I had a miserable pregnancy with Honor. I wasn’t thrilled about being pregnant in the first place, Eden was only 11 months old when we found out. And I was so sick, my morning sickness lasted way past the first trimester and would pop up off and on the whole pregnancy. Not to mention that I was pregnant through the whole, entire summer, the hottest summer ever. I was so, so, so ready to have Honor.

The contractions started about a month before he was born. They were nothing painful, just enough to get my hopes up and then crush them into teeny tiny pieces. I finally got used to them. But I was SO ready to have this baby! I walked around dilated for who knows how long. The day before he was born, still two weeks before his due date, I woke up with real contractions. They weren’t anything too bad, but they actually hurt, when the others didn’t. I laid there for two hours breathing through the contractions and watching the clock. They started to subside. So I got out of bed to walk around and try to get them going again. Nothing. At all. I was so devastated. I wanted to go into labor SO BAD. Nothing could get my mind off it. Not even a movie, a game of foxy or scrabble, or a great book. I could only think about giving birth and wishing it would happen right then!

I should have taken those two hours of contractions as a warning sign, but I didn’t. Instead it made me really depressed. I spent a lot of the day doing a combination of laying in bed and doing EVERY thing that’s supposed to induce labor. I even resorted to doing jumping jacks, hoping I’d bounce him out. I finally gave in and took some castor oil. Just a little bit in orange juice. I should have started cleaning like mad, just to be sure the house would be ready in case I did finally have him. But I didn’t. We went to bed with nothing happening.

I woke up around 3:30 with a real contraction and what I can only describe as the baby slamming down. I had been worried that I wouldn’t know when I went into labor (since I was induced with Eden), and everyone kept telling me, “you’ll know.” I got up to sit on the toilet, and the contractions kept hammering down. When I could finally get up, I went back into the bedroom to tell Jim that I was pretty sure this was the real thing. He got up and gave me a hug and another contraction came along with lots and lots of water.

I went back to sit on the toilet (seems the castor oil was doing it’s job) and the contractions kept getting closer and worse. They started out about a minute apart, so they were coming down pretty fast. Jim had to pee really bad and the contractions were so bad that I couldn’t get off the toilet, he finally had to go out side to pee. We decided this was the real thing and called the midwife, she told us to come to the hospital to get checked out because my water broke. Jim decided to call my Aunt Ann, who was going to keep Eden while I was at the hospital. She had called me two times that day, checking in. It seems that she had such a strong feeling that I was going to have the baby that day or night that she even made a bed for Eden.

I filled the bath tub, and sat in there until my Aunt came. All the while, shouting instructions to Jim about what to pack for Eden and the hospital. My Aunt came and I slowly crawled out of the bath tub. The contractions were getting worse and worse – so intense. We barely made it to the car, stopping every time to breath through the contractions. I sat down in the car and remembered that we forgot the Boppy, so Jim ran in to get it. And off we were to the hospital.

Luckily it was the middle of the night, because I made Jim stop the car every time I had a contraction. The movement of the car made them So. Much. Worse. We arrived at the hospital, and Jim ran in to get me a wheel chair. By that point I was soaked with amniotic fluid, it just kept pouring out with every contraction, luckily I had brought a towel to cover me up. The wheel chair was so comfortable, I could have labored the whole time in it. When we got to Labor and Delivery, the night clerk asked us if this was our first baby. Jim later marveled at how she moved so quickly when she found out that it was our second. Like she knew we meant business. She got us a room right away and went to call the midwife.

My mom got there shortly after, and made some phone calls for us. The nurse came in to check me and I wasn’t quite dilated to a 6. At that point I was sure I had several hours to go. That’s when it started getting really bad. All I could do was grip the arm rails of the hospital bed and make it through. I decided that there was no way I could do that for several more hours, it was just SO BAD. My mom was back from making her phone calls at that point and I decided that I wanted an epidural. I hadn’t had one with Eden and had been very opposed to having one. But there was no way I could do that for several more hours. Jim tried to talk me out of it, all the while my mom was vigorously shaking her head in agreement with me. Jim knew there was no arguing with a pregnant woman, and my mom went to tell the nurse. They came back in with the paper work and told that it would be a little while because the anesthesiologist was down the hall giving someone else an epidural. They offered me an IV drug called Nubain. I had it with Eden, and I remember it knocking me out. I thank God that I didn’t get it, I know it would have slowed the labor down, and later when I was pushing, I remember thinking that I missed so much with Eden.

I could literally feel myself dilating. And then is when it hit me. I had to push. I had to push right then. My mom and Jim didn’t believe me, but I was so insistent, that my mom went to get the nurse. By the time she arrived with the nurse, it was pretty evident that I was pushing. My sister showed up about then, in shock that I was already pushing. Things started to go wild around the delivery room. The tech went to call the midwife again and they sent in a midwife who was there from another office, just in case. As the nurses got everything ready, I shouted out instructions between pushes, “Camera!” I also remember saying between pushes, “I love this kid!” I couldn’t believe that I was already having the baby! At some point, the anesthesiologist poked his head in – I’m so thankful that I didn’t need him.

The midwife rushed in, just as I was starting to crown. I was only a few pushes away from delivery. That is when my friend Brooke arrived (with only one contact, she was later thankful that she didn’t go back for it). Another two minutes, and she would have missed it. Jim went to wash his hands and I started yelling at him, “What are you doing? You’re going to miss it!” He was hoping to deliver Honor, like he did Eden, but there just wasn’t time. The next push and Honor was out.

He was born at 5:51am, just 2.5 hours after my first contraction, 45 minutes after our arrival at the hospital. In the split second between the time he was out and the time they put him on my chest, I hollered, “What is it? What is it?” It’s a boy!! We were so excited. We wanted a boy so bad (little did we know what we were getting into!) I held him while Jim cut the umbilical cord, and the nurses wiped him down. They took him to weigh him and clean him up better and the midwife started to sew me up.

My uterus wasn’t contracting fast enough, so she gave me an iv of pitocin. That’s when I started shaking really badly. My friend Brooke was so great, she stayed by me the whole time, making sure I was ok, while everyone else got to hold the baby. I finally got all stitched up and the shaking subsided and I nursed Honor for the first time. Nursing is so much easier when you know what you’re doing. When we were finished, Jim took Honor to get a bath. The nurse helped me into my clothes and I walked (walked!) over to my hospital room. I felt so great, totally energized, like I hadn’t had a baby at all.

Introducing him to Eden was great. She didn’t really know what was going on, nor did she really care, but there’s something about seeing the two people you made, together….

It was the best experience I could have had. I’d do it again in a second. Plus look what it got me?