I think I have the kind of birth story that every woman would kinda hate in a "good for you" kind of way.
It basically started like any other day - I was full term with Asher ready to evict. It was a nice day, I lost my mucus plug but otherwise not really feeling any painful contractions. I knew I was already at 1cm from my last appointment and I was waiting to get a call back for a scheduled induction. Honestly I just wanted everything planned out so I would know what to do with Seth. It was a long week with us constantly bringing his overnight stuff in and out of the car because we would still need his "Scout cube" and toiletries every night and couldn't leave the house without them nor leave them in the car. However this day - with officially losing my mucus plug and everything - I had a feeling things were going to be coming along. I even tested Megan to see what her day was like because I knew my brother would be busy recording from 2-6.
Anyway we loaded the car and just planned to bring Seth to a park and have a nice family day. I even checked in with my brother at five below to see how his plans were for the afternoon. And so - we were driving past the park looking for parking when mid-contraction Andy hit a bump in the road and all of a sudden it felt like I peed/had a heavy period flow coming out. Luckily I had doggy pads in the car and Andy was able to pull over and grab one for the seat as I quickly looked up the number for my doctor. Being the weekend I had to make sure I called the right number and they forwarded my message to her.
Literally as this is going on my mom decides to Facebook messenger call me and my brother (he was actually in-between recordings) and I let them know what happened and that we were heading to the hospital. Like "It's Go Time People!" and had to quickly hang up to answer the call from my doctor who confirmed - its go time.
So I call Megan and let her know we're going to the hospital because literally there's no one else to get Seth and she's good to meet us there. I basically have to get in through admission alone while Andy waits for Megan but I was used to that since I basically went to every single pre-natal appointment alone. I get admitted and they're checking me and at some point Andy shows up. We're goofing around and Andy's making jokes with everyone there and I'm at 2cm. The usual thing happens when they try to get an IV in where they really have to focus to get a vein but its all good. I'm admitted and getting moved to labor and delivery.
We decide to wait for an epidural first at this point because with how they were planning to induce I just didn't want to have to deal with the pain if I was given the option not to. But of course there was an emergency they needed to attend to first. After about 4 hours since my water broke I was getting the epidural - which was probably the only pain I felt for the entirety of the delivery. This time when they checked me I was at 3cm so there was no need to do the ballon or pill and they just went straight to Pitocin.
(I was familiar with that though because we used that for Seth with getting me from 8 to 10cm.)
Then it was just waiting and resting for the night - roughly around 7/8pm. So Andy and I decided to start a movie. We're watching ThunderForce when someone comes in around 10:30(?) to check me and apparently I was at 9cm! So they had to call my doctor to come back to the hospital. She got back around 11 and I was starting to feel the pressure and fully dilated at 10cm so we were ready to push. Literally 4 minutes to wait for them together ready and then 4 minutes later Asher was born. Tadaa!
11:08 of April 10 Asher Stone was born. All thanks to a bump in the road.
But of course that's where the work began. My postpartum journey was one I was more concerned about.
Thankfully it was better than with Seth - probably because we did better with being on top of me eating and taking my meds - but everything just seemed like clockwork to me. I was just used to it from Seth and didn't feel very affected by the change of sleep schedule. I remember it was rough with Seth and I guess because I knew what to expect this time around I was a bit easier on myself with recovery.
There were tough moments every day like feeling sore, back pain, scared to go to the bathroom, intense heat in my chest when my milk came in a few days post birth, night chills and night sweats. I would literally feel feverish towards the end of the night and need to shower to regulate my temperature and overnight my sweat would drench my shirt. That stuff was probably the toughest for me. Yeah breastfeeding hurt a bit in the beginning but I was expecting that, and I wasn't able to change Asher's diaper without back pain - but whenever my meds were about to wear off I was ROUGH.
Asher on the other hand was an angel. A Pure Angel. He was hardly fussy, his cries were little "meh"'s he burped easily, and slept for 2.5-3 hours at a time.
What helped us the most with Andy both being my caretaker and still working from home was creating a schedule that revolved around eating times. It was mostly as long as I was fed - everything else didn't matter time-wise and would get figured out throughout the day.
Now its a week later and we basically have the swing of things - but I also know as he gets older Asher is going to switch things up along the way.
