We were waiting for Aaron's birth for quite awhile since Kameran he was tracking ahead of schedule by about two weeks for the last couple months of the pregnancy. We thought since Evelyn was early, A might be early too. Also, K was walking around 3 cm dilated and over 50% effaced. We thought he was coming on the 8th when Kameran got sick which gave signs of false labor. From that point, we tried to not think about it. On Sunday the 17th, I was thinking about well if baby came today, then Jen and her prime number theory would be right. We had our normal Sunday with coffee in the morning followed by groceries. Later in the day, I figured we wouldn't be having a baby since there weren't any signs yet. Mom came over as usual for Sunday and right after she left, when Kameran went to the bathroom, she noticed her water might have broken. What I thought was funny is earlier in the week we were talking about if there was any evidence or studies that showed if babies can pop their water bags. Kameran said she felt a stronger than average kick or punch from the baby and the water breaking shortly thereafter. Coincidence? Maybe, but still funny.
We called Mom back and she hung out while we were getting everything ready for Evelyn and getting stuff ready for ourselves. Once I told E she was going with nai nai while we picked up new baby, she wasn't too pleased. Kameran took her and got her own stuff ready and E seemed to be more happy with that. It was definitely sad to see E crying as Mom took her to her house.
After Mom took E, we debated on if we should go to the hospital or not but I figured we should since the second one is supposed to be so fast and if we had a birth like Henry and Alily, we could have the baby in just three hours. We gathered our things and went. We checked in and got some Swedish nurse who had a thick accent. She was very nice and on one of the first check ups, she told us that Ashley wanted to be our nurse and fought to be our nurse when she heard we were doing a natural birth. We both thought that was funny and nice. Throughout the whole process, Ashley was great. She was like a doula. She started out great with getting Kameran's salene lock in on the first try.
The whole birth was similar to Evelyn's. In the beginning, not too much was happening. We walked laps around the floor trying to get the contractions going, but nothing was too strong. Even though I made a cup of coffee before leaving, I was starting to get tired. We decided we'd try to rest up a little bit. We did what Leigh said in changing positions - walking, squatting, shower, ball, squats, but nothing was really getting the contractions going. Ashley helped Kameran with a lot of it like setting up the shower with some mood lighting with a flashlight, massaging Kameran's hip and back, and I thought for sure we'd have the baby before 7am and the changing of nurses. Still, not too much was happening. Before Ashley left, she set us up with Andrea, and another nurse, both who had done natural births. When Dr Nelson came before her shift changed, she offered up the pitocin to ensure that we would have a vaginal birth. Kameran wanted to keep going since the birth so far was similar to E's and thought the contractions might start picking up. Sure enough, right after Dr Nelson and Ashley left, the contractions started to get very strong. They were not as constant as E's were, but they were much stronger. This time around, since we had been through this before, hearing Kameran work through the contractions was much easier. When the nurse and new midwife, Andrea, came in, Kameran started to make grunting sounds. I was surprised since it was about 7:30 - 7: 40 and the active labor portion was short again. Kameran told the midwife she wanted to push while she was in the all fours position, the position she went through active labor and many of the braxton hicks contractions at home. Andrea asked if she wanted to be checked to make sure the cervix was gone which Kameran responded with, "sure that's probably a good idea." Sure enough, 10cm and ready to push.
The midwife asked if Kameran wanted to stay in that position and Kameran said she didn't want to move. Andrea was ok if Kameran wanted to deliver that way, something that we talked to Leigh about before hand since K thought that pushing on her back was uncomfortable. Andrea said she'd be ok with it as long as Kameran would give her enough room to deliver the baby. Pushing didn't last too long this time. Kameran squeed my right hand tightly and I just tried to keep Kameran higher on the bed in order for Andrea to have enough room. Aaron was delivered at 8:06 am and there was not much tearing this time. They even asked if Kameran didn't want any stitches and let it heal on its own. That was great since I know that was something that Kameran was dreading. Overall the birth wasn't too bad. It seemed easier for me this time around since I knew what to expect even without a doula. I didn't realize how tired I would be though before active labor started. Maybe it was because not too much was going on so given the chance to sleep, my body just shut down. We checked into post partum and didn't need a catheter which was another awesome thing. We thought overall that the care of service this time was better. It wasn't bad last time but there were some annoying things like we felt like we got rushed into post partum, that Joan our first midwife wasn't as good as Andrea, and we got bothered a lot by the nurses in post partum. We actually had Andrea for the first part of Evelyn's birth before her shift change at 7 pm. This time though everything seemed much more fluid and relaxed.
And now Aaron is already two weeks old and I only have one week left before returning to work. He seems pretty chill so far. I keep waiting for him to wake up since so far he's pretty good at sleeping at night. A few days ago he seemed to have started waking up and is regularly asking for food every 2-3 hours. He seems to be eating faster than E did. Hopefully his chillness lasts!
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