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Travis Robert Smith's Birth

Since it's about time for Thanksgiving, I thought I'd commemorate the holidays with giving thanks for having such great children.

My first son was born 7/6/95, with all that confusion that comes with a first birth. I wanted the pain to stop so I got an epidural only to endure 3 hours of pushing to no avail. Finally forceps were brought in and he was born 10 mintues later at 4:17 AM after 18 hours of labor.

Travis was quite different though. Even the pregnancy was different - so different that I thought for sure he was giong to be a girl. An ultrasound at 7 months denied that! I found out I was pregnant when my oldest son was only 4 months old. Originally I thought they would be 15 months apart because an earlier pregnancy test came out negative, but Travis was growing at such a rate that I told my OB I thought they were only going to be 12 months apart. I felt as large at the same time of year the second time as I did the first. Of course, they said, this one could be as much as a pound heavier than the first (Eric had been 8 lbs 8 oz). I just couldn't imagine carrying a 10 pound baby throughout the summer in SC. My due date was set for August 16th.

Since I failed my one-hour glucose test, I had to endure the three-hour test. I did pass that one though, with a sigh of relief after being poked so many times. I had also had very strong BH contractions from about 7 months. Check for dilation showed no progress, but I had them very frequently from then on.

Eric's 1st birthday came and went as I prepared myself for having two kids in about a month or so. He came down with hand-foot-mouth disease followed by an ear infection and when that cleared up, we went to visit my sister two hours away, just two weeks after Eric's birthday. She lived less than a block from the hospital and we joked that I could have the baby there. I thought it was going to happen because Eric was up all night crying (from what I know now was the ear infection that had never healed) and getting up with him was so stressful that I had many contractions that night. I was tired the next day, but I drove since I was getting car sick every once in a while after I got so big.

Took the day off work on Monday after the trip to take Eric back to the doctor for some more powerful antibiotics and for my 9-month checkup. Check for dilation showed 80% effacement, loss of mucus plug, and 2 cm dilated so they set an ultrasound appointment for one week later. The midwife said, however, that she