Oh hey, I have a son

Staying true to the second child stereotype, I have barely acknowledged the arrival of my baby boy, Baden. Even though with Astrid I gave you Confessions of a Pregnant Girl parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 and I even shared her birth story with you all. I shared a couple stories after that and shared that I was pregnant with him and then... nothing. Until I got pregnant with baby number 3 and, well you've probably read the posts I've done for that so far. (if you haven't they are literally the last two things I wrote about before this)

Anyway, when I revisited the blog to share the tales of this third and weirdest pregnancy I've had so far, I realised I never shared Baden's birth story. Thankfully I wrote it down in my journal shortly after having him so I'm not relying on a memory from over a year ago (ps, he's one now, holy cow!).

So, here it is, 

Baden's Birth Story

*Side note, for those of you who have only read his name and never heard it, his name is pronounced "Bay-den" not "Bah-den". okay, let us continue...

When I was pregnant with Baden, Astrid would often ask when her baby brother was coming. Since he was due on the 28th of April, my response became, "your brother will be here when the snow melts" 

Living in Northern Alberta, the winters can be pretty long, so I figured that it would be safe to say that our snow would be melted by the end of April. I started to get nervous though because there was still a ton of snow on the ground within a week of Baden's due date. I didn't want to be a liar! I knew Astrid would call me out if I came home with her baby brother and there was still snow on the ground. In the end though, the snow was gone by the time he came home with us. 

On Tuesday, April 24th Astrid had preschool. And while she was there I decided to do some last minute pre-baby shopping to get a new nursing bra and a couple nursing tops. I remember as I walked around the stores I felt what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions, and I even told my friend about them at Preschool pick-up. I later realised they were actually some super early pre-labour cramps, but I wouldn't say I went into labour on this day though. My day went on like normal with us running a couple errands and even taking Astrid's grampa out for some tax stuff. So yeah, not in labour. 

I started to notice actual cramping in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday the 25th. They were pretty sporadic through the morning so I got some laundry done and called Joe to let him know he should probably come home that night. He had been working 2 hours away at a camp job, which was the farthest his bosses were allowed to send him that close to my due date. The day was spent doing small errands around the house and soaking up my last moments with Astrid as my only child. I remember we had a picnic lunch on the step and played with sidewalk chalk. And then when Joe got home from work we all went out for ice cream at Dairy Queen. Our last outing as a family of three.

Our last photo as a family of three!

Throughout the night my contractions started to make it hard for me to sleep, but they were still very inconsistent. Astrid had preschool on Thursday so in the morning Joe took her over to our friend's house whose daughter was in the same class and she took Astrid to school. From there the plan was for Astrid to stay with their family while we brought her brother into the world. Contractions were around 10 minutes apart so I spent the morning dealing with those and getting whatever rest I could. In the afternoon we went out for lunch and went for a walk around a little pond. I remember there still being piles of snow beside the path, but everything was melting pretty quickly, leaving big puddles all over the place. I really enjoyed my walk with Joe around the pond. I remember we just had a really good, long conversation like we used to have back when we'd go for long walks while we were dating. Besides the fact that we had to stop every once in a while so I could breathe through a contraction, it was totally just like when we were dating. 

We left for the hospital around 8:30 pm on Thursday the 25th. I remember crying in the car on the way there because our family was about to change. I was excited and nervous. We were having another baby! We went through triage and they measured me at 2 stinking centimeters. I think my cervix had softened quite a bit so rather than send us home, the nurse told us to go down to the empty cafeteria and walk for an hour. That hour was the longest hour of my life. Contractions had really ramped up and it was getting harder and harder for me to stay calm. Joe did so well as he supported me through them and he told me what I needed to hear to get through it. We were finally admitted at 10:30 pm with me measuring at 5 cm. Our triage nurse was even the same nurse who delivered Astrid. Small world! The nurse who took care of us once we were admitted was named Grace. She was cool. 

At 11pm I was given my epidural. Before having Astrid I always wanted to try going through labour and delivery without any drugs. And I still do, don't get me wrong. But if I'm going to be in labour for over 30 hours, I am getting some dang drugs. I tried the gas before and that just made me nauseous so this time around I went straight for the good stuff. I even asked for it as soon as the triage nurse admitted me. So I got my epidural and that went well except I could still feel pain on my left side. It was considerably reduced from before so I didn't complain. It was kind of cool this way because as the contractions intensified I could feel it much more than I did when I had a full epidural with Astrid. But it was still manageable. At 11:45pm they broke my water and I think the reason was because the baby's heart had started decelerating with my contractions so they wanted to keep things progressing. 

At 12:35 am on Friday the 27th, we had to wake Joe up because he'd fallen asleep in the corner of the room and it was time to push. He snapped awake pretty quick, I remember Nurse Grace being impressed. 19 minutes of pushing later and Baden Salesi Henry was delivered by nurse Grace. So far both of my babies have beat the doctor to the delivery room. I had some minor tearing so when the doctor arrived he stitched me up. 

We went to our room shortly after and got some rest. Joe left around 10 to pick up Astrid and bring her to meet her little brother. She was very excited and got to hold him and watch me nurse him. We had another night to stay in the hospital so she went back to our friend's house later on and Joe stayed the night with me. We had 2 beds in our room to ourselves so it was awesome. 

Saturday the 28th - we were discharged from the hospital in the morning and I was feeling surprisingly good. I was up walking and didn't feel nearly as rough as I had after having Astrid. As we stepped out of the hospital I was amazed at how warm it was. It felt like summer time! And what happened to all the snow?? My saying to Astrid had come true. Her brother came and the snow melted! 

Ready to go home. He started out so tiny!
Those straps were set as small as they could go. 

First photo as a family of four.