In a way, it seemed like it would never get here, but yes. My last week of maternity leave is upon me. I have mixed feelings, of course, but not in the way you might thing. Maybe I’m just not like other women, but I did not spend my maternity leave cuddling with my baby boy the whole time. He is definitely cuddly, though — he is chubbier than Mikey was at this point, with tree trunk legs and super chub cheeks.
Has anyone else noticed the abundance of books, blogs and other resources about having a baby, but the absolute desert of information when it comes to having two babies? I suppose that the second time around, things should be easier, but….no, not necessarily. Especially if your first is still straddling the fence between babyhood and toddlerhood.
I had high hopes for my second go-round at giving birth. First off, I hoped giving birth would happen closer to my due date, which was Sept. 20. Then, I hoped that I would actually go into labor, and actually joked around with coworkers about working up until my water broke at work. I also hoped to give birth naturally (even with some concession to having an epidural, if the pain got really bad), because I did not have fond memories of recovering after my C-section with Michael.
So much for all my hopes. I never thought I’d be a multiple C-section mom, but here I am. As they say, the goal of every birth is a healthy mom and a healthy baby, so you gotta roll with the punches.
This will not be a long blog post, as I still feel as though someone ripped out my stomach (oh yeah, in a way someone did…) and I’m perpetually light-headed and headache-y from having not eaten anything for, oh, 36 hours or so. Babies are great, but dude, whoever thought up C-sections really wanted to make giving birth a truly lasting, painful experience. Anyway, Christopher David Powells was born at 8:20 p.m. on August 22, 2011, weighing in at 4 pounds, 5 ounces and measuring at 17 inches. Even as things didn’t go as I’d hoped — like my hope for a VBAC down the drain, for example — at least I didn’t need magnesium sulfate, which even my Ob-Gyn agreed was a nasty medication.
So, here I am, 1st day post-partum. I haven’t eaten anything solid yet, unfortunately, but I am no longer chained down by my catheter or the massage socks (that’s probably not the term for them — they are sort of like leg warmers that massage your calves to prevent blood clots in your legs). I’ve already taken a lumbering, somewhat ginger lap around the post-partum ward, and I’m hoping, hoping, hoping I’ll get breakfast tomorrow! So, in the grand tradition of not posting early baby pictures of my kids on Facebook, here are a few photos of my little Chris.
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