Wow looking back at this picture (almost 2 years later) and all of the emotions it brings back. Wish I had taken the time to write this all out right after Micah was born but what a whirl-wind these past 2 years have been. I still remember this pretty clearly, Caleb meeting baby brother for the first time, holding a brand new baby, Micah meeting all the family, his baptism, going back to work, he weaned at 9 months, Hung and I went to Hawaii sans kids in May, then our big family/friends Oregon Coast trip in August when baby #3 was conceived...and then the last 9 months. How much Micah has grown and changed, such a big boy, loves being the center of attention, making people laugh, no longer a little baby but a big toddler boy. I promised myself I would sit and write out his birth story before baby girl arrived so here it goes.
Tuesday June 24th, 2014: Today is my due date! I went to my midwife appt with Hunnie and Shelley asked if I would like my membranes stripped, I really did not want to but papabear was anxious to get things moving along so I decided to go ahead with it. I was only 1cm dilated at the time. That evening I had a couple painful contractions but it was not too bad at all.
Wednesday June 25th, 2015: I can't remember much about this day except for that Hung went to work (at the time he was working a late evening shift at the Liberty Mutual call-center). I was having contractions that were evenly spaced about 5-6 minutes apart but not very painful at all. I got into the bath to relax and was still having contractions but pretty mildly. I text messaged Steph to have her tell Hung to come home. He got home around 10 or so and we went to the hospital around 11pm. Shelley warned me that second babies sometimes come faster so I figured we should head to the hospital. Well, when I got there they checked me and I was still only 1cm dilated. They had me walk for about and hour and rechecked and still only 1cm so they sent me home. It was about 1am or so once we got home so I went to bed.
Thursday June 26th, 2014: The contractions started to get stronger in the early morning, I was having a hard time sleeping, must have been around 7am or so. I remember hearing FIL cheering on some soccer team. I was getting pretty agitated so I told Hung I needed to go walk somewhere away from home. We headed back to the hospital. I called Shelley and told her I went to the hospital last night but was not progressing but that today contractions were stronger and I was not sure what I should do. She told me she would meet me over at L+D, it was about 12 noon or so. When we got there she checked me and I was about 3cm (maybe?) so they decided it was good enough to admit me. I got settled in the room, things were going okay. I was doing a good job through contractions and Hunnie was great, massaging and helping me through them. Shelley came around 3pm to break my water. The most vivid parts of my labor were probably from the transition period (last hour or so) when things became really painful, I remember they kept telling me to go to the bathroom and pee, there was so much pressure down there. I was kinda losing it, screaming pretty loudly, Shelley was trying to coach me through breathing but I was in crazy mode. She told me to look at Hung but he kept laughing and that was not helping. She said if I could not calm down then she was going to have to give me some meds so I conceded but she said she wanted to check me once more. When she did, she said "no time, you're pretty much fully dilated and it will be time to push very soon". I panicked and told her I could not push for another hour like this (I pushed for 1.5 hours with Caleb). She assured me that I would not push for an hour, she said baby boy would be here in the next 5 minutes. What a relief! I was so happy to hear that! And I remember how I needed to push. With 2 or 3 pushes, Micah arrived. I was able to reach down and help pull him up onto my chest while they cleaned him off with towels. What an amazing feeling! And Daddy captured the moment so perfectly in the photo. Love love love this so much.
