Wow the difference between night and day. This is the only way to describe the births between my boys. I knew that every birth could be different and would be different but I also didn't want to have any expectations. Like I said before Brody's birth for myself and my husband was traumatic. I know it could have been worse. I started early labor Wed. May 16th in the evening. Up until that point I had not had any contractions. Several hours into the labor I started vomiting. Little did I know this was going to happen for 16 hours. That was awful. I was so exhausted by the time they put me into a labor and delivery room. I cried for 3 hours for an epidural and finally got one. It still wasn't until Friday morning that I started pushing and even then it was another 3 1/2 hours before he was out. UFF DA!! I wanted to recap it before I went on to tell you about Weston's birth story because it just blows my mind. :)
Saturday Sept. 12th I woke up that morning feeling a little crampy. I saw some signs that morning that made me curious if I was possibly going to be laboring that day or the next. As the day went on I had some mild contractions on and off. Nothing much though. However I got excited. Yeah well I should have bottled it!! Over the next few days I would wake up at 3, 4, 5 in the morning wondering is THIS the day! :) I am sure no one else has EVER felt this way... :) So I started praying that I would be patient. Then Wednesday came and that was awful. I had a total false alarm. I woke up at about 3:30am and went to the bathroom. (IF details bother you well then stop reading.) While I was going to the bathroom I felt what I could only describe as a pop sensation. I remember thinking that was weird. Went back to bed laid down and within minutes felt a bigger pop. HMMMM... really weird. Got up and started to walk to the bathroom only to feel like I was peeing my pants. OMG... I totally thought my water had just broke. EXCITEMENT.... This time really thinking labor. Around 5:30 am I called the midwife. I wasn't having contractions and I didn't have any gushing type of liquid. I was leaking some fluid but not what I expected. When I spoke to her she thought it sounded like my water had broke but wanted me to hang out and she was planning on calling me around 8am. So 8am comes still leaking and still no contractions. Like I said the leaking wasn't a lot but it was still enough. So I headed into the clinic and at that point I knew in my gut that it wasn't my water. Sure enough it wasn't and I was not going to have a baby that day. Excuse me for a minute while my world comes down on me.... Ok dramatics over. Hehe... Seriously though I was heart broken and I cried. I kept thinking I was going to meet my baby and then I wasn't. Friday was my birthday. It was so fun. I started the day off by having breakfast with my dear friend Melissa and my mom. We had a great morning. In the afternoon my mom, my don, and I went down to the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. Either on the way there or just before leaving home I started having contractions again. We went walking around the bridge, walked up to the Guthrie theater and back home. The whole time I was having contractions. Some of them were painful and then some of them were a slight tightening. Pretty inconsistant. I continued to have contractions through the evening. I called the midwife on call around 10pm that night. She thought I was in early labor but wanted me to try to sleep. If I couldn't sleep I could come in to the hospital get checked and they would give me something to help me sleep but send me home. I didn't really want to go in if they were going to send me home. So I slept. Around midnight I woke up with a hard contraction. I decided to take a bath. The whole time I was up I wasn't contracting. I got back into bed and it was about 25 minutes from my last contraction I knew in my gut that they were stopping. :( Woke up at 4am and cried again. I was started to convince myself that my uterus was too comfortable and that he was never going to come out. :) Logically you know the baby has to come out but I did really feel like the thought of waiting a day, or a few days or possibly a week was never. Again haahaha.. my poor husband and my mom had to live with me that last week and I was very irritable, whiney, and I cried a lot. So Saturday rolls around and the contractions started again around 1pm. They were stronger then the day before. So that was good. However, this time I did NOT want to get my hopes up. Brody was at my dad's house all week. My mom was finally here visiting and she was going with my mother in law to pick him up that afternoon. Don suggested that we (him and I) go get him if I was feeling up to it since we hadn't seen him since Monday. I was nervous because it's an hour and half drive. I didn't like the idea. I was glad I was having somewhat painful contractions. I think Don thought they were going to stop again. Anyway, this time over a few hours they increased in intensity and they were about 4-5 minutes apart. So I called the midwife again around 4pm. She told me it was up to me, I could wait at home a little bit or I could go in and get checked. The contractions were pretty uncomfortable and after about 15 minutes of trying to decide I told Don that we should go in. He had just put supper in the oven and it was going to be 40 minutes before it was going to