In Part One, I shared my breastfeeding journey. I shared how the system failed me, not once but twice. Today, I am going to dig deeper in why women have such a difficult time doing something that is supposed to be "so natural". If you haven't read part one, please do. It sets the stage for part two.

Well, here we are. Not even 24 hours post-partum. Little Nolan Reed, aka Liam's brother, aka Nolly Bear came into the world at 2:20 on January 25, 2016. He weighed 6lbs 2 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long. He was born at 36 weeks 5 days. As we all know, Mr Nolly has been acting up for a couple of weeks. On Saturday (Jan 23) I was having some painful contractions around 5-7 minutes, so they had me come in. My cervix was still 3cm and 50% effaced. I, again, was sent home, but told this seemed more like early labor than false labor. They said I'd be more comfortable at home and to come back when contractions were around 2-3 minutes. I went home and they had pretty much gone away...false labor I thought. Then, Sunday evening, I started getting contractions. This time, way more painful...I started to remember what REAL contractions felt like. I kind of sat for an hour and timed them. First 11 minutes...then 7...then 5. So I started walking to see if it made them worse or closer together. Yup. After about an hour of that, they were just under 3 minutes and way more painful. I knew I'd be laying in a bed in triage, so I wanted to make sure they did not go away, so I went and laid down. They instantly stopped. So, we called off the swat team (aka babysitters) and headed to bed. Every hour I'd be woken up by a contraction. Around 6:30, I started to feel them about 7 minutes apart. I then heard/felt a pop down south. I hadn't had that when Liam's water broke since I had been sleeping, but I had read about it in pregnancy books. But I felt nothing, so I figured it must have been my imagination. Around 2 minutes later... ...I knew. "Babe, I think my water is breaking! Yep, it's definitely breaking. Still breaking....yep. I need a towel."

Last Photo as a family of 3!

We all kind of did our happy dances, called people, and got Liam ready to send to drop in care. After almost 3 years of trying to conceive, the pills, the diets, the high-risk pregnancy, we were going to meet our sweet boy. I didn't have much pain at first, but by the time we got to the hospital, I had some painful ones around 4-5 minutes. My water had definitely broken, I was 5 cm and 70% effaced. FINALLY ADMITTED! 5th time is a charm! :) I wanted/tried to go as natural as possible. My Dr and nurses were VERY accommodating to that, which is so much different than my last L&D. Which is pretty much why I chose them in the first place! I had my birth ball, my birth affirmations, my Colbie Calliat Pandora, my robe, and my dim lighting. I was so proud of myself...but then I hit transition. I had always been open to an epidural, but wanted to avoid it if possible. I tried nuvane first. It took the edge off, but they were still extremely painful. I decided to get the epidural so I could try to rest up.



 My epidural was put in and then my nurse checked me. 8 cm! Not even 15 minutes later, I could still feel my lower half, and started to feel LOTS of painful pressure. My nurse checked me again and I was at 10! My epidural hadn't even had a chance to fully kick in yet! We called in my doc because baby's heart rate was a tad low. They gave me oxygen and had me do a couple of practice pushes. Little man's eyes were stuck on my pelvic bone, which was causing the drop in heart rate. My doctor tried to turn him to see if that helped. It did, but the little stinker would flip right back around! Are you keeping up? I am essentially going oh natural, baby's heart rate is low, and my doctor is keeping him turned to keep his heart rate up for about 8 minutes....ouch! Ah! He has me do some more pushes and has me stop to break down my bed..because Nolly was on his way! After 3 big pushes, Nolan Reed entered the world. Despite scaring us all at the end...he came out with a full set of lungs, that he used for several minutes! :)


 Being "early-term", he has a little more monitoring. Thanks to my gestational diabetes he has to be pricked every couple of hours for the first 24 hours, but he is doing well! He also has to do a car seat test since he was born before 37 weeks, but that makes my car seat nazi heart happy! Our first visitor had to be big brother. Liam came in a bit overwhelmed and excited, so he didn't stay long, but he ran over and said "is dat baby Nowan?" The nurses were finally weighing and doing all their tasks so they were messing with him and he was fussing. "Hey, don't touch him! It's okay baby Nowan!" As soon as he held him, we all melted. He just stared at him. "Hi Nowan, want to watch a video?" I love that little peanut.


 My brother and his girlfriend came to meet him and of course, Aunt Jess came by after work. We're anticipating a few more visitors today and a couple this weekend. We are so overjoyed and blessed beyond belief! & I can tell people I basically went naturally! ;) God knew my desires and fulfilled them as always! Although I would have preferred that epidural ;)      

 

This post was originally featured on my precious blog, Faith, Family & Frugality.