I'll try to make this story short. :) I had a doctor's appointment on Monday the 22nd and was 2cm dilated/70% effaced (38 weeks, two days pregnant). That night after going to bed, I started having contractions around 10:30 that were what I would consider "Braxton Hicks" contractions ("fake" contractions). Those were coming regularly and let up after about 30 minutes, then I started having what I thought might be real contractions. They actually started out being a bit painful (nothing compared to what I knew was coming ;-)) so I couldn't sleep. Jeff was asleep so I went downstairs to watch TV for a bit and see if they continued. I was timing them and they were coming 3-4 minutes apart so I called the on-call doctor. She said to go ahead and come in, so I went and woke up Jeff. We called Grandma Bonnie to come up and stay with Kaitlyn for the night, finished packing our bags, and took off for the hospital. Okay, now I'll make it quick: checked in around 1:00 a.m., got checked around 2:00 and was 4 cm, laid in bed for a while and played Sudoku on my iPod for about 5 hours to keep myself distracted through contractions (it worked really well!), got checked again around 9:00 and was 5cm. Doctor suggested breaking my water to speed things up, but I wanted to wait a while longer to see what happened. Next time I got checked I was 7cm, went to labor in the jacuzzi tub (ahhh...), about an hour or so later was almost 10 cm and getting ready to push. Went back to the room, started pushing, and Austen was here after four contractions! This labor was about 13 hours as opposed to 21 with Kaitlyn, and only about 15 minutes of pushing instead of 3 hours. Such a different experience! Overall, I am so happy with how my labor went. Austen was born at 12:54 on Tuesday afternoon, and we came home at about 2:00 on Wednesday afternoon. We couldn't wait to get home to our own bed and couches.
Things are going really well for the most part. Kaitlyn is in her new room and doing great, and she is a great big sister so far. She is showing interest in her little sister at different times throughout the day, and ignoring her the rest. :-) We are trying to be sure that she is included in things, like inviting her to diaper changes, bath time, etc. We had a really rough night on Saturday with Austen - didn't get to sleep until about 4:00 a.m. after a few hours of inconsolable screaming (Jeff is a saint and took her downstairs so I could try to sleep - I didn't, but it was still appreciated :-)). Last night was MUCH better with sleep from about 1:00-7:00, then from about 7:15-9:30. Kaitlyn also decided to sleep in until about 9. :-) Tonight could be another bad one for all we know, but at least my fears of Saturday being a nightly occurance are calmed for now!
Jeff is off at least through Wednesday, and possibly the rest of the week. We are enjoying our time together as a family of four. We keep saying how we can't believe that we have "kids." Crazy!
My pictures aren't uploading for some reason, so I'll try posting this and doing another one.
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