The Smith Family: August 2009

Here's a little re-cap from having Ivy: I went in just to get a check-up way out to Kaiser South Sac and they accidently broke my water. I was starving when I got there, so all I got to eat after that was jello. I was induced a couple hours later since nothing was happening and I died from the pain. They gave me something horrible while I waited for my epidural that made me throw up every 30 min. the entire rest of the labor. After all was said and done, I had 24 hours of labor, 3 1/2 hours pushing, an epidural all the way until the last 2 hours, second degree tear, too much pain and agony. Obviously worth it because I got an 8lb. 9oz. perfect baby girl.

Needless to say, I was nervous to have another, especially since he was late and probably going to be even bigger than Ivy. However, here is what happened:

Wednesday evening I felt a little leakage (sorry, kinda gross). I didn't tell William until a couple hours later because I didn't think much of it. He finally convinced me to just go in since our hospital is about 3 minutes away. I decided to be smart this time and eat a nice last supper before I left, just in case.

Well, it was my water that had leaked and I had contractions close enough that they kept me there, even though they were the completely painless contractions. This is at 11:30pm and I decided to wait until the morning to get an epidural. I didn't sleep that night, but the contractions were bearable. The next morning, I called William to come because I wanted him there when I got the epidural. Some very nice, but a little too silly of a lady did the epidural, so I was a bit nervous. Luckily it worked well, a little too well. It was hard to breath with my ribs pressing into my contracting belly so I laid my bed flat, which turned out to be a bad idea. Luckily the nurse noticed and made me sit upright because she warned that the epidural could drip up. A few minutes later my ears began to go freakishly numb and I started losing my hearing. I swear my brain was frying also. My nurse friend came rushing back and cranked up the IV water and saved my life. Well, I'm sure it wasn't really so serious but it was the scariest feeling ever.

So, when it was finally time to push, no one expected this jumbo baby to start coming on the first one. Everyone scrambled to get all their gear ready because my big boy came out in just the 2nd push at 1:28pm on Thursday the 6th. SO much better than having Ivy. I did tear in the same spot as last time, but pushing only twice has made my recovery unbelievably better. Thank goodness that it's not too exciting of a labor story. I liked this labor so much better that there is a possibility of having more kids (not any time in the next 3 years). However, the after labor pains were insane...but I won't even start.

So, most of these are on my facebook, and there isn't much order to them. Good job if you've read all of this.

Samuel Richard Smith