Hi, everyone, Ben was born on Sunday morning, the 31st. 
I managed to make it happen in January after all - but not all smoothly.
I was so utterly exhausted and just traumatized from a week of painful contractions that kept me from sleeping more than 1 hour at a time, on Saturday night at 2 am, they were 2-3 min apart, we timed them for 2 hours. I still just really felt like it wasn't the real thing. But I thought, either this is labor...or I give up. Oh yeah, plus I had a bad cold.
We went to the hospital, it wasn't real, I was still at 1 cm. I was going to get a dose of morphine so I could sleep for a few hours.
But my blood pressure was 171/99 [usually it's around 110/70] and the baby's heart rate was dipping. So my OB wanted to do a C-section.
What I really wanted from this birth was to have a perfectly healthy baby who I get to hold and nurse as soon as he's born.
I just felt like, if I kept trying, I'd end up with a distressed baby. And I just could not face more days and days of pain with no progress. So I agreed. My healing from my first was really easy and my reasons for not wanting one was the baby's health - which in our case was getting iffy.
So my OB came and we did it. There were 2 true knots in his cord - so they said there was a possibility we would have ended up with distress, and an emergency section under general anesthetic, if I had gone into true labor. [Of course, it also may have been just fine, too - knots aren't necessarily always a problem]
She did let his cord finish pulsating, which was a huge thing for me, yay! There was meconium so they did suction him but he hadn't ingested any. His dad stayed with him while they rubbed in the vernix and whatnot, in the OR, and then brought him to stand by me and I held his little hand while they stitched me - then we all went to recovery together and he nursed really well, right away. And he is in my room with me, of course. All the other patients put their babies in the nursery overnight every night so they can sleep undisturbed!! so weird!!
Everyone here was perfectly accepting of my wishes, like declining eye ointment, etc.
So, even though the birth was similar to my first in a lot of ways, it felt really different [much better], and I'm pretty happy with it. Even though I got cut, I still got most of my important wishes.
He was 9 pounds exactly and 21 inches - half a pound and 1 inch bigger than his big brother. Full head of dark brown hair.
I am still feeling traumatized by the pain and exhaustion of the last week...I'm glad it's over and we have our perfectly healthy little baby! And I have dissolving stitches, yay! No prying out of staples or ripping out of stitches, what a relief.
Best of luck to everyone still waiting! I hope you all have perfect births.
Oh, and the craziest part - I make quilts and stuff for a living - and the hospital has commissioned a few pieces from me - as they were wheeling me to the OR, my husband was like, "there's your quilt!" - it was hanging on the wall right there in the hallway. So that was kinda cool, like a sign that I was doing the right thing.
I'll try to put a picture later if I can figure out how.
The only bummer: we brought the laptop so we could catch up on Lost online, there's free wifi in our room - but it's blocked! So is the whole site of Hulu! So when Ben is sleeping, we are bored...
I managed to make it happen in January after all - but not all smoothly.I was so utterly exhausted and just traumatized from a week of painful contractions that kept me from sleeping more than 1 hour at a time, on Saturday night at 2 am, they were 2-3 min apart, we timed them for 2 hours. I still just really felt like it wasn't the real thing. But I thought, either this is labor...or I give up. Oh yeah, plus I had a bad cold.
We went to the hospital, it wasn't real, I was still at 1 cm. I was going to get a dose of morphine so I could sleep for a few hours.
But my blood pressure was 171/99 [usually it's around 110/70] and the baby's heart rate was dipping. So my OB wanted to do a C-section.
What I really wanted from this birth was to have a perfectly healthy baby who I get to hold and nurse as soon as he's born.
I just felt like, if I kept trying, I'd end up with a distressed baby. And I just could not face more days and days of pain with no progress. So I agreed. My healing from my first was really easy and my reasons for not wanting one was the baby's health - which in our case was getting iffy.
So my OB came and we did it. There were 2 true knots in his cord - so they said there was a possibility we would have ended up with distress, and an emergency section under general anesthetic, if I had gone into true labor. [Of course, it also may have been just fine, too - knots aren't necessarily always a problem]
She did let his cord finish pulsating, which was a huge thing for me, yay! There was meconium so they did suction him but he hadn't ingested any. His dad stayed with him while they rubbed in the vernix and whatnot, in the OR, and then brought him to stand by me and I held his little hand while they stitched me - then we all went to recovery together and he nursed really well, right away. And he is in my room with me, of course. All the other patients put their babies in the nursery overnight every night so they can sleep undisturbed!! so weird!!
Everyone here was perfectly accepting of my wishes, like declining eye ointment, etc.
So, even though the birth was similar to my first in a lot of ways, it felt really different [much better], and I'm pretty happy with it. Even though I got cut, I still got most of my important wishes.
He was 9 pounds exactly and 21 inches - half a pound and 1 inch bigger than his big brother. Full head of dark brown hair.
I am still feeling traumatized by the pain and exhaustion of the last week...I'm glad it's over and we have our perfectly healthy little baby! And I have dissolving stitches, yay! No prying out of staples or ripping out of stitches, what a relief.
Best of luck to everyone still waiting! I hope you all have perfect births.
Oh, and the craziest part - I make quilts and stuff for a living - and the hospital has commissioned a few pieces from me - as they were wheeling me to the OR, my husband was like, "there's your quilt!" - it was hanging on the wall right there in the hallway. So that was kinda cool, like a sign that I was doing the right thing.
I'll try to put a picture later if I can figure out how.
The only bummer: we brought the laptop so we could catch up on Lost online, there's free wifi in our room - but it's blocked! So is the whole site of Hulu! So when Ben is sleeping, we are bored...
Benjamin!! I am sorry your birth didn't go as planned, but I am so happy that he is here & safe. I hope you recovery quickly and enjoy your babymoon
I hope you have a smooth recovery and am glad to read you are feeling good about your birth experience. 
