Laura's Birth Story

Ooh, I have so many things to blog about! Laura's birthday party, the Birthday Cake Disaster, the mushy "wah, my baby is three!" post...

...but today, you get Laura's birth story. Enjoy!

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It took us close to a year to get pregnant with Garrett, so when we decided to have a second child, we thought we should get an early start so that they would be around two years apart. Little did we know how much easier it would be the second time around, and we found out we were expecting our second child when Garrett was just ten months old.

My pregnancy with Laura was mostly uneventful. I bypassed the massive swelling that I had with my first pregnancy, and gained less weight than I did the first time. The only weird problem was toward the sixth or seventh month, I would be walking and my entire leg would give out. I would get up, "adjust" my belly, and would feel better for a while. I think she was sitting on a nerve.

I was also exhausted during this pregnancy. I was chasing a one and a half year old little boy and teaching full time (I was pregnant for the ENTIRE school year) with the most challenging class I've ever had.

With a second pregnancy, I found you just don't get the luxury of a nap before supper, soaking for hours in a warm tub, or sitting for half an hour just watching your tummy jump around. At the beginning, I would sometimes forget I was pregnant.

Belly pictures, seven months pregnant:

Garrett kissing "his baby":

Around my 36th week, I started having regular contractions that were very bothersome. While I was hoping for just a FEW weeks of bedrest, I didn't get it...I got some medication to relax my uterine muscles instead. My doctor also discovered that I was 3 to 4 centimeters dilated...and I walked around that way for the next TWO AND A HALF WEEKS. However, it was encouraging, considering the hours of painful labor that it took for me to get to 3 cm. with Garrett.

I was due on April 27. My maternity leave with Garrett had been at the very start of the school year, and felt very difficult to prepare for. But THIS time, I had The Best Gift A Teacher Can Be Given...a STUDENT TEACHER. She was awesome, and I was ready for my maternity leave in March. And not only was I prepared as far as plans, copies, etc., I was mentally ready to check out...my class was very difficult, and I could not WAIT to turn it over to someone else. I didn't even care what they did after I was gone (they only had a month left anyway).

Nothing truly dramatic led up to Laura's birth. My body seemed to know what it was doing this time around. On Friday, April 16, I woke up around 1:30 a.m. and had to GO to the bathroom. I came out ten minutes later, told Seth to call the babysitter (a friend volunteered to stay with Garrett if I went into labor overnight), call the doula to meet us at the hospital, and to put my bags in the car. And then I went back to the bathroom.

After my bathroom trips, my contractions quickly became very painful and were about three to four minutes apart. I tearfully kissed little Garrett good-bye, and we set off for the hospital at around 2:00 in the morning.

By the time we arrived at 2:30 a.m., I was already 5 cm. dilated and was immediately taken to a delivery suite. I had chosen, again, to labor and deliver with no pain medication. Again, my reasoning has nothing to do with being a martyr or trying to prove a point. I just needed to prove to myself that I had it within me to cope with the pain that comes with delivering a child. It's an amazingly powerful thing to realize just what the female body and mind are capable of doing. While I am proud of myself for making the choice to appreciate my labor, pain and all, I also know that I was lucky to have an uncomplicated delivery that made it possible.

With Garrett's labor, I had HATED being in the bed and needed my husband constantly. My coping mechanisms were so different this time:

I spent most of the contractions on my left side, in the bed, holding my doula's hand and staring at the pattern of her heather gray hooded sweatshirt.

I occasionally sat on the birthing ball, where I stared at the flowers on the wallpaper border and tried to WILL MY CERVIX TO OPEN.

That's it for coping mechanisms. I just remember staying really, really zoned out. It was extremely painful, but I was also not nearly as afraid this time around. I knew I wasn't going to die from labor.

My doula was also a great comfort to me this time. My husband was a great comfort and help too, but there is nothing, NOTHING, like having a woman there to support you (and for me, that needed to be a woman that I liked being around, but NOT one I have emotional ties to, like my mom).

I mean, when A WOMAN WHO HAS HAD CHILDREN AND HELPED DELIVER BABIES tells me, "You're doing so well! Yes, that sensation is normal. Everything is perfect! This is a textbook labor! I promise, you're NOT wetting your pants / pooping on the table!", it's just more reassuring than it would be coming from the nervous, pacing husband who has been drinking coffee for five hours and has never had the experience of an 8 pound baby coming out of him. I needed my husband there, don't get me wrong. But we both agree that hiring the doula was The.Best.Money.We.Ever.Spent.Amen.

Around 6:30 a.m., I started sobbing uncontrollably. I wailed about missing Garrett, not being ready for another baby, and wanting to go home. I remember wanting to stop crying, but physically couldn't do it. That's when the doula decided the nurses should probably come check my cervix.

The doula knew - I was going through transition. When the nurse checked me, she found that I was 9 cm. dilated and called my doctor.

He arrived around 7 a.m. and said, "If I break your water now, we'll have a baby in half an hour!" And I screamed, "NOOOOO!" After some convincing from the SANE, non-laboring people in the room, my water was broken and I dilated to 10 cm. within minutes.

And THAT is when I knew pain. The most horrible, pelvis-breaking, make-you-throw-up, break-out-in-a-cold-sweat pain imaginable. And that is when I said, "I think I want the epidural. I changed my mind!"

The news was gently broken to me that we were WAAAY past the epidural point, and that I could start pushing now.

Now here is what's interesting to me about my labor. I NEVER felt the urge to push. I always hear and read that it's an uncontrollable feeling, that you HAVE to push. I didn't, not for one moment. In fact, I had to be told when to push. For me, pushing was way more painful than contractions. I could have labored all day if it meant I could avoid that damn pushing.

So began the pushing, at 7:00 a.m. And then came the screaming. I screamed my freaking head off like I have never screamed before, and I swore like a sailor (but worse). The nurses protested, but my doctor stopped them. "She is pushing better when she yells. Let her yell!"

About halfway through, I lay back on the pillow and said, "I want to go home now." My doctor said, "She wants to go home. Ah, that is so cute." (You must put the doctor's comments in a Chinese accent...he is Chinese and has a very dry sense of humor).

I was given an episiotomy (didn't feel a thing), and our 8 pound, 3 ounce baby was delivered at 7:21 a.m. When they said, "It's a girl!", I responded, "Are you teasing me?", and then I asked for a throat lozenge.

I assumed I'd been pushing for about two hours, and was in awe when I found that I'd only pushed for around 20 minutes. I got stitched up, and kept waiting for our new baby girl to cry. I had heard just small whimpers, and I kept asking if she was okay. Every time I asked, the entire room would shout, "Oh, she's just fine!" I didn't find out until hours later that she hadn't been breathing and they had to put a little mask on her face to get her started. My husband had been watching the nurses in terror.

However, within thirty minutes, all was well and my little red, round faced daughter was nursing for the first time.

Laura's first day home:

Laura's birth announcement picture. She's one week old. I took a picture of her with this bear every month until she was one.

Garrett, 19 months old, with his brand new baby sister:

Laura, 3 weeks old, with Mommy at a school baby shower.

P.S. As soon as I have some time to scan pics, I'm going to add some better shots on this post and Garrett's story too!