Happy 6th Birthday Gavin Andrew!

People say that every birth is different. They don’t know the half of it.

Archie and I had wanted other children, but were waiting for the right time. As a joke, we tried a little trick that I had read in an article about higher chances of conceiving on the 12th day after your period started. Well, we tried it and I can tell you, it works. The proof is happily napping in his bouncy seat about a foot away from me. It seemed that this was the right time. When I found out that I was pregnant for the second time in my life, I was truly happy and felt ready.

The pregnancy went smoothly, and I once again believed that I was born to have babies. I felt a little sick at first, but that’s to be expected. As my stomach grew, so did my hopes that this Baby would fit right into our already wonderful family. When we found out that we were having Boy #2, I was so happy. I can do boys! Boys are easy! But wait, I’m already out-numbered and this did not increase my odds.

Silas and I got ready for the birth of his Baby Brother, affectionately referred to as Baby Crocodile. Archie was as smooth through this pregnancy as he was through our first one. He never swayed from his mostly calm and humorous demeanor. He was the perfect Daddy!

Always in the back of my mind, I thought well, this Baby is going to be late like his Big Brother and I am going to be in labor forever. Little did I know that my Doctors had other plans for Little Croc and me. I went to my 40-week appointment already hearing those familiar words, “Everything looks great! See you next week.” The first surprise was when the Dr said; let me go find you a date for when we can have this Baby. I thought, “Great, now at least I know that I won’t be pregnant forever. I’m sure it will be next week sometime. So you can imagine my shock when the Dr came back and said, “How about 3:00 today?” OK.

So, exactly one day before my due date, Archie and I arrived at the hospital to be induced for the second time in our lives. Poor Archie had been cheated out of his mad dash to the hospital once again. The plan was to have a little medicine to ripen my cervix, see if labor came on and then try a little Pitocin if necessary. Archie went home to stay with Silas at about 9 PM. It looked as if this was going to be another long labor.

At 4:15 AM, I started having contractions on my own. At 6:30 AM, Archie arrived and so did the Pitocin. Here we go . . . I was dilated to 2 cm, so I had plenty of time. The nurse monitored the Baby and me all through the morning and everything looked fine. The contractions started coming a lot harder and lasted a lot longer. I was ready for my epidural. I learned my lesson the first time around. I was dilated to 5 cm at 9 AM. Well, maybe this labor wouldn’t be quite as long as the first one. It never seemed like the epidural was working on my left side. Leave it to me to get a crappy, half-working epidural. The midwife came in to check on me about 10 AM and I was up to 8 cm! Wow, this was pretty good! Is this what an easy labor is like? I’ll take more! About 45 minutes later my epidural was still not working on my left side and the pain had become much more intense. With tears in my eyes, I asked Archie to go get the Nurse. The nurse came in along with the midwife who checked me. I was 10 cm, the Baby was moving on out, and I was ready to push. That fast? What happened to the endless hours of waiting? OK, we can definitely do this. It took me 3 hours to push my first Baby out. So this one should take about an hour and a half give or take. WRONG. After about ten minutes of pushing, the Nurse calls in the Midwife who literally jumps into her delivery get up. And about 2 minutes later, I look down and see a tiny balled up fist shoot into the air. “Look, it’s his hand!” I say. I hear, “Grab him, grab him.” So like any good Mother, I reach down and grab my Baby boy under his arms and deliver him the rest of the way out, just like I had done this all my life. I pulled him onto my chest and looked at our New Bundle of Joy. He was gooey and sticky and beautiful. We had done it again. A wonderful, healthy Baby Boy! Gavin Andrew Cameron, born on Thursday, April 17, 2003 at 11:11 AM. 8 lbs, 8 oz. 19 ½ inches long.

I think I really was born to have Babies.

When’s the next one?