Sunday Night, August 7th
Our night routine was like any other night. Before bed, Tom and I sat together and read the very last page of our 40 week pregnancy book. Finally, 40 weeks! We knew our baby boy would be coming soon. When? I was convinced it was going to be a while longer. However, before bed, I told Tom that I was experiencing some very mild cramping. Labor stuff? I didn't really think so but who knows?
Overnight I woke up a few times again with very minimal cramping pains. Not painful enough to keep me from sleeping. Surprisingly, I actually got a really good night's sleep!
Monday Morning, August 8th
Gloria came in to our bedroom about 6:15 to wake us up. It was a work day for me but not for Tom. I got out of bed and started to get ready for work. At 6:30 though, I had my first true contraction. Again, nothing too bad. These contractions were about 20 minutes apart and didn't last very long. I had called the midwife and checked in with her. Obviously it was too early but I still wanted to call. She said to call when the contractions were about 7 or 8 minutes apart.
At first, I thought maybe I would still go to work but quickly decided against it. :) I didn't want to be halfway to Brattleboro only to turn around! Around 7:30 the contractions started getting much more intense and more frequent and equally spaced out. We started documenting the contractions around 7:50. They were now about 4 or 5 minutes apart. Huh?! I was shocked at how quickly things progressed. The contractions were only about 40 seconds long but they were so close together! Time to call the midwife and ask the doula to be on her way to the hospital!
Tom decided it might be a good idea to get Gloria up to my parent's house. At the time, it didn't seem like a big deal. This was at around 8:30. I was waiting for the midwife to call me back anyway. After Tom had left, I realized what a VERY BAD IDEA it was to be home by myself!! The contractions were getting much worse and about 3 minutes apart. Dear God, I thought to myself...please don't have this baby until I get to the hospital!
It was the longest 10 to 15 minutes of my life waiting for Tom to get back home. Phew! In addition, it was the longest ride to the hospital EVER! And we only live a few miles away! Come to find out, I was in transition at that point. No wonder! This was the last and most intense stage of labor! Finally, we made it to the hospital and checked in at the desk.
It was about 9:30 AM when we arrived at the hospital. Once they got us into our room, they wanted to get me connected to the fetal monitor to check the baby. Our boy was doing just fine! :) After about 10 minutes on the monitor, the midwife asked if I wanted her to see how dilated I was. I figured, sure! I'm here, why not? As she checked, Tom had stepped out of the room to call his parents to tell them we were at the hospital. While he was gone, the midwife checks and says right away to the nurse, "Do you have a table ready?" and then turns to me and says "You are fully dilated my dear!" HA!! No way! I was in disbelief!! When Tom came back into the room, he was just as shocked as I was. We were both excited that we would very soon meet our little baby boy! I was especially excited that the labor had been so short and I still felt pretty good.
I had one concern though...the tub! I wanted to have this baby in the tub since it didn't work out for Gloria's birth. I also knew that since I wasn't going to have any meds, the tub would be helpful in providing some relief for my body. I was open to the possibility that it may not happen but I still wanted to try. The midwife said they'd do their best to get the tub filled in time but I very well may have the baby before they could fill the tub. It was soon after that when I had another contraction and definitely had the urge to push! Here we go!!
I had two more contractions before the tub was ready for me which was around 10 AM. As soon as I got in, I felt the muscles in my body relax, it felt so good! Even though the labor had been fairly short so far, my body was still looking for some relief. I felt so in tune with this labor than the last. I think with my first, I was scared and didn't know what to expect. I felt much more confident and ready with this one. I think it also helped that we had a doula at this birth. After I was in the tub, I had a minute to collect my strength and prepare for the next step that was to come...birthing our little babe!
It amazes me what our bodies are capable of. I kept telling myself that my body was meant to birth this baby. Even with all the amazing support around me, I was still giving myself a little pep talk. :) After three contractions, and some intense pushing, our baby boy's head began to crown! I knew he was almost here. I didn't want to wait any longer, I wanted the moment to happen now! I was determined that it was only going to take one more push to meet our boy. When the contraction came, I pushed with all that I had! I was holding Tom's hand and he said to me later that he thought I was going to rip his hand off! haha With that last push, our son was born!!
The first thing I noticed was our son's Popeye arms! lol Then I saw his hairy head. Then, I saw the most beautiful baby boy face I've ever seen!! What an unbelievable feeling! Tom and I were on cloud nine. We instantly fell in love with our little man!
We spent some time with our baby boy before getting him measured and such. It was important for us to have some skin to skin time with our baby. We had done the same with Gloria after she was born. It is a very intimate and special moment for us. Tom was even able to experience it this time around while I was being taken care of after the delivery.
It only took us about 6 hours to finally give our sweet boy a name...Leo James! Leo is a family name on Tom's side of the family. It is Tom's middle name as well as the middle name of some of his uncles. It was also the name of his Great Grandfather. James is a family name as well, it was my Grandfather's name. It was important to us to use names that were tied to our families.
When it was time for Gloria to come visit, we could hardly wait! Once she came to the hospital, our family would be complete. It didn't feel right not to have Gloria there for the very first moments of Leo's life in this world. It brought tears to my eyes when Gloria came to meet her baby brother for the first time. She was so sweet, so gentle and so very thrilled! We felt so blessed that God had given us these two amazing, healthy, beautiful children! We are a new family, as Gloria had said only a few days before Leo was born. :)
I've uploaded photos from the birth of our sweet Leo and our new family. Visit Leo's Birth album to see them all. Warning though, some of these pics are of him actually being born so if you get squeamish at all, you may want to skip over those. :) I've tried to keep the pics PG rated. We are both still in amazement of the whole experience and how wonderful it was!
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