My Second Baby

After I had my first baby I thought what the heck, we may as well keep going. I thought it would be good to have my babies while I was young and could really enjoy them. Then still be young enough to get out and do things with them when they were older. So my second baby was mostly planned. At 6 weeks along I began spotting which of course worried me. Everyone I talked to told me to prepare myself for a miscarriage. I wasn’t too upset about it but if it was going to happen I wanted it to happen then, while it was still early. This went on for about 4 days so the doctor decided to do an ultrasound to see what was going on. It was very difficult for them to see anything but they found 2 sacs and only 1 heartbeat. The doc told me that could be because the other was still too small to see a heartbeat so for 3 weeks I thought I might be having twins. I had another ultrasound at 10 weeks showing just one baby and the other had already been absorbed. (later found had been absorbed into the placenta) I was very grateful to have 1 healthy baby in there.

The rest of the pregnancy went really well. The nausea wasn’t as bad as the first and I even had some energy. (turned out to be the best pregnancy out of all 4) Two days before I had her I started having contractions about every 15 minutes. Some of them were pretty intense and I was hoping it was the real thing but around supper time they suddenly stopped. Friday I felt nothing. Saturday started out pretty normal. I was 38 weeks along. Around 10am I had a sudden intense contraction so that got my hopes up again. Mike and I decided to go to West Edmonton Mall to walk around. I thought that might help move things along. So all day I had these intense contractions, but only every 20 minutes. So there was no way I could go to the hospital, they would have laughed at me! Towards supper time I started feeling pretty tired and the contractions were long and intense enough that I had to stop what I was doing or sit down and breathe through them. But they were still only every 20 minutes, sometimes 15. We thought about going out for supper but I didn’t feel well so (as I was grateful for later) we went home. I had half a thought to pack a bag just in case but instead told Mike I was going to get some rest and laid down in the bed.

As soon as my head hit the pillow at 4:55pm my water broke. The contractions immediately intensified and started coming every 2 minutes. I was pretty sure I should go to the hospital. We had to bring my 2-year-old daughter with us. We drove all the way there and realized I’d forgotten my papers so went all the way back home to get them. We arrived at the hospital around 5:30pm. The nurse took me back to the assessment room. She kept asking me what was wrong. I guess she didn’t believe I could be in active labor after only a ½ hour. So we went through all the usual hospital routines. The nurse checked me and told me I was 6cm dilated and told me the usual “so you’ll dilate about a cm an hour.” She asked if I wanted an epidural. I told her of course but there wouldn’t be time. She looked at me like I was crazy, smiled and said in a cheerful voice “Oh ya there should be time.”

A lot happened between 6 and 7pm. A different nurse must have decided it would be good to call the doctor. Again, she made it just in time. I don’t remember a lot of went on around me during that time—this labor was just that much worse than the first. I had a gas mask and I believe a shot of morphine which did very little if anything. Maybe it relaxed me during the 30 seconds between contractions. I ended up having my baby at 7:01pm, she had a tiny bit of light blonde hair and a cute little upturned nose. Besides her light hair and pale skin, she looks like her daddy. No episiotomy and only a few stitches made me a happy lady.

Pointing the Blame Again

So I just found Gracie with red art paint all over her hands (thanks to her big sister leaving it out last night). I came over and said "Uh-oh you made a mess." Gracie then pointed to Meghan and said "Uh-oh, Mehan mae me-ss!" Don't think that's going to work as well when she's the one covered in the evidence!

It's going to be a long day--an hour later and I just found the twins painting their faces and hair with yogurt. They are all dressed and I haven't even showered yet but I guess I'll be going to put them in the tub!