Kestrel Tessa was (finally) born on August 11, 2011 at 5:45 AM, one week overdue. By that time, I was massive--the questions in the grocery store changed from "When are you due?" to "Are you having twins?" I'd gained 40 lbs, and it was almost all belly. By the time the due date came and went, I was feeling pretty surly about the fact that I was still pregnant. I was convinced that I was going to be the one woman who stayed pregnant forever.
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| 40 Week Belly/Family Pic |
But she did come. Contractions picked up in intensity at noon on Wednesday. We checked into the birthing center at 9:45 that night. I was rather hoping we'd be pretty far along at that point, but we had just reached 4-5 cm, marking the beginning of active labor.
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| Checking into the birthing center |
It was, well, labor. As far as labors go, it went really well. It tended to progress more slowly than I thought it should be, but then that probably tends to be the case. The hardest part was when I began getting the urge to push when I was only 7 cm. Pushing at that point could damage the cervix, causing lots of problems, so I had to spend two hours denying that urge--one of the hardest things I've done. Not the most painful part of labor, but definitely the hardest.
This, my friends, is one of the primary reasons we have had both of our children at the Austin Area Birthing Center. Neither of them were actually born in the water (not that I would have minded) but it is sooooo good for laboring. Their showers are spectacular, too. As far as I know, they are the only place in Austin that has birthing tubs.
Okay, so this one is a bit more accurate. The first one was in between contractions. I have to say, Robert has got to be the best labor support ever. He really is amazing.
Finally, at 4:00, the midwife gave me the go ahead to start to push--don't think it happens often, but transition actually felt good, at least for a while. An hour and a half later, she finally made it out.
All told, we had about 10 hours of early labor and a full 8 hours of active labor. Long, but significantly shorter than the 24 hours of active labor we had with Tiernan.
Another surprise was her weight--Tiernan was 8lbs 12.5 oz, a big baby. We knew she was big, but since girls tend to be smaller at birth, I still expected her to be closer to 8lbs. Wrong. She weighed in at 9lbs 8oz...which would account for the second degree tear she gave me.
She came out knowing exactly what to do--she and I had nursing down pat within the first hour, without any help or problems. She was very alert for three hours before starting to doze.
We got home around lunch time the same day to introduce Tiernan to his new sister. He was fascinated. When he said her name it sounded more like 'Baby Cashew' than 'Baby Kestrel', and although his pronunciation has improved since then, we still refer to her with some nutty references occasionally.
Our first week with Kestrel was so much easier than we had with Tiernan. Breastfeeding was a breeze, with no pain, no problems at all--I didn't know it could be as easy as it was. She got her days and nights sorted out within days, to the point that the hardest thing was getting her to wake up to nurse at the maximum time we were supposed to let her go in between feeding. The other difference was that with the stitches, the midwife recommended that I stay on bed rest for the first week, sit rest for the second week, so I had to stay pretty inactive. True to what she said, the rest of postpartum recovery has gone very well for having taken that time to heal.
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