Peter Nathaniel arrived on May 29th at 11:41 p.m. That's a significant day, because ever since we found out I was pregnant Lamoni has been "commanding" Peter that he had to come on his birthday - which is the 29th! Of course we knew there was very little possibility of that happening, but Lamoni held firm to that hope and told everyone who would listen about it. It didn't even occur to me during labor that he was coming on Lamoni's birthday until after he arrived because it was all such a whirlwind, as you will see. We had him at Dar a Luz birth center, which is about 5 minutes up the road from us. It's New Mexico's only free-standing accredited birth center. Charity had Katheryn there and really liked it so we figured we'd give it a try (we actually started Benjamin's prenatal care there but I didn't like it at the time so we switched). It was great this time around, though.
Contractions started about 2 weeks beforehand on the 14th. We had Lamoni's graduation party and it was a lot of work. I spent hours bending, working, carrying etc. That night I had regular contractions for a couple hours and wondered if it was the real thing. It obviously wasn't but it got me excited because I never even had real contractions with Benjamin until I was induced. A week later the contractions started again. I had my membranes swept on Monday, the 23rd but only had cramping afterward. I was 2.5 cm dilated. They swept them again on Wednesday and I was 3.5 cm dilated and that time it created a lot of contractions and I thought I was in labor again. On Thursday the midwife wanted me to come in to see what was going on and I was 5 cm dilated. She swept me again and the contractions started immediately and were strong and lasted for hours only 2-5 minutes apart. She said that she thought I'd for sure have the baby that night. Then they gradually decreased. All week was like that - regular strong contractions for hours and then they'd go away to sporadic contractions. However, they were always there. Day and night I'd have them. At night they would be so strong they would wake me up and I would have to breathe through them. By Saturday I was so sick of this that I wondered if I would actually know if I was in labor when the time came.
Saturday night was a rough night because I was up most of it with contractions. We have 8 a.m. church and I struggled to get ready between contractions. We got there and I had about 5 nice strong ones during sacrament meeting. That was hard because I like to move during them and I couldn't. I closed my eyes, swayed in place and counted in my head to get through them. I decided after I conducted primary I would go home. While conducting primary I had to grip the podium and hunch over it a couple of times to get through them. I told the primary president I was uncomfortable and was going home. She asked me "Are you having 'pains?'" I told her I was but that it didn't mean anything because I had been having them all week. Charity (who is a primary teacher) told me after I left she announced to the whole primary that I was having "pains" so I was going home and that I had been having them all week so there should be a baby anytime now!! I was pretty embarrassed by that because I fully figured that I would be there the next Sunday still pregnant.
I went home and slept and they stayed strong until about 2 p.m. then were gone. Again. So frustrating. Lamoni had a headache (on his birthday poor guy) so he took a nap and I played with Benjamin until evening when we went to my parents' for dinner. We were there until 8 p.m. Towards the end I started getting really uncomfortable again and was miserable. I told Lamoni I just wanted to go home and take a bath. We got home and I took a hot bath to make the contractions go away. I had some really strong ones in the bath and thought "this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Everyone says baths make them go away." I was physically so done with it after all week of them. I got out and started using my ball to get through them because they were so intense. We turned on Anne of Green Gables and I would jump from the couch to my ball every couple of minutes. They were intense but no different than they had been at times all week so I didn't think anything of it til about 9:30 when during a contraction I thought "we should call the midwife after this one just in case." Right then Lamoni came in and said "I think we should call the midwife." We had called the midwife twice that week after having regular ones for hours so I was hesitant. I called her and got a contraction during it and had to pass the phone to Lamoni. She told us to meet her at the birth center at 10:30 p.m. just to check. We called my mom who sent Joy over then we headed to the birth center. I didn't get one until we were almost there and fully intended them to stop anytime. They were definitely different, though, by this point. When we got there the midwife on call (Ruth) met us outside and I smiled and greeted her. Lamoni said "she's not in transition - did you see that smile?" The midwife said something along the lines of "yes, I noticed it. She must not be as far as we thought." I went into the birth room (we got the big one since we were the only birth that night) and Yelena, the midwife in training, checked me and said I was at 6.5. By this point I was pretty miserable with contractions and was having less and less control over them. The birth center wasn't as comfortable as home and I wished I could've been home where I had my rhythm down. I tried hard to stay focused in the moment because I wasn't sure how I could get through transition if I wasn't even there yet and the contractions were so intense. Finally the tub was ready and I got in (they offer water births at the center). By this point the contractions were insanely painful and I was very vocal during them. I tried to keep my cries low like we're supposed to. I felt like my body was going to explode during each of them. It was nice in the water since I didn't have gravity working against me I could writhe around in pain. Doesn't that paint a lovely picture? :-)
