New Arrival
As you may have guessed, I haven’t posted recently because I gave birth to Drake’s little brother. I went in for my 38 week checkup on Tuesday the 7th with contractions that went from about 5 minutes apart to about 3 minutes apart while I was there. The doc said I could go home to collect my husband and my things, but then I was due at the hospital. My husband’s ride home from work kindly dropped him off at the clinic rather than at home so he could pick up me and our car. My sister Sydney was staying with us to help with Drake.
We got to the hospital about 6:30. I was in labor for another 5 hours or so, everything going great, using my hypnobirthing techniques and breathing, and certain that I was ready push. Then the nurse checked me, and I was only dilated to 4, a mere half centimeter more than I’d been on admittance. That was a low, low moment. I did all the usual cliches–begged for drugs, cried that I was tired, in pain and couldn’t do it, but my husband, doula and the nurse kept assuring me that I was doing it, and just before 3 am I gave birth, having had no drugs. I still can’t believe I did it. Those last few hours are indescribable in a difficult way. The moment of his birth is indescribable in an entirely different way. We had no problems of positioning, elevated heart rate or meconium as we did with Drake. I did end up with two smallish tears, but nothing like last time. The new guy was 8 pounds,2 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long, in spite of arriving two weeks before his due date.
He sleeps a lot, though not necessarily between 11pm and 6 am, and is napping on my chest in a sling as I type. We finally revealed his name to family and friends; we’d kept it a closely guarded secret. Both his first and middle names were ones that we liked and that are also, incidentally, family names. For the purposes of the blog, though, I’ll call him Guppy.
We’re all tired but doing well. Posts may be a bit sporadic in the coming weeks, but I’ll do what I can, when I can.
February 20th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Congratulations!
February 21st, 2006 at 8:40 am
Welcome to the world, little one! Congratulations to all of you over at Chez Grod/Detective.
February 21st, 2006 at 3:35 pm
I think I said “I can’t”…or more like whined it a good oh…1 million times this last time.
So! Congratulations!
YAY! Welcome to the world Guppy! psssst Drake has a ton of cool books I hear.
February 23rd, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Many congratulations — and welcome to the menagerie!
February 27th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
ah, a new addition to the wonderful Girl Detective brood! i miss you and hope that you all are healthy and well and surviving winter!
March 11th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Gadzooks! This is what happens, when I move to New England for a year. The last I said hello, it was to congratulate you and GG on the impending new one. Sorry I’ve been so remiss. But a big fat Mazelov to you and the whole brood.
(Hey cool, you’re a brood now!)