God's Timing: A Birth Story: Part 4

Continued from Part 3

If I could change one thing about this birth story - it would be this. 

Due to some serious communication breakdowns, when they took Hibou away to have her first official bath, she ended up being away from me for more than 2 hours.  We kept asking after her and got different stories (there is a long line for newborn baths in the nursery today and they're understaffed, she needs to warm up on the warmer bed first, we'll give her back when you get to your recovery room, now we are just waiting (for an hour!) for a transport to get you to the recovery room, actually she needs to be cleared by the nurse before you can have her). 

During these two hours I became increasingly miserable. I tried to be patient, tried to be firm about wanting her back.  But I started feeling kind of panicky and eventually I just started crying uncontrollably.

At this point, the nurses wondered why my blood pressure was so high.  They thought I was worried that something was wrong with Hibou and assured me they had just come from the nursery and Hibou was perfectly fine.  This just made me mad - why had the nurses seen my baby but I wasn't holding her, my family hadn't met her, and Papillon who was there to meet her little sister was getting tired and punchy. 

I don't think I could ever do a home birth or even a birth center birth (I do find that being in a hospital is comforting - knowing that an OR, NICU and other such emergency stuff is ready at hand), but in those two hours without my Hibou I really really wished the hospital didn't exist and I was just home with my baby. Hospital procedures are more than obnoxious when you have an uncomplicated, healthy, med-free birth. 

But, eventually I did get her back, and needless to say, I was very possessive of her after that. Any nurse that said she needed to take her to the nursery for this or that test, got snapped at and given a very short window of time in which to bring her back.

Barring that miserable incident, my birth story is very dear to me. It was hard work, it hurt like the dickens, but I love it.  God is very good.  He heard our prayer that she come early (she will be more than a month before Mon Amour goes on his next business trip - hooray).  He laid every thing out - from the friend who came to the OB appointment with me, to canceling Mon Amour's dentist appointment, to letting the doctor post-pone pitocin (can you imagine how fast things would have gone with the drugs? Yikes!).  He scheduled my OB appointment and broke in labor (which was probably 12:30 ish...2ish hours before Hibou arrived) to contact anyone, and who knows how that story would have played out. He even gave me a brief respite from a cold in order to give birth - for just that one day, I wasn't stuffy at all.

Beyond that He has blessed me with many trivial things that I was secretly hoping for. I wanted a small baby, but when my first was a 9+ pounder, I really didn't think it would happen.  I also wished that baby #2 would look significantly different than Papillon; I don't know why exactly, but I wanted to be able to tell right away that she was her own person. And she is. 

My recovery story warrants a few sentences as well. 

My drug-free birth was amazing. Within an hour of her birth I felt like I could get out of bed and walk. The entire time in the hospital I marveled at how well I felt. Other than the cold that had returned, I felt 100%.    Following our departure from the hospital, I didn't even fill the prescription for painkillers that they gave me.
They wouldn't tell me anything about my stitches with Papillon (how many? what degree? I have no clue...), but it must have been much worse than these.  I sat down very gently for weeks after Papillon's birth - with in 48 hours of Blondie's birth, I couldn't even tell that a 3rd degree tear had happened.  I wouldn't have known it during the moments of delivery (delivering a small baby is no less work than delivering a big baby) - but it seems there is a significant difference in the recovery from delivering a 9 lb baby in 4 pushes, and delivery a 6 lb11oz baby in the same.

Life at home has been better than I expected as well.  Hibou nurses all the time. With Papillon I was keeping detailed notes about diapers, nursing times, etc.  I started doing that with Hibou, but it felt silly - it was very obvious she was nursing enough and making enough diapers.  It feels so great not to be keeping scientific track of her care. 

Nursing is also a totally different experience. I was sore from nursing for about the first week. But at this point there is only a tiny twinge of pain when Blondie latches badly.  Beyond that, it has been a simply amazing experience. Such a difference from the first time around. 

Baby blues have been very minimal so far. With Papillon there were moments when I couldn't look at her because I was just plain overwhelmed.   Thus far, I have had a few "hormonal moments" where I feel "off".  But other than that, its been smooth sailing. 

I am so blessed.