The Arrival of Amos

Wow. What a whirlwind. After the 31 hour epic delivery of Big Head Eli, I was ready for a long battle to birth Amos. Twas not so.

At 3:00 a.m. on Saturday morning I was awoken by some differently painful contractions. I got up and sat on the birth ball, listened to The Weepies on the ipod and started paying attention. Eric found me there and we decided to walk laps around the top floor of our building. I was having painful contractions regularly so at five we called my Mom and asked her to come up. She thought we were probably in labor and should go to the hospital. I called Kaiser and they said to come in. So in we went.

I kept contracting until the second I hopped up on the hospital bed. Everything fizzled out. But I was already 4 centimenters so they sent us to walk for an hour. I'm sure they meant for us to walk the halls of the hospital. But it was a gorgeous morning, so we left and walked around the neighborhood. We walked to starbucks and got breakfast. And my contractions were firing off one after another. At our next check I was 4.5/5 centimeters, so the sent us to walk again. At 9:15 we came back from our walk and got admitted.

Contractions were coming hard and heavy as we got settled into our room. Our friend relieved my mom watching Eli so she met us at the hospital at the same time we got admitted. I was already needing some help managing the pain. Mom talked me through the contractions and Eric rubbed and soothed and kept me calm. They were, once again, an amazing support team.

We considered walking and getting in the tub, but things were happening so fast that all I could do was sit and breathe through contractions. We got into our room at 9:45, and by 12:00 I was 8 centimeters. There was hardly a minute between contractions, so we sent off for the epidural. Anethesiologist Rick came in and wasted no time administering a perfect epidural. I got comfy, but could still move, and we rested for a few hours.

At 3:30 I was checked and was complete. They gave me the option of pushing or waiting and letting the uterus work on while I was comfortable. We decided to give pushing a try.

Pushing with Eli was long and energy-sapping and futile. He didn't budge for hours. Pushing Amos out...well...surpisingly, it actually worked. Every push made progress that I could feel. And in twenty minutes everyone was buzzing around getting ready for his arrival. Amazing. And once everyone was ready, I got down to it once more and watched as out he came - beautiful, pink, warm and squishy.

That moment, the first moment of contact with the sweet tiny body that has been wiggling inside of you for so long, there is nothing like it. It passes so quickly, but is so so sweet. Wet, slippery, warm perfect life in your arms. Nothing comes close.

And now he's ours. Sweet Amos is here. At every phase of his birth I kept saying the same line, "It's crazy how fast/smoothly/well this is going." Painful...but smooth.

And he is a prince. All this time we've been harboring his name, I knew it was a name for an earnest and kind person - a good soul. It fits him perfectly. He is a sweet sweet snuggler who squeaks and grunts his pleasure at being in the arms of his Mama or Dad. Eric and Amos are in their perfect father/son happy place right now; both asleep snuggled up against each other. Perfection.

Oh - and he must've been reading his Nursing 101 textbook for the last few months. He came out and went straight to it.

And now we just can't wait to get home and get this party started. We both miss Eli so much, and want to start aquainting these two boys for the fun and adventures they have in store. Their first introduction went as well as could be expected - but at the end when Eli said, "Night, night Amos." Oh...I had to clutch my heart and melt. Perfection.

So we're checking out early. We're staying the required 24 hours after birth and then we're blowing this pop stand. That means Amos will be born and home in the same amount of time it took just to get Eli delivered. Wow, I love second child deliveries!
Here we are chilling on day 2 of Amos' life.
Our first diaper change, which occured sometime in the middle of the night.
Oh what a good snuggler. Notice that we scored a queen-sized bed in the recovery room. Sweet.