North Fulton Water Birth Photographer
I love it when the mom writes the blog post for me :) It’s her birth, so I feel it should be her story to tell, from her own perspective.
It’s also awesome as it makes my job easier. At times I can stress with how much information is too much, etc.
Everyone told me you would come quicker than your brother, but that really didn’t turn out to be the case. I started feeling the first twinges of labor on Saturday night fittingly at a celebration of life. Apparently you wanted to get your own life on the outside started! When the contractions hadn’t gone away by Sunday morning, we went about our day observing them. But I felt good enough to go to church and Big Brother Eli’s first swim lesson. He loved being a “shrimp”! I also finished some work stuff and prepped our fridge for us to be gone a few days. We called your Aunties to stay at the house in case we needed to go to the hospital, and it’s a good thing that we did because the contractions started getting real by 12:30 or so Monday morning. We headed up to the hospital around 2 am and my water broke right as we got out of car upon arrival. After that, things got PAINFUL in a different way than the first time through labor. Because my water was broken, they admitted us but my labor kind of stalled for the next several hours. I think my body wasn’t dealing well with the pain of contractions so it was giving me rest and we never really settled into a regular pattern. I am so thankful for your Daddy & Doula Maegan’s encouragement… without them I’m not sure I coulda made it through! The L&D ward was busy on the night you were born so we didn’t see the on-call midwife often and the staff left us to do our thing since I had plenty of support from Daddy & Doula.
Finally, a midwife came by around 7 am and said I could get in the pool if I liked. Once I was in the water around 8 am, I could feel you coming down and knew you would join us soon. Transition was SO SO painful, but I could deal with it better in the water.
Then doula Maegan told me to reach down and see if I could feel your head. You were only about 2 inches away and then I knew it was time to push. That’s when things were really different than with your brother. Three good pushes and you were out! Maegan ran over to help & Daddy almost had to catch you because you came so quick! But a nurse ran in at the last second and twisted your shoulder so you slid right out. You came out with your hand in your mouth just like big brother, and you were EXACTLY the same size too (7lbs 9oz, 20 inches). You were screaming from the beginning which was reassuring, and you calmed right down in the warm water snuggling up with me.
There was a baby boom in the hospital with babies born at 9:50, 10:01 (you!), 10:05, and 10:59 so we had lots of bonding time as the staff scrambled to process all the babies and mamas over to postpartum. I was happy to wait though because your Aunties were bringing Big Brother to come meet you! So the nurses waited to run all of your tests last and we had a meal and relaxed in the L&D suite.
You were such a sweet baby from the beginning – you nursed and watched us with your big eyes before drifting back to sleep.
Your hair looked curly with all the vernix in it, but it’s pretty straight now once it’s clean and dry. Your Daddy thought you were so tiny & guessed you barely weighed six pounds (he was wrong!).
Big brother arrived while they were giving you a bath and running your newborn tests, so he came and sat with me on the bed and ate his favorite grapes and melon while he waited to meet you.
He brought you a sweet crocheted lamb and you gave him a train toy & big brother books. All were big hits!
He liked looking at you, but wasn’t quite brave enough to touch you right away.
Our postpartum stay was uneventful in the best way and we were surprised/happy about how boring the hospital could be after the stress of Eli’s stay. You aced all your tests and my recovery went really well also.
We had to stay the full two days so that you could be observed for any signs of a GBS infection. Thankfully you are completely fine and we spent the hours eating endless graham crackers and watching silly TV.
You had family visitors – Uncle Randy & Aunt Dennise, Aunties Kristine & Nattie, Nana Barb, & lots of Eli (of course).
And got newborn photos – you were adorable naturally. Then we busted out of the hospital on Wednesday afternoon in time to beat commuter traffic & greet Big Brother when he got home from school.