The baby has arrived!

The day before I went into labor I visited my midwife, had my membranes stripped and scheduled my induction. I started cramping immediately and it continued throughout the night. I woke up at 5am with cramping that came in waves every 5-7 minutes. I couldn't decide if these were contractions or just a side effect of having my membranes stripped. I called the on-call midwife at 6am. She said it didn't sound serious and that if they continued and/or intensified that I should go to the hospital around 8am to get checked out. I got ready and then got my son up, ate breakfast, packed some things for him and we made our way into the car to drop him off at a friend's house. When I finally arrived at the hospital at 9am my contractions were fluctuating between being 1-2 minutes apart for several cycles and having long periods of 20+ minutes of no contractions. When they checked my cervix I was dilated to 6cm. This made me really happy, because when I was induced with Eli I had terrible contractions that seemed to come one immediately after the other for 12 hours and no dilation- hence my giving in and getting the epidural. This time I felt like I had struck it lucky because I was over half way there and hardly felt any pain. I wanted to have a natural birth so I wouldn't be stuck in bed, get pumped full of fluid, swell up huge and have a catheter. My desire to be free overshadowed my fear of the pain. The contractions continued and while walking around my room my water broke in dramatic Hollywood fashion as if I had been hit by a giant water balloon. David started laughing. I stood there all wet and in shock. I was put back into bed to monitor the baby and check my cervix. Almost immediately after my water broke the contractions started coming on stronger and I was dilated to 9cm. I couldn't believe I'd only been in the hospital for two hours. Two minutes later, without any warning, the worst pain I've ever felt hit me. The nurse described it as needing to poop. Yeah, right! It was like a bowling ball was trying to burst out of my body. I started thrashing around and screaming at the top of my lungs. One nurse told me to focus on holding my new baby. I screamed in her face, "I don't care!" It was the only thing I said during labor. The nurses ran to find my midwife, because this baby was not going to wait. When she came they said I could start pushing. This is where I excel as a birth-er. I might have lost my cool for a minute, but I got it back when it was time to push. At the end he came half out and they made me wait for the next contraction. This was pretty much hell and I kept thinking over and over, "Just pull him out!" (It's a good thing I'm not a midwife.) 6 contractions, 9 pushes and I had my baby boy. I thought he was the smallest thing I ever saw, but the nurses constantly regarded him as "huge," "giant" and "big boy." (He was 8lbs 13oz.) He surprised me by having dark hair all over his head. Eli had no hair and so this was new and exciting. I hope it doesn't fall out. 

 

24 hours later we headed home to introduce Eli to his new brother. At first he was very wary of the baby. He observed him from a far. After 20 minutes or so he started to venture closer and even asked if he could kiss the baby. A few minutes later he decided he wanted to "kay-gee" (cuddle/hold) the baby. The first few times he cried, Eli cried too. 

We've had the baby a week and now Eli asks to hold him all the time. Eli looks at him so intently as if he's taking in every feature. He likes to touch each part of his face and kiss him. (Eli kisses are touching his forehead to the baby's forehead.) He shows the baby all his animals and tries getting him to hold them. He often tries feeding the baby his doll bottle and likes to watch me change him, handing me millions of baby wipes. He is quite gentle when he is intentionally touching the baby, but he doesn't always remember to be careful when he's playing or busy. I don't leave the baby on the ground when Eli's awake for fear he'll step or fall on him. He's gotten so used to me saying, "Be careful of the baby" that when Eli's playing around the baby he says, "Eli careful." Now when the baby cries he says, "Mommy, pick up baby." When he doesn't want me to hold the baby anymore he says, "Mommy, put baby in chair."

Eli has struggled with the changes the new baby has brought, but a lot less than I expected. He hangs on me a lot and wants me to do everything for him. He doesn't want daddy or Jessy to pick up his dropped cup or spoon- he wants mommy to get it. Also, he doesn't handle difficult things very well. He hardly ever cried before, but now he cries several times a day. For example, yesterday I made banana bread muffins and he started crying, because we had to put them in the oven to cook. He wanted toast, but he cried when he had to wait for the toaster. He cries every time we put him to bed. He cries if something doesn't work or he gets frustrated. It was really irritating me until I started to say, "Sad babies need lots of kisses" and I chase him around kissing and hugging him. This always brings on the smiles. I think as we return to a schedule he can rely he'll bounce back pretty well. More than anything I feel like he wants to know he's still important, still loved. It's weird, though, how all of a sudden Eli has changed from being my baby to being a big boy. Everything about him is giant and he feels like he gained 20lbs over night. It kind of makes me feel a little sad and so I let him still be the baby, too.

The second time around has been so much easier. I felt really good coming home- energized even. (I was so excited to introduce the brothers.) What helped the most was having a quick, easy labor. I didn't return home feeling already depleted like I had with my first son. Plus, so far, this baby has been sleeping a lot. At night he sleeps one long sleep (around 5 hours), nurses and sleeps 2 more hours. He'd sleep longer, but I make him wake up at the same time as Eli hoping he'll eventually get on the same sleep schedule. Hopefully, he keeps this up, because I like it!