in love with the small things: giving birth

Now that you have an idea how it played out the first time around, here is how it all went down for round two. As many of you know, I was becoming extremely impatient near the end of my second pregnancy. I was sick of being pregnant and just wanted to meet my little boy. My due date flopped around a bit, but in the end they went with August 18th. On the 16th of August I had my ob/gyn appointment. At this appointment, the doctor informed me that my cervix was soft and I was slightly dilated. I told the doctor I needed to have this baby as soon as possible. The doctor preformed a sweep at my request, this technique seemed to work the first time with Little Miss L. to get labour started. The rest of the day, I felt slightly uncomfortable and I started to lose pieces of my mucus plug. Around 7:00pm that evening, I started to have a few contractions here and there. I decided it would be a good idea to head to bed early and was asleep by 10:00pm. Throughout the night, I still had mild contractions and larger piece of my plug fell out. I woke up on August 17th and this is how the rest of my day played out:

woke up at 5:30am with intense contractions. Went to bathroom and lost the rest of my mucus plug.
5:50am body starts to flush itself out. I was lucky, thankfully I did not experience bathroom issues during birth - yes, I know it happens all the time, but I didn't want to do the deed for all to see.
7:08am contractions were strong and ten minutes apart. My body would not let me sit down or lay down. I paced back and forth in our bathroom and when a contraction would start, I had to sway back and forth - it was the only way I could get through them.
9:15am I decided to take a warm shower to see if it would help me relax. The warm shower was great and I didn't want to leave. The hot water made my muscles relax and contractions seemed to be less intense.
9:45am contractions start happening all over the place. Ten minutes and then five and then back to ten. I just kept telling myself to breathe through them as I swayed.
10:30am I knew it was time to head to the hospital before too long especially because we were informed that I needed to be at the hospital at least four hours before birth since I had tested positive for strep B and would need antibiotics before giving birth. I didn't know how much longer I had, so I thought it would be a good time leave. The only problem was... we had no one to look after Little Miss L. and I didn't want to take her to the hospital with us. Luckily, we made a few phone calls and we had help on the way.
10:35am I gathered my bags and had my wonderful hubby take them to the car because the pain was becoming unbearable. I knew I wanted to get to the hospital as fast as I could, so I could have an epidural. I knew it would make the contractions less intense and I would be able to rest.
11:03am we finally leave the house and are on our way to the hospital. Sitting in a vehicle in the middle of your contractions is not an ideal place to be in labour. At this point in time, all I could think about was why we decided to live so far away from the hospital?
11:45am we arrived in the hospital parking lot. It was one long and bumpy ride! The hubby jumps out and starts unpacking the car. As I am waiting for the last contraction to stop so I can get out of the car, my water breaks in the car. This wasn't a trickle, it was gushing like a waterfall and it wouldn't stop!! I did not want to go anywhere at this point. My body froze and I was going nowhere, I wanted to stay in the comfort of our vehicle.
11:47am the hubby runs to get a wheelchair. There was a bit of yelling coming from both of us, as I did not want to move from the car. As the words kept pouring out of his mouth, I could care less what he was saying to me. All I remember was tuning him out.
11:48am I finally decide to move myself to the wheelchair. Once again, more yelling occurred as the hubby was hitting every pothole possible on our way across the parking lot. I knew all he was thinking was get her inside as fast as I can because she cannot have this baby in the parking lot, but seriously he needs to work on his wheelchair driving skills. I may have put my foot down several times to stop him from pushing the chair, seriously at this point I didn't care if I gave birth in the middle of the parking lot.
11:50am we sign-in to the hospital and are sent to the examining room to see how far a long I am. After several minutes of extremely intense contractions, I was able to lie down. They informed me I was already 7cm dilated and would not be able to get the epidural. What? NO epidural!?!
