Zoe's Birth Story Part 2...

Time just flies by, doesn't it? Sorry for the delay!

Onto part two...

So, after the nurse announced that she was a reader of my blog (awkward!) we headed on down to one of the delivery rooms so I could get checked. I changed into the oh-so-fashionable hospital gown and chatted to Rob as we waited for the nurse to come back.

When she did she said to me, "You're to happy to be far enough along in labor to be admitted." She must have been joking. I'm sure tons of people get to L&D and aren't screaming in pain like you see in the movies (and like you would have seen my first go round with Luce). 

Wrong! She checked and I was at 6 almost 7 cm. So admitted I was. The contractions were completely manageable for about an hour, until I was checked again. At that time the on-call Doctor (mine was on vacation, again!) recommended that we break my water to get things moving along and asked if I wanted the epidural. Although still totally comfortable with my contractions, I knew what the water breaking meant after watching my contractions on the monitor with Luce skyrocket after they broke my water. So I accepted. The anesthesiologist came shortly after that and I chatted to him as he administered the epidural. In the middle of it I had my first really painful contraction, so I was pretty happy with our timing there!

They broke my water at about 8:30 pm and short after that my best friend Lindsay arrived. I love her. She is an incredibly busy businesswoman and she has made the time to come to the hospital for both of my labors. This time bringing my flip flops, since I forgot them for the shower. She even came when she was flying out for a business trip early the next morning. Love that girl! She stayed with me and kept me company while Rob snoozed on the chair until she had to leave to pack for her trip.

At about 11:00 pm I was checked again and told by the nurse, "Well, you're ready to go!" Do you want this baby to have a March 3rd birthday or March 4th? 

I looked at Rob and he said, "Let's go for 3!" So the nurse bustled away to get the doctor and get ready.  At 11:15 the doctor came in and three pushes later (just note I am a pushing MACHINE) Ms. Zoe Josephine arrived at 11:26 pm March 3rd, 2011! She was beautiful and perfect in every way. As soon as she was born my fears about becoming a family of four disappeared. 

It was just the easiest birth and recovery. In all honestly, I probably could have done without the epi, but it allowed me to relax and and be comfortable, so I don't regret it. Next time (oh yes, there will be a next time) I'm THINIKING of going au natural...don't hold me to it though! 

"You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." 

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Zoe's Birth Story - Part 1

I know this is a year late but you know what? Even with everything that has happened in the last year I remember it as if it was yesterday.

At my old work maternity leave started 2 weeks prior to your due date, so I went off work on Feb 18^th. It was a relief, as for the last year my workload had just exploded and even with an easy pregnancy it still isn’t easy to work 12+ hours per day when pregnant (or not pregnant for that matter)! So, that Friday I left work breathing a sigh of relief.

I was thrilled when a week passed and Zoe will still safe and snug and with no apparent desire to arrive yet. It gave my time to clean, organize and, most importantly, spend time with Lucy. I was so excited for Zoe but a part of my heart was breaking knowing that things would never be the same again. It would never be three of us with our little world revolving around miss Lucy and I'd be lying if I told you the loss of that little version of our world was a little sad to me. So we spent every minute of those final weeks of pregnancy together and loved every minute of it.

On the night of Wednesday, March 2^nd, I work up in the middle of the night with contractions. Nothing too out of the ordinary but enough to wake me up. I remember lying there, with Lucy on one side of me in the bed and Rob on the other thinking,"hmmmm, this may be it." I ignored the contractions and cuddled up to Luce knowing, deep down, that everything was going to change very soon.

Very soon wasn’t very long after that. Ever 7 minutes the contractions came. An hour later, at about 4 am, I poked Rob and said, “hey, so…um…they’re like every 5 minutes now.” He, being the deep sleeper that he is, grunted something and rolled over.

So I got up and got in the shower.

Still every 5 minutes, though not unbearable. So I came in and poked him again.

“Hey you, I think we should call my mom to come over.”

That got him up! My mom arrived at 5:30 am, just in time for my contractions to….end. Sorry mom! She fell asleep on our couch and we went back to bed.

When we all woke up that morning there were no sign of contractions. So we went about our business as usual. We had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon so I mentioned to Rob that we should probably pack the hospital bag, just in case.

So, we dropped off Luce at my mom’s house, with the promise that we would be back soon and went off to our 3:30 pm check up.

Of course, as usual when I’m due with a baby, my lovely doctor is on vacation. So I get checked by another doctor in her practice.

“Oh, wow… you’re like 4.5 cm, almost 5…”

Wait, WHAT?

In my last pregnancy,as you may remember, I went in to the hospital with RAGING BACK LABOR at like 2.5 cm… horrendous. And now this time I’m 5 cm without feeling a thing?  The doctor said, by the looks of it, you’re probably going to have a baby soon. I wouldn’t bother going home, maybe walk around for a but.

Shocked and excited Rob and I walked back to the car. Where I subsequently started crying because we TOLD Lucy that we were going to come home. Oh the GUILT. Honestly, I felt terrible. We called me mom and she assured us that Luce was fine so, we set about our new task at hand…walking.

We walked the hospital floor and the outside grounds (in the rain, and yes, I totally jumped over puddles…while in active labor, wheee!) for about an hour and a half. The contractions started coming regularly then. Again, absolutely nothing like the last time around. These were totally manageable. The excitement was beginning to set in. I think part of my anticipation of labor, aside from my sadness about Lucy not being an only child anymore, was my fear over my last experience with labor. Back labor is no joke, but this time, this was easy.

Once they were coming at regular intervals, at about 6 pm, we headed up to L&D. I went to check in with the nurse who promptly said to me:

“Ooooooooh! I know you! I read your blog!”

Which was both flattering, as in “Wow, people do read the stuff I write” and awkward because girlfriend is about to become up close and personal with my business.

And in we went….

Stay tuned for the really exciting part, Zoe's arrival! 

"Of the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."

-Lin Yutang

Oh, hello

It’s been awhile. Is anyone still out there?

It's like that awkward feeling when bump into someone at the grocery store who you haven't seen since like, high school, and you know who they are, and they clearly recognize you, but can't remember their name. In my case, as I've told the Mr. "this is when you jump in, once 5 seconds goes by without my introducing you... and introduce yourself, because CLEARLY I have forgotten their name." He never ever does it, damn him. Have you forgotten me in my hiatus? 

Let me re-introduce myself, "I'm Beverley, formerly hoping for just one thing, a baby, (which was a, at the time, very definite maybe)...and had my happy ending, or, happy beginning I should say--times 2." Nice to see you around these parts again. You can stay, or you can go but I won't be offended if you've forgotten me, there are so many of us in these parts these days.

I had plans last year, where I last left off. When I dropped off the face of the blogosphere. Plans to write. A year of birth stories and growing babies and toddling toddler-dom and life in general to share. But, as always, life gets in the way.  In my case it wasn’t anything dramatic, no getting hit by the proverbial mac truck or anything like that, but more of a steady layering effect until you couldn’t see me anymore. Smothered by the requirements that I put upon myself to be mother, daughter, provider, decision maker...the usual. I did it to myself, thinking I’m some sort of uber-super-mama-delux version of myself, but, much to my chagrin, I have found that I’m a mere mortal. Mortals fall apart, and I think, just maybe, I may be beginning to find myself again in picking up the pieces.

Interested? Hopefully. I'd like to be back to this world. I liked it here.

Zoe is 1 and 1 month. Lucy is 3 and 3 months…and I’ve missed you strangers out there. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

"You cannot wait for the perfect time, sometimes you just have to jump."

-Unknown