How Atticus Came into the World

Atticus's day of birth was infinitely smoother than Edith's rough-and-tumble birth more than two years earlier. I never could have guessed that birth itself could be so easy. (The recovery, however, ...)

Three ultrasounds in a row indicated that my amniotic fluid levels were borderline-low, so I was scheduled for an induction. Although I knew this was for the safety of the baby, I wasn't happy with this outcome. For one, I was scared that it could lead to a c-section.

Less rationally, I didn't like having a date set for Atticus's birthday. That meant I would know every "last" ahead of time -- the last time I would take Edith to the library as an only child, our last day alone together and all the rest.

I had some contractions the Monday night before the Thursday induction, but they went away after a few hours. I didn't get much sleep the next few nights.

But on April 2, Paul and I arrived at the hospital shortly before 7 a.m. to get the party started. I was hooked up to a couple of monitors, and an IV was inserted into my arm to give me pitocin, designed to jumpstart labor. (They never even had time to hook me to the monitors with Edith!)

The contractions weren't too bad, and Paul and I chatted until the nurse suggested around noon that I get an epidural if I wanted one. They wanted to break my water soon, and I would be more comfortable with the epidural, even if I wasn't in much pain at the moment. Although I was nervous about getting an epidural, I knew FOR SURE that I didn't want a repeat of natural childbirth. The epidural was painless, my doctor broke my water at 12:30 p.m., and we waited.

Things progressed nicely. Around 3 p.m., my nurse said the baby would be born within the hour. Not long after, she told me she'd check on me around 3:45 p.m. I told her that I was feeling some pressure, so she decided to check me right then. The verdict? It was time.

After 20 minutes of pushing, Atticus was here.

Paul took a week of paternity leave last week, and I don't think I even touched our laptop. Although things are more chaotic (and my blog posts may not be as regular for a while), I will be publishing photos and posts about how things are going. But mostly I will be enjoying our growing family.