What Are We Getting Ourselves Into?

When Ollie was less than a day old I started consulting with Dr. Google about various topics. Ollie's first night was pretty rough and it didn't help that I didn't sleep the night before or that day. When he was nursing it sounded like he could barely breath. Like his nose was stuffed up. That was my first consult with Dr. Google. Totally normal for newborns to sound like they have a nosefull of boogers. After Friday night with only 4 hours of sleep we googled food allergies which has lead me to eliminate dairy and peanuts from my diet. Ollie's strong but poorly placed latch had me googling sore nipples. From that search I learned about doing a saline rinse on my nipples after nursing and about using Soothies (soothing gel pads for nipples). When Ollie was 6 days old I finally had a lactation consultant come over and she was amazing. The nipple care I learned from Dr. Google kept my boobies in a better state than if I hadn't known about the rinse and Soothies. Two Sundays ago Ollie had a goopy eye that continued to the next morning. At first Dr. Google thought it might be pink eye, but further research concluded it was a plugged tear duct. Dr. Google advised me to massage the tear duct with my finger, wipe with a warm wet cloth, and put breastmilk in his eye. By Tuesday the goop was gone. Ollie also has this habit of acting as if he is giving birth when it's time to go to sleep at night. That hasn't really stopped with the food elimination so I consulted Dr. Google about what else we can do. We were advised to try Mylicon gas drops for babies. Within 5 minutes he goes from tomato-red-screaming lunatic to zen-calm baby. Dr. Google helps give me piece of mind that Ollie is totally normal. And it's free. And our pediatrician doesn't think I'm crazy. Thanks Dr. Google!

At 40 weeks and 6 days (Monday the 26th), I felt really mild contractions at about 7pm. I was sitting on the exercise ball (it's supposed to help bring on labor ;) ) working on plans for our future cabin and felt the contractions come on but wouldn't really notice them go away. They were regular though. When I told Aubrey about them he headed to bed. He wanted to get some sleep just in case it did happen that night. I worked on the plans until about 9:30 and then Copper and I headed upstairs and packed my backpack and tinkered with a couple other little tasks. Copper asked if her little brother was going to be born tonight and I told her that I thought so. She was so excited and jumping up and down. But the whole time I was up moving around I didn't have any contractions. I read her some books around 10:40-11:00 and then laid down. The real contractions started immediately. I had downloaded a contraction timer on my phone and they were lasting about a minute and were about 7-8 minutes apart. I stayed in bed for about 45 minutes and then got Aubrey up. We called Mountain Midwifery Center (MMC) to let the midwife on call know that we would be coming in later. At around midnight we called my mom and had her come over to stay the night. Mom got there and we gave Copper a kiss good-bye and headed to MMC around 1:20. The contractions on the drive pretty much sucked. The road seemed so damn bouncy and sitting through a contraction is not fun. We got to MMC around 1:40. Our midwife was Aubre who we have known since when I was pregnant with Copper. Plus, how cool is it that an Aubre is delivering mine and Aubrey's baby. I had her check my cervix and I was at 5cm. I was hoping to be more, but Aubre assured me that it would happen quicker this time. I made a bunch of trips to the bathroom with diarrhea (what fun). When I was about 8cm (not sure what time that was, maybe 3:00ish) I got in the water bath and battled the painful contractions. I was hoping for a water birth to have that experience since I couldn't with Copper. I don't think that I will ever forget, but contractions suck. Actually until the moment those shoulders slide out of the vagina, the act of childbirth sucks. I hated having contractions, but at about 3:45 when the pushing started, I hated pushing even more. I had toyed with the idea of having Copper at the birth, but we ultimately decided against it. I'm glad we did because I probably would have scared the crap out of her. When I wasn't saying the F bomb over and over in between contractions/pushing, I generally ended a long push with a yell. I really thought that it would be easier the second time around. I blame Kellie and Shelly for putting that crazy idea in my head. I pushed for a while and eventually started to feel his head come out. Although it hurt like hell, it was progress. I like progress when I push. After 3-4 times of feeling his head come out, it would go right back in when my contraction stopped. To me that just meant more pushing. Aubre claimed he was just stretching me out. The baby "stretching" me out is bullshit. Tearing happens whether the little guy stretches me out or not. Anyways, I pushed in the tub for a while and then Aubre saw some blood so I had to get out. Since I hemorrhaged so badly with Copper, they were expecting it again and you can't hemorrhage in the tub. They helped me out of the tub and onto the bed. I immediately got on hands and knees and piled a bunch of pillows under me, just as I had labored with Copper. Then I pushed with all my might. When his head came out again, I held it there until my next contraction. Then I pushed until the little guy finally came out. I don't even think the shoulders hurt more. Once the head is out, it's smooth sailing for the rest of the body to come out. Then sweet relief. This time Aubrey got to see him be born and even took pictures. Not full on crotch shots, but tasteful profile shots. (We didn't take any pictures of my labor with Copper and I wanted them with Ollie. Aubrey was on top of it.) After 37 minutes of pushing, Ollie was born at 4:22am in the same room and same bed that Copper was born in. He made noise right away and Aubre immediately passed him through my legs for me to see. That felt so good to touch him and look at him. Our little boy was finally here. Then the afterbirth fun begins. I got a shot of pitocin in my arm to help my uterus contract which in turns stops the bleeding. I got numerous uterine "massages" and then another shot of pitocin in my leg. The bleeding wasn't as bad as with Copper and eventually my uterus started to contract and then the stitching could begin. I had two tears that were up high that didn't require any stitches and then a 2nd degree tear lower that did require stitches. I knew all this other pain was to follow this time. With Copper I was clueless that the pain continued after the baby was out. I was numbed up (that part hurts a lot) and then stitched (phew, no pain). After that Aubrey cut the umbilical cord. We kept the cord to dry it (Copper's was dried into a spiral by the lady that did the placenta encapsulation of her placenta), but didn't keep the placenta this time. Shortly after he was born, we noticed a large red mark starting to cover some of his face. Aubre said that when I held him during that contraction it was right across his brow and he ended up with some bruising. Sorry kid. Since he did have bruising, we decided to have him give the Vitamin K shot. Ollie took a big ol meconium poop before they took him to be measured and weighed. It got all over Aubrey. When Aubrey came back to tell me how much he weighed, he had this kind of "uh oh" look on his face. Then they broke the news that he weighed 8 lbs and 7 oz and says the nurse, "He has a BIG head." Good thing I didn't know this information going into labor. I always said I'd have a hard time wrapping my head (or vagina) around a baby over 8 lbs. Guess that's why I didn't have the same experience as Shelly and Kellie. Their babies were smaller. It feels so good to be done having babies and being pregnant. We have our two. Done. I then headed off for my herbal bath while they looked Ollie over. Everything checked out just fine. After the bath I got some more uterine massages, we took some pictures, and then packed up to head home. We didn't stay as long as we did with Copper. Only about 4 hours this time. We stopped at Starbucks on our way home for a coffee for Aubrey and some breakfast sandwiches. We were home by about 8:45am. When Copper finally woke up, she got to meet her little brother. She was a bit shy at first and I don't think he was quite what she expected, but she quickly warmed up to him and brought him a toy for if he got upset. So, 1 week late, our little man finally made his appearance.