Thoughts on Giving Birth Second Time

On Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 10:24 we welcomed our second son, Andrew Christian Perry. He is a peanut, weighing in at just 5 pounds and 3 ounces and 18 inches long.

Drew’s Birthday

I started having contractions while we were watching TV after a very busy (and exciting…) Saturday. I kind of felt like something was going on all day and even told my parents to “stand by” when we left their house after dinner that night.

At first I wasn’t sure if I was just exhausted from overdoing it that day or if I was having contractions. I got up to fold laundry to see if the pains went away or if they got worse. A few minutes later I knew it was the real deal so I called Mike upstairs to time my contractions and told him to call my parents to come watch Connor. Right away, the contractions were regular and close together!

A half hour later we were on our way to the hospital.

Labor and Delivery

We got to the hospital at 9:25pm and Drew was born at 10:25pm. Yes, you read that right. There was one hour between the time we walked into the emergency room to when Drew was on my chest. I mean I know second babies are supposed to come faster and being fit helps speed things along, but this was a little quicker than I imagined.

I had full intentions of having an epidural, but as you probably guessed from the one hour timeframe that did not happen. A perfect example of why I didn’t bother (and don’t really recommend) writing a birth plan. Kids teach you to go with the flow and adjust on the fly from moment #1!

As far as childbirth without an epidural…

I’ll be honest, the pain was unbelievable, but the recovery has been easier. The way I see it, when I had an epidural there was very little pain during labor and delivery (relatively speaking). As the meds wore off the pain almost felt worse. With a natural childbirth the pain was so excruciating during childbirth that it slowly got better and better as I started recovering. 🙂

I just remember lying there thinking OMG I am so glad that is over. It’s all a blur now that we have been home a little more than a week.

It’s been incredible spending time with Drew and our family of four! I am in love with watching my boys together and so thankful that Connor has been such an amazing big brother.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be posting about my plans for postpartum fitness, life as a mom of two boys, how having a newborn is different the second time around, ways to keep eating well when you’re busy and more!