My first, I had very few Braxton-Hicks contractions, but with this one I had them constantly the last month. They were even regular often, but never more than 8 minutes apart. A few times I was convinced that today was going to be the day. With my first I also never had that famous "nesting" experience. With this one I did. I cleaned the entire house in just a couple hours. This included changing sheets on beds. I think this was about a week before Ewan was born. The day before Ewan was born I started to just feel "off" for a lack of a better word. Going into labor was on my mind. I tried to relax and do as little as I could because I really wanted my mom to get here before he came. I started having some good contractions around 9 am, but still they were irregular so I knew I was no yet in labor. Then around 10 am I lost my mucus plug. Now let me tell you...I new deep down that he was going to be coming in the next 24 hours. I sent a text to my husband and my mom saying I was pretty sure he was going to be arriving soon. I told my hubs to be ready to get me if need be. He came home early from work that day (just in case). At 3 pm I got so hungry, like I had never eaten before! I ate and ate and ate. And if you don't believe me... I ate 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pasta that could have easily fed 3 people, an apple, yogurt, and a bowl of cereal! I was still hungry but decided against eating more as I had consumed more than any sane person would have in a day.
I continued to have Braxton-Hicks for the entire day. They were coming regularly, but not changing in intensity. I decided to go to bed. Around midnight my contractions started to really become painful. I had called the hospital earlier in the day and they told me to labor at home for as long as possible (not sure the nurse understood I was having a c-section). So anyways, I toughed it out. Around 2 am things were really progressing. My contractions were went from 7 minutes to 3 minutes apart. I woke my husband and we got our son ready to go. It was still 4 days before my mom would arrive. We made that trip to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital they set me up in a triage room and hooked me up to the monitors and checked how dilated I was. I was already 8 cm! Baby was on his way into this world. The nurse tried to get an IV in me. She missed. She missed again, and still again. She then called in another nurse who also missed 3 more times. Then they called in the anesthesiologist. He was a brute (to put it nicely). He ordered for the biggest gage needle and proceeded to shove it into the bend of my wrist (twice) then into my hand. He finally got it into my hand and I was taken into the surgery room. My contractions were coming less than a minute apart and I still needed to find the strength to hold still for the spinal. And as luck would have it, between the triage room and the surgery room my IV came out of my vein so when I got to the surgery room that brute stuck me another 3 times!
Anyways, the surgery happened so quickly once my spinal was in. I do remember that brute testing to see if it was working by poking me with a needle all down the length of my body. The surgeon and the brute talked about their college age boys playing sports during most of it. Then I heard it...I heard the first little cries of my new son! The nurses cleaned him up and brought him to me to see. Of course I didn't get to touch him. But he was beautiful and looked so much like my first son did when he was born. And good thing I decided to have that c-section...baby's face was completely bruised from being lodged in my pelvis!
I was wheeled into the recovery area and monitored by a nurse for 2 hours. They did bring my baby in to nurse and my husband and son came in to check on me. Hubs couldn't be in the surgery room with me because he had to stay outside and watch our little Aaron. I could not wait to get into my room and really start bonding with our family. Finally, I was moved to my room and baby was brought in for me. He was perfect (of course!). We spent the day nursing and bonding and introducing Aaron to his new brother. That night I went on my first walk (and those of you who have had a c-section know what an accomplishment this is). And I walked! They said to just try to walk to the end of the hall and back, screw that! I walked for a good half hour. It was not an easy walk, but it felt good to be moving again. I could not wait to take that shower the next morning and remove that 4 inch thick bandage. I also learned my lesson from my previous surgery and brought my own pads so I didn't have to use those massive ones the hospital provides and I also brought my own underwear so the mesh ones never touched my body. And that was a saving grace, let me tell you!
So we came home. And we napped! My poor husband rushed around to clean the house a little before my mom arrived and I just spent time bonding and relaxing and trying to recover. This recovery was so much better than my previous. With my first I experienced the pains in the chest caused by the air that got into my body cavity. I experienced the WORST constipation of my life that of course I had to deal with while my mother-in-law was there and had to hear me complain about how bad I felt like I needed to go! This time I had no chest pains and was so paranoid about that constipation that I loaded up on fiber pills, stool softeners, and even milk of magnesia. No way was I going to spend hours on the toilet trying to find relief from the worst poop of my life again!
The terrified feeling I had after the birth of my first was no longer there. I guess it is true what they say about the first being the hardest and scariest. Now its all a breeze....ha!
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