be done. I felt bad because he was hungry but I didn't think I should wait 40 minutes. :) So he asked if he could at least take a shower and I said ok. We got to the hospital and right away they brought us to a labor and delivery room. I was really surprised because with Brody I had to sit in triage for almost 12 hours before I got put into a labor and delivery room. They had me put on a gown and get set up to be checked. I am guessing they don't have a triage area or something. :) I don't know. I was so nervous though that they were going to send me home. NOt sure why as at this point the contractions were pretty hard and I was crying through them. When the nurse checked me around 5pm or so I was dilated to 5cm. WAHOO... I was excited but still I asked "At 5cm you won't send me home will you." I was so nervous still that the contractions would stop or weren't regular enough for them. However, she smiled at me and said not likely! SWEET... I was finally going to have my baby. Right away I let them know I wanted an epidural. The nurse called the midwife and she was on here way into the hospital. I got an IV and they were getting fluid in me so that I could get an epidural. I called my friend Melissa to let her know how I was doing. Don and I were so blessed to have her at the hospital to photograph Brody's birth. Melissa and I had been praying that she would be able to be at Weston's birth but we weren't counting on it. YOu see Melissa has 4 kids, (2 of them are in school) she is pregnant with her 5th. Oh yeah did I mention she lives an HOUR away. If she was going to be at this birth it was going to have to fall into place perfectly. So I called her up and she was going to be down in the cities for a photoshoot that she had. We figured out that she was going to be minutes away from the hospital. So far so good. Her photoshoot was at 6pm and she figured she would get to the hospital sometime between 7:30 and 8pm. So around 6pm the midwife arrived and she checked me and I was dilated to a six. WOOT WOOT! So in an hour I dilated a cm. I was pretty excited about that. Around 7pm I got an epidural. Wahoo. I love them. :) My mom was back with Brody by this time and I really wanted to see him. So they were going to come up to visit. Around 7:30 they checked me again and this time I was still a 6. I was a little bummed. I expected however that I would be in labor for several hours. At least I was comfortable. Melissa arrived shortly after 8pm. We visited and giggled about how big of a difference it was between this time and last time. I was all smiles when she came in. With Brody I got my epi about an hour after she had arrived. Even after I got it I was so utterly exhausted. It was nice to feel good and have some energy. My mom arrived with Brody shortly after Melissa arrived and it was so so so wonderful to see him. He crawled up into the hospital bed with me and was hugging and kissing on me. He was a little apprehensive to see me in the bed like that but he was very sweet. My mom and Brody left around 8:30-8:40. At that time Don and Melissa decided to go over to the vending machines and get a snack. My midwife at 8:45 decided to check me. She had a birth the night before and was exhausted from being up all night. She had been thinking she would go and take a nap if it was going to be awhile. Well they checked me and I was dilated to 10!! HOLY MOSES!! Can you believe it, I am certain I had a surge of adrenaline when they said that. I was nothing short of excited. Melissa and Don were coming back into the room after leaving for a few minutes to get there snacks only to be told I was ready to push. HAHAHAHA... I can hear Melissa in my head so clearly... "WHAT??" My midwife Barb is new to the clinic that I am at and they needed to have another midwife in attendance with her when the baby was born. So they called Penny the other midwife to let her know she was needed. They got the room all set up and while waiting for Penny decided to start having me push. In the first two pushes they could see the head. :) I don't remember what originally made me laugh but the nurse encouraged me to keep laughing because it was pushing the baby out. Before I knew it we were all laughing. SO here I was pushing, laughing, pushing laughing. TOTALLY different then my first experience. There was NO laughing... ;) At 9:15pm Weston Robert was born. I couldn't have had a more positive birthing experience was it actually started. :) They put him on my chest and I was in love. I never got to hold Brody right after he was born and being able to hold Weston was amazing. Don cut the umbilical cord and again I was so so proud. We didn't get to experience that either. It was great to have the opportunity with this baby. So all in all I was in labor 8 hours and 15 minutes. I pushed for 20 minutes... if that. :) My amazingly talented friend Melissa put a slideshow together of Weston's birth and you can see it here. (I CAN"T GET THE LINK TO WORK! IF you go to the side of my blog and find BillMissandBrood you can watch the slideshow there.) Words can't express the gratitude that I have for the gift that Melissa has given me in the pictures that have been captured of both of my boy's births. THe pictures are something I will treasure forever. Her presence at the hospital means more to me then anything, her support and prayers mean so much to both Don and I. I am so thankful for my friend.
