AW: Welcome to Amelia Louise

On Thursday morning, I woke up like normal and took a shower. I noticed that I was having back pains, and they kind of seemed to be coming in waves, but I wasn't really paying that much attention and I was wondering if I might be over-analyzing, like you can do with just about anything in pregnancy. I continued to get ready, woke up DD and got her dressed, etc. DH had been working his night shift, so he came home a few minutes before I was leaving and I said, "Today might be the day." 

When I dropped off DD, even our DCP made a comment about how calm I was and asked if today was baby day. I said I would let her know and headed in to work. When I arrived, I carried on as usual, just letting my boss know that I thought today was "the day." I pulled out my phone and started tracking my back pain, which had now spread to my stomach as well - contractions were coming every 10-15 minutes and lasting about 30-45 seconds. They were not painful, just noticeable, so I ended up staying at work until I would normally leave for lunch at 1pm. I had called my mom so both she and my sister made the hour long drive and were at my house when I got home. 

I packed up a bag, but it seemed like my contractions were slowing down. At one point they had gotten as frequent as 6 mins apart but had no set pattern. I told this to DH and said he could probably hold off on calling work and his mom. After I had my bag and the baby's bag all packed, I took a shower again and shaved my legs. Again, not sure why this is something I felt the need to do, but whatever. Then we went to Target to get a little travel toothpaste and a gift for DD from the new baby. Walking around, the contractions were coming more frequently, and sometimes it seemed to be one long contraction with two peaks, and other times it spread it.  On the way home from Target, we stopped to pick up DD and as we pulled into the driveway, my water broke. My mom ran in to get DD and we headed home. We stayed home until about 5 pm, I called the dr and let her know we were headed in and then we hit the road.

The drive wasn't too bad. I was having to breath through contrax, coming every 4-6 mins, but nothing I was having trouble with. When we got to the hospital we walked up to the desk and I got checked into Triage around 6pm. The nurse there was the "baby catcher" from DD's delivery so we chatted for a bit and she remembered us (we delivered in the ER, it was kind of a distinctive delivery and was only about a year ago). Then a resident came and checked me out - he said he could see baby's head (lots of hair!) and I was at 7 cms, so they would admit me. Yahoo! I was glad to be so far along, and it was getting more difficult to breathe through the contractions, so I was hoping it would be too much longer.  

I think we got settled into our room at almost 7pm and our nurse was very friendly and really helped me to feel at ease. I had to lay in bed for a while so they could get a decent strip of contractions and baby's heart rate on the monitor. That was difficult. They asked me to lay on my side, and I was having a hard time breathing through contrax. After I was finally able to get up around 7:45, I tried sitting on the toilet (nope) standing by the bed (nope) and ended up hugging DH and swaying through contractions, which were coming every 2-3 minutes. At this point, I would rate them at about an 8. They would start in my back, wrap around to my stomach and radiate to my upper thighs. I was trying to relax through them, but it was SO difficult. I ended up vocalizing a lot more than I ever did with my first labor, just "oh, oh, oh" and trying to keep breathing.

Finally the resident came around and checked me because I had been feeling a lot of pressure - I was fully dilated. She broke my water, because I guess there was a forebag, and then asked me to try pushing so she could decide if she should call the dr. I started pushing and it must have been a good one - she asked me to stop and quickly our room was filled with various nurses setting up and the doctors putting on garb. I was getting scared about pushing, but at that point there is no turning back, so with my mom on one side and DH on the other, I pushed and pushed. I think it took 3 or 4 contractions to get LO out, the nurse told me a total of 7 minutes from when the resident announced I was fully to when LO was born. 

DH checked and announced that it was a girl! I was so surprised and glad that we were team green. My mom cut the cord (DH didn't want to) and she was placed on my chest. Apparently she pooped, but I didn't realize it until I got cleaned up later haha.  She was so quiet on my chest, the nurses were worried but she was just content there and as soon as they took her to check her out,she was yelling! 

I had some tearing, Im sure because of how quickly she came out, so the dr and resident worked on stitching me back up and delivering the placenta. All in all, it went very well and I am so happy I was able to go med free again, even though the last hour + in L&D was kind of the suck. Recovery has been slow, yesterday I thought I passed a clot and when the nurse checked it out, she and the resident decided they thought it looked like a remaining piece of the placenta, which meant the resident was performing an internal (and jamming her hand into my swollen tender downstairs, and stitches) while massaging my uterus - she was apologetic but that didn't really make it hurt less, and I am feeling a lot more tender than I was before that. They decided it seemed ok and just to watch me for any excessive cramping or bleeding, pain or a fever.So far so good - fingers crossed we should be going home in a few hours. 

DD#2 has been a champ with the breastfeeding, much different from DD#1. Of course, she will take a pretty good sleep, but then want to be at the breast for an hour or more (last night she went for over 2). This is all new to me, since DD#1 wouldn't latch at all. Hoping that once my milk comes in, we can get a good rhythm down. I'm pooped and I can't wait to be home and lay in my bed. DD#1 came to visit us but wasn't too interested in the baby, which we weren't surprised about. We'll see how she does at home.

So, without further ado, here is our new arrival, Amelia Louise: