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Writer's pictureRachel Berntsen

birth story #2



Disclaimer: Because I know some of you will be wondering, the thing you see on Caspian's ear is called an ear mold. When he was born, one of his ears was a bit pointy and the top of the other ear was curled down a bit. The ear molds are meant to help normalize the shapes of his ears. Peter and I both loved the natural shapes of his ears - we thought they looked adorable - but we didn't want them to be something he'd be self-conscious of when he's older, so we opted to have him wear the ear molds. When he gets them removed next week, he'll have worn them for a month. The APRN who installed them assured us that it's actually a very common practice (her office sees several babies each week for the same reason). I promise his hearing is fine, and the ear molds haven't been a hindrance to him in any way. : )


Okay, on to Caspian's birth story! It's interesting when you give birth at least twice because then you naturally find yourself comparing births. In some ways, Caspian's birth was similar to Emalyn's. In other ways, it was completely different. For example, while Emalyn was 2 weeks early, Caspian was only 4 days early. I knew it was possible he wouldn't be as early as Emalyn had been, but I had hoped that'd be the case. Those last few weeks of pregnancy were ROUGH. I wasn't sleeping well, I felt uncomfortable all the time, and I started to feel quite stir crazy because it got to a point where I didn't want to be more than fifteen minutes away from home in case we had to run over to the hospital (which was about 30 minutes away). It got to the point where I started reading up on natural ways to encourage labor to begin and started implementing as many as I possibly could. If you ask me, I'd say trying to pump a few times a day the two days leading up to the day I finally went into labor is what ultimately did it. ; )


The biggest difference was how my labor started. With Emalyn, my water broke in the middle of the night, and I ended up having to be induced. I had been so mentally prepared to go into labor that when my water broke, I was completely caught off guard. With Caspian, I went into labor. The day before he was born, I started having contractions about 30 minutes apart. That continued all day and into the night, some of them waking me up. 24 hours after they started, my contractions finally reached a point where they were 5-10 minutes apart, so Peter and I left Emalyn with his parents and went to the doctor's office. From there, we were sent to the hospital.


Like with Emalyn, I experienced back labor (this is based on the baby's position), and because of how painful those contractions were and also because of how exhausted I was from being in labor for so long, I opted for an epidural, which I had also done with Emalyn. This time, the labor and delivery room I was in had a bath, so I was able to utilize that for a bit before getting the epidural. That was actually really nice - it was probably the most relaxed I felt during my labor (as relaxed as one can being during labor, that is). Interestingly enough, with Emalyn, I couldn't feel anything after getting the epidural. When it was time to push, I really had to guess and check whether or not I was actually pushing. Caspian had been sitting very low in my pelvis for the last several weeks leading up to his birth, so while I didn't feel the actual contractions, I felt this small pressure in my bottom with each one, which also meant I could feel myself pushing. Emalyn took 2.5 hours of pushing to get out; Caspian took 50 minutes. Towards the very end, I grew nervous about the prospect of him getting stuck - I could feel how big he was, and I felt a lot of discomfort trying to get him out (after all, his birth weight was 8 lbs 9 oz, a full 2 pounds heavier than Emalyn had been!). I ultimately did it, though! And boy, was I happy to finally meet him!


Peter and I were told that if Caspian passed all of his tests 24 hours after his birth, we'd be allowed to go home early if we wanted. We chose to go that route because we were confident we'd feel more comfortable recuperating at home than in the hospital (it definitely ended up being the right call). However, since we wouldn't know for certain if we'd be allowed to leave until the 24 hour mark, we wanted to make sure Emalyn met him ASAP. So the day after Caspian was born, my dad brought Emalyn to visit us in the hospital (he and my mom stayed at our house with her while we were gone). I had read up on introducing an older sibling to a younger sibling, and one piece of advice that was emphasized over and over again was to leave the baby in a neutral place like a bassinet as opposed to holding him when the older sibling first meets him. So instead of one of us holding Caspian during that first meeting, Peter actually met my dad and Emalyn in the lobby and then carried her into the room. Caspian was sleeping in his bassinet, so Emalyn watched him for a little while before asking to touch him. And then after she got to touch him, she asked if she could hold him. There are no words to fully express what I felt watching my oldest hold my youngest for the first time (because there have been plenty of other times since then, of course). What they say about love when expanding your family is true - your love for your children doesn't become divided between them; it's simply multiplied.


Life has certainly been chaotic as of late. We're all tired, and we've really been learning the true meaning of having patience with one another since we're holed up at home most of the time while Caspian's immune system develops. I know I've personally been the opposite of slow to anger lately. I've also started feeling the baby blues a bit too...not ideal. But life has been precious and sweet and wonderful too. And I wouldn't have it any other way.



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