Bennett's Birth Story

I'm looking forward to sharing Bennett's birth story with you all today! I'll start from the beginning. Apologies in advance for it being so long but I want to document this for myself!
I could tell when I woke up on Sunday that something was going on. Bennett felt really low and I was having a lot of cramps off and on all day that felt different than anything I had experienced previously. I didn't know if it meant anything or not but I knew something was happening in there. I was really looking forward to my doctor appointment on Monday morning so we could see what all was going on. I woke up Monday morning and got Campbell all ready for MDO. I dropped him off and headed straight to my doctor appointment. When she walked in and asked me how I was doing, I sort of jokingly said "well this baby is ready to come out and I'm pretty sure you could see his head if you just looked." She checked me and said in her calm, sweet voice "Yeah. You're a 5 and 90% effaced. So if you want to go ahead and walk next door to the hospital you can." I bet my eyes got as big as saucers. I was not expecting quite that much!! I had a feeling he was going to be born at some point this week but I never imagined being told to go ahead and go to the hospital. It was a lot to absorb. Scott and I got in the car to head home and pack up and I just started bawling my eyes out. I was unexpectedly super emotional. I really, really wanted to be able to hold and love on Campbell so I sent Scott to pick him up while I started packing and getting everything ready. My MIL got to our house to stay with Campbell and I didn't want to leave him. I just held Campbell and cried. Finally around 11:30 Scott told me that we really needed to get on our way so I kissed Campbell and my girls goodbye and headed out to meet my new baby!

They got me hooked up and I was having tiny contractions (I couldn't feel them) but we waited just a little bit to start any Pitocin until my parents got closer. My labor went so quickly with Campbell that I wanted to be cautious so they wouldn't miss anything. The nurses kept asking me if I wanted an epidural but I wasn't in any pain at all and I'd always said I wanted to try this time and do it without one so I held off. It was a waiting game for what felt like a long time. I just laid around, then stood around, hoping standing would help my water break or something!

I got to about an 8 when I finally started really feeling my contractions. The nurses kept coming in asking if I wanted an epidural and I just couldn't decide. The contractions were totally bearable but I was so worried that all of a sudden I was going to be in so much pain from them. My doctor came in to break my water and told me that would really speed things along and I could decide after my water broke if I wanted one or not. It felt so cool when she broke my water. My water broke on it's own with Campbell but this was such a different feeling with Bennett.

The nurse told me if I wanted an epidural now was the time to decide. I was at a 9 at this point and he was almost down far enough for me to start pushing. I gave in and caved. I started getting scared and the contractions were getting a little more painful and I just didn't want to regret not getting one. It took the anesthelogist about 45 minutes to make it up to my room though and for some reason it was taking forever for the epidural to work. I definitely waited too long.  I told the nurse that my contractions were starting to get super painful and literally as she was walking out to get my doctor, my doctor walked in and told me it was time to push. I told her that I was feeling every bit of these contractions and she told me the epidural may have been taking a tiny bit of the edge off but since I waited so late I was basically doing this on my own.

All of the nurses started walking in to get everything all set up and before I knew it, it was time to push! The first contraction came and while I was pushing I could feel Bennett moving down. It was so neat. I asked her if he was going to come out with the next contraction/push and she said yes. I could feel the contraction coming on so I sat up and with one more push, out he came! Two total pushes!!
Unlike Campbell, Bennett was not screaming and it worried me!! They laid him on my chest and after I declared "he has so much hair!!!" and also "he's really little" all I did was keep asking my doctor if it was okay that he wasn't crying. I must have asked her 20 times. He was so quiet. They weighed and measured him quickly then laid him back on my chest so we could have our skin to skin time.

Bennett and I did skin to skin for SO long. They kept waiting on his body temperature to raise so Scott didn't get to hold him until 10:30---3 hours after he was born!! Needless to say, Daddy was getting antsy! Bennett got cleaned up and passed around between all of the grandparents and by midnight we were in our new room and ready to settle in for the night.

I didn't sleep a wink from the excitement of the day. And also I kept thinking "I can't believe I had a baby today!" Overall, it really couldn't have gone better. It was a very different experience from my L&D with Campbell but an equally wonderful experience. I had worried about how it would work out with someone being able to watch Campbell but that all worked out perfectly and my MIL just so happened to have already taken the day off from work! Since my labor with Campbell went so quickly, I was worried my parents wouldn't be able to make it up in time but being told I was going to have a baby that day without "technically" being in labor yet gave them plenty of time to be with me. And even though I did get an epidural, I really kinda didn't. So it's pretty cool to know what it really feels like to give birth to a baby!

We couldn't be more proud of our newest little boy. We think he is perfect and we are so in love with him! I couldn't ask for Bennett to be doing better. He's nursing so wonderfully and he's making my job pretty easy---so far. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have two precious baby boys. My heart has never been so happy.