Ok. So there is one last part of the story. I made Don call my mom and bring Brody back up to the hospital. :) I knew he was still awake because they had just headed home 45 minutes before Weston was born. I couldn't wait for him to see his new baby brother. It was fun to have a little company afterwards too because I was so excited. So my mom, Brody, and Grandma Janet came up to the hospital around 10pm. Brody was apprehensive. :) However, we have it on video so maybe at some point I will share that as well. I haven't even watched it yet. I remember him being excited and then he got a little upset. I will update you with this though. Brody has been doing really well the last few days. As you know the first couple were hard but he adores Weston. Wants to hold him, kiss him, and touch him all the time. We have really made a point to spend special attention and time with him and I believe this has made a world of difference. I hope you all enjoyed my crazy LONG Story.
WOW! I can't believe two weeks has already gone by. Time is flying. We are doing good. We have had some excitement. First we were having a problem with Weston not gaining much weight. So I went and saw a lactation consultant. They wanted me to do a weight check on him last Friday to make sure he was gaining weight. So I have been nursing and pumping like crazy to make sure that my milk supply is up. Thursday the day before I had to bring him in for the weight check he decided that he would become very lethargic on me. For 8 hours that day he slept really hard, it took A LOT to rouse him to nurse and he would only nurse for a few minutes and then back to sleep. He also had a bit of a stuffy nose. That night he started to wake a bit more and then he nursed well through the night and in the morning. Still not as well as he had been but better. So when we went in for the weight check I wanted them to listen to his congestion and make sure there wasn't anything else going on. I mentioned he had been very lethargic the day before but it was better. The nurse practitioner was pretty concerned about how lethargic he had been. That morning while I was there he was also sleeping really hard, he goes limp and hardly responds to you. So they decided to keep us at the clinic for 5 hours that day. They did a chest x-ray, blood tests, tested all of his vitals. They were trying to decide whether or not to send us to the hospital just to monitor him to make sure that there wasn't anything they were missing. However during the 5 hours at the clinic he had great alert time, he nursed well and all the tests were coming back normal. So I pointed that out to the Dr. and asked if I could take him home to monitor him. They agreed and he has been fine. So I guess he just had a very sleepy day. :) We are still up frequently during the night but it's a little better then in the beginning. It's more exhausting to deal with Brody who for some reason has been waking up much earlier then usual. It seems to work out that Weston wakes up to nurse around 4pm and then Brody will wake up around 5:30am and want to stay up for the day. :) However this morning he slept until 6:50. We were pretty excited. Don is back to school and work. My mom left today , which means that this is my first week on my own with the boys. I am a little nervous and a little excited. I would greatly appreciate your prayers this week as we adjust to it just being us. My sister is coming at the end of this week for a long weekend. She is flying up from Florida, so we have something exciting to look forward to. I can't wait to see her. :)
