birth story

This is an easy birth story to write because all I have to say is that pretty much everything was the opposite of our experience with Dylan. In retrospect that was even worse than it seemed at the time, even without the hemorrhage part and accounting for the second babies are easier to get out than first babies part. Except for the enormous baby staging a sit-in and having to be negotiated with to come out, that was about the same, this time with a half pound more enormity.

Seriously though, this was so straightforward it's boring (= not complaining). We went in at 8:30am and did logistical-type things for a couple hours. I started having contractions right away when they started the pitocin late in the morning. They broke my water. I could barely feel the contractions, but they still seemed to be working. I got an epidural pretty soon anyway because Aaron and I still think so fondly of the last one. I contracted away all afternoon while we hung out and watched tv. Aaron alternated between pacing restlessly and sitting restlessly in the rocking chair. I mostly had this odd feeling that I could tell when the contractions were changing my cervix, but that I otherwise couldn't feel anything -- I could have predicted each check before they did it (and did, in my head, but it would have been more impressive had I said it out loud). I started getting uncomfortable around 6:30pm and was ready to push a little after 7. The attending and the nurse both stayed with me the whole time I was pushing, which lasted about a half hour. This time they kindly removed the whole placenta. Then the baby was out and they let him just hang out on my stomach and snack for an hour before doing all the meds and measuring, except for doing the weight right away because we were all dying to know how chunky he was. I didn't think he looked as big as Dylan did, but that was incorrect. And...that was that. Everyone was so nice and supportive and communicative the whole time, and the whole thing was over in less than 12 hours, and now I don't have to be pregnant anymore, which was starting to seem unsustainable anyway.

I couldn't let things go without a little drama and tried to pass out when I stood up a few hours later, but they revived me with modern medical smelling salts. Seriously, they shoved an ammonia wand in my face. No one had mentioned that I had lost a borderline-excessive amount of blood during the delivery because they didn't want to worry me, so I had no idea that I might be pretty anemic. I took to my bed for the night, but I can walk around a bit now. I have actually felt great the whole time, but anticipate grumping out later this week as I get less and less sleep.

I thought Ollie would look just like Dylan, but he really doesn't. He has a very round face and Aaron's ears and a lot less hair, although it's the same reddish blond as hers. He acts just like she did as a newborn though. He is really alert and can hold his head up and track stuff. They gave him a 10 on his second APGAR score, which they don't usually do for sort of superstitious reasons but they couldn't resist because he was so pink and happy. He ate great for the first hour, then took the next 14 hours off from eating as he gurgled out fluid all night. He has been doing great with the nursing since then, also unlike his sister, although such was his enthusiasm that he only let me sleep for an hour last night. You're not supposed to compare your kids, right? That's not going to work out here.