When I was pregnant with my first child, I regularly took yoga class, soaked in a epsom salt bath, took hypnobirthing class, and read many books and articles on natural birthing. This time, however, because I have a toddler, I focused more on spending quality time with her.
By the time we got to the hospital at around 3:45am I was 8cm dilated. My husband handed over the birth plan to the nurses while they frantically got me settled in. He said “she would prefer not to have an epidural” and their response was “that’s good because there’s no time for that!” Even though we called my OB before we left the house, it was starting to look like the baby was coming too soon and the staff OB was called in. At one point I felt the baby’s head coming out! Then with the next contraction my belly seemed to have a mind of it’s own, tightening and squeezing out the baby. The doctor said “you have to wait or you’ll tear!” and all I could say was “I can’t! The baby is coming!” and the baby popped out. 4:36am, I had tears in my eyes from relief and joy!
As much as I was in love with this new baby, I also missed our older daughter a lot. It was the longest I had been away from her since she was born 26 months earlier. Due to the flu no children were allowed in the maternity area. Sunday, around noon, we were officially discharged.
It’s been about 10 days since Amelia was born and our older daughter is finally acknowledging the new baby and taking active interest in her – touching her feet and playing with her toes.