Ever since I found out that my due date was January 4th I was concerned about having Briggs too close to Christmas. Both me and my Dr. were hoping that Baby B would come at 37 weeks. But, nothing ever happens according to plan. At 37 weeks (a week and a 1/2 before Christmas) my Dr. stripped my membranes in hopes that it would start things moving. I tried not getting my hopes up because when She stripped my membranes with Jenson nothing happened. So... ya.. Dec. 14th membranes were stripped and I was only dilated 1cm. Dec. 15th I started having regular contractions. I thought in NO WAY was I going to be
that lucky and actually have him at 37 weeks.
At 630pm the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. I tried to go to sleep that night but ended up reading for three hours. Finally, at 2am I was able to get to sleep but, only to be woken up at 430am with the contractions really starting to hurt, still at 3 minutes apart. I was getting soo excited! This was actually happening! I decided to hold out until the morning before heading to the hospital. Finally at 7am I was able to get Alek out of bed and started packing up stuff to take to the hospital. We made breakfast, I called my mom and made arrangements for her to watch Jenson, called my birth photographer, and got everything ready to go. That's when I realized it had been awhile since I had had a contraction. I whipped out my phone opened my contraction app and realized it had been about 7 minutes..... then 10 minutes... then 15. They were getting farther and farther apart!!!! What???? Then eventually they stopped all together. I couldn't believe it. I was soooo unbelievable frustrated!! I let everyone know it was just a false alarm and pretty much was depressed for the rest of the day. We decided that maybe I just needed to walk around and maybe that would start the contractions again. We walked all around the mall and Walmart for hours!! I seriously didn't have another contraction until I actually went into labor. False labor.... it's a real
stupid thing.
At 38 weeks, (the week of Christmas) I was dilated to 3cm. I begged the Dr. to induce me. By this point I was soooo uncomfortable. Lil boy was crammed in my ribs and literally was dislocating them. I couldn't sit, stand, or lay down comfortably. I was in constant pain. The last month being pregnant with Briggs was 10x worse than it was with Jenson! I was MISERABLE! I really didn't think I could make it another day. Plus, I was soooo worried about having him on Christmas that I just wanted him out right then so that I didn't have to stress anymore and would actually be able to enjoy the Holidays. But, unfortunately, Dr. Craig said she couldn't induce me until I was 39 weeks but offered to stripped my membranes again. Which I told her, "no" because I was too worried about it not taking effect until Christmas morning. (HAHAHA) I decided I would do my best to hold him in a few more days and get through the holidays. We scheduled an induction date for Dec. 28th
Dec. 23rd-24th, I was fine. I wasn't having any contractions. I was just still unbelievably uncomfortable. But, I thought for sure I would be able to make it until after Christmas. I tried to put on my happy face and enjoy the Christmas celebrations as much as possible. I kept telling everyone not to plan on the baby until the 28th because I just couldn't see myself actually going into labor on my own. Maybe I was just in denial?
I had Al's aunt, Tangie, snap a picture of me at the Lund Christmas Eve dinner. I told everyone this would probably be my last bump pic because I didn't plan on getting dressed up for the next few days. :) If only I had known just how true that was.
Christmas eve night we didn't get home until around 9pm. We put Jens to sleep, then started playing Santa Claus. Jenson got a 'Melissa and Doug' train set for his birthday from his grandparents, so we decided that getting him a table to set it up on was an easy idea for Christmas. We put the table together, set up the train track, filled up his stocking, showered and got in bed. It was midnight and we were both exhausted! I started scrolling through Facebook (because who doesn't do that while waiting to fall asleep??) and I saw a post that one of my Irish teacher friends posted. It was a memory of hers from two years ago, about how she went into labor Christmas eve night and 6 hours later had her baby on Christmas Day. I showed the post to Al and made a comment about how awful that would be and how it would totally ruined all of Christmas day. We both laughed and fell right to sleep. Seriously, I jinxed it soooo many times that it pretty much was a given that he HAD to be born on Christmas.
2 hours later..... I woke up suddenly. I was seriously wide awake. Hmm.... "do I need to pee??" (Which is usually the case when I wake up randomly in the middle of the night.) Just then, something started leaking.... Whoa!!!! "Please let that just be pee, Please let that just be pee." I sat up and walked to the bathroom... with stuff still leaking out..... I sat on the toilet and instantly started freaking out. It was NOT pee. "Did my water seriously just break????"I could not believe it. At this point, I was saying curse words. (When you go into labor on Christmas, it's okay to swear btw.) I could not wrap my head around the idea that this was actually happening. It took me 10 minutes of sitting on the toilet, in denial, before I had enough courage to wake up Al. He jumped out of bed and said, "YOU'RE KIDDING?!" Oh how I wish I was.
I called my mom and told her my water had broke. She said she was on her way over and she would take care of Jenson. That is probably when I realized that this really WAS happening. I started freaking out even more. I was panicking and my whole body started shaking uncontrollably. I couldn't even talk normally without my voice studdering. I think it was a mix of emotions. Being scared, being upset, tired, and yes I was freaking out about the contractions coming and hurting. I had always heard contractions don't hurt until your water breaks. Well, here my water had broke... I wasn't having any contractions yet but, I was already freaking out about them coming and me being in pain. I wanted to get to that hospital quick!! Hospital=Drugs. With Jenson, I was induced and got my epidural super early, so I hardly felt anything the whole time. Which is why I was soo worried about being in pain this time around.
