When he came, he came

Max's birth was quick and intense, and also a reminder that he is his own little person with his own timing.

I had been walking around 2 cm dilated with his head uncomfortably low for two long weeks leading up to his arrival. As my sister remarked, "I hope this baby comes soon... for Terah's sake," or my friend Elaine commented, "It's amazing our husbands stick around given all that we put them through." Let's just say I was anxious for him to come out.

Monday was my first day of maternity leave and to kill time, I had resigned myself to a day of shopping, lunch with a friend, and a phone chat (I know, rough life). That evening I noticed the first signs of mildly painful contractions and was texting with my very pregnant friend Heather joking it was all a scam and I wasn't holding my breath.

By midnight the fun and games were over as I realized I was not going to sleep through the contractions. By 1am, they were timing at 10-12 minutes. All of sudden, within one or two contractions, they had dropped to every 5-6 minutes and it was go time. My mom arrived to stay with Noah and we checked into the hospital at 2am where I was measuring 6 cm dilated. At this point, I was still able to breathe through the contractions and was wondering whether it was just less painful this time or I was managing the pain better. I considered waiting for the epidural, but the nurse (very smartly) advised that unless I planned on going without all together, now was the time.

As the anesthesiologist began, the pain intensified rapidly and I started feeling immense pelvic pressure. You have to sit perfectly still and curled over for the pain medication to be administered, and by this point the contractions were coming almost non-stop and were so intense I really thought I was a goner. Stanford is a teaching hospital, which I fully support, but when the anesthesiologist-in-training took what felt like an eternity, I was almost going to fire him on the spot. Poor guy, he must face women like me all day.

To his credit, this time I had full mobility, unlike with Noah where I was so numb I had to push blindly. It allowed me far greater control at the end and I was able to experience delivery in a really different way. Turns out I was already transitioning by the time the pain meds kicked in, and with a few pushes, Max was out at 4:15am Tuesday morning, five days before his due date. We were the last to arrive at the hospital that night and the first to deliver and I'm just glad it was over quickly!