I based my birth plans for Baby S on my experience with Baby M. Yes, I'd heard that second babies come faster, that every pregnancy is different, blah, blah, blah. My pregnancy with S had been very similar to my previous pregnancies and I had no reason to doubt that labor would follow the same general path, just maybe a little faster. Well, it was a lot faster and quite different. With Baby M my contractions started mildly, ramped up over the next 8 hours and then I spent another 8 hours in the hospital before he was born. So 16 hours total. With Baby S it was less than 5 hours from start to finish.
My water broke late Sunday night. This caught me off guard, partially because the first time around my water didn't break until I was already well into labor, but mainly because it was 3 days before my due date. I know 3 days is not terribly early, but Baby M had been a week overdue and I figured Baby S would be late too. At my last OB appointment I was only 1 cm dilated and I thought I had at least another week to wait. Consequently, I had planned a full day of tasks for Monday -- laundry, grocery shopping, meal prep and packing my hospital bag.
So now we were suddenly in the Hollywood movie birth scenario. I was throwing clothes in my hospital bag, calling relatives to come over at one in the morning and trying to convince my husband that yes, we actually did need to go to the hospital. Right now.
I had been toying with the idea of having an unmedicated birth. With Baby M I had the epidural and overall it was a positive experience, but I'd also wondered what natural birth was like. Was it really as empowering or, heaven-forbid, orgasmic as all those books said it would be? (I'd read Naomi Wolf's
Misconceptions
,
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
and watched
The Business of Being Born
, my head was full of natural birthing propaganda). On the way to the hospital, however, I realized that you don't really play around with natural birth. You either need to be committed or not. And I had never really fully committed. I still felt flustered over the whole bag situation, my contractions were getting stronger and I forgot all about my visualization techniques. This is silly, I thought. I will just get the epidural.
When we got to the hospital it was 2am and I was 5cm. The nurse checked me in, I got changed and situated in my room and I asked for the epidural. At this point the contractions were getting quite strong and were right on top of each other. Most of my focus was just on getting through them. The nurse checked me again and I was 9cm. Do you still want the epidural, she asked. Um, yes. But by the time the anesthesiologist was ready my OB was there saying it was time to push. So I ended up with an unmedicated birth after all. I have to say, it was definitely not orgasmic and by the end I did not feel strong and empowered. I just felt tired. And that was after only 2 hours of hard labor, I can't imagine what it must be like for the women whose labors last for hours on end. On the upside, my recovery has been so much easier and I do think that is in part because I did not have the epidural. And, as my husband likes to point out, I now have bragging rights.
So Baby S came out at a healthy 8 pounds 2 ounces with all 9 on his Apgars. We struggled a bit with jaundice and the poor little guy had daily heel pricks for a while, but now he is nice and pink. He sleeps a lot and cries very little (the exact opposite of Baby M at this age). Baby M is adjusting well and has been very helpful. We'll see how we fare once my mother goes home and friends stop bringing us dinner, but for now we are all feeling good.