Alek could tell that I was freaking out. So, he gave me a blessing to calm me down. It worked for the most part. Whew.... after I pulled myself together, I just needed to wait the 20 minute drive my mom had to my house. Longest 20 minutes ever!!!!! I checked the time on my phone literally every minute and paced and paced and paced. I still wasn't having contractions. How strange right???
Finally, my mom pulled in. I gave her instructions for Jenson and told her to sleep on my couch. We loaded everything in the truck and made the five minute drive to the hospital. I was checked in, confirmed my water had broke, and set up with an IV and monitors all by 3am. Still no contractions.
At 5am, Al was getting some sleep and I was watching Friends on Netflix. They decided to start me on Pit to try and get some contractions going. I was only dilated 4cm. I asked about an Epidural and if the Anesthesiologist would let me have one. Praying, crossing my fingers, and ready to turn into the crazy yelling pregnant lady if he wouldn't let me have it. For a refresher, with my body prone to blood clots, I have to take blood thinning shots throughout my entire pregnancy, once a day. While in labor with Jenson, the Anesthesiologist said I needed to be off the shots for 24hours before letting me have an epidural. So, that is what I was planning on this time around. I had taken my shot at 8am on Christmas eve morning.... so, technically it had only been 20 hours. I told the nurse to tell the Anestesiologist that the epidural was all I was asking for for Christmas. Supposedly, he liked that and thought I was funny. He agreed I could have the epidural whenever I needed it. He was WAY more awesome than the stupid guy who helped me with Jenson. The one with Jenson was soooo grumpy and hardly said two words to me. I remember he rolled his eyes at me when I asked to pee one more time before he numbed me up. But, this new guy was complete opposite! Super talkitive and friendly. He said, most Anesthesiologists only have you wait 10-12 hours from being off the shot before allowing you to have the epidural. UGh!!! I wanted to hunt down the other 24-hour guy and give him a piece of my mind!!!
Anyways... I decided to wait a little while longer until I was actually having contractions before getting the epidural. So, back to the waiting game and Netflix I went. At 6:30am I was starting to feel pretty decent contractions every few minutes and decided it was time for the epidural. Thank goodness I did because this is when things started progressing quickly. I was at 6cm.
I guess when my water broke, it didn't break completely, and there was still a little section that needed to be broke,(I can't remember the fancy terminology they used, I'm sure my description makes no sense.) So, a random Dr. came in and finished it all off. Then, the contractions became pretty intense. It took awhile for the epidural to kick in and.... I could still feel the contractions in my crotch. I was in A LOT of pain. I had never experienced this with Jenson so this was all new to me. They checked me again and I was at 7cm. For the next half hour or so... (it seemed like forever) my contractions were killing me. My legs were completely numb but I could feel everything in my crotch. I tried to be so strong but it really did hurt. BAD. I was crying and trying to move to get comfortable but couldn't because of my freaking numb legs. I said a lot of things to Alek that I regret.... Like not to kiss me, and don't get to close to my face because.....well.... his breath smelled awful.... I kept telling him to get away and to brush his teeth. HAHAHA! The poor guy was just trying to help.
At 8am, I kept telling
screaming at my nurse that I needed to push and I needed to get my legs up. I was sooo frustrated because I couldn't move my legs but could feel everything else!!!! Gosh, why wasn't the epidural working!!!! I kept screaming "I need to push! I need to push! He's coming out!" My poor nurse called in the anesthesiologist and he came running in with some 'magic potion' and injected it into the epidural. Finally, within 5 minutes I was completely numb and all was happy again. Whew.... At about the same time they had my legs up in the holders and sure enough I was at 10cm and baby B was coming out.
Since it was Christmas morning....(how could we forget that right?) My Dr. was "out." So they had the on-call Dr. come in to deliver, Dr. Smith.... she looked like she was my age, not even joking......But, she did her thing and did it wonderfully. I pushed for a total of 4 contractions, no more than 8 minutes, and Baby Briggs was born. He weighed 7lb 6oz and 19inches long, just a tad smaller than his older brother. I could not believe how quickly everything went. And oh sooooooo grateful that the epidural kicked in right as it was time to push.
Briggs cried A LOT more than Jenson. Jenson seriously didn't cry the whole time we were at the hospital. So, that took a bit to get use too. Also, because Briggs' labor was soooo quick, my recovery has been AH-MAZING. I was up and out of bed, walking around, feeling like a million bucks, within just a few hours. With Jenson... I was worried about how I was going to walk out of the hospital to go home because I was still so sore.
The adjustment of two kids has been..... alright. About what I thought it would be. The first week was hard. I remember thinking, "There is NOWAY I'm letting Alek go back to work EVER!." I really didn't think I would ever be able to handle TWO kids all day by myself. Seriously, there's two of them and only one of me! But, somehow, we've managed. I might have not combed through my hair in 6 weeks but hey! Both kids, and myself are still alive and happy. ;)
Jenson has been doing well. He has started throwing huge tantrums... which are seriously HILARIOUS to watch. But, that could just be because of the stage he is in. I honestly doubt it has anything to do with Briggs. He is always making sure Briggs has his binkie and that his bottle is right next to him. Every little squeak Briggs makes Jenson goes running to check on him. My favorite is that Jenson gives Briggs kisses anytime you ask. It's the sweetest thing EVER! I love my two boys soo much and am one lucky mom. I can't wait to see them grow up together and become the best of friends. <3
Also if you would like to read Jenson's birth story you can find it
Here
