Isaac's Birth Story 1 week later... (ricekez)

ricekez · April 2014

Now that my mom and MIL are gone, I have some quiet time to write up Isaac's birth story.

Isaac Lorenzo S was born on 4/19 at 5:19 am via med-free vaginal delivery. He weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz and was 20 3/4" long. He was born precisely on his due date, as was his older brother back in Nov 2011. I guess I have extremely predictable babies.

My labor was slow and easy with Isaac, which surprised me, since I had a fast and furious labor with my first. Contractions started on 4/17, so I left work early because I didn't feel great. DH and I walked a lot that afternoon. Contractions slowed down when I went to bed and started back up in the morning of 4/18. The continued slowly throughout the day, until they were ~7 minutes apart at 6:30 pm. We decided to go to L&D due to my history of fast labor. I was 4 cm and membranes still intact, so the midwife gave me the option to stay or go. I live 10 minutes from the hospital, so I chose to go home, have a snack, and knit while I waited for contractions to get more serious. DH took a nap anticipating an all-nighter at L&D. The L&D nurse and midwife were pretty certain that I'd be back that night, so they had a room ready and waiting for me.

I went back at 11 pm, at 6 cm dilated, so I was admitted. My labor stayed kind of slow and manageable the whole time. I spent the last part of labor in the tub and never had the hard, obvious transition that I had with DS. When the midwife checked me at 4:30 am, I thought I was going NOWHERE and labor was taking forever, but I was ready to push if she broke my membranes. So that's what we did - she broke my water and I pushed out a baby. Pushing hurt like heck, which surprised me because it didn't hurt much at all with my first. And strangely, although pushing hurt so bad, I barely tore at all, while I had a 2nd degree tear with my first.

One memorable thing about this birth is that while I was pushing, everyone left - the midwife and pediatric nurse both got paged away. I was left with a very capable L&D nurse, my mom, and DH. I remember thinking "I'm still having this baby even if the midwife isn't here . . ." Of course, they couldn't tell us what happened, but my mom heard bits and pieces about a walk-in patient who apparently needed a lot of attention and L&D happened to be a hopping place that night. The midwife returned as Isaac was crowning and he was born one contraction later.

DH forgot his duty to tell me the baby's sex, so I was asking him "what do we have? A boy or girl?" and he was off in Daddy-la-la-land until my mom poked him and told him to tell me what the baby was. At this point, Isaac was on my chest while I was getting a few stitches and I couldn't lift my head to see for myself.

DS1 loves his new baby brother. I'm so excited to be Mama to two boys! I can't think of anything else to say, so now I'll leave pictures: