Nicholas (Nico) Acer Watson's Birth Story

When they say the first baby paves the way for the second, they ain't kidding. At least they weren't for my girl parts. Birthing Nicholas was not an orgasmic experience, but it was certainly the best birth I could have envisioned for myself and him. I am still on a birth high from days ago. I am thankful and feeling blessed and pensive and joyful and happy and all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings about being a woman and having a uterus and all that. Go women, go.

Here's the birth story for those wondering how it all went down:

As noted in last post, my due date came and I was enormously 40 weeks pregnant. I am not exaggerating for pity--I was very large. It looked like I had a basketball and a half under my dress. I was very tired of being pregnant, and I went into my midwife that afternoon and she did a "stretch and sweep" of my cervix. Not too comfy, but not the agony I remember from baby #1. Guess even that stuff was already stretched out a bit. She said I was at 3-4 cm already, go home, if that didn't trigger labor come back in tomorrow and she'd do it again. She told me not to go to work Tuesday, to which I replied, "But I have a really cool lesson on gangs b/c we're starting The Outsiders!" She looked at me like I was crazy.

Went home, went to library with Alexandra and Adam to get her new books, ate dinner, bathed baby girl and got her to bed, did some light Facebooking....had mild contractions the whole time. Sat down to watch an episode of "The Wire" (we are rewatching the whole series--we are crazy but it's so good) and surprisingly, the contractions kept coming. I have been having contractions for THREE WEEKS but every time I sat down they'd go away. Not this time--they were picking up. Adam started noting. They were 5 min apart, 1 min long, for over an hour. Called our midwife Stacey, she said drink a glass of wine, take a warm shower, and try to get some rest in case this was it.

Adam starts running around like the stereotypical husband whose wife is in labor. At one point he was standing frozen in the living room, pants unbuttoned, hat on...Hilarious.

We get everything as put together as possible. Adam passes out. No resting for me because the contractions coming more frequently and were more painful, but I was still able to breathe through them. We were not really timing b/c Adam had passed out. I hit him a few times, but not working. I swear to you, this guy will sleep through anything. But then I had a contraction and this gush of something comes out that didn't feel like the "stuff" (bloody show) from before, so I thought it was my water breaking. Stacey had said if water breaks call her from the car to the hospital b/c with baby #2 things can progress quickly post-water break. We called our neighbor Jessica to stay with Alexandra, we called my dear friend Kat our doula, we called a car service and we were off.

Thankfully my contractions stayed civil while riding into Manhattan and checking in. They got harder once in the room (all back labor, again...), and the "vocalization" began (I think that term is so funny; it sounds like singing but I was actually moaning like a slain wilderbeast). Stacey got me in a good position on my left side, grasping onto the hospital bed bars (my arms/back are still sore from me practically breaking off the bars) and she would jack my right leg up on her shoulder for each contraction. Barri, the other midwife who visited later in the hospital, called this some crazy cowboy or side pony position. How I didn't catapult sweet thin Stacey across the room is beyond me b/c with each contraction my leg on her shoulder would push against her. Midwives are some tough ass women.

Started pushing with contractions, water broke and it sounded and felt like a cork flew out of my poo-cat, huge gush of water, and then I started feeling the uncontrollable need to push. Stuff/smootz started coming out. Weird period here, where in between contractions there were these long pauses in which I literally was falling asleep. This kinda freaked me out, b/c I thought my labor was stalling or something bad was happening (like baby not descending), but Stacey said that was normal so I relaxed into it and literally napped between agonizing contractions and pushing. Also, I was always able to talk between contractions, ask questions, etc. Never really lost my social self completely this time, which was also different from first birth where I went into that primal, eyes-closed space for hours.

And then, in what felt like a lightening moment, I was pushing, felt his head descending, felt like my back was splitting in two, and I started screaming "Help!" b/c I thought I was going to shoot this kid across the room and tear like nobody's business. I saw them reeling the cart of birth stuff in, but before I knew it his head was out. Adam told me Stacey was suctioning him (he had lots of meconium on him--the poop the babes make in utero that's really sticky and dangerous if they have breathed in a lot of it into their lungs) and then I pushed two more times and he slid out like a slippery fox. Instant relief. Pain gone. I had pushed for over THREE HOURS with Alexandra, but not this time. I kept saying, "That was so fast!" Crazy. I was in shock that that was it. It seemed too easy in comparison to Alexandra's birth. Got those freaky afterbirth shakes.

They had to whisk him out of the room b/c the poor babe was covered with poo and they had to check his lungs, Adam went with him, and Stacey worked on getting my placenta out. She pushed, prodded, and pulled and I birthed the placenta and it was amazing. Felt so squishy and smooth after birthing something with BONES and I got to see it and the umbilical cord and the tree of life and all that. W-O-W. Beautiful. After that, she cleaned me up (no tears therefore no stitches), they brought Nico in, and he latched immediately onto the breast and has been a fierce nurser ever since. My milk came in super fast (I guess b/c I just finished nursing Alexandra 13 months ago?), and he's a happy guy.

There is something so deeply human about birthing a person. I can't explain it, but I have been in such awe of my body, of women, and of midwives the past two days. I feel so lucky to have had to unmedicated, uncomplicated (for the most part) births which is what I had wanted since I did research on midwives and midwifery in undergrad for an anthropology class. I feel so thankful to have had two healthy kids after two healthy pregnancies. I am so blissed out it's ridiculous.

Massive love to Stacey, my uber midwife of Clementine Midwifery, to Kat the best non-doula doula around who has the most effective massage hands for labor, and my husband who never doubted that I could birth another 9+ lb baby.

Happy!