Jazz is Born! (The girl, not the music...)

Due Dates. Ugh. They are an estimate that falls in the middle of the month our baby could be born. But in this day and age with lots of scheduled C-Sections and unnecessary inductions a lot of people don't realize that it's okay to wait it out for awhile. Jazz was 10 days "overdue" aka born in her perfect timing but because of that damn due date I was anxious, ready for her and bombarded with texts and calls saying, "Where is she? Get her out already! Aren't you going to induce yet? Does it need to be at the hospital now? Is she safe? Get the pitocin and get that baby out!" AAH! Thanks to baby-daddy (he's also my husband but baby-daddy is much more fun to say) I was reminded daily of this concept I've always struggled with, Patience. Lo and behold, she eventually decided it was time to greet the world! Before I describe that magical morning let's rewind.

In March 2011 our son Lyric was born. The birth was ideal (an hour and half of pain with a purpose, everyone healthy, fast recovery, women now hate me, bouncing baby boy). The timing was ideal (professor husband off work for the summer)! And nobody's getting any younger. So, when my 6-week post partum appt rolled around and it was time to discuss birth control options we opted to not. I figured breastfeeding would keep things at bay for awhile but with my sons severe allergies the nursing didn't last nearly as long as I'd hoped and BOOM! baby number two was on her way!
We were very excited! Kids 13 months apart sounded like quite the adventure. Plus daddy-o would be finishing the school year just in time to help me with both little ones for the summer!

38 wks
www.VoAlaska.com

38 wks
www.VoAlaska.com

Pregnancy #2 was...long. I'd just recovered from the first pregnancy so another 10 months of fattening up didn't sound too exciting. Not long after I started showing it became challenging and eventually impossible for me to pick up and hold my son and since he couldn't walk yet that was not cool! I'm a singer and I must admit that gigging pregnant is great for tips! But it's tough for things like, I don't know, SINGING! Can't breathe, where are my lungs?, who's on my diaphragm?, I have to pee again band! Exhausting. At least I still had a full wardrobe of maternity clothes, books on pregnancy and midwives I loved! This time we decided to find out the sex so it was a blast sitting around daydreaming about my baby girl.

Natural birthing was very important to us and the ease of the first birth just proved to us we chose the right path with a drug-free midwife aided experience. We utilized the Hypnobabies program again. LOVE! I prepared mentally for the birthing day, hoping that my strength, faith and perseverance would make the experience go smoothly. And it truly did! Through much research and questioning we learned that hospital births are notorious for checking you in and getting that baby out whether it's the ideal time or not. Pitocin leads to unbearably strong contractions which then leads to an epidural, which in turn slows things back down because you're no longer able to follow the natural instincts of your body. In the end your baby is born and it was all worth it and you now have a war story to tell your friends (please dont tell the pregnant ones your negative birth stories!) but if there was a way to avoid that path we wanted it! And there was. The natural way that's been used forever, all over the world with WAY less complications. (I'll touch more on primal mothering in a future post.)

Visualization Collage I made!

Flashcards to help me stay strong on birth day!

Early in the morning on May 4th we went to the birthing center knowing the baby would arrive soon. I wasn't as far along as I'd hoped so they suggested walking stairs. I did that for a bit but I was very focused on listening to my body and I knew it was more important for me to rest and save my energy for the intense part that was inevitably going to come whether I ran up and down the stairs or not. Hubby brought a guitar and we sang songs in between contractions which helped keep me calm and distracted. And it really entertained the midwives! We had the Hypnobabies CD's playing in the background the whole time. There are CD's specifically for your birthing time stages and the pushing stage. It was AWESOME! As ideal as it was, contractions still freaking hurt like hell! I'm not at all immune to pain but I just kept breathing, focusing, remembering the pain had a purpose and I looked in the mirror and told my self what an amazing badass mofo I was. Ha!
Ooh! I remembered this feeling...it was time to PUSH! Hallelujah! At this point I stopped worrying and focused on helping Jazz get out as smoothly and quickly as possible. 13 minutes later she was in my arms! It was the most incredible feeling!
A few hours later we were home with our perfectly healthy bundle of poop, tears and cuteness. No, I won't be having baby #3 this time next year. I want the energy to play with these two for awhile! Then we'll see...

Welcome Jazz! :)

What were the major differences in your 2nd+ pregnancies? Did you change your birth plan the second time around?