I had my first contraction at about 4:45 AM, Monday morning, 7/16/12.
My contractions start at about 5 minutes apart. I know, some of you are out there are saying
"HOLY SHIT!"
But there are the mild to medium kind, and the same thing happened with Joey. That's why I panicked with Joey and made Mark drive me right away, because the contractions were only 5 minute apart. This time, we hung around the house doing chores for a couple of hours before we left for the Maternity Center. (Had to beat rush hour traffic!)
When we got there around 7:30 ish ?? I was 4 1/2 cm dilated. But I was having lower back/butt pains 9that didn't feel like labor pains but more like sciatica pains0 that were making it difficult for me to keep walking. So I went into the tub early.
Kaki & Paka Rick came and helped out with Joey.
Grandma & Grandpa were able to leave work for a few hours (I really wasn't sure if they would be able to.) Poor Chris missed it by 10 minutes!
The delivery rooms at the maternity center are very home-like and everyone mostly waited in the living room and visited me occasionally while I labored in the tub. Miss Josephine too!
Missing from the pictures is Sugey, who took all the pics and video. Thank you so much Sugey!
Some of us were better at waiting then others. Above is Mark, looking happy and excited. Below, is me, breathing myself into my zen state between contractions.
When the contractions intensified beyond anything I'd experienced with Joey, I seriously started to doubt whether I could do this naturally. But then Carol, the midwife, checked me and I was already at 7 1/2 or 8 cm! Had I thought about it, I could have told you I was about to have a big baby because the contractions weren't limited to my abdomen, but were radiating half way down my legs.
The pushing was different than with Joey too. It took me a few contractions to figure out how to push for this one, and then out she came! It still took only about 10 minutes (Joey took less than 2 minutes)
And like that, in about 6 1/2 hours, I pushed out a 9 pound baby! (technically 8 lbs 15 ozs, but to me, that was a 9 lb baby!)
Joey has her hands in her ears because Samantha is loud!
Joey was very quick to point out:
"See Mom, I told ya it's a girl! Yep. I told ya!"
Daddy, thrilled to have another princess to spoil!
Kaki has another little girl to shop for!
About 5 hours after delivery, we packed up and headed home.
But not before putting Sam in her very first outfit... A Stones onesie! (Her very own, not a hand-me-down from big sister Jo-Jo.)
A lot of us think she looks like Paka Rick or Grammy.
The question now is: is she going to keep all that dark hair, or is it going to fall out and come back in blonde like Joey's did?
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