A Tale of Two Births

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

 

	Josiah	Jonathan
Birthdate	Sunday, November 11, 2012 at 9:27 a.m.	Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 12:14 p.m.
Gestation Length	35 weeks 4 days	41 weeks 1 day
Length of Labor	35 hours Water broke at 10 p.m. Friday, November 9th	10 ½ hours Contractions started at 1:45 a.m. Sunday, May 4th
Hospital Arrival	About 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning	About 4 a.m. Sunday morning
Baby Progression at Arrival	1 cm (forced) -4 station	6 cm (stretched)
Natural Labor Techniques	Walking, exercise ball, different laboring positions during contractions, shower (tub was broken)	Walking, exercise & peanut balls, different laboring positions during contractions, bath, evening primrose oil, essential oils, raspberry leaf tea, acupressure in feet, squat bar, stripping the membranes
Interventions	3 rounds of Strep B antibiotics, 3 Misoprostol, Pitocin, 2 shots of Fentanyl, epidural	1 round of Strep B antibiotics, 1 shot of Fentanyl
People in Room	Dr. Ahmed, Angel (baby nurse), my nurse, Randa (NICU nurse), Donelle (Respiratory Therapist), Dr. FJ (Neonatologist), Danny, Mom, me, Lauren (she got stuck there), Josiah	Dr. Irby (barely), Amber (our nurse), Laura (student nurse), Danny, Mom, me, Jonathan
Baby Stats	6 lbs. 5 oz. 20 ins. with cone head 18 ins. at discharge	8 lbs. 8.7 oz. 21 ½ ins.
First Meal	Smoothie and apple fritter	Club sandwich with kettle chips, chicken soup, apple slices, and a strawberry shake
Hospital Stay Length	6 days (mom) 5 days (baby): 2 days in NICU and the rest spent in labor room as a NICU patient	2 days (mom and baby)
Skin to Skin	About 5 minutes	About 2 ½ hours
Nursing	Pumped 8 hours after delivery.  Nursed 24 hours after for a couple of minutes on each side.  Continued nursing sessions for a couple of minutes (trying to keep him awake) followed by half an hour of pumping every 3 hours with supplemental donor milk and Danny finger feeding.	Started nursing within 20 minutes of delivery and nursed on both sides for a total of 2 hours.  Continued hungrily nursing every 2 hours.

 

Commonalities: There were some things that were the same between both labors and deliveries.  My body stalled out in both.  With Josiah it quit at 3 cm and with Jonathan it quit at 9 ½ cm.  I just couldn’t relax anymore to let it finish the dilation.  That’s where the drugs helped.  I tried for an all-natural labor each time, but also went in knowing that I don’t have a very high pain tolerance.  There was also a time in each labor where I requested a C-section…ok, demanded may be more like it as I wanted the baby out of me immediately!

      I had FANTASTIC labor nurses with both boys even though we delivered at two different hospitals.  My friend Amber was able to act as my doula with Josiah and I was blessed that we went in on the last day of her stretch for Jonathan.  We also got to have the same night nurse with both boys as she had switched hospitals.  And the same lactation consultant. 

      Neither child actually dropped until right at the last second (possibly an hour or two before actual delivery).  They don’t help with the delivery part at all but leave it all up to me!  Pushing went very quickly once I was fully dilated.  With Jonathan I pushed a little longer just to try and get the last little bit dilated, but since his head wasn’t there it made it difficult and I had to relax into it instead.  Once we were ready to push, the boys just popped out.  The delivering doctor for Josiah had just come on shift and told the nurse to have me do some practice pushes.  After two practices he was crowning so they told me no more practicing and got the doctor and the whole team in the room.  The doctor hadn’t even put her scrubs on yet so she just threw a gown on over her street clothes.  Three pushes and there he was.  Jonathan was facing my hip and had to be turned.  Once he was turned it only took a couple pushes before he was crowning.  Then his head popped out and Amber was holding him in and calling for the doctor to get in the room while telling me not to push (very difficult in a squat).  Dr. Irby didn’t even have time to put gloves on and he was delivered within a few more pushes.

      It took a few minutes for them to announce either boy’s gender.  Josiah was crying but also turning blue from underdeveloped lungs.  Jonathan’s umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck twice so they were working on untangling that.  It may have been Danny both times who announced it.  J

1 week, 18 months and a Happy Mother's Day!

It's funny that all those things happened on the same day.  Both of my boys were born on a Sunday and achieved a milestone on the same day that we got to celebrate me.  Life with a newborn and a toddler is still adjusting, but I had the best Mother's Day ever!  (Of course, this is only my second one. Haha!)

First we woke up and fed Jonathan.  Danny got Josiah breakfast and they met me on the couch for some snuggle time.  Josiah's favorite thing to do right now is give Jonathan kisses.  It's even better when Jonathan "kisses" him back.  Melt my heart!

