When we got home I told Matt that he had to put Lauren to bed that night and by the time he came downstairs once that was done, I had timed my contractions to be eight and a half minutes apart. No problem! I had plans to watch a bunch of tv that I had saved and get ready for the hospital. After the first show I went to put on some mascara (I knew photos would be happening) and during those few minutes, my contractions suddenly sped up to every two and a half minutes.
I let Matt know and called the hospital while he let our family know and hopped into the shower. By the time he got out my mom had just arrived and I needed to go! Contractions were speeding up quickly. I was a little surprised because my contractions with Lauren were so much more intense than these ones were. If those were a 10, these were a 4. I could simply rock side to side and get through them. With Lauren, each contraction took over my whole body and stopped me cold.
But by the time we got to the hospital, I was constantly doing my side to side dance. We were ushered into a room and the doctor came in. She checked me out and said that I was 6cm dilated and she would be back in a few hours. I replied, "Oh no, this baby is going to be here way sooner than that." I'm just going to throw it out there that I love being right!
The seemingly small contractions kept coming and I spent most of the time with my eyes closed rocking my legs side to side and breathing through it. Matt was so amazing through all of this. At first he kept asking me questions and if I needed anything but then we just got in a rhythm. He had water ready when I needed it, fanned me with a paper plate until they could find a fan, replaced the cloth on my head and spoke such encouraging words to me that I felt like the strongest woman in the world, capable of anything. I'm so blessed to have someone like that beside me.
The whole time I had felt nauseous and finally it got to me and dinner came up. That appeared to slow the contractions right down but actually it was just the trigger for a change. Now I was pushing. I think the best part of the pushing contractions is the time in between. In those moments, I felt amazing. My body was so relaxed and comfortable, the breeze from the fan was beautiful and I relished every second. Especially since the other moments, my body was trying to expel a human being as fast as possible. Nine minutes later, after only two serious pushes, our little baby girl entered into the world on June 24th at 11:09 pm.
The doctor handed her right to me and I felt so present in that moment when I reached for her and brought her close to me while Matt bent close to my right shoulder. We were there together. She was safe and she was so beautiful. From her gazing eyes to her long fingers to her thin little legs, my eyes wanted to eat up every tiny detail of her 6 pound 2 ounce body.
Apparently my body really gets attached to my placentas because, just like with Lauren, my placenta wouldn't come out after birth. With Lauren I was whisked away from her and Matt right away after birth for surgery, but this time the OR was being used so we had to wait. It was such a blessing to have that time with the two of them before being separated.
I was taken into surgery while Matt headed down to the maternity ward with Baby. After the surgery, I was woken up by the doctor telling me that I had had a significant amount of blood loss during the procedure and they were concerned about my hemoglobin levels. They had hooked me up to IV antibiotics and finally sent me back to my family.
Matt had been worried because instead of the two hours we were told to expect, I had been gone for three and a half. Finally he was able to relax enough to get some sleep (the poor guy was exhausted because he had been up since 5:30am the morning before for work) and I got to cuddle our little girl before getting two hours of sleep myself.
We had a few visitors through the day but spent most of it together, trying to get a moment of rest when Baby slept. Baby was also watched closely because she was vomiting quite a bit and not much of her food was staying down. They were concerned that there might have been a structural issue in her digestive system but around 3:30, she finally kept a feed down. It looked like she was struggling from having had such a quick birth. Normally, the contractions are long enough and strong enough that the baby is able to expel most of the mucus from her system. Instead of the usual two hours of hard compression on the baby, our baby had only nine minutes leaving her much like a C-section baby in that respect. Her body was trying to expel mucus and causing her to throw up. Of course, Matt and I were trying to keep our worry in check but after everything that we went through with Lauren, it was hard not to imagine the worst. Having her keep her food down for those few hours made us feel a lot better.
The most important visitor of the day was Lauren. Lauren loves babies but I was nervous about how she would react to one that would force her to share her mom and dad. I don't think I needed to worry at all. Lauren walked in (like she owned the place) and came right over to us to meet Baby.
She was so excited. Elysha had practiced with her saying "Baby Sister" and Lauren was ready to make the baby her own right away.
Baby and I were released on Thursday around noon, excited to get going on adjusting to life with a two year old and a new baby. Two days after a walk as a family of three, we headed back out for our evening walk as a new family of four.
Congratulations Amanda, Matt and Lauren on the birth of your daughter and sister. May God bless you has a new family of 4! She looks so adorable and the pics of Lauren with her are adorable!
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