Wow, what a whirl wind of change he has brought to our family. A wonderful change but a change. Noah is in love with him and it makes my heart flutter as this was a HUGE worry for me when I was pregnant. I couldnt ask for a better big brother! He hates to hear him cry and wants to make him better any chance he can get. It is really so precious the way his little 3 year old mind works sometimes.
I really wanted to document the night that I had Bennett because 7 months into it and I think I am already beginning to forget some of the special memories of the day.
I will start with Wednesday April 24: I had my 39 week appt. with my OB. Everything was measuring on track with no issues however he has already told me he really didnt want me to go past my due date with Bennett because I had Noah one day after he was due and he was 8lbs 7.5oz and that was about all I could handle. The one wives tale that has truth to it is that babies do get bigger with each birth the mother has, so Bennett was set to be bigger if he was allowed to stay in there after my due date. So we went ahead and scheduled a induction for April 29, which was my due date. I was reluctant to set it because more than anything I wanted to go into labor on my own. On God's timing, on my body's timing, on Bennett's timing. I had been praying for it my whole pregnancy, but also trust my Dr. and when he said he would prefer me not to go past my due date, I agreed.
Thursday, April 25: Pretty much a normal day, Noah had school and since my induction was scheduled I went shopping while he was there to enjoy my last day alone! when I picked him up we told his teachers that the next time they saw him he would be a big brother, (my induction was set for Monday and he wouldnt go back to school until Tuesday). We went home and had a normal evening at home.
Friday, April 26: I was woken up really early that morning around 2 or 3 with contractions. Nothing too unbearable and no where close to consistent, but they were there and it kept me awake off and on through out the early morning. Allen went to work that morning and I continued to have contractions, like one every two hours or something. Allen called and asked if Noah and I would want to go to Lowe's and Co-op just to get out of the house. I agreed so we went and walked around while Allen shopped for work, I can remember walking out of Lowes, walking extremely slow and waddling because I was hugely pregnant but also because while we had been there the contractions were getting more regular. I got a text from a friend asking if we would want to go to dinner that night, kind of as a last hurrah, before baby number two. I wanted to go so bad, but I was just getting more and more tired as the day wore on. Waking up at 2am takes a toll on a girl, add in contractions randomly through out the day and I was shot, I told her no and we got take out hibachi food and came home. We ate and I just rested in my recliner. I looked at the clock and it was around 7 and I realized I hadnt had any contractions in several hours, so I assumed it had all passed. Whatever "it" was. My mother in law called me around 8ish that night and as my phone was ringing I was having a pretty "good" contraction. The first one in hours! I talked to her and told her what had just happened but that it was the first one in a while so I didnt expect anything to come of them.
I went to bed around 10 or so that night since I was so exhausted from waking up so early.
Saturday, April 27: I woke up at 12 to pee, because God prepares you for waking up often with a newborn by the urge to pee every hour or being horribly uncomfortable while you sleep. As soon as I stood up I was hit with a hard contraction. I stood there to "get over it", as the pain subsided I went to the bathroom and came back to bed. I was so tired I went right back to bed. Around 1 am, I woke up again to go to the bathroom and as soon as I stood up the same thing happened, but when I got back in bed and laid down, nothing. Repeat this a third time around 2 am. By this time, to be really honest, I was getting super annoyed. If I wasn't going to be able to sleep for a second night in a row, I just wanted to have the baby already. I put together that my contractions seemed to come if I was upright so I went in to the living room to sit in my recliner. I turned the TV on and as you can guess there isnt much on TV at 2 am. The only thing I could find that wasn't an infomercial was ironically the movie "Baby Momma" so I sat and watched that. I was having contractions more often but not consistent. My OB said to come to the hospital when I was having contractions that lasted for 1 minute each, 5 minutes apart consistently for an hour. My contractions were anywhere for 9 minutes apart to 20 minutes apart. I finally moved to the couch when I got to the 20 minute mark and did get another 30-40 minutes of sleep but then I was woken up by another contraction. I started timing them again and they were going from 9 minutes to 7 to 6 to 4 back up to 15 down to 8. I mean these things were every where but not consistently 5 minutes apart. They were coming so hard though that I could do nothing to make the pain go away. I finally got down on the floor, on all fours and tried natural methods I had seen on TV, they really did help but this girl wanted an epidural and I decided I didn't care if the hospital sent me home because I wasn't really in labor, I was going in because this mess HURT! I went in to wake up Allen, by this time it was around 4:30 in the morning. I told him he probably needed to call his mom to come sit with Noah because I was really hurting. His 'I am super sleepy and dont want to get out of bed comment'..."Are they consistent?" When I told him no, he said "Well do you think we should wait a little longer" and as I was about to say that I guess we could wait a little bit longer, the mother of all contractions (or so I thought) came and I said "No I am REALLY hurting and I want to just go" He calls his mom and we get our things together, we get in the car maybe around 5:15ish. As we are backing out, Allen says all excited "This is like we are leaving for vacation! You know? Since we are leaving so early?" I was having a really bad contraction as he was talking and totally turned into "that woman in labor" and said "Just drive and HURRY!"
