Riley has a little sister!!!

Baby Beaver #2 was born on October 12, at 8:35 pm! I had a feeling labor was close all week (even the week before), so I may have ignored some of the signs during the day again, but we made it to the birth center in time, and all went well! Besides being super fast and overwhelming again, I don't think my birth experience could have gone any better.

Like every other morning this week, I was up and out of the house for work by 7:30 am not feeling especially different from other days. I had the occasional contraction, but nothing regular or uncomfortable. My plan was to finish and leave work by noon, and I was only about an hour delayed, leaving work a little after 1. On the way home I did notice a couple of more painful contractions, but not very close together and still not too painful to be fine driving or anything. I really wanted to get a mani-pedi with my mom like we did last time, and I had gotten a recommendation from my midwife for a place that uses reflexology that they use for natural induction. I picked her up and we got our nails done from about 1:45 until 3. I noticed about five contractions during the mani-pedi, so realized they were becoming much more frequent. I had a 3:30 phone meeting - last work before leave! - so we stopped at starbucks, and then I told my mom we'd better go get Riley from daycare and get home to prepare for the birth center. I texted Mr. Beaver and told him to get his stuff ready just in case, and that it would be time to start timing contractions when I got home. I was noticing more contractions now, still not too uncomfortable and still not too close together, but definitely more frequent.

We got home and my mom started dinner while we packed our bag and I started timing contractions. They were pretty frequent at this point and starting to get a little uncomfortable. After about 8 that were averaging five minutes apart (but ranging like last time- 3-8 minutes apart), I called the birth center to say I was coming in. This was the first of many times during delivery that I was happy about choosing the birth center-- they said okay, what time will you be here? Not a single question about the contractions or anything, they just trusted me that I needed to come in. I said we'd be there between 7:15 and 7:30 (This was at about 6:15).

We packed a ton of stuff, not really sure what we should bring, including the food my mom had been making because we didn't eat yet. We pulled in to the birth center at about 7:15 and were shown to our room. Contractions were pretty uncomfortable at this point and getting much more painful with each one, though later the nurse said I had her fooled because she did not think I was in much pain at all. We got settled in and put our food in the kitchen; I tried to eat some chicken, but at this point contractions were every 2 minutes and very hard to stand through, so I mostly just drank a lot of fluids for energy and worked through the contractions bending over a yoga ball. I felt a few small gushes a little while later- maybe around 7:45... I wasn't too sure of the time at this point.

There was another baby being born when we got there and they were waiting for another nurse and midwife to get in, so I still hadn't even been checked and we were mostly alone because we figured we still had a little while. The other baby was born at about 8pm, and that is about the time the new midwife arrived, who was the one that ended up delivering our baby. (The other mom was pretty loud- she was on the other side of the building, but we could hear her yelling/moaning and it sounded painful! Not the most relaxing thing to prepare for my own delivery :)  I was so proud of Riley that when she asked what the noise was, she was completely fine with our answer and not concerned.)

At this point I changed clothes because I was starting to feel some pressure, and I was starting to feel that, "Oh my gosh what was I thinking -- I don't want to do this!!!" feeling I remembered from last time. The new midwife was paying attention to how quickly my contractions were, and could tell I was incredibly uncomfortable by how I had to work through them, and said she thought everything is okay but that the baby is going to come fast, and she wanted to check me. While I worked through a contraction, she tested the leaked fluid and confirmed it was my water that broke, and I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure and she hurried to check me. She said I was at least at 8 cm, and again said she thought it was going to go very fast. During the next contraction I told her I had a lot of pressure, and she said to do whatever I felt I needed to and got on the phone to call the nurse in (who was still working on finishing up with the other mom). I had been getting through a lot of the contractions on my elbows and knees on the bed, with my elbows on the yoga ball, but at this point I switched to my hands and knees on the bed. I was definitely saying "Ow, this hurts!" during every contraction now, and having uncontrollable pushing reactions to them.

The nurse came in about 8:25, and I was going with the pushing feelings and pushing with each contraction, still on my hands and knees. I didn't feel like I had much control over what was going on- I think my body was really just doing everything on it's own without me thinking about anything, except the pain! Mr. Beaver said I wasn't too loud, but I remember making some noise, and saying "ow!" a lot. The midwife was very comforting, saying "I know, it's almost over though, just push when you want to and take a break if it hurts too much." I did take a few breaks where I knew it would pull the baby back in, and it was such a relief! At some point the midwife used some olive oil, and also applied counter-pressure as I was pushing, and it made it SO much less painful during the crowning stage then I remembered with Riley. I also wonder if the position made a difference- still on my hands and knees. All of a sudden I had a few contractions I just couldn't control and started pushing without being able to stop, and it felt like the pressure started building up behind the baby, until the whole body seemed to shoot right out (8:35 pm).

The midwife handed the baby to me from underneath, and I immediately saw she was a girl! I kind of sat back, and just held her while we wiped her off a little bit. I got a shot of pitocin because the birth went so fast, but didn't really notice. I realized Riley had been there the whole time, as she came up to the bed at that point and I told her she had a little sister, which got a big smile. We did a very delayed cord clamping, and then Mr. Beaver cut the cord. The midwife somehow delivered the placenta without me pushing or anything, and everything was cleaned up pretty quickly- I wasn't really paying attention but was surprised there wasn't much mess. Riley was on the bed with me by this time, and the midwife was showing her the placenta and explaining what it was, what it did, pointing things out... it was kind of gross but Riley seemed really into it. She then checked me -- no tears!!! I did not need a single stitch- such a huge relief! I remember the stitches were the most painful part of Riley's birth, and were so horrible during the week or two after the birth.

I held our new baby girl for a long time, and after about an hour she latched on and nursed for the first time. Funny memory- Riley came up to meet her sister a few minutes after she was born, and sneezed right in her face!! Oh well ...
They ended up not doing the measurements until about 1 am so that we could do skin-to-skin contact to warm her up. We also let Riley hold her sister for the first time. We left just before 2am and came home as our new family of 4!

Riley has been an amazing big sister so far. She is so gentle, except when she is a little clumsy and bumps into the baby with her own baby or part of her body. She loves to try and comfort her if she cries. I was surprised and amazed to hear that she watched the entire birth, from the scary angle! My mom was not even watching, hiding back in the bathroom, and Mr. Beaver was up by my head. Apparently Riley was watching from the bathroom and told my mom she wanted to come to me when I was pushing, and my mom said okay. Riley stood a little behind the midwife, and the midwife explained everything while Riley watched. I was worried that she would be traumatized from what she saw, but the midwife, nurse, and my mom all convinced me that she just looked amazed and smiled when the baby came out. She has been completely normal since then, so I guess it really didn't phase her at all! I wasn't sure she would even want to stay in the room, but I'm happy that she did and think it's pretty cool that she was so interested!

I think it will take a little time to adjust to our new family, but today has been pretty nice so far! The recovery is not nearly as bad as last time, but I do hate feeling like I'm on my period now and the cramps that come with it. Nursing was easy at first, but is painful again when she first latches on, like last time. I'm hoping that goes away soon!! She seems to want to eat constantly, but has finally taken a nice long break to sleep, going on 4 hours now! I feel bad we haven't taken more pictures, and that our good camera has a dead battery, but I think by tomorrow we'll be a little more caught up on sleep and able to do some family photos. Such a whirlwind birth experience, but we are so happy to have our new daughter here with us, and for everything to have gone smoothly with the birth!
(written yesterday, just posted now, oops!)