Frederick's Birth Story

I feel like I cheated

because Frederick's labor and delivery was SO much easier than Charlotte's.  This time I felt like I was prepared for hours and hours of labor.  While I did have to deal with a million Braxton-Hicks contractions prior to the start of actual labor, my second experience with labor and delivery lasted only 5 hours. That's only a quarter of the 20 hours I spent in labor with MC.

My day started with a trip to visit my OB who told me I was 4 cm and 70% effaced.  I still wrote her off when she said she'd probably see me again "later today."  In my head I guessed this bundle would be nearly as late as his sister.

2 hours later, around 2:15 and lunch in hand, I was walking through the front door of my parents house to pick up Charlotte when my water broke.  If you want the whole world to know really quickly that you are in labor, a ruptured water bag at your parents' house in the middle of the afternoon  is a great way to get the information out!  Convinced I had plenty of time, I ate my lunch before caving and letting Helen (still on Christmas break) drive me home to meet Fred (you know, instead of taking myself).    Christy, also on break, followed to pick up Maddie and some of Charlotte's things.

I took my time getting my bags together, with my sisters' help, and the contractions were about 4 minutes apart and just over a minute long by the time we left.  Happy and content between contractions, I was certain we were rushing off to the hospital too soon.  It was nearing 4 pm, however, and we needed to get going before Houston traffic got in the way.

Around 4:15 at the hospital we skipped the usual L&D check in and went straight to our room.  I was nearly to 6 cm and they asked me about drugs.  I was feeling good and turned them down as there has always been this little piece of me that wondered if I could do this naturally.  Fred and I had planned to take a wait and see approach on the epidural.  I wanted to stay off the IV and move around.

My desires to walk around, or even sit on an exercise ball (which I tried for a bit) were squashed when Frederick's heart rate kept plummeting.  It was back up onto the bed for me.  Sometime around here Fred asked if it would be okay to go get something to eat.  I said no.  Still thinking he had time to do things like fiddle on his phone between contractions, he tried to do that too.  He quickly realized that there wasn't time left for any of those things.  Frederick kept having little decels and the nurse said that could be a sign that things were progressing.  They checked and I was at an 8 - in my mind the point of no return for an epidural (I COULD have, maybe?). 

All in all the worst contractions lasted for about an hour.  It took all of my concentration to breathe and keep my body relaxed. I kept thinking about my stomach as a basketball that I was trying to stretch a rubber band around. I'm not sure why, but it seemed to work.  Between contractions it sometimes almost felt like I was inbetween awake and asleep.  It was really crazy.  I must confess that I kept thinking, "next time, I'm just going to ask for the epidural when I walk in." (Will I? Who knows?)

Around 7 my  sweet nurse (who kept praising me throughout the whole thing) went off duty, but I heard her say she was going to do some charting and then come back and see the baby.  Fred thought she was crazy.  But then I felt like pushing and got the okay to go ahead and try one, even though I was still at 9.  3 contractions and maybe 8 pushes later, Frederick was born, with the cord wrapped twice around his neck.  The cord didn't cause any problems, minus the earlier decels, thank God.

 Mama here didn't need any repairs and before long everyone had cleared out and I was left to nurse my sweet babe before being moved to our room where Frederick had his first bath.

And met his big sister:

 What a wonderful day.  God is Good!