My pregnancy this time around was pretty good! I wasn't as sick as I was with Noah. I only threw up a few times, and never ended up in the ER which is great! I think having to chase Noah around helped. I had to make sure I always had something in my belly, and just had to push through. But mostly it was probably just a blessing that I was not as sick as last time because Noah would not have gone for that! He's not really the kind of kid that can sit watching a movie all day. He loves to get up and run!
When I say my pregnancy was good...I guess I mean it was good until the last trimester...when I found out I had gestational diabetes! This was the worst. I was terrified that I was going to have a 15lb baby! I was supposed to follow all of these diet restrictions, and eating for me is already a struggle haha! I always get bored of food pretty quickly, and with this diet I could only eat certain things. Needless to say I got pretty tired of eggs and wheat toast for breakfast. In the end I didn't really stick with it very well because I was just starving all the time and I figured eating anything at all was probably better than nothing. I think I had a pretty mild case of it because even not following the diet very well Samuel still ended up being smaller than Noah was when he was born.
Samuel was born February 13th, 2016. His birth story couldn't be more different from Noah's birth story if you remember it! If you need a little refresher here it is! (http://tomandkatiehall.blogspot.com/2014/01/noahs-birth-story.html)
The week or so before Samuel was born I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions quite a bit. I was hoping that he'd either come a week or more early, or wait until after his due date because my brother David was leaving on his mission the day he was due and I wanted my mom to be able to come to the hospital when he was born (my boys never seem to cooperate with my idea of when they should be born!). I had convinced myself that he was going to be late though, so I wasn't too worried about him coming when my mom wouldn't be able to make it. But on February 11th, I could tell he was getting ready to be born. My belly was a lot lower, I was having pretty bad back pain, and the BH contractions were coming a little more frequently, still in my mind he was going to wait another week before he came. I was still at the point where I was anxious to meet him and totally done being pregnant, but also not quite ready for him to be here. I didn't even have my bags totally packed yet.
I had a Drs appointment on Friday the 12th and my Dr told me I was a couple centimeters dilated and that she was thinking I might have a Valentine's baby! She said she didn't think she'd see me at my next appointment, which was supposed to be a week from that appointment. Even though I still didn't want to have the baby before his due date, I figured it was probably time to get things ready to go! So that day I told Tom we needed to pack our bags and make sure everything was ready, just in case he decided to come early.
That night I went to bed around 9:45 and this is the conversation I was having with my mom:
Still not really believing I was in labor, I went to sleep. I woke up multiple times during the night but kept going back to sleep. Then at about 2 in the morning I started thinking I should probably start timing the contractions. At 3:13 AM I started this conversation with my mom:
At this point I kinda figured this was the real deal, but I was so afraid of being sent home from the hospital because last time I got sent home and was in labor for about 24 hours after that! In my mind the contractions needed to be WAY more painful before I went to the hospital.
Soon after that last text, though, my water started leaking and the contractions were still about 4 minutes apart and very painful, so we called Tom's brother to come over and stay the night with Noah. I think he could feel that something was about to happen because he woke up at about 3 AM and stayed up with us all night. He was wide awake! Tom and Greg gave me a blessing before we left that all would go smoothly with the delivery, and we were on our way.
our last photo as a family of three
and my last photo of my belly (pretty sure this was right as a contraction was starting haha)
I am so grateful that I did not go into labor during rush hour. During the last few weeks of my pregnancy I was terrified that I'd have to deal with traffic on the 91 while driving to the hospital...anyone who knows the 91 will get what I'm saying haha! It's the worst!
It took about 15 minutes to get to the hospital and by this time I couldn't talk/walk through the contractions, so Tom got me a wheel chair. We realized we didn't even know how to get to labor and delivery, so we ended up taking the long way there but eventually we made it and they got me checked in a little after 4 AM. They didn't send me home! Yay!
I had decided that this time I wanted to get an epidural so that I would actually have the energy to push and not spend 2+ hours doing it. I was pretty nervous about getting one though, because I am afraid of not having control of my body and I usually hate the feeling that any numbing medicine gives me. The anesthesiologist came in a little while after we got there and talked to me about the epidural, and by this time the contractions were really intense so I was ready for it! The process of getting the epidural was probably the scariest part about the whole process. I was shaking pretty badly because I was scared, but luckily Tom was there to help me breathe through the contractions and help me sit still while it was being done.
And HOLY COW you guys....This is where things began to be vastly different from my last birth experience. I literally could feel no contraction pain. I didn't even know when I was having one unless I looked at the monitor, or someone told me I was having one. I even texted my mom at one point and said "This is so relaxing. I feel like I'm at the spa" haha. I'm glad I gave birth naturally last time, so I could really appreciate this feeling of not feeling anything. I got to take a nap and get the much needed rest I would need to give birth. Tom and I got to have some great conversations and laugh about how easy it all was. It was nice to have a calm and relaxed feeling in the room as I prepared for giving birth.
The only proof of my contractions
Around 12:30 the nurse came in and did a final check and said I was just about ready to push, so she went to get the midwife. The midwife came in and asked me to do a practice push, which I did, and she immediately told me to stop or else I'd have the baby before everything was ready haha! So they took a few minutes to set everything up, and then she told me it was time. I wasn't even feeling any urge to push at all...it was strange! But it only took about 3-5 pushes and:
at 1:07 PM February 13th Samuel was born.
He was 7 lbs 5 oz. and 21" tall.
We got to enjoy our time with Samuel in the hospital for the next day. Right before we got discharged, Greg, LuAnne, and Ashlee, brought Noah to come to visit and meet his brother for the first time. It was so weird because I'd been telling Noah about him all through the pregnancy, not really thinking he really got it. He'd point to my belly and say "baby" but wasn't super interested in the whole thing. But when he got to the hospital he instantly wanted to hold and love on his baby brother. He never had a weird moment like "who is this kid", which is what I was expecting. He's been a great brother, although one of the first things he did was plug Samuel's nose haha...
Our time since his birth has been great. Tom was able to get a few weeks off work so he's been home with us getting used to having two kids. Noah has his moments where he wishes he was still had all of Dad's attention, but he's been so good. I'm grateful to have Tom's parents, and a few of his siblings close because they have helped us a lot with meals and taking Noah multiple times so we can rest.
Samuel is a great baby. He's a month old now.
He loves to eat
He only cries when his tummy hurts.
He loves being carried in his baby carrier.
He hates baths.
But He loves showers.
He can roll over from his tummy to his back every once in a while, but I can never catch it on video!
and He looks just like his daddy!
We love this boy!
And now I'm home with two sick boys getting right into the swing of this mom of two thing!
