Second labor and delivery

My second labor and delivery was a breeze compared to my first one! However, the pregnancy was quite a bit different than the first one. Let me start at the beginning.

My first daughter was about 6 months old. I was taking birth control pills again (I hope you all realize, if you are taking birth control pills, you HAVE to take them everyday at the same time-otherwise, you might as well not take them.) My boyfriend and I had been planning a trip to Florida for a few months, and since I was done breastfeeding, we were ready to go. My mother was going to watch the baby for us while we spent some much needed quality time with each other. While we were in Florida, (we had a great time, by the way!) my boyfriend proposed. I of course said yes.

When we returned from our trip, I began planning our wedding. He had proposed in May, and our wedding was going to be in August. I had a lot of things I needed to get done, but I was ready! I was going about my business as usual, when one day I didn't feel right. I knew I had been kind of off for a few days, but didn't think much of it...until my period finally half-way came. I've always had a very regular menstruation cycle, so when my period came and went, and the coloring was different, I knew something was up. I decided it was time to go to the store and purchase the dreaded pregnancy test. I came home that night, went directly into the bathroom and peed on the stick. You are supposed to wait 3 or so minutes before looking at the results, but I never did. I figure if it's a positive result, it's going to show up quickly. (For the information of everyone, there are more false negatives than false positives. What this means is, if you get a positive result on your home pregnancy test, you are most likely pregnant. If you get a negative result, you could still be pregnant.)

The look on my face was probably priceless. I was in disbelief, and shock. Of course, it was a positive result. I already knew it was before even buying the test. A woman somehow always knows. She may not believe it, but she always knows. I came out of the bathroom, and I began bawling. My boyfriend was sitting at the table waiting for me. I didn't even have to tell him I was pregnant.

The thoughts that were going through my head were horrible, yet they were completely normal. I didn't think I had enough love to give to another child (which makes no sense to me now that I know how it really works. A parent doesn't have to "share" their love between children-a parents love is multiplied when you have more children.) I didn't want another child right then, I was barely getting the hang of caring for the one baby that I already had, I was trying to plan a wedding, I would be pregnant on my wedding, I was only 21 and pregnant with my second child...the thoughts were endless. This was not at all the way I had planned my life to go. Needless to say, I called in "depressed" to work the next day.

As the months went by, I started getting over my depression, and started get excited. I stayed busy by planning my wedding, and of course taking care of the original bundle of joy that was now reaching 8 months old. I didn't crave ice this time around, nor did I get any new stretch marks (my body was already stretched as big as it could get from the first pregnancy.) I had lost all the baby weight from my first pregnancy already, so I was pretty lucky come my wedding I actually didn't even look pregnant.

I ended up gaining the same amount of weight with this pregnancy as I did in my first, and they say this is pretty normal. You're body will reach a "max" weight that it will gain while you are pregnant. Of course, this is an average max weight. For example, I got up to 184 lbs with my first pregnancy, 183 lbs with my second pregnancy, 186 lbs with my 3rd pregnancy, and 185 lbs with my 4th pregnancy. I started out at different weights for all pregnancies, but yet my body only allowed me to gain up to a certain weight. Weird, huh?

After my wedding, I had time to actually focus on being pregnant. I didn't have any strange cravings, and I was actually a pretty happy prego (of course my friends and family would probably argue that.) Towards the end of my second pregnancy, I was of course swollen in my hands and ankles, had high blood pressure, and had to go in for the 3 hour test again. I didn't have gestational diabetes this time either. My face didn't get as puffy this time around either.

Because of my high blood pressure, the doctors kept a close eye on me. At the end of my 40 week pregnancy my doctor told me he wanted to induce me because of my high blood pressure. He only wanted to induce me 5 days early, but hey, early is early, right? We scheduled my inducement on a Thursday at 5:00 am. The night before I couldn't sleep. I was up until 1:00 in the morning playing Crash (a racing play station game my husband and I had become very accustomed to playing after our daughter went to bed.)

I woke up at 4:00 in the morning with contractions. I still believe to this day I would have had my second child on that day even if I wasn't induced. However, some could argue that because I conscientiously knew I was going to have my baby that day, that's why the contractions started. Who knows?

I got to the hospital, checked in, they gave me an IV of pitocin to induce my labor, and we were on our way! I of course got the epidural, because without it, I would have died. Not really, but honestly, that is the worst pain you can imagine. By 10:00 am I was ready to push. My husband and mother had gone to get something to eat at 9:30 am, and had not come back yet. I was quite irritated, and a little anxious. They came in just a few minutes before I started to push, so all was well. My daughter was born at 10:16 am, just 15 minutes of pushing, and only 5 hours of labor. This was quite the different story with my first labor, which took 17 1/2 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing. I was pleasantly surprised. She weighed 6 lbs 5 oz and was 19 3/4 long. Compared to my first labor and delivery, my second labor and delivery was smooth as butter.