Hellobee Boards

@Jess1483: just saw uou only pushed for 6 minutes! That's so awesome! Can't wait to hear how your labor went down!

@Jess1483: congrats! love that you picked everett!!

@Jess1483: congrats! 6 minutes! Rockstar!

Hi everyone! After a very speedy labor and delivery (about 6 hours from first contraction to delivery), William Charles has made his debut! We arrived at the hospital at 2 am and were nearly sent home because I was at 3 cm, but I was leaking fluid so I got to stay. About 45 minutes later, I was at 10cm, and baby was born at 3:52 am. He's 7 lbs, 14 oz and 21 inches of sweetness, we're so in love.

@Jess1483: Yay! Congrats mama!

@just_ju: congratulations!!! I like the name you chose!

@Jess1483: Congrats!! 6 minutes of pushing. That's awesome.

I have a few minutes while Big Brother is at the store with Daddy and little one has taken a break from eating (which is all he's done today), so I thought I'd do a quick birth re-cap.

As you've seen on this thread, I had a number of "this could be it" evenings/nights, followed by nothing. I went to bed Wednesday evening with no signs of anything happening. I woke at 1 a.m. with mild contractions--nothing more than I'd felt previous nights, but they were quickly getting more painful. I got up and went into the living room to time them and work through them, and they were consistently 8 minutes apart and starting to get more painful. I decided to go downstairs to shower (so I didn't wake my husband or toddler). They came quickly and painfully during the shower, but once I got out, they became kind of sporadic, and I thought that might be the end of it. I decided to get back into bed, but then they became really painful. It was around 5, so I woke my husband and wrote an e-mail to my mom. At this point, I was still hoping I could drop my toddler off at preschool at 8:45 and go to the hospital after that. Within the next hour, though, it became clear I'd need to go earlier. I texted my mom and asked her to arrive around 7 (my toddler's wake-up time) and we just worked through contractions in the bedroom. They weren't very close together (still only 7-8 minutes), but they were really painful, and I was having a ton of bloody show.

My parents arrived at 7 a.m., I said goodbye to my toddler, and we headed off to the hospital. We got checked into triage, and they checked me--I was at 4 cm, and with the bloody show, they were convinced it was the real deal and said "let's have a baby." They checked me into the last birthing suite (it was a really busy day), and I met my (awesome) nurse. I had intentions of trying natural again, but not hesitating if I felt I needed the epidural. I did another hour (so at this point, I had done about 8 hours of escalating pain), and then decided I liked the experience with the epidural last time a hell of a lot more, and asked for an epidural.

The anesthesiologist arrived fairly quickly and was AWESOME. He was hilarious and he and my nurse were really great. He even brought this article up (after my epidural was in). http://www.theonion.com/article/woman-already-bad-start-mother-after-requesting-ep-50473 (Warning: Don't read if you are sensitive about epidurals). The epidural was perfect--I could still feel contractions, but the pain was gone, and we settled in with some reading and napping.

At this point, I hung out at 5/6 cm for a couple hours, which was good because my husband really needed to get some work done (he just started a new job and really doesn't get to take any time off). He was able to write some reports and call clients and get everything set for the next day.

My doctor was in a series of meetings, but sent her midwife over to check in. My doc said she'd try to make it over, but that we'd likely see the OB on call. The on-call doc came in around 12 to break my water, then went to do a c-section. I told my nurse I felt pressure--I was at 7 cm. Then 10 minutes later, I was at 8. My nurse called and told the OB not to leave after the c-section. The OB came back in a little after one and checked. There was a tiny lip left before I was complete so she turned the pitocin really low and I was complete in about a minute. At that point, I was set to push. I pushed through four contractions, and she even slowed me down on one of them to try to avoid tearing. Six minutes later, Everett George was born. He had the cord wrapped around his head twice and his hand by his head, but I still only had a 2nd degree tear (I had a third degree tear with LO1, and it was pretty severe).

I held Everett for about 45 minutes, then nursed him for close to an hour. Then they weighed and measured him. My toddler arrived with my parents around 3. He was really serious for about a minute and then started telling anyone around "this my baby. Talk my baby!" He was totally jacked and super cute. He didn't want to leave, so my dad had to bribe him with ice cream (we needed to move to recovery and I was pretty exhausted.)

