This past week, I took a much needed blogging break to welcome our sweet baby boy into the world.
So much has happened this week it’s hard to know where to begin, but I’ll start with simply sharing his birth story with you.
A little background for those of you who are new followers, the delivery of my first son was not a pleasant experience for me. You can read the full story here, but to sum it up in a few words: late arrival induction, 13 hours of labor, giant head & 9 lb baby = 4th degree tear and lots of physical/emotional pain.
Leading up to his delivery, I was extremely nervous about my C-section surgery. I was slightly hoping I’d just go into labor and not have to worry about it anymore, but, of course, that didn’t happen.
Early Monday morning came, and it was time!
We arrived at the hospital around 5:30am, and were shown into the pre-op room where the questions and fluids began. After giving my complete medical history to the nurse, assistant anesthesiologist, anesthesiologist, and blood tech, by 6:45am, all that was left to do was wait . . . and let the anxiety build.
By 7:15am, they were ready to move me into the OR.
Everything at this point happened very quickly. Epidural went in, Tim was brought into the room, and the cutting began.
There was a lot to the surgery that I didn’t expect. I was told you’d feel a lot of pushing and tugging but what I didn’t realize was that I’d physically feel everything. Although there was no pain or temperature sensations, I felt touch and movement along my skin; down to the scalpel moving across my belly. I also wasn’t expecting it when I began to smell the burning.
After what felt like an eternity (but was more like 10-15 minutes) of movement on the table, tugging, and pushing, at 7:46am, our son was born!
He weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces and was 18.7 inches long; although the doctors and nurses thought he looked larger than that!
Overall, this birth experience was a 100 times better than my first. I could easily see doing it all over again. Even now that I’m 6 days post surgery, I’m moving around and doing things I could never imagine doing after the birth of my first!
I remember the moment I saw him for the first time, I was a little speechless. Based on our last sono the Thursday before, I was convinced he was going to come out looking almost identical to my first son. Jet black hair, chubby checks, and large blue eyes. Although he had those same traits, I don’t think they could have looked any more different.
I don’t know how it’s possible to love someone at first sight before you’ve had any experiences with them, but both times I saw my sons after they were born, it happened. Sorry to my husband, but these little guys didn’t have to woo me before they captured my heart.
SO glad it was such a good experience. He is so stinking cute!!
Congrats mama!! I had similar experiences…first pregnancy and birth was horrible, not even sure I could even do it again. But as soon as my second little boy was born…in the next few days…all those icky memories went away. Having that great experience somehow made it all better. I’m so happy for you that this went so well!! It gets better every day!
Thank you! I could actually see myself doing this again in the future.
I might have cried at your sweet picture of your first picture as a family of three and then again when M was holding Z! Oh my. Precious. So glad everything went well. It’s so much fun having two!
Oh my gosh. He is so in love with the new baby. Every morning when he wakes up he wants to come into our room, sit on our bed and give him a kiss. I LOVE it!