, but that is what I suspect. I had 3 hours of very painful contractions with Maeve before I could get the epidural so I was quite pleased to know it likely wouldn't be as bad this time. At this point, my contractions weren't too bad yet. Probably at 8am they asked me if I wanted to get it and I opted not to. They asked me if I was sure since it takes some time to kick in and I still said I'd like to give it a little more time. At 8:45am my water partially broke (my doc checking to see if it had broke actually broke the rest) and the contractions started to ramp up some so at 9:15am I got the epidural. Pretty soon I was feeling great and unlike with Maeve it wasn't late at night, so I felt like I could just kick it and relax now. Adam turned on Boy Meets World for me on his computer and I ate some ice chips, which I had to ask a couple of times to get. Unfortunately it was pretty clear I had a new nurse who didn't really know what she was doing yet, so I'm just grateful I was already familiar with the process and all was going so smoothly because otherwise it would have made things much worse to have a clueless nurse. I LOVED my nurse with Maeve, so I'm just glad it wasn't reverse! Anyway, eating my ice chips I was feeling great!!
At 10:20am they came into check me again and I was 5cm dilated. They gave me another hour and checked again and I was 7cm. I was so pleased with my steady progress and couldn't believe he could be coming pretty soon if things kept up! They did notice the head was posterior though, so they had me rotate onto my side. At noon, they came in and told me the rotating had helped and positioning for the baby was good and now I was 8cm. Probably at 1pm, I told them I felt like I could feel the head wanting to come out and there was an urge to push. They checked me and sure enough were like "Oh yep, it looks like it's go time" - just like with Maeve, it took just a few rounds of pushes! Before my last round of pushing, they told me the head was partially out, so I was almost there. The nurse was like, "do you want to see? it might help you keep up the energy if your husband takes a picture and shows you" - I was a little hesitant, but said "I guess so!" and so he showed me the picture and I will say it wasn't the prettiest sight, but it was both motivating and made me feel a little queasy at the same time. 😂 I powered through the last round though and out he came at 1:32 pm! It was so amazing to have him here and in my arms and it felt like a baby Maeve all over again. It was killing me how big Maeve was getting, so it was perfect timing to have a sweet new babe to snuggle.
This is where it might be a little TMI just to forewarn, so you can read or skip... But with Maeve, right after I delivered I had some pretty insane diarrhea. I think it was because I had didn't get to have dinner the night before she was born and so I had taken advantage of chicken broth and jello and juice and such to get me through the evening hours without feeling starving. Once that baby girl came out, it just cleared me right out!! 😂😂 I was nervous it was going to happen again this time around, but to my pleasant surprise it did not! 🙆♀️I also bled A LOT with Maeve and had to take some meds to get it under control. This time around with Rowan was complete opposite and after the initial bleeding from him coming out, I actually bled very little -probably less than normal. But hey, I was not complaining!! After the initial holding and breastfeeding, they weighed him and did the APGAR testing. He was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long and passed all the tests with flying colors. In fact, he got a perfect score on skin coloring and the nurse said she basically never gives a perfect score but his color was that good - go Rowan! Probably around 2:45 we finally got to order some lunch and I must say, food never tasted so good!! With Maeve, that first meal actually made me feel a little queasy and I couldn't even eat it all, but man I couldn't get it in fast enough this time around!!
All in all, everything was easier, smoother, and quicker this second time around - and my experience with Maeve's birth wasn't totally horrible either, so I was feeling very lucky and blessed! The rest of the hospital stay was great - he was more content than his sister was that first night, he just required holding if he was fussy but was completely content in our arms. I was exhausted and ended up falling asleep with him in my bed after one of his feedings when he wasn't settling back to sleep - they tell you the baby is not supposed to sleep anywhere but their bassinet - oops, he survived. The picture Adam got is worth it!
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