So, finally catching a moment to give you guys an update on how Connor's birth went!
So we had another NST scheduled for Friday, March 6th at 2pm. Blake went into work super early that morning so he could get out early to go with me. Well, I woke up to a HUGE gush at 6:15 that morning, and knew my water had broken. No contractions or anything, just the water. I told him he could stay at work until the end of his day (noon) and if I needed him to come home earlier, I'd let him know. He ended up leaving right after anyway, lol.
Time for the appt rolled around and I still wasn't in labor. The midwife had us come in for the appt, and we did the NST. Everything was fine. She checked me, said my cervix was still really high, and felt that there was another sac of waters cushioning everything (I didn't even know it was possible to have two?). She broke that sac, and as we were leaving to head home and wait, contractions started. They weren't nice straight from the beginning, but we went home anyway. Shortly after was when I sent you guys that screenshot of the contraction timer.
They continued to get REALLY strong, I was screaming in pain with most of them, and TMI, had lots of poops. I called the midwife at 5 (2 hours after the contractions had started) and told her I'd been having them the whole time and they'd been 5 minutes apart and strong (the other midwife told me to come in when that happened). She told me to wait a couple more hours. By the time we left, they were 3 minutes apart.
So we get there and they check me and I'm only at 3-4. With pain that hurts as bad as when I hit transition with Sienna. I wanted to CRY. I ended up getting in the tub to try and help the pain, but it was SO bad, I just couldn't take it. I freaked out and ended up asking to be taken to the hospital's L&D section. It took awhile to get all the paperwork set up and get me admitted to get up there, and in the meantime they checked me again. I was having such strong / close together contractions that they thought I might give birth in the elevator. Turns out I'd gone from a 3 to a 7 in an hour and a half, but they were still willing to transfer me since L&D is only 3 floors up. If I could have dealt with the pain, he likely would have been born within an hour or two.
Anyway, we get upstairs and I get the epidural. I regret nothing this time! It was SO intense and I was just SO unhappy with how it was going (Did you guys have pain SO bad it feels like your legs are honest to god being pulled off at your hips? No exaggerations! It happened with Sienna and Connor). Again, like with Sienna, the epidural didn't work on one side. The pain on that side was INTENSE. They ended up having to give me so much to stop it that I couldn't even feel pressure from the contractions. AND Connor was in the wrong position, just like Sienna was. The nurse lifted my leg up over a peanut ball and I ended up resting like that for awhile, which got him to flip face down. Yay!
The doctor I got is amazing. He came in shortly before I was to start pushing and introduced himself, sat down and talked with us and let us ask any questions we had. We instantly loved him and felt at ease with him. He even came back the day after Connor was born to check on us and just sit and talk for awhile. I'm going to be going to him for my 6 week check up and using him as my gyno.
So anyway, I was fully dilated by the time they checked me around midnight, but because I couldn't feel any pressure from Connor's head, they decided to have me wait a little while and let the epidural wear off just enough to feel the pressure for pushing.
So when the time came, Blake asked the dr if he had time to step outside for a cigarette. The dr told him yes if they don't have me pushing at all because it looked like Connor was just going to fly out, he was so low. They told me they could see a ton of hair.
Blake came back in, came up next to me to hold my hand, and everyone was ready for me to push. You guys might remember that it took 5 hours of pushing (plus suction) to get Sienna out. Not Connor. Two pushes and he was out. So from the time contractions started until he was born was 10 1/2 hours (if you count from 3-4 cm it was 5 1/2 hours).
He ended up being a little dehydrated, didn't pee for almost 24 hours. We had to supplement with formula a couple of times while in the hospital to hydrate him because he wasn't getting enough from me. Other than that, everything went well and we discharged early.
He seems to have issues with my milk that we're trying to figure out. He's had painful gas / poops since he was born, he struggles to get them out and often cries while trying. The other day he projectile vomited out his nose and mouth; I think that was from overeating to help settle his stomach. Yesterday we decided to try formula all day to see if that helped (I pumped all day instead), and he was actually less fussy. We went back to the boob last night, and shortly after the first nursing, he projectile vomited out his mouth and nose again. We got him bathed and cleaned up, and at his next feeding, we did the boob again. Right as he was finishing up on one side, it happened again. This time he just fell right back asleep. We ended up being up until after 1 this morning with him to make sure it didn't happen again (it didn't). Now I'm working on limiting the time he spends on each boob (before he wanted to guzzle down on one then not have the other at all, then eat again an hour and a half later) and trying to space out his feedings better. He's still having painful gas and poops, though, so I'm still trying to figure that out...
Other than that, everything is going well! Sienna loves him. She snuggles him and gives him kisses and she gets worried when he cries. She is a bit jealous, but it's more when Blake is home (I think it's because she's a daddy's girl and doesn't want to share him, and she doesn't get to see him as much already). He spent last week home from work, which helped A LOT. Our first two days home alone together with Blake at work have so far gone pretty well.
Also, the weather has been so nice that he's not going to get to wear half the clothes we have for him, lol. Was not expecting it to be so warm since he was born.
And this post became MUCH longer than I had planned
Hope you all are doing well
For 90 minutes, we tried to put back to sleep, and dad finally succeeded around 11pm. But, at 2am, we get a knock on our bedroom door. My 16 year old stepson came into our bedroom to tell us that he was miserably itching and couldn’t sleep. It turns out he developed some sort of allergic reaction overnight. So again, we were up for 1 hour, and I ended up with 4 hours of sleep last night.
I don't know how I really feel about having a third. I love birth and being pregnant, but having three kids, I still don't know. Anyhow, everything else is the same. Carter is still just as sweet as he can be and Jeff is Jeff.
Maybe your body just knew what to do the second time around?
