Oh boy! Shortly after returning to bed last night from doing the second part of Liliana’s overnight feeding, my water broke (2:45 AM). No contractions were felt at this point, but I was shaking uncontrollably. After notifying my OB’s office and calling Sean’s parents to watch Liliana, we made a few last preparations. Once Sean’s parents arrived, we left for the hospital.

Contractions started at around 3:20-3:30 and we got to the hospital around 4. Contractions were 3 minutes apart at this point and only somewhat painful. They progressively got more painful and the waiting for a doctor was excruciating. A resident doctor showed up and did a speculum test and a cervical check. She said I was 8 cm dilated, 90% effaced. The contractions were becoming unbearable, so I asked for an epidural.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get an epidural until I had an IV put in. After they put the IV in, some of the contractions made me want to push. If you’ve never been through labor, it feels like you’ve been holding a poop in forever. And when you get the urge to push, you have to try your hardest to keep it in longer. I was shaking through all of this because it hurt so much.

Eventually though, it was becoming more and more difficult to keep from pushing. I was checked again; this time the resident said complete (dilation) and a number (-1, +2? Supposedly it’s the position of the head or something). Even though I was completely dilated, they needed me to wait until the doctor-on-call arrived.

Pure torture. And I still hadn’t had my epidural.

Right as the doctor-on-call arrived and got things ready, I was pushing. With just 2-3 pushes, I felt Damien’s head  crowning. Surprisingly, the contractions stopped for a while, but once they started up again it wasn’t much longer until Damien was completely out. He was born at 5:29 AM. His weight? A whopping 8 lbs, 15 oz. He’s tall too, at 21.5″.

All of this without pain meds. I’m glad this is the last one.

Thankfully I only had a small tear. It took a while to get the placenta out (the doctor said that was big as well) but once all of that was done and I had some water, I was able to have skin-on-skin contact with Damien – something I wasn’t able to do with Liliana right after she was born. Another difference is that while Liliana was born pale (Sean said she looked like a Morlock), Damien was dark and had some bruising on his face and head. The nurse says that it’s from the delivery being so fast. We do have pictures, so I’ll post those when I can.

We also tried some breastfeeding. He has a good suck, but there’s still much for the both of us to learn.

Anyway, he’s getting circumcised at the moment. Sean went home to pick up a few things and I’m getting sleepy. I’ll post later when I have the pictures ready.