October 2, 2008 {Jamie & Luke welcome another son.}
This birth was definitely different than Paul’s in many ways. I’ve decided that birth is more mental (in a way) than physical. At least the laboring part is.
We moved back last summer an extra hour (2 total) from Christina. Because Paul’s birth was only 4 hours we were really nervous she wouldn’t make it, since normally your second birth is faster. I think this is one of the biggest reasons my labor was long–12 hours.
Anyways…
I went in to labor at 1:11 pm on Wednesday. The contractions started and at first were like Braxton-Hicks, but then got stronger and by 1:38 they were two minutes apart and I knew I was in labor because they were pretty strong, but I was still walking around and talking and things. That is when I called Christina and my mom to come over. The contractions kept coming but didn’t really get super strong or anything.
When everyone arrived about 3:30 pm, my contractions seemed to slow down and weren’t as strong, or at least not progressively stronger. I think they were scared away with 3 extra people around. i think I had the shy bladder/contraction syndrome. 🙂
Around 4:30 they picked up a little and Christina checked me. I was about 5 cm. But it was also then that Christina got a call saying that someone else was in labor and it looked like her baby was going to come faster than mine, and the other lady wanted Christina there. As soon as I heard that my contractions were basically gone. I tried calming myself down and thinking about the baby, but i just felt bad that Christina wasn’t at the other’s place. Christina didn’t make me feel this way at all, it was just me. (The mental thing again.) Soon Christina found out that there was no way she could make it to the other lady’s birth and told me she was definitely staying. The contractions started up again, but they weren’t real strong, just consistent.
About 6:00 we had everyone leave for a little while. Christina and Mfon went for a walk and my mom went home to wait. I was still worried about everyone else, thinking they were mad at me (mental thing again) for not having a faster birth. I think I felt like I had to entertain them, even though they didn’t feel like that. Christina came back and assured me that she wanted to be here and that she wasn’t going to all the way back home, and that she already scouted out some hotels and was now going to go uptown and eat and let me get some rest. As soon as she told me that, my contractions started again, even strong ones.
When she left (7:00 pm) I laid down and was able to take a little nap. For the next hour I had pretty strong contractions. Around 8:30 or 9 Christina came back and so did my mom. I knew that they weren’t going to go away again. I think mainly mentally I was ready. I got into the pool around this time. It was nice. Christina checked me and I was at 8 cm, and she broke my water.
I’m not sure that the pool helped ease the contractions or not or even helped the pain at the birth moment, but it did relax me between contractions. Our water heater is very small and ran out of hot water quickly, so all night long Luke boiled water. 🙂
The contractions seemed to hurt a lot worse than what I remember Paul’s hurting, but that’s probably because I forgot.
Jason Andrew was born at 1:00 am Thursday (the 2nd) I wound up tearing again, but not as bad (3rd degree). So we did have to make another trip to the hospital, but the people at this hospital were much nicer than at Desoto.
Jason latched right on to nurse. I didn’t have to do anything really. My milk came in earlier today (the 4th) and he is still doing great!
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