12:00pm I make my way down the hall to the delivery room. They wheel me into the room and ask me to get on the bed whenever my contractions stopped and I was able to move. The triage nurse informed me she would be back once she tracked down a doctor. I stood up from the wheel chair and felt the instant need to push. I holler at the nurse to come back because it felt like the baby was coming right that second.
12:02pm I am lying on the bed ready to push. The nurse is screaming for someone to come and help her. It was starting to look like this baby was going to be delivered by the triage nurse and my husband. I started to panic because I knew the hubby did not do well in these sorts of situations. It finally sunk in that I would not be having an epidural and I would have to deliver this baby naturally. I didn't know if I would be able to do this without the drugs. Everything was happening so fast, they weren't even able to put in an IV. A medical resident shows up - still no doctor to delivery my child.
12:04pm I am in excruciating pain, a pain that I cannot describe. I just kept thinking to myself that I had not prepared myself for this moment... the moment I would be delivering my child au naturel.
12:08pm the doctor and her team finally arrive but I had already began pushing and the little man's head had peeked out. The doctor said it would only be a few more pushes before our baby would be out. I was screaming bloody murder at the top of my lungs. The whole hospital was hearing some naughty words escaping my mouth. I did not want to push any longer, the pain was too much. I just kept yelling at them to pull him out, it felt like he was stuck half way out and just needed a little tug. You would think you would fell like the baby is coming out of the hole it is supposed to, but instead it felt like I was pooping that baby out.
12:09pm they kept telling me to calm down and breathe. At this point I was ready to murder my husband if he told me to breathe one more time. I squeezed his hand as hard as I could. I had to push one last time, I pushed and it felt like nothing I had ever experienced before - the tearing of one's insides and then there was a great sense of relief.
12:10pm Baby D entered into the world. I listened for his cry but I didn't hear anything. I started to yell 'Why isn't he crying?' 'What's going on?' it seemed like it was a lifetime before Baby D finally let out a little whimper and then a little cry. I soon caught a glimpse, I knew I was in love again. He was whisked away to get weighed, suctioned out, and wrapped up.
12:30pm it had now been 20 minutes since I delivered our son but I was still having intense contractions because my placenta did not want to come out. The doctor asked me to push several more times but nothing was happening. If she asked me again, I was about ready to let her have it. Is she crazy to ask me to push again, after all the pain I had just went through?!? That was the absolute last thing I wanted to be doing right now.
12:45pm they were still poking and prodding me. I finally said that I could not take it anymore and they agreed they would give me a break.
12:50pm after more than 40 minutes and still no placenta the doctor decided to help out by going in and pulling it from uterine wall. Let me tell you, it didn't feel pretty - I screamed in pain, again. Finally the stubborn thing came out. I am usually one not to want to look at gory, gross slimy stuff that comes out of my body, but I wanted to see what was causing me so much pain. To my surprise, it was a lot bigger than I expected. The doctor was so kind to give the hubby and I a little demonstration on how the placenta worked and showing us exactly where our baby had been living the last several months. It was one amazing thing and I really couldn't believe one organ could do so many jobs. I know many people who like to take theirs home and plant it or even eat it but as much as I enjoyed looking at it... that's as far as I was willing to go, the journey with my second placenta ended there.
It was now time to hold my baby boy. He was so precious as he looked up and smirked at me. I knew he had me wrapped around his finger already!

Only minutes old. Welcome to the world Baby D!

I finally get to meet my soccer player.

There are no words to truly express the way you feel when you meet this little person for the first time.

Thank you to my hubby, I would not have been able to do it without him. I can't believe you didn't pass out!

Dear Placenta, you and I are no longer friends.

After several requests, I was finally able to pause life for a few minutes and write my birth stories in a three part series. The first part will cover Little Miss L.'s birth, the second Baby D's birth, and the final post will cover the 24 hours after the birth of Baby D.

