Welcome Torin Joseph!

Our second baby BOY (yes BOY) was born at 4:28pm on Monday July 13th. He weighed 8lbs 15oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. My sister Tarah and friend Liza were there along with Erik to help me through a very different labor than with Keagan. All ended well at the birth center with no medical interventions other than the midwife breaking my water and 3 rounds of IV Penicillin for the Group B Strep prevention. I will tell the whole birth story below, and those that want all the details can have it, those that don't want to partake in talk of my fluids and orifices, can stop reading :) Suffice to say that it was another amazing experience and Torin and I are both healthy and doing well at home since yesterday afternoon. Keagan met his brother (although is still saying sister occasionally) Tuesday morning and we have video of the event that we will upload soon because it was the most precious event I've ever seen :) My biggest issue today is reminding myself I'm not supposed to be doing much around the house- that's a challenge for me. With Keagan, it didn't seem to matter if I stayed on the couch all day, but now that we have two, that is a little harder to accomplish. Thank goodness Erik is home for the next couple weeks.






THE BIRTH STORY

At 2:50am on Monday morning I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and when I laid back down I felt a pain in my back that gave me pause. It went away quickly and I rolled over thinking I was in a bad position, but the pain returned 5 minutes later, then left, then 5 minutes again. At this point, I was pretty sure I knew what this was. I laid in bed counting minutes for a half hour with the pain returning every 5. At that point I woke up Erik, who nearly jumped out of bed when I said they were already regular and only 5 minutes apart, but I assured him they were not intense and so I knew we had some time, so he hopped in the shower while I started to prepare.
At 4:00am I called Mema and Papa to start their trip up to watch Keagan. I ate a bowl of Cheerios and got dressed, and Erik changed the sheets on the bed for my parents. I also called Liza and got Joe on the phone and said for her to get on the first ferry from Long Island. Then I was feeling a bit antsy to leave, so I called my friend Fiona (another Maynard mom) to come over and fill in the gap of time till my parents got here (which at that point only ended up being like 15 minutes after we left) and once she arrived we started the hour drive to the birth center. I called Tarah's house on the way and left a message to let her know where we were headed.
The car ride to the birth center was very uncomfortable. The pain intensified in the position my back was in in the car seat and continued to come regularly. I was sure this was going somewhere pretty fast. However, when we got to the birth center, things slowed down. I was feeling much more comfortable and at ease, and the contractions became irregular. Still, everyone was pretty sure this was the real thing and it wasn't like we were heading back home any time soon. Due to the birth center's new Electronic Fetal Monitoring requirement by the insurance companies, I needed to be hooked up to the monitor to measure my contractions and the baby's heart rate for 20 minutes when we first arrived. We got that started and the next order of business was a heploc IV for the penicillin, which is administered every 4 hours of labor for a Group B Strep positive mom to try to prevent the infection from transferring to the baby. The midwife at that time (who is one of my favorites- although I love them all) had trouble finding my vein on my wrist/forearm. For the most mobility during labor they don't want to put it on a moving joint, but rather on the inside of my forearm just below the wrist. She tried a couple times on both arms to locate a good spot but not wanting to stick me more than once, we decided to go to the professionals over in the ER and let the IV specialist do it. So off we walked across the street to the hospital and I was very grateful to let her do it because it took 2 seconds.
Back at the birth center we started the IV, which was a bit temperamental and wanted me to hold my wrist in a certain way to drip properly, but once we figured that out it was easy to get done in a few minutes while I finished the initial electronic monitoring and then I was free to walk around the property for a while. It was a beautiful day out so Erik and took a walk through the path around the birth center to hopefully get my contractions to pick up.
Four hours went by with much the same. My contractions were irregular- I'd have 3 in a row, then 8 minutes would go by. The intensity wasn't really picking up- I could walk and then one would come and I would just have to stop and have someone rub my back and take a few deep breaths, but it was totally manageable. It was time for another IV, I was checked and only dilated to 4 centimeters and Liza showed up. We walked around outside a bit more, and Liza went out to get Erik and herself some lunch- which was super helpful. It definitely would have been a harder labor for Erik without some relief from others because he was not willing to leave me alone at all. He needed his strength for the long haul we were in and although I was happy with a cereal bar and some Gatorade, Erik got to fill up on a cheeseburger sub :) I had some time in the tub while Liza and Erik switched off for lunch. It was nice being in the water and it gave me a bit of a break, but it didn't seem to help move things along.
