I thought I’d attempt writing out Baby Blueberry’s birth story now while it’s still fresh in my memory. I’m only going to write about the actual birth for now because although I have a lot of possible tales to tell, this whole blogging thing takes a much longer time than it used to! If I tried to tell you guys about everything that’s happened in the past week, well, I don’t think I’d ever finish. So for now…

Tuesday morning Dan and I woke up around 5am – we showered, got dressed, he ate breakfast and then we headed to the hospital. Pretty much the only things on my mind were, “I’m tired, I’m hungry and I’m about to have a baby.” But mostly, “I’m hungry.” I wasn’t allowed to eat anything after midnight the night before and my stomach was not pleased with being woken up and then ignored. I tried not to be envious while Dan ate his breakfast.

We arrived at the hospital for 6:30am, found our way to the birth center where we were quickly checked in – I think we were their only appointment that morning and they were all kind of gathered around the nurses station waiting for us. We went in to the first little room where we signed some papers, talked to loads of people and got prepped for surgery. Everything was fairly pleasant until it got around time to put in the catheter. For some reason I didn’t realize it was time for the catheter until it was time for the catheter so I never really got to prep myself for Oh My Goodness. Just so you all know how huge of a baby I am, when they finished inserting it, I basically told Dan I was done having children and at the time I was completely serious. I’d already had an epidural when they gave me one for MM’s birth so I never got to feel that awful feeling, but seriously. It was awful.

Luckily not long after the Catheter instance (or Foley as they began referring to it after insertion, like by calling it another name I might forget what they were talking about or like when you are talking to your spouse about bed time in front of your children and you spell it out “B-E-D T-I-M-E” so as not to cause a premature temper tantrum from your kiddos but then eventually they learn to spell so you have to start calling it by another name like “period of dormancy” or “foley“… Well it didn’t work – I totally remembered what they’d done and I was not likely to forget anytime soon) I got my spinal block and the dreaded Foley was eventually not the most pressing matter of the moment. I’ll admit that after the spinal kicked in, the baby was born, etc. I couldn’t feel the foley at all. But I didn’t forget. Just so we’re clear.

Anyway, back to the birth story. It was very different in the operating room this time around since I hadn’t been in an unnatural overly medicated labor all day –  I had my awesome spinal block to avoid feeling anything but I was still totally present and aware of the situation. I loved that. They also were able to give me a medication to control nausea which I didn’t get when MM was born. Not puking is so much better than puking, I’m just saying. The people in the OR talked me through the whole experience and even managed to find time for small talk, not that we were in there long.

They started the surgery at 8:30am and little BB was born at 8:39am. Now that’s fast! She weighed in at 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 18 inches long – thick, dark blonde hair and eyes so dark that the color was and still is terribly difficult to distinguish – she was everything we expected and nothing we could have guessed – probably like all babies she was immediately perfect for us in a way we hadn’t imagined.

After some stitching and such, we were all wheeled back to the recovery room where I spent a few hours before being moved into the main hospital room (I apologize, I cannot remember the official names for any of these rooms). By lunchtime Dan headed back to the apartment to pick up MM and my grandmother so they could meet little Baby Blueberry and I ordered a light lunch of I can’t even remember. It’s funny, I was starving all morning but by the time I was allowed to eat my appetite was surprisingly small. I couldn’t even finish the celebratory cheesecake Dan bought me that night – seriously.

And that’s how little Baby Blueberry made her entrance into this world and I became a proud mother of two…