Cora had an Estimated Due Date (EDD) of January 12th.
Monday morning at 10am on January 14th, 2 days after EDD, I went in to get acupuncture, as recommended by my midwife. This time they put some electricity on the needles. I didn't feel any hard contractions like I did the Thursday before.
After the acupuncture, my mom and I went to the mall in Burlington to have lunch and to walk all around to try and kick start labor. We walked so much and still had no signs of impending labor.
We got home around 5 o'clock. Kevin was suppose to be in Tennessee this week and had a presentation to give. Luckily he was able to stay in Boston and call into the conference and give his presentation over the internet. Gotta love Technology sometimes :-). Kevin finished his conference call and lo and behold....that's exactly when I felt my first contraction!
The contractions were stronger than I remembered them starting out with Liam. I decided that I would wait an hour before I called the hospital just to make sure that they were actually going to stay. They were coming around every 5 minutes and lasting about a minute, and boy they were strong. I called the hospital at 6:38pm and heard back from them at 6:45. They said that the second time around it depends less on how close the contractions are together and more on how strong they are. She said that I could come in if I felt like it was time or I could eat or take a shower. Told her it was a definite no on eating but that I thought I would take a shower and then come in.
Kevin, my mom, and Liam had dinner while I took a shower and got the last of our things ready for the hospital. We took a family photo at the house similar to the one that can be seen in Liam's delivery story. My mom and Liam took us to the hospital and helped carry all of our things in. We arrived at the hospital at 7:20pm. I was really emotional saying goodbye to Liam. I ended up sobbing through contractions telling Kevin how much I missed Liam.
Once at the hospital we went into the exam room where I was hooked up to a heart rate monitor and contraction monitor for the baby and awaited to be checked. Being forced to lay down on the bed during contractions was the worst! I felt like I was being held prisoner. Kevin had to call down to the front desk to check us in.
A big surprise was when my midwife Deb walked into the room! She was on call that night!! I was so happy that she was there, she wasn't able to deliver Liam and now she was going to deliver this baby! I knew that I would be admitted as on January 10th I was already at 4cm and they admit you when your at 4 and in labor. Turns out I was at 7cm. Deb said, "Ok let's move her over to the delivery room quickly." Little did we know how quickly it was needed.
I was so happy to just get off of that bed. The Nurse helped me walk over to Room 6 and Kevin stayed to gather all of our things and then would meet me over there. During that time: I had contractions on the very short walk over there; they were filling up the tub for me to labor in (I was so looking forward to the tub); I had a contraction where I held onto the bathroom sink bending my knees and moving my hips; Deb suggested I take the next contraction sitting down on the toilet, that contraction was crazy hard and that's when my water broke and I felt like I had to push!
Walks in Kevin :-) (Thank goodness or he might have missed it!) The progression was super fast! Deb said that we had to skip the tub and move me straight to the bed....the problem was I couldn't move. It was as if I was frozen. Thank goodness Kevin was there as he was able to move me easily. I was scared. I had always wanted to try and see how far I could go naturally but in the back of my mind I always thought I would have an epidural. Not gonna happen now. No turning back. The burning sensation was unbelievable, as were the screams coming out of my mouth. I still hear myself sometimes lol. I wasn't prepared. I wish I would have read or taken a class on natural childbirth. In the quickness of things I couldn't remember or think of anything that I had learned in our class from preparing for Liam's arrival. Deb was my savior. Through everything I could hear her voice. I knew her, and in knowing her I trusted her.
I was some how able to crawl onto the bed. The contractions and the pain was incredible. I was so not prepared for this. I was using my arms to hold myself and was quickly getting tired. Luckily the nurses then raised the back of the bed for me to hold on to. Deb wanted my knees closer to the back of the bed...couldn't move...So, my amazing husband literally moved my legs for me :-) This sole act made laboring easier.
Deb told me that I needed to not try and scream the baby out and try to focus my energy otherwise I would hurt myself. This was one instance where I was super glad that I knew Deb and could pick out her voice, as my back was to everyone. Once I heard her I was able to try and center my energy. Seemed to work as Cora was born shortly after with just a few pushes :-)
The labor happened so quickly so there was no time for pre-delivery photos.
I texted the picture below to my mom at 8:37pm. She had just put Liam to bed and was in total shock that this is the text she got as she thought I was just telling her that I was being admitted :-)
Baby Woller: 8 lbs 9.6 oz, 20.5 inches long, Jan 14, 2013 at 8:14 pm
The recovery from this birth was so much easier than last time. As scary, hurtful, surprising as this birth was I would definitely choose it again. I thought I was dying for about 30mins and then as soon as Cora was born all the pain was gone. I have already mostly forgotten about the pain; as all I can think about was how amazing the afterbirth was.
The day we were heading home (Wednesday, 1/16) we woke up to a beautiful white wonderland. This was also the day that we named Cora. We had been going back and forth between two names and Kevin and I were always on opposite names until that morning. She was always suppose to be Cora though, we just had to get there. We had picked the name Cora while I was pregnant with Liam.
Fun Fact: Cora shares her birthday with Kevin's Grandpa Woller. Also, Kevin's Grandpa Woller had a sister named Cora.
Liam and my mom came to the hospital to pick us up and take us all home! This was Liam's first time meeting Cora. (We had decided, as advised by Deb, to wait to bring Liam to the hospital til we could all leave together. Then we didn't have to say goodbye, where I would have been a mess and have a possible melt down from Liam.) He was very curious but very cautious. We're a family of four now and its still very surreal that we have this beautiful little girl in our lives.
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| The next day Liam wanted to hold Cora and didn't want to let her go :-) |
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