There have been so many people who have asked me about my birth story... "Was it faster than your first?" "Did you get drugs?" "Did you have a c-section or was it natural?" "What has your recovery been like this time?" These were just a few of the common questions I have been asked over the last several months. In life, I have always had the mentality to expect the unexpected and this couldn't have been any more true than when it came time to giving birth for the second time.

When asked if I went in to the second birth with a plan, my response is "absolutely not" and I never had any intention of having one either. When I gave birth to Little Miss L. I never went to the hospital with a birth plan either - you might ask why... well, the way I saw it was I had never given birth before and therefore I had no idea what to expect. Yes, people can tell you what it is like and you can read hundreds of books but you never truly know what it will feel like for you and what sequence of events will take place that day until you are in the moment yourself. I didn't know how my body would react, I didn't know what my pain tolerance would be, and I didn't know how the medical system would play out on that very day. I guess, in a way, I didn't want to disappointment myself. Of course, I went in thinking that I would wait at home as long as I could, and that I would try to give birth naturally without any drugs, but I didn't want it to be written in stone. I wanted flexibility and I didn't want to walk away after bringing a new human being into this world disappointed and feeling like a failure of some sort. It could have also been the fact that I was living abroad at the time in a country where I did not speak the language and did not understand their medical system (more about my experience giving birth in another country in a later post.)

In short, giving birth to Little Miss L. went something like this:

woke up at 6:00am having contractions. They were irregular but bearable. I lose my mucus plug. Told the hubby not to worry and head to work.
2:00pm contractions become very intense. They were about ten minutes apart. I call my good friend in Canada and tell her I am in pain - she is able to talk me through a few of my contractions.
5:15pm contractions became extremely intense to the point where I could not talk or move my body.
7:00pm contractions were unbearable, I didn't think I could take the pain any longer. My contractions were five minutes apart. I start to worry because the hubby is still not home, he had to pick my parents up at the airport. I begin to panic, the thought of giving birth in our apartment without anyone around starts to set in.
9:00pm I could not take the pain any longer and decided to head to the hospital. I say a quick hello to my parents who have arrived in Portugal and I am on my way.
9:30pm arrived at hospital. Doctors were changing shifts, so I had to wait in the emergency waiting area.
9:35pm my contractions were exactly two minutes apart. The only thing I could do was hold onto the wall and breathe through each contraction.
9:40pm my water breaks in the waiting room. We realize there is meconium in my water. I am rushed immediately into a room where I am given an ultrasound to make sure everything is okay with the baby.
10:00pm they confirm everything is fine and will be bringing me into the delivery room.
11:00pm I decided that I am too tired and did not want to deal with the pain any longer. I want an epidural. They check and I am only 4cm dilated. I thought long and hard about the epidural. Realizing I was only 4cm dilated at this point in the day, I didn't know if I had enough energy to handle another five more hours if that was what was in store for me without the epidural.
11:25pm I am given the epidural. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I experienced very little pain. I felt my body relax within minutes. I could now rest and gather some energy.
12:30am they inform me the baby has not dropped and I would need to urinate or I would have to have a catheter inserted.
12:40am no luck in the washroom department, probably because my poor hubby had to stand there translating, telling me to pee or else the nurses would get mad at me. They prepare me to insert catheter. They check to see if I have dilated any further. I am now 6cm.
12:45am they decide not to insert catheter and then the nurse and doctor start yelling at me to push. A million things are running through my mind as I don't understand half of the things they are saying to me. I look to my hubby for help. I could not feel any of the contractions because of the epidural. They continue to tell me to push every few minutes. I continue to push until I feel a burst and than instant relief.
1:10am Little Miss L. arrives. I was given an episiotomy (even though I asked them not too) so for the next 30 minutes they worked on stitching me up and delivering my placenta.
After giving birth, I stayed in the hospital for four days. My recovery was very slow and I dealt with serious pain for three months from having the episiotomy. I could not sit, or even walk without pain but I wouldn't change a thing because I received a beautiful and healthy baby girl.