It’s hard to believe a little over 1 month ago our sweet Sebby came into our lives. He weighed in at 11 lbs. 15 oz. on his one-month birthday and he continues to prove that he’s going to be a very big boy!
We also celebrated his birth this past weekend with a traditional one month Chinese celebration called a moon yuet. There were 160 people at his party! Grandad Lee really went all out. We had a lot of family in town and it was such a great way to celebrate his birth.
Seb’s journey started very unexpectedly. We were on our own journey traveling around Europe enjoying ourselves as a family when we suddenly found out I was pregnant in Greece.
To say it was a shock was an understatement.
We always knew we wanted to have another child but had no idea it was going to happen so quickly and easily. With Stella we tried for a year with several miscarriages along the way. It was quite devastating to us both but in the end we had a healthy little girl.
So Justin and I both had figured the next go round would likely take us awhile…little did we know we’d have a baby a mere 22 months after Stella was born.
But boy has he been a blessing. While we had a lot of scares during the pregnancy due to medical tests (which I now believe in some ways were not necessary), we’ve come out with a very big and healthy boy.
His birth day was a bit different for me the second go round. He was due on May 19 and given that Stella arrived 11 days late I figured he’d be at least a few days late… On Sunday, May 17, his Grandad Lee’s birthday, my water broke at 5:00 AM. We all thought he’d be in our lives within a few hours given that my last delivery I had Stella about 3 1/2 hours after my water broke, but this was after several day sof contractions and many hours of labor. Boy were we wrong.
After my water broke I had a few contractions but nothing major. My midwife said to just meet her at the hospital at 11 AM to start antibiotics if nothing started picking up…I had tested positive for Strepp B so we knew that I’d have to get an antibiotic IV 4 hours before delivery to ensure the health of the baby. Most people during their second birth don’t even have time to get the antibiotics. Not me. I ended up getting 3 rounds of antibiotic IVs. And the entire process really dominated this labor for me.
So we headed to the hospital for our 11 AM round of antibiotics. Stella has been picked up by her Grandad and his girlfriend Teresa and would return home to us after lunch assuming I hadn’t gone into labor.
After several IV attempts (not fun with a collapsed vein) and a few contractions we headed back home for a big lunch and to put Stella down for a nap.
More waiting and trying to get some rest ourselves with very little progression in my labor. Justin and I even posted updates on Twitter and Facebook. We had a huge lunch and once Stella woke from her nap her Nanna Lee then came to take care of her as we headed back to the hospital for round 2 of antibiotics. At this point it was around 5pm and I started having hard contractions. Everyone thought this might be it.
Justin and I headed to a nearby park and started timing my contractions while his Mom and Dad got Stella settled and ready to spend the night at her Nanna’s hotel. With all the coordination and now realizing worrying about leaving Stella for the first time, my contractions stopped again.
So we headed back home, I did a blog post and then headed over to our neighbors to hang out as I just needed to relax…
At 8:30 pm I had another phone consult with my midwife and told her, I think I need a glass of wine…I just need to relax. She said, have a glass of wine and try to sleep…
Justin and I hung out and then headed to bed around 9:30. At that point Justin was exhausted and fell asleep quickly. I was up and down about every 15-30 mins with hard contractions but again, nothing steady. We were to be back at the hospital at 11 pm for more antibiotics but I was just exhausted and contractions weren’t getting stronger. My midwife was in the middle of her 2nd birth of the day and said, try to rest and come in at 1 AM…
So we rested a bit more and my contractions started to pick-up. About every 15 minutes I’d head to the bathroom and lean over the sink with contractions. Justin slept right thru it…:) Around 12:30 AM I started getting chills and we called the midwife. She said this was a good sign as my hormone levels were changing. We headed to the hospital again and started another round of antibiotics. By then we called our Doula to meet us as we thought, this is it!
By the time she got there my contractions had hit a point of me not being able to stand without support or to talk really. Which to me was a relief. After almost 24 hours of waiting (it was 2 AM by now) I was ready for Sebby to come…
We headed to the delivery room to get settled. For some reason I just felt really on edge and couldn’t “let go…” I walked into my delivery room and saw I had a male nurse which made me feel weird. In the end it was no big deal and he was great but for some reason it made me even more unable to let go. My midwife must have sensed that so she ushered him out of the room more or less until he was needed and for the delivery.
About 2:30 AM I felt like I needed to walk and get outside. So we headed down the hall, me stopping every few minutes to grasp hold to something and have a contraction. We finally made it outside and my doula surprised me with the news that she was getting married. In a way it sort of took me out of the moment as I was so happy for her but in a way it helped the process of letting go.
We headed back inside and things really started picking up. At that point we went and got into the shower so I could try to relax more. I looked at Justin and the doula and said, the baby will be born at 5 AM…My doula and the midwife said, let’s not focus on time but for me I needed an “end game.” I had done the same for Stella’s birth (and had almost predicted her birth time on the nose) which is really weird in it’s own way.
At this point my contractions were really hard and Sebby really wanted out. I wanted him out too. Things happened very quickly at this point. Which is funny as Jutin remembers things moving really slowly at this point. It was “transition” time…Last labor that meant it was “good natural drugs” time for me…I kept waiting for that same feeling. That glazed and spaced out feeling. It came, but not nearly as strong as my first delivery. I guess it was just too fast this go round.
I remember being very determined and focused on what I needed to do. Having done it once I knew what I had to do the second time.
Around 4 AM I was ready to throw in the towel..I even asked my Doula if it was “too late…” Meaning, can’t I have drugs, a lot of them, and maybe just cut my tummy open so this can just all be over…However, I answered my own question and kept telling myself “I can do this, I can do this.” “Come on baby, work with me…”
I think this might have been about the time that Justin came over to comfort me and I told him he needed to brush his teeth…:) The only really crazy thing I did during labor but I don’t think I was as calm this time…much more pacing and moving.
I think all the waiting and anticipation had made me really edgy and nervous. And as I had said I couldn’t let go. It was at this point that I started weeping. Everyone looked at me and said “what’s wrong, what’s wrong.” And it hit me that I missed my mother. That I needed my mother, right then and there. But acknowledging this need and knowing that she was gone and I wasn’t going to have her there with me but I had to be strong for this baby everything just came together.
I started feeling like I needed to push. My midwife kept wanting me to “ground myself” as for some reason I kept squatting on my tiptoes…Sebby was huge, not sure why but I didn’t know what else to do!
While I had thought with Stella that I might have her standing or squatting I ended having her lying down on my back. So when I screamed, “he’s coming, he’s coming” I also yelled, “get me up on the table now!” It was the familiar position I knew I could deliver from and I needed familiarity.
My midwife did not want me to tear again so she worked with me to slow down the delivery…it still only took 20 minutes this go round as compared to 2 1/2 hours with Stella…and unfortunately with the very large size of Sebby tearing was inevitable.
Again we hadn’t found out the sex of the baby so as soon as he was born the first thing we did was check to see if it was a boy or a girl. With Stella several minutes went by before it hit me that we didn’t even know if it was a girl or a boy yet! The next thing I saw was a little mole on his arm. His little birth mark.
We were ecstatic. A BOY!!! Justin was obviously thrilled.
Sebby's First Moments
He began to nurse right away and I even cut the umbilical cord. It was an incredible experience again.
We are blessed with a beautiful baby boy!