Around 12:30 Tarah showed up and I think was surprised there wasn't a baby there yet. We were hoping maybe the baby (which of course we're all calling SHE when we talk to my stomach) was just waiting for Auntie to be there and then would come out. I got out of the tub after being in it for an hour. We thought more walking would help. Sadly, it got to be 3:00pm and after a third round of IV I wanted to midwife to check me again and I was still only 4-5 centimeters. Earlier we had discussed that my bag of water was bulging out, causing me discomfort at times and also holding the baby's head back at a -1 station (so not yet engaged in the pelvis really) and preventing it from pushing down on my cervix to help dilation. I was concerned at breaking it with still 5 centimeters to go (what if it made things alot worse but I still had hours to go!), but after the second check with no progress and a solid 3 round of IV in me I was ready to go and gave the midwife the ok to break it.
Apparently, this bag was made of latex because it took her three tries with the amnio hook to get it to really break. Soon thereafter I sat up and had a contraction. It was INTENSE. I thought to myself "what did I do!" I immediately wanted back in the tub which was luckily already nearly full again with clean water. What happened in the tub was a whirlwind. Each contraction was more intense than the last and nearly all I could do to cope was breath and moan and grab onto something. Not quite a half hour later, Liza went out to get me some ice water (as I got very warm quickly) and the midwife went out to make a phone call when I had a contraction and started shaking and heard Tarah's voice say "You're trying not to push" which confirmed my own suspicion of what was happening and I yelled "Go get Amanda!" (the midwife). Amanda came back in, Tarah got right in front of me on the side of the tub and held both of my hands and helped talked me through the next couple minutes. I was leaning forward in the tub with my head on a towel and Erik was at my back. Amanda grabbed the Emergency cord when she realized I was in fact fully dilated and pushing (without my control to stop). She was not set up yet, and within moments the other midwife was in the room and they were getting ready to catch this baby. In the position I was in, the baby's head came out, but no one could reach down that far to catch the baby and I needed to be flipped more onto my back so Amanda could reach down and grab the baby and put her (him!) on my chest. The thought of moving nearly made me cry and I begged not to, but the midwives took control (although Amanda was already taking off her clogs in the thought she may nearly have to jump into the tub to assist) and flipped me backwards and out came the baby with the next push. It was 33 minutes between my bag of water being broken and the baby coming out. 33 minutes from 4-5 centimeters and -1 station to a baby born... WOAH. We all expected breaking my water would speed things along, but that was nearly a new record.
The beautiful baby was put on my chest and very blue to begin with- having been squeezed so far so fast! But a few good rubs and the crying began, helping to bring the color up to pink. After a minute of awe in the tub, everyone helped me get out and I went over to the bed to wait for the cord to stop pulsing and clamp it for Erik to cut. It was only then, when lifting up the blanket that I looked down at my baby and noticed something shocking and said "oh my god!" to which Erik's heart jumped in his throat thinking something was terribly wrong. In fact, there was nothing wrong, it was just that this baby had a penis! I shouted "it's a boy" and was overwhelmed with emotion and teared up for a minute while everyone had a good shock and laugh. Tarah had to call Mema and Papa a second time to inform them of this new development (it was literally like 10 minutes after he was born till we all discovered this). I should have known right away considering his face looks so similar to Keagan's, but honestly, with him face down on my chest the whole time and then just tossing a blanket over him no one saw it! So I announced the name is not Thea (which we were already addressing him as at this point), but in fact Torin.
I delivered the placenta with no problems a couple minutes later, and had only a minor first degree tear that was quickly repaired with a couple stitches, shortly after which I announced I wanted Bertucci's pizza for dinner. Liza went out and brought back champagne and pizza for the four of us to eat and celebrate. Torin happily began nursing shortly after birth and we also discovered he was almost 9lbs!
We stayed at the birth center for a couple hours- during which Erik's parents came to meet their new grandSON. Around 8:30, Erik left to go relieve my parents from Keagan duty and get a good night sleep, while Liza accompanied me to the transfer to the hospital and helped me get settled.
It was an amazing day. I am so grateful to have been surrounded by such a wonderful support team. I couldn't have done it without them.