We got to the hospital and since it was only 5:30 or so the L&D desk wasnt open yet so we had to go in through the ER. The man up front saw me waddling in and said "You gonna have that baby today?" and I said "it looks like it..." and he pointed us to the desk with a girl to sign in. We sat with her for several minutes and I had zero contractions the whole time I was with her, so I know she thought I was one of the crazy girls who thinks they are in labor because they have a gas pain. I say this because she let me WALK to the L&D dept! No wheel chair for this girl, she didnt even offer me one until when we started walking towards the door, I had a contraction that brought tears to my eyes and Thank the Lord, Jesus that there was a hand rail beside me because I squeezed it for all it was worth. By that time I was embarrassed (I dont know why, but I was and wouldnt take the wheelchair) In the two minutes it took us to get to L&D, I had another contraction and Allen said "these are a lot faster than every five minutes!" We get to my room and my nurse tells me to change into the gown and she would be back in to check me.
When she came back in she pulled up my information and saw that I was scheduled for an induction on Monday so my order for my epidural was already in the computer (Thank you Lord!) She goes to check me and says "Ok, sweetie, well I am going to run out here and get your IV and we will get that epidural for you" she was on her way out of the door and I asked "where am I at?" (as far as dilated) I thought it was so odd that she didnt tell me when she checked me because EVERY one tells you how far you are dilated after they check you. She was literally already at the door walking out of my room by this point and she poked her head around the curtain and smiled and said "You are at like an 8, but you are doing SOOO good!" She purposely didn't tell me what I was dilated to because she thought I would freak out!
I started laughing and said "well I guess you aren't sending me home then!" She comes back in with two other nurses and they immediately start poking and prodding me and asking me a ton of questions. Everything had to be done really quickly if I was going to get an epidural before this baby came. They worked quickly, and called my doctor and he said he was on his way. (Another HUGE blessing because I really really wanted him to deliver, I think all mommas do. I mean you spent 9 months with these doctors and you want them to be there to the end with you!) The anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural just in time because the contraction that came when I sat up really WAS the mother of all contractions! I had uncontrollable tears streaming down my face. When my doctor got there I was dilated to a 10 but my water still had not broke on its own, so he broke it only to find meconium. A huge concern for Bennett's little lungs. They had to call in NICU to be on stand by in case he had breathed in any of it. I pushed for 45 minutes, which was such a wake up call for me considering with Noah I literally pushed 3 times, like 3 10 second counts and he was here. I was getting so frustrated, so you mommas that push for hours and hours, I tip my hat to you! Finally Bennett arrived in this world at 7:36 am, less than two hours after we got checked in at the hospital. He was perfect and thankfully was not in need of NICU since he did not aspirate anything. 8lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches long. Beautiful!
The nurse told me he was the 236th baby that they had delivered that month! Spring 2013 was a BUSY baby season!
He is such a blessing, and more than I could have ever asked for! I am truly blessed with all my boys :)
