Addison Brooke was born Wednesday, January 27th at 2:35pm.
As I had mentioned in a couple of other posts, we had heard an arrhythmia on my EDD and went into L&D for monitoring, as it was worse than you normally hear. After talking with an awesome OB and our MW (and 2 very long ultrasounds), we decided it seemed safe to go ahead and give birth at home. Anyway, because of this, my MW was reluctant to let me go too far over my EDD.
I was going to her house wednesday morning to get my membranes stripped, but I got there and she said she didn't think it would help much as the bag of waters was already bulging. She went ahead and stretched them out a little though. After that we talked about the possibility of breaking my water, since I was 41 weeks already and 3 cm (stretchy to a 4). After calling DH and talking about it, we decided to go ahead and do it.
She broke my water, while DH headed home from work to get the house ready. I drove myself home, with strict instructions to pull over if they got too bad and call DH or my mw to drive me the rest of the way. My mw wanted me to call when contractions started and became timeable
The contractions started almost immediately (11:15) and, to my surprise, were 3 minutes apart from the beginning. By the time I was almost home, they were actually pretty strong (but not so bad that I couldn't drive), so I called my MW.
My MW arrived at our house at 12:30. Contractions were now about 2.5 minutes apart and the kind that I had to stop talking during. She listened to the baby, who sounded fine (still a slight arrhythmia, but not anything worrisome), and decided to go grab a quick lunch at a fast food place down the road (I think she was trying to give me some privacy to really get things going--the whole 'a watched pot never boils' kind of thing).
By the time she got back at 1:30, I was almost in transition and the contractions were pretty intense, I would only have about a 30 second break between contractions, if that. Her assistant got there soon after. I went from 8 to 10 cm in 3ish contractions. I started pushing at 2:20 and Addison was born at 2:35! After pushing for 2.5 hours with my first, it was a huge relief to only push for a handful of contractions.
When just her head was out, she was already trying to talk to us. She never really screamed afterwards though. Just a few small cries and grunts like "oh, hey guys"
She was born at 9lb 4oz and 21 inches long (an inch shorter and an ounce lighter than her big sister was). I didn't tear or hemmorage at all (both something I did with DD1s birth). I feel great and not like I just had a baby a few days ago.
She nurses great (so far). She was latched on and actively sucking for about 30 minutes soon after birth and then for another 40 minutes or so after I took a quick shower and she got looked over by our midwife. She continues to want to nurse often, but never really cries about it.
DD1 (18 months) is still acting a little freaked out by her and isn't so sure about sharing my boobs. She goes back and forth between being affectionate and then getting upset if I try to change the baby's diaper or something.
All in all, everything is going pretty well. The biggest thing will just be learning to deal with two small kids at the same time. I'll be posting some pictures soon.
ETA: we did go to the pedi because of the arrhythmia and they are still hearing it. It's probably nothing, but we're going to see a pediatric cardiologist next week just to look into it and be sure.
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her name!!
