I had a feeling the time was near…and so I tried to take it easy until Thursday—that was my goal. Vaden had a fever the previous weekend, which broke on Tuesday, but on Wednesday he broke out in a classic Roseola rash. The pediatrician advised I leave him in someone else’s care in case I had the baby, so as to prevent the new baby from exposure, so he stayed at my mom’s house. It was so hard to leave my boy, my buddy, but he had a blast at Mimi’s. He lived it up with the big kids and played so hard he went back to two naps a day. God sustained my mom in amazing ways- she had all 5 of her littles and my Vaden all by herself. My dad, my brother, and my sister, Ellie, were out of town. I laid around her house on Wednesday and Thursday, since nobody wanted me to be by myself if I went into labor.
When Randy got home on Thursday, I told him I needed to get out—I was antsy. We went to the mall, walked around, bought Randy some new clothes, and grabbed me a smoothie. About 2:45 am my contractions woke me up, again. (They’d been waking me up for the previous two nights as well, but after two hours they’d die down.) This time they were a little closer together and kept coming, but I took a warm bath and they slowed again. I slept for about an hour and a half, which was nice, but still felt the contractions in my sleep. They were moderate in strength and still inconsistent in timing, but we went ahead and got everything together anyway. I had my weekly appointment at 10:15, and we thought we’d see how far along I was and then spend the day in Raleigh, walking, etc. in hopes of making it to the hospital by Friday night.
My contractions were really mild to moderate, I could talk through them, and being that I had been through childbirth before, I could say that on a scale of 1 to 10 of discomfort, these were at a 2 to 3. So you could say we were shocked when the doctor said I was already 5 cm! They sent us over to the hospital and I got excited as I now KNEW the baby was coming!! (And I hoped on the same day that I was admitted this time!!)
Contractions were still coming, but really still mild to moderate and they varied from 3 minutes to 5 to 10 minutes apart. By 2 pm, they were finally strengthening. At 2:30 the doctor checked me and I was still at 5 cm. I decided to wait an hour, get checked again, and see if the contractions would continue to strengthen. If not, they would break my water. I really like the Ob practice I go to, and I had been praying that the right doctor and nurse would be on call for this birth. I was so excited to find out that the most pro-natural doc was on call, and she had done natural childbirth herself.
Well, an hour passed, I was only 5.5 cm now, but baby was at +1 station, and my contractions had slowed again, so the doctor broke my water. The nurse, Anne, was wonderful the entire time and got all the delivery materials into the room, knowing that after breaking my water the game was on, being it was my second baby. Seeing everything getting prepped was motivating for me!
I remember after they broke my water with Vaden’s birth, I experienced immediate pain and the contractions were rolling. This time after they broke my water, the first hour or so was still tolerable. Then came the shift and the contractions were a 6 or 7 on a scale of 10. Anne checked me and I was at 7.5/8 cm and experiencing transition. This is the part I hate. My mom arrived just as I was going into transition and though I could hear her, I was focused on relaxing. Praying really worked wonders on relaxing me. Twenty minutes later, I was at ten, and calling for the doctor to come because I had to push!! I don’t think I pushed even twenty minutes when Cana Naomi finally exited the womb! She came with a strong set of lungs, screaming and screaming. She weighed 7 lbs 7 oz just like her brother! Though she was 20 inches long, a little shorter than Vaden. The doctor said if I would have gone 40 weeks, she’d have been 9 lbs! Glad I only went 37 this time!
People have asked how long my labor was, and this time it’s difficult to say… because I was having mild to moderate and inconsistent contractions off and on all morning. I was at the hospital for 7.5 hours before having her, but I think the action was really going for about 4 hours. My recovery is so much better this time.
How wonderful to be able to breathe again! Cana likes to sleep during the day and be awake all night, and is nursing and pooping like a champ.
Vaden seems to like her- he gets so excited when he sees her, gives her kisses and cuddles and gives a surprised face every time he hears her whine.
I don’t look forward to Randy going back to work… but I am reminded by my baby’s name that God sustains even when I think I can’t handle another minute. This was the overlying theme of this pregnancy. I cried when I found out I was pregnant—I had just had a baby and gotten back into my normal clothes and I was not looking forward to nausea and all the other discomforts of pregnancy. But this pregnancy was way easier than the first with minimal morning sickness (compared to the first). I was able to nurse Vaden til I was four months along or so, which is better than nothing. God’s grace also got me through a grueling semester with a 4.0. I can’t even detail all the ways that God provided for and sustained us through this time. So many things going on in our lives and God proved himself faithful. So that’s why we named her Cana Naomi. Cana is where Jesus performed his first miracle of turning water into wine—blessing the wedding party beyond what they needed by giving them the best tasting wine of all, even though he could have let them run out of wine altogether (John 2:1-11). In the book of Ruth, we learn of Naomi, her mother-in-law, who despaired because nothing seemed to be going right for her, but because of God’s grace, through Ruth, Naomi was provided for and considered blessed. Naomi means “pleasant.”
This is before anything was too uncomfortable.
The one above and the one below are the two cute ones I got.
