Nate and I got a baby for our 7-year anniversary. Felix Parry Stephens was born on February 26th, 2012.
To talk about Felix's birth let's start on Thursday. On Thursday evening I went to get Beckett up from his nap and found that he had thrown up all over his bed. And I mean all over. The poor kid threw up 5 times that night. He couldn't keep anything down. The next morning he was just as bad. He only ate 7 crackers and drank about 16 ounces of water on Friday. He threw up all of it. He was so sick that he took a nap on the kitchen floor. Because I could have a baby any time now so I wanted to make sure that there was truly nothing they could do for him, I took Beckett to the doctor (where he threw up all over the floor). The doctor confirmed my suspicions that it was just an extremely nasty stomach bug. With Beckett so sick and my parents not coming until Sunday I really did not want to have the baby. We had plans for a healthy Beckett, but what would I do with this lethargic mess? On Saturday morning Beckett was not any better, but he gradually improved as the day went on. He ate a few cheerios and drank some water at both lunch time and dinner time and was able to hold those down. By bedtime, I was feeling a lot better about Beckett.
Good thing too, because I had been having contractions for most of the day on Saturday. They kind of came and went, but they were usually about 10 minutes apart and not very taxing. For most of the day I felt like it could go either way--the contractions could trickle away or we could very well have a baby. Around Beckett's bedtime the contractions began to get more intense. At 11pm I asked Nate to call the doctor who, when told that my contractions were still ten minutes apart, said we weren't ready to come in. So we labored at home. My contractions had only been six minutes apart for about twenty minutes when I told Nate that I was ready to go in. Two contractions later, at 1:30am, my water broke and the contractions jumped from six minutes apart to three in an instant. The rest of the labor was a whirlwind of activity. We called our neighbors to come sleep over with Beckett and jumped in the car. When the nursed checked me for the first time at the hospital, I was dilated to an 8. The nurses were scrambling to get my IV in and get answers to all of their questions. The baby was really low, and I was feeling tons of pressure that added to the joy of laboring without anesthesia. But by this point, I had given myself permission to not try and be tough anymore. The doctor arrived and got changed super fast. He then asked me if I still wanted an epidural. My response, "is it even worth it at this point?" He said, "well let me check and see." I was dilated to a 10. So Felix was born without any anesthesia. The silver lining to no pain relief was that I felt like pushing was so much more effective without an epidural. With the epidural the nurses had to coach me on how to push. Without it my body knew exactly what to do. I only pushed for 15 minutes. With Beckett I pushed for almost 2 hours. I'm sure part of the difference was that Felix is a second baby, but I also think that a big part of it was that I didn't have any anesthesia.
Felix was born at 2:45am. We had been at the hospital for less than an
hour. He weighed 7lbs 11oz and was measured at 19.25 inches. (We are
pretty sure that he was measured incorrectly. Today when we took him to
the doctor for his first post-birth visit he measured 20 7/8 inches. The nurse measured him twice.)
Some thoughts on having a natural birth: You know how everyone says that you forget the pain of childbirth? Well, after giving birth to Beckett I decided that wasn't true. Two and a half years later I remember the pain involved in having him pretty clearly. But, after having Felix, I think I've decided that that statement does apply to natural childbirth. At the time I remember thinking that this was the most horrible thing I had ever experienced, and that I would never, ever do it again. The next day I said I would never do it again. Now, I kind of think it was worth it. And really, labor without pain relief was really only truly awful for an hour--from just before my water broke to when they finally told me I could push.
When Felix was first born we didn't think he looked anything like Beckett, but with every day after his birth he looked more and more like his brother. Beckett is on the left. Felix is on the right.
Felix has a lot of hair. He has more hair on his head than Beckett did, and he has hair all over his body--on his back and shoulders, his arms, his legs, his face. He is a very soft baby. Felix also has big
feet, big hands, long fingers, and very long limbs. Watching him stretch
out his long arms is pretty funny.
We keep commenting on Felix's good timing. He arrived just as Beckett was well enough to survive without me. He came in the middle of the night so Nate was able to come home before Beckett woke up. And, my parents arrived on Sunday night. This was the first time we had to plan the grandparents' trip in advance. They have always been able to drive to me and Paige before. We felt like buying the plane tickets was kind of like gambling. The odds were in their favor, but what if they had to leave right after the baby came? They wished that they could jump on a plane the minute the baby was born, and that's pretty much what happened. Imagine their surprise when I called them on Sunday morning as they were getting ready to leave for the airport and announced, "the baby's here." Felix's name means "happy or fortunate" and so far he is really living up to his moniker.