Lamoni was by my side the whole time telling me positive things and not touching me! I do not like to be touched during contractions. At one point Yelena put her hand on my back and I swatted at it. I thought it was Lamoni and in my head said "you know better than that!!" Just then I heard Lamoni say "she doesn't like to be touched during contractions." That made me feel better it wasn't him. :-)
Even thought the contractions were so intense I didn't think I was in transition yet because I thought they were supposed to be on top of each other and I still had a break in between them (thank goodness!!). I asked if I was in transition yet and the midwife said "most definitely." I asked how many more of those contractions I had to go through and she said "not many!" After a few more towards the end of the contraction I felt like pushing. I never got pushing contractions - the pushing urge was just tacked on to the end of the transition contraction. I could literally feel him descend each contraction. As his head was emerging the contraction ended and I had to wait to get another one, go through the intense pain of a transition contraction and then finish pushing his head out at the end of it when I finally got the urge. That wasn't very fun. One more push and his body came out. They brought him right up to me. The next hour Lamoni did skin to skin with him as they cleaned me up. I forgot how unpleasant that is. Almost as bad as the actual birth. 3 hours after that we were all loaded up and headed home!
We got to the birth center at 10:30 p.m. not sure if it was the real thing. I had the baby an hour later at 11:41 p.m. and we were in the car driving home by 4 a.m.! When we walked in Joy told me she was so disappointed because she thought we were sent home since it was so quick. When I showed her my tummy she was surprised and couldn't believe we had a baby and were back that fast! It was such a nice day the next day. The whole birth was exactly as we had hoped for and everyone made it so nice. I have had so much help and support this week it's amazing. I feel extremely indebted to everyone and can't wait for others to start having babies so I can pass it on!
I tried out the bed there for a bit but didn't like it because I couldn't move around easily during contractions.
In the tub right after Peter came.
They had me move to the bed for recovery afterwards.We have an ultrasound picture of Peter at 14 weeks with his arm just like the picture above!
Lamoni enjoyed the father/son time he got as they put me through torture... I mean took care of me. I'm positive that one of these days research is going to show that massaging and pushing on your stomach afterwards is a bad thing. Nothing that causes that much pain could be good.
His newborn check they did about 2.5 hours after he was born. It was nice having everything at a slow pace. They came for his newborn check while I was nursing and since we were the only patients, instead of like at a hospital, they left and said they would come back when we were ready.
8.5 pounds. 20.5 inches. Benjamin was 9 pounds, 20 inches.
They said according to his score that he was between 40-41 weeks, so his due date was right on (he was born 2 days after his due date).
He fell asleep during his exam! He is such an easy-going good-natured baby.
Taking his footprints
Right before we headed home.
The car seat Mel and Melinda gave us.
Benjamin woke up to find baby Peter had "come out!" All day he told visitors "now Peter's head is at the top and his feet are at the bottom". He had been intrigued by how Peter was upside down in my stomach.
He'll even sleep in his co-sleeper/bassinet! We're trying to not make comparisons to Benjamin for Benjamin's sake, but for any of you who knew Benjamin as a baby will know what a miracle this is for me.
Charity came over almost every day the first week and helped.
I think Benjamin might have set a Guiness world record for how many times a baby was kissed the first week of his life.
Asleep (!) in his bassinet again. There will probably be many pictures like this.
The blanket Aunt Jacqueline made him.
The blanket Niki (a student's mom) made Benjamin when he was a baby on the left, and Judy Garcia from church made for Peter on the right.
Benjamin is ecstatic that Peter is here and is so good to him. Multiple times a day Benjamin tells Peter in a sweet voice: "I'm so glad you came out! We're going to take good care of you!"
So you can compare the babies - Benjamin is above, Peter is below. We didn't think they looked that similar, but now looking at pictures of newborn Benjamin I think they do!
Lamoni got to change the sign outside of Dar a Luz at 3:30 in the morning before we left! We also have a picture of it during the daytime but I haven't gotten it off Lamoni's phone.
