Baby Sarah is here!

Hello, Sarah!  7 lbs, 19 inches.

After 40 weeks and 3 days of pregnancy, Sarah finally decided to make her way into the world! After an uneventful due date (August 10th), I finally went into labor some time in the early morning on the 14th.  I was really starting to believe that she was never going to come and that I would most likely have to be induced the following Friday.  Fortunately, labor started on its own and continued fairly smoothly and Sarah was born at 9:53 that night!  I was a bit concerned about how it would all go since I had a c-section for Noah and we were going for a VBAC this time, but everything was fine. The only part that was not fine was the epidural.  First of all, I stupidly waited a bit too long to actually ask for it, even though I knew I was going to eventually get it.  I guess I got to 7 cm and it seemed somewhat bearable and I thought that if I could get through it without the epidural, that would be one less thing to recover from after delivery.  But soon after I thought these thoughts, I came to the conclusion that I really needed the epidural to make it through.  So I asked for the epidural, but the anesthesiologist was busy with other patients so he didn't make it to our room until maybe 40 min later - that's a lot of contractions. When he finally got to me and did the procedure, only the right side of my body was numbed, so I was still feeling contractions in full force on the left side.  He tried repositioning the tube so that the drugs would take effect on my left side as well, but that didn't work.  He ultimately had to do the whole procedure again, and then it worked the second time, but all of this occurred over a period of around 2 hours.  By the time the epidural had taken effect on both sides of my body, it was basically time for delivery.  Even though it would have been nice to have the drugs earlier, I'm super relieved that it came through in the end!

So that's pretty much the story of the birth of Sarah.  I'm really glad I was able to go through with the VBAC.  My OB said it was important for us to try for it because if I had another c-section, then any other subsequent babies would have to be delivered via c-section as well.  Although Peter and I have pretty much decided that there won't be any more babies, I kind of felt a bit cheated out of the childbirth experience last time.  I suppose it would have been more of a "real" experience had I forgone the drugs as well, but I don't think I need unbearable pain to really feel like I had a baby; there are plenty of after effects to remind me that I did indeed give birth to a baby!  I'm glad pregnancy is over, but it was a pretty amazing experience altogether and, more importantly, we now have a beautiful little peanut!

But poor Noah. :(  I missed him so much when I was at the hospital!  He seems to be adjusting to life as a big brother about as well as any 2 year old can, but it makes me a little sad that he can't have all the attention anymore.  Sarah has been nursing every 2 hours for 20-30 min each time, and sometimes nurses every hour even, so I'm totally preoccupied with her and have very little time for Noah.  I had a toy for Sarah that I had just taken out of the packaging and when Noah saw it he said "this mine" like he always does, but I had to say "no, this is your baby sister's" and he just looked at me and then walked away without saying anything.  I don't really have a hard time saying "no" to him, but this was more of a "no, there's someone else now" and he seemed so dejected!  When he does interact with her though, he's very gentle and sweet.  He actually spent the past couple of months toting around one of the baby doll toys at daycare, calling it his baby sister.  Other kids in his class were becoming big brothers and sisters too, so maybe that helped him to get ready.  To be honest, I think I'm having a harder time adjusting than he is.  I love baby Sarah, but I miss the days when it was just me and Noah.  Today, I managed to nurse Sarah and read Noah a book at the same time.  I guess that's a good first step in figuring out how to balance two babies!