We moved to recovery and settled in for the evening/night. I was in far less pain than I had been with DS1, and my husband was far more confident in baby care, so it was much easier than last time. By morning, when my doctor and the ped came to check in with us, we were pretty sure we'd leave that day. My ped asked us what we thought, and then said we were probably making a good choice, because they were totally swamped and pretty disorganized. I felt like we had plenty of time, got through all the discharge stuff, waited for his 24-hour tests, and left the hospital around 2:30 p.m.

Postpartum pain is significantly less than last time, and I felt great pretty much right away. I've taken oxycodone twice, but otherwise have been able to do just ibuprofen and tylenol (and the only pain has been from contractions when Everett feeds). Last time, I was on pain meds for quite awhile given all the tearing.

Being home is so different this time. Last time, our whole world had changed. This time, our toddler is keeping us on track with regular life--there's just a little one here, too! Pierce has been amazing. He just wants to hold baby ("all by myself") and gives him lots of hugs and kisses. Yesterday, he touched Everett's face and said "Don't worry. I got you." Totally melted. I'm feeling much more confident this time as well, especially with breastfeeding (which was a huge challenge with Pierce). Everett is a champ--eating tons and sleeping decently.

Congrats to all the mamas so far, and good luck to everyone the rest of the month!!

Any updates?? How's everyone doing - new moms and those of us still waiting?

@MrsBrewer: I know! There are a couple of us still hanging around

I think this is it? I'm guessing the beginning of the month mama's just haven't been on here so it's likely just @rpparker:, @MrsKMM: and myself hanging around here waiting?

JUNE BUG DELIVERIES

Babymats:
May 24: @dc yoga bee Maya Joann
May 25: @cascademom James Francis
May 28: @mrs.kmm Elizabeth "Ellie" Grace
May 29: @78h20 Holly Louise
May 31: @badwolf Caelyn
June 2: @Eko William Paul
June 2: @Meltini
June 3: @andthewildones Nathanael Joseph
June 4 or 5? : @hocuspocus Ellie Rose
June 4: @MrsBrewer Jana Abigail
June 4: @DenverMom Clara Elizabeth
June 9: @GlitterBoots Mia Joelle
June 11: @Corduroy
June 11: @Merriment Andrew Miles
June 13: @MamaB Amelia "Millie" Caroline
June 16: @Ash Genevieve
June 18: @Jess1483 Everett George
June 19: @just_ju William Charles

JUNE MAMA DUE DATES
June 7: @mamatoboth: (#2)
June 11: @Ifyoulikepinacoladas (#2 )
June 13: @TarHeelBee: (#1), @MUI831: (#2)
June 15: @extrasprinkles (#1 )
June 23: @rpparker (#1 )
June 24: @MrsKMM (#1 )
June 26: @LindsayInNY (#1 )

Yep hanging in there! I posted on our other board that I have an induction scheduled for Sunday night if I don't go before then! It's so nice to have an end date set but of course I'd rather her come on her own before then! Ready to join all the June mammas out there!

@Ash: congratulations!!

@rpparker: sorry to hear that you did not progress much, but glad that there is an end date in sight! Hopefully LO comes on her own! My induction wasn't bad at all though and personally, I got tired of all the guesswork of could this be something towards the end. It was nice to at least know that I was in labor.

@LindsayInNY: have you made any progress or still status quo for now?

Can't wait to meet the rest of the June babies!!

@Eko: TBD - I have an appointment tomorrow!

@just_ju: Congrats on your natural labor! I definitely could not do it naturally. I think it's a strong name too! Its a family name on DHs side. We decided on Will for a nn. Liam was our second choice but DH strongly liked Will more. The only downside is a couple family members think it's funny to call him Willy as a joke because they don't like William.

@just_ju: that sounds almost exactly like us! Lol. DH's dad was Bill and his brother is Billy. I really don't like those names, but said I didn't want to duplicate nn.

Someone upthread mentioned starting a postpartum board for this group - is anyone interested? I don't have formal newborn pics (hopefully hubby can slow down work soon to get some while she's still small) but I'd love to keep the support going. I know I wasn't super active on the due date board but I'm finding the idea of a postpartum support board very appealing. Any takers?

@badwolf: I was just thinking the same thing!

FYI I just created a PP thread

@LindsayInNY: Good luck!!! I'll be sending lots of good thoughts your way!