James DeWiley Cook*

Born 10:29 am on June 28, 2011.  8 lbs, 3 oz, 21.5 inches long.

 

I woke up on Tuesday with a PAINFUL contraction at 6 am.  At 7 am, I had another.  By 7:15, I called Tony at basketball and made him come home because I’d had three more.  We got to the hospital by 8 am.

 

Things were less chaotic at the hospital this time, compared to Charles’ labor and delivery.  I had time to get checked routinely and get an IV locked in.  Even though the contractions were much more painful than Charles’ ever were, I handled it all just fine through breathing.  I managed to get one bag of Penicillin through the IV before contractions were going so quickly that the doctor suggested that I try to push at 10 am.

 

Last pregnant photo!

 

It was so weird – the contractions really hurt, but I didn’t have the “urge” to push like I had with Charles.  I mean, if someone had told me not to push with Charles, I would have laughed.  When you have that urge, you can’t NOT push.  This time, though, my water hadn’t broken and I didn’t feel like I was having to bear down.  But I got into bed, got my feet up, and tried anyhow. 

 

Then my water burst like a balloon.  Wow.

 

I got to use the squat bar, or whatever they call it.  My arms, shoulders, and back are still sore from that workout.

 

I pushed.  And I pushed.  Then, the baby’s head got lodged in my vagina, about a third of the way out.  That’s when I started crying and invoking God.  I’m pretty sure I told the nurses that I wanted to stop, that I just couldn’t do this.  I had never experienced pain like that, ever.  I wanted to vomit, it hurt so badly.  I pushed for 15 minutes with the baby’s head lodged there before he finally slipped out, after a bit less than a half hour of total pushing and, if you’re keeping track (I certainly was), four and a half hours since the first contraction.

 

The nurse said that in her 20+ years of being an OB nurse, she had never seen a head lodged like that for so long. 

 

But!  Recovery this time has been soooo much better.  The afterpains have been worse, but overall, I don’t feel like I have been hacked with a chainsaw in my nether-regions (isn’t the miracle of life lovely?).

 

Jamie looks so much like Charles did at birth. 

 

Baby James on the left, Baby Charles on the right.

James eats all the time, nursing like a champ, cluster feeding for hours until he passes out for a few hours (sleep time for meee!).  He is content to be placed on his back in a bassinet, sometimes for hours.  Hours!  Charles couldn’t stand to be on his back and didn’t sleep alone until he could roll over on his stomach.  Also, Charles didn’t really sleep.  Jamie sleeps.  He’s mellow.  Of course, I feel like I paid my dues with a tough pregnancy and oh, also, a first child who was so hard on us, but really, this is just so awesome, I can’t even describe it.  With Charles, we were already sleep deprived upon leaving the hospital.  Right now, two-and-a-half days after birth, I feel great (you know, for an immediately post-partum woman).  I didn’t know it could be like this.

 

I am so in love with Jamie.  He’s so beautiful, so sweet.  And Charles is such a great big brother, it’s made me fall in love with him all over again.

 

 

*DeWiley was my paternal grandfather’s name.