I ate breakfast and only rewarmed my coffee once!  That's like a single child thing.  I even did a little bit of a crossword puzzle (which is my current nemesis).  Before noon, both boys were sleeping, the dishes were done, I had showered, I was wearing real clothes, and my make-up was on.  I even laid down for a rest while they slept. 

Danny got them up and had Josiah snacking while I got lunch ready.  There were only two things I really wanted to do for Mother's Day.  I wanted to take pictures of me and the boys in their "brothers" clothing and I wanted to try a walk (my first) in the beautiful sunshine.  By the time we sat down to take a picture, Jonathan had spit up on his outfit and was crying because apparently he was starving again.  Josiah doesn't like it when Brother cries so he was also getting upset.  And the camera battery died!  So we decided to try for our walk while the camera charged.

The walk was beautiful.  Danny packed Jonathan and pushed Josiah in the stroller.  My whole mission was just to walk.  We only did a big square around our neighborhood, but I was definitely starting to feel sore. 

The second picture attempt yielded at least some pictures.

I wanted Mexican food for dinner so Danny took Josiah to get some.  The little place he was going to go closed before he got there.  I hadn't even realized they were gone for a little over an hour, but I got some laundry folded and picked up a few things before I needed to join Jonathan on the couch for a rest.  When they got home I was amazed.  Danny is super good at sneaking things in when I'm not looking!

They had brought me a bouquet of flowers, a Pepsi, and dinner (from another Mexican restaurant).  Not only that, but they had gone to Costco and picked up a few things we needed--including a churro which I didn't know about and Danny kept warm in the oven until after dinner when he brought it to me while nursing.  Then he took Josiah outside so I could even eat it!  :)

Both boys went to sleep at about the same time and Danny and I had some alone time on the couch watching "Once."  Danny had even gotten a berry sundae that we shared.  Then we went to bed and Jonathan slept until after midnight!  (Josiah woke up at 11:00 but I still had a stretch of sleep.)  I'm not sure I could have planned a better Mother's Day!

Thoughts from the farside (of 40 weeks)

I realize there are women who have been more pregnant than me.  The frequent question these days is, "How do you feel?"  Well, I feel pregnant.  Not bad pregnant--just humongously, largely pregnant.  Actually, if I hadn't been told my due date, the fact that I'm overdue wouldn't really bother me.  Waking up every day thinking, "It could be today" and having contractions all morning just to have them peter out in the afternoon has started to get to me.  It probably doesn't help that I officially cleared myself to have this baby from 36 weeks on!

We've tried lots of natural labor inducing stuff.  I've been drinking raspberry leaf tea by the gallons since 37 weeks.  I'm actually currently out.  I'm up to two evening primrose oils a day.  I go for walks with hills (which happens to be mostly through the cemetery, but that's another story entirely).  The exercise ball came out this week (and I'm loving it!).  I have eaten spicy foods.  We started using acupressure points yesterday.  I've even been eating bananas because I read that it could help...I want to meet my baby (and yes, I want to take a bath in the jet tub).

Here are some of the other crazy thoughts that have gone through my mind lately, in no particular order:

--It's a lot easier when your water breaks because then you know you're going to the hospital to stay.  Timing contractions gets old when they aren't coming regularly enough to count but are coming regularly enough to make you think they count.

--When I'm having lots of contractions, my patience is thin and I don't feel like playing with Josiah as much.

--It never occurred to me that you could be sick and go into labor.  How awful!!!

--It may be time to get a step stool to get in and out of my bed.

--Why do I always have to go to the bathroom!?

--Some walks (like today :P) I think someone should be on call to come pick me up when I don't think I can make it home.

--I am going to have to reschedule my baby shower.  That means neither of my showers will have gone as planned.

--Parts of me hurt that I'm pretty sure don't have anatomical names.

--In the last year I have been pregnant 11 out of the 12 months.  Mathematically that may not be accurate, but in pregnancy math I got pregnant in July and it is now May, which equals 11 months.  That means only June is left.  I'm sure there's a tabloid story there somewhere.

--I have not had any plans made for the past two weeks because I thought I'd have a new baby.  Translated that means my family has not had a planned dinner in a while.  I'm running out of spur of the moment ideas and don't want to dip into the prepared dinners I've been stocking away for after baby comes because at some point the baby will come.  (Right?!)

--I like not having to do school work during nap time.  I have way more me time that way.

--I've been planning what I will eat at the hospital since October...no joke, I didn't get a club sandwich at Shari's because I planned on having one when the baby came since it lasts a bit if I don't get to eat it right away.  Apparently a week in the hospital with Josiah and reading about healing postpartum foods has led me to plan my hospital stay menu.  Goodness!

--I am worried about Josiah in all of this craziness because he is still so little to understand what's happening.  I know I'll see him the two days we're in the hospital, but his little world will be so different--even with family taking care of him.

--I am serving Raspberry with an eviction notice...starting today!