The
morning of February 2, 2015, I awoke at 4am feeling a little crampy.
The night before was the Superbowl, where we had a small get together at our
place, so I figured it was just from running around all day. However, around
4:30am, the cramping continued, despite drinking a ton of water.
As the
cramping got progressively stronger, I decided to alert my mom and sister and
call my doctor. Because Alex’s birth was under four hours from start to finish,
the doctor wanted us to head to the hospital. This labor was much different
than with Alex, as the initial labor was not nearly as intense. I was walking,
talking and wasn’t in terrible pain. Several times I thought I perhaps had
sounded the alarm when nothing was really going to happen.
The view
from our delivery room.
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Our
neighbor came up to watch Alex and Andy and I finally headed to the hospital
around 7:15am—as the cramps were getting progressively closer. The weather was
awful and we were experiencing one of our worst snow storms of the year. We
arrived at the hospital and were put into triage; when they checked me, I was
7cm dilated. It was almost as if the instant we got to the hospital, the
contractions started becoming much more intense, but they were still not unbearable.
The nurse asked me my pain level on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most), and
I am pretty sure I responded with an 8; with Alex, I said 10 when asked that
question.
The
morning of William’s birth—my last bump shot.
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Arriving
at the hospital. I declined the wheel chair, but probably should have taken it.
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My water
broke at 8:35am and I immediately wanted to start pushing. They told me to hold
off for two more contractions, as there was no doctor in the room. They rushed
to get the doctor, who was about to perform a c-section; she arrived and, in
two pushes, William arrived. He was born at 8:44am, only nine minutes after my
water broke and 37 minutes after being admitted to the hospital.
Andy and I
had a few requirements, pending a healthy baby—one of them was immediate
skin-to-skin contact, another was delayed cord clamping and the third was
delayed newborn procedures. William was purple, though, when he came out—they immediately
put him on my chest and started to rub him vigorously. Although I was a bit in
shock, I remember Andy saying, “breath, baby, come on, William, breath”. What
felt like minutes, but was most probably seconds, we heard that precious cry.
Because he arrived so quickly, he had a lot of mucous and fluid on his lungs
(fluid that tends to get squeezed out with a longer labor). He was perfect. He
laid on me for about an hour, after which they took him to get weighed—he was
six pounds, so a little peanut. He also latched almost immediately and has been
a great eater ever since; in fact, he surpassed his birth weight by almost
seven ounces a week after his arrival.
He arrived
the day after my Busza’s birthday—I feel like she was looking after him, but
also wanted him to have his own day. He also arrived ten days early; Alex
arrived ten days early from his due date. Alex, our first, was born on the 1st
of March; Will, our second, was born on the 2nd of February. Alex
was born at 8:53am and William at 8:44am—within ten minutes of each other. Many
times, Andy and I remarked how similar both mornings felt to us.
I was a
little nervous that I would love William as much as I love Alex, but it is true
what they say: your heart expands and you love them so much, even if that love
is different. I have a history with Alex—he is my baby boy and always will be.
He is my first and I love his intuitiveness and his humor—he strives to do
everything himself because he is a “big boy”, and my job is to let him stretch
his wings, but still provide protection and guidance when needed. Will is the
opposite of Alex—he is so helpless that my job is to protect him 100%. They are
both my babies, but they need such different things. Learning how to parent to
each will be a struggle and I know I will make mistakes. But, I always tell
Andy, if there is one thing that I strive for as a parent, it is that my
children know they are loved and supported—if they grow up feeling that love,
then I will consider that a success.
We are absolutely enamored with our new addition and are so grateful to have two beautiful, healthy baby boys. Life is so good!!
Alex has
been an amazing big brother! He loves to shower his brother with kisses and
hugs and likes to “carry” him. He was meant to be a brother!
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