Nicholas was 2 days late compared to his estimated due date and I was very anxious for him to come out at this point. I had been having strong Braxton Hicks contractions for days, but nothing became regular or led to anything. And, on Thursday, February 7, 2008 at just around midnight exactly, only about 30 minutes after I went to sleep for the night, I started having contractions again. Only this time they felt different and pretty strong. After the 3rd one that felt pretty close to the last ones, I woke Donnell to start timing them. I don’t think he believed me that I thought I was in labor because he kept dozing off. At first the contractions were pretty far apart (12-14 minutes) and we weren’t supposed to call the doctor until they were 7-8 minutes apart for one hour. By 1:10 a.m. we had our first contraction that was only 7 ½ minutes from the last. I think Donnell finally started to believe this could happen tonight. Haha! With the birth of Donovan, our one dog, Ringo, sensed what was happening and started acting funny, but not this time. For the next hour the contractions varied from 7 ½ to 9 minutes apart and we called the doctor, who told us to go ahead and make our way to the hospital.
After calling a couple of people and waiting for his nanny, Jeri Sue, to come over to care for Donovan, we headed to the hospital. It was around 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. when we were settled into our labor and delivery room. They checked my progress and I was only 3 cm dilated at the time. Around 5:30 a.m. I was having a lot more trouble coping with the contractions. Each one wasn’t too bad, but when they come every 5 minutes, it gets very tiresome, so I asked for an epidural. We were also waiting for them to come in and break my water to progress things along. I asked them to check my progress once more before the epidural and I was 5 cm dilated. Around 6:15 a.m. the anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural. This part was troubling. He tried THREE times to get the epidural in. THREE! Maybe that would not have been too bad, except he never got it right! It was painful and worrisome to have someone poking my back so many times to relieve the pain all the while contractions did not stop either. So, I never received an epidural that actually worked. I felt every contraction and my doctor and nurses said that I basically had this baby "natural" given my pain management didn’t work. I did receive two doses of a narcotic, which helped some, but not enough. After the botched epidurals, they checked me again and I was now 8 cm and they broke my water. I thought to myself "Well, at least if I don’t have an epidural, at least I’m already 8 c.m. Getting to 10 c.m. shouldn’t take too long." Boy was I wrong!!
After being stuck at 8 c.m. for 2 hours, my doctor ordered Pitocin to be administered. I was a bit nervous about this because I was still unsure whether it was the Pitocin that led to my c-section the first time with Donovan. However, how much pain I was in and how long things were taking, I agreed to it. They increased the dose every 30 minutes and it still took hours for me to progress to the goal of 10 c.m. I was so exhausted that I actually would doze between contractions despite the fact the contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart. Amazing my body would try to get that rest in such a short amount of time. After many painful contractions later I was finally at 10 c.m. at around 1:00 p.m. and was able to start pushing. It only took about 30-40 minutes to push Nicholas out into this world. That might sound long but the nurses and my doctor said that this was basically like a first birth since I had a c-section the first time and typically first times can take 2 hours or more of pushing. I actually had to take a break to wait for my doctor to get in her scrubs because it was going pretty quickly. I was glad I caught that break because I don’t know if I could have gone through 2 hours of that hard work. Everyone was very encouraging and I felt like I had my own personal cheerleading squad in the room with me, including Donnell by my side. I was able to watch the birth in a mirror, when I had my eyes open. Haha! To speed things along, my doctor gave me an episiotomy, too.
At 1:41 p.m. Nicholas was born into this world via successful VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). It was exhilarating and I felt like I really accomplished something. They immediately were able to put the baby on my belly for me to hold, which was much different than after the c-section with Donovan. My doctor and nurses said what an amazing job I did, especially considering that VBACs are relatively rare and I did it basically naturally. They were very surprised, too, how composed I remained. They said they would have dropping “F bombs” left and right and yelling, etc., but I must have internalized a lot because I was actually very quiet through a lot of it. They said I must have a high pain tolerance. I didn’t think so, but perhaps that’s one reason the worst thing I said during the labor my nurse said, was "Oh my gosh!". Ha!
Although the labor and delivery were so painful and exhausting (words can’t describe), I am so happy I was able to experience the miracle of childbirth this way. I don’t think my bond to either of my sons will be different one way or the other, but I’m really glad I could experience both. I was teary after all was said and done and felt that the 13 hours of labor really meant something and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
We only had to stay in the hospital two days this time, which was nice considering Donovan was very much missing mommy at home. Donnell stayed the night at the hospital the first night, but not the second so he could be with Donovan. Once again, Donnell has proven to be a wonderful father and husband throughout my recovery. Amazingly, my recovery with this birth would have been sooo much easier than the c-section IF it wasn’t for the spinal headache that I have had for now a week after the birth. Because they “wet tapped” my spine three times (meaning spinal fluid was removed each time), it was inevitable that I get a headache. It hasn’t been as bad as they say it could get, but it has been bad enough that I’ve been on a couch for a full week, had trouble keeping food down 100% of the time, and overall very tired and weak. If it weren’t for this headache, I believe I would have been "up and at ‘em", so that has been unfortunate. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel as I haven’t taken any pain medication for a day now, kept real food down, and can get up from the couch in short spurts. Breastfeeding is going very well, too, and much easier the second time around!! Nicholas lost over 10% of his birth weight in 2 days, so we had to supplement with formula, but now we're done with that. I have WAY a lot of milk right now and have had to pump some off so he can even latch on. It was a relief my milk came in after just 3 days. Phew!
Donovan has been very interested in Nicholas and smiles every time he looks at him. It’s very cute. When Nicholas makes a noise, Donovan will say "hear dat?" and he’s been very gentle with him, so far. I think Donovan has had more trouble adjusting to mommy sitting around and not being able to play rather than the new baby. I’m sure we have some transitions and some jealousy to go through, but so far so good. Nicholas looks a lot like Donovan, by the way, too, just with less hair than he had at birth. Thank God for our nanny and my good friend, Kim, who have been so helpful. We have also been fortunate to receive a few meals or gift certificates for food. Thankfully I was able to freeze a few meals before the birth, too. Overall, it’s exciting to embark on this new adventure in the Life of the Johnson’s.
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