Becca made sure that her presence was known, long before she actually graced us with her presence. I started having contraction with Becca at 25 weeks. The combination of the early contractions and Jesse delivering, unexpectedly, almost 4 weeks early, it concerned my doctors. I was never put on bed rest, but major stress was to be removed from my life for the remainder of my pregnancy.
This can be hard with work and a toddler, but we did the best we could. Part of this reduction included my 5 hours of commuting a day into Boston for or traveling to Chicago for work. Thankfully, my boss was SUPER supportive and nixed any unnecessary commuting and traveling for the remainder of my pregnancy.
Ultimately, it resulted in MUCH closer monitoring and alot of extra doctors appointments. A small price to pay for a healthy baby!
The irony between Jesse and Becca is that they actually shared the same due date, September 25th, exactly three years apart. Jesse was 3.5 weeks early, but Becca was less than a week.
The fact that Jesse was soo early, on all aspects of my life, we prepared for her to arrive almost a month early, just to be prepared. Needless to say, when Labor Day weekend came and went with no new baby, it was a little discouraging. Even though I knew that the longer she stayed inside, the better.
Once I hit 37 weeks, my doctor was ecstatic! But the concern shifted from having a baby too early, to potentially delivering a 10 pound baby, based on ultrasounds. I was all about her staying in as long as possible to finish 'cooking'. But the thought of pushing out a big baby scared me too.
So at 39 weeks, Scott and I started every option we could to help expedite the contractions. Over the weekend before she was born, we were hiking all over Madbury woods. (Jesse loved it. Scott didn't love having to slow down for me all the time. I was all belly again for this pregnancy, as well.
On Monday evening, September 16th, we went out to dinner for Mexican. It was the last time as a family of three. While at dinner, Scott order the hottest salsa and dinner possible, without any input from me. I was seriously sweating while eating dinner! The whole time, Scott encouraging me to eat more.
I had been having contractions throughout the entire pregnancy, but as I
got closer to my due date, they started to become a little bit more
consistent and measurable. I started to have contractions again, at an interval of 10-12 minutes apart on Monday night, after Mexican. But around 1AM they subsided and I was able to go to sleep, hoping to wake with more. I was sorely disappointed. I woke Tuesday and went to work and thought here we go again. Only time will tell.
So when the contractions started again on Tuesday evening, I didn't think much of them. When they subsided, I went to sleep. The difference this time, was I was woken at 3AM with contractions every 10 minutes or so. I attempted to sleep through them, with no avail. So I got up and instructed Scott to keep sleeping and I would wake him if anything changed.
A little background needed for rest of the story. We had learned the hard way, that we needed to have multiple plans in place for help with Jesse. At 35 weeks, when the contractions started to come at a fairly consistent rate, I had to go into the hospital to be put on a monitor for a while. We learned that night that we needed plan A and plan B, as our plan A was out of town. I drove myself to the hospital for monitoring, while Scott stayed home with Jesse, who was in bed. Thankfully, the contractions subsided and all was fine.
Also, while all of this was happening, Jesse started preschool at the beginning of September. Although he is only at preschool for 2.5 hours twice a week, the first few days were a rough transition. We had tear filled hand offs in the beginning days. He now loves preschool, but the initial adjustment was a bit of a struggle. We had multiple friends lined up to help watch Jesse when
'it was time', but we had decided that we could ask friends to pick him
up from school, but we wouldn't ask them to drop him off AND pick him
up. We felt that was just too much of an inconvenience to ask of them.
Now back to Wednesday morning. It is 5AM and Scott and Jesse are asleep. The contractions had become more regular at about 6-8 minute intervals. I didn't call the doctor until 7AM, because I was determined to get Jesse to preschool.
Crazy I know, but his world was about to be ROCKED. If I could keep a little bit of normal, after it had already changed so much, I really wanted to.
When I called the doctor on call at 7 AM and said that my contractions had been pretty consistent at 6 minutes since 5 AM, she shrugged it off and asked if it was my first child. When I informed her it was my second child, her tone completely changed and she urged me to get into the hospital immediately. I proceeded to remind her that I lived about 35 minutes away and had to get my first settled, so it would likely be about 1.5 hours before I was there. She again reinstated to hurry!
At this point, I am waking the household: Scott to get ready to for the hospital and Jesse to get ready for preschool. Thankfully Scott was there, as the contractions were definately getting to me by now. Scott got Jesse ready, while I lined up the support for Jesse. At this part, the plan A/B/C/D/E came into play. A quick call to plan A turned into a call to plan B. Followed by packing the car for the hospital, dropping a bag at the neighbors and off to preschool.
When we pulled into the preschool, I had to get out and walk around to help alleviate the pain from the contractions. When I got out of the car, the teachers all sighed and asked still no baby? About this time, a contraction hit and Scott explained that we were on our way to the hospital. The teachers immediately rushed to our car and grabbed Jesse. Sending us on our way!
Truthfully, I really don't remember much of the drive to the hospital. I sent an email from my phone notifying my boss that I was on the way to the hospital and would let her know more details later. Then I focused on my breathing and relaxation. Scott was measuring the contractions and reminding me to breathe immediately before the next contraction hit. They were that consistent, again this pregnancy.
We arrived at the hospital, with Pandora and my yoga mat in hand. These two items were CRITICAL to this delivery. They helped me to manage the contractions. Yes, the contractions we not comfortable, even painful, but by moving around, I could manage them. With Becca's delivery, I had terrible back pain. I am soo thankful for Scott! His arms were probably exhausted, due to the amount of pressure I asked him to exert on my hips to help ease the pain.
Truth be told, I can't tell you details about the rate of contractions or how long things took. I can tell you that my prenatal yoga helped; both the poses and the breathing/relaxation. I also remember getting texts saying Jesse was doing well and was excited to meet his new sister (Thanks Kristen!)
The other wonderful thing was the jacuzzi tub and the industrial size water heater that goes with it. My skin was so red, Scott told me, but it felt SOOO good. Truth be told, this was the main place I was able to really relax. My labor progressed well, to the point that I got out and pretty much started pushing.
Since I was delivering during business hours, my doctor came up to deliver Becca. She did an amazing job. I didn't snap at Scott this time (only once with Jesse's delivery). But I did beg her to let me push at the end. But her expertise kept me from tearing at all!
Becca was born. Dr. DeNicola held her up to show me and Bec let out a huge cry at 2:49PM. I remember saying out loud how wonderful of a sound it was. At this point, Scott passed on the honors of cutting the umbilical cord. (He passed for Jesse too.) Instead, I cut the cord. Scott is still floored about this.
She immediately went up against me, still covered in all the fluids. She remained on my bare chest for over an hour. Thankfully, she took to nursing instinctly.
We decided to name her Rebecca Mary Heaton. Mary, after my Great Grandmother Mary. And we both love the nickname Becca.
Scott got to hold her, but shortly afterwards headed out to pick up Jesse. We wanted to get him into the hospital before bedtime, to meet his new sister.
At this point, we divided and conquered. Scott had Jesse and I had Bec. The next 24 hours with Becca, honestly, were really hard. We didn't know at the time, but she had swallowed fluid during delivery. She cried for almost 24 hours constant. The only time she would stop was to nurse. But after about 12 hours, she stopped nursing. The little girl developed tears the first day she was born. (This is not common in newborns.)
Thankfully, I had a wonderful nurse and a lot of nursing students available on Thursday, to identify what was wrong and to hold Becca upright continuously, to help the fluid pass. I can not say enough, how thankful I am to them!
Thursday into Friday was much better. Dad and Big Brother visited and we went home on Friday. Shortly after we were home, the visits from family and friends began.
