Giving birth to my second son, Arthur Allan, was a lot like going for a float in my friend's above-ground pool in the country on a summer afternoon senior year when I knew I'd be undisturbed for at least three hours and where I totally fell asleep, bobbing in the wind on the float while the sun kept me warm and the water kept me cool. That's what it was like, really. Only I had no pool and there were artificial lights shining down the whole time. And my handsome husband was by my side.
I was at 41 3/4 weeks and my body was exhausted. I was not dilated, so the induction was scheduled as is normal with an OBGYN. We dropped Henry (19 months old at the time) with my in-laws to stay until we came back home. I arrived at the hospital with lots of make up on, determined not to sweat it all off before someone took my picture with the new baby.
Two hours into labor, I was hungry and bored and told Kyle I wanted to just get knocked out and fall asleep and wake up to push the baby out. Contractions were bad enough by then that I had to employ all my Bradley knowledge. (It was less scary the second time. Knowing what they feel like made it easier to ride the waves of pain. I could pretty easily detach myself from them. And I could control my breathing so much better the second time.)
My OB came in to check me and asked if I was still wanting to go all natural. I told her I was annoyed being stuck to all sorts of monitors and tubes. She said--and I'll never forget this--unmedicated labor and delivery is great when you go into labor on your own and you come into the hospital ready to delivery a baby, but when you have drugs making your body do something it's not actually doing on its own, trying to pretend like you have a hold on what's happening to you will be frustrating, especially when you can't get up and move around. (I had an IV, fetal monitor, blood pressure cuff, Pitocin, and antibiotics.) She said that if she could break my water, she thought the baby would be born within the two hours.
I said to go ahead and break my water and order my epidural!
I think it took about an hour before they gave me my pain meds. I was just so sick of being tied to bed and wanted to relax. (There's nothing natural about Pitocin and I fully support the ladies out there who love natural childbirth and want to do it, but refuse to go it alone when drugs make their bodies go into labor. It sucks. No amount of coping methods were going to change the fact that my uterus was contracting out of coercion. It's just not the same.)
Everything was so calm and quiet, even before the epidural. Don't get me wrong, contractions (before pain meds) hurt like the first time, but they didn't scare me. I fell asleep after a few popsicles. The movie Twister was on. I woke up somewhere between "we've got cows" and "suck zone." I ate another popsicle and had Kyle flip me to the other side.
Then the movie went off and my nurse said that I was ready to push. I felt nothing. Deep pressure, but not this all-consuming pain I had felt with my first son (with whom I had an epidural and 20 plus hours of labor.) I know they say pain meds work differently every time, but THEY REALLY WORKED this time. Maybe I just knew to relax and let them take over. The first time I felt so guilty being induced, getting sick, needing an epidural. (Our heart rates and BP were all over the place with my first son and there was some talk in the delivery about doing a C-section and the epidural made sense.) And I psychologically fought it the whole time. With Arthur, I was happy and ready to get knocked out.
I felt so happy and relived that, even though I couldn't go into labor on my own, Arthur was going to be born. I was relaxed and focused. I had my mom come in and she took great pictures. I was feeling so strong and confident and gave a medium push and there he was. I tried to grab his shoulders, but he was too slippery.
I cried as soon as I heard his little voice at the bottom of the bed. My first son couldn't cry; only grunt. He had taken in a lot of fluid during delivery and couldn't breathe well and was whisked away to the NICU for five days. Arthur's crying meant that he could breathe and he could stay with me.
I had no tearing and felt great after. My mom says that I look like I was just waking up from a nap.
It was in recovery that I felt terrible. Those beds aren't breathable and they make you feel all sweaty. I hate breastfeeding while sweaty. But I loved the nugget ice, as you can see.
Sweaty, but loving the ice.
My body wasn't sore and I was so relieved to feel energized right after birth. I felt even better after a shower.
So many grumpy baby faces.
Arthur peed on us more times during our hospital stay than Henry has ever done in his life.
Free food is the best part about being in the hospital. I remember eating a bunch of banana pudding before we left. I had to get some fries on the way home because I was so hungry. We picked up Henry, went home, and took a nap. Of course I cried out of happiness seeing both of my babies asleep safely in their beds.
First family photo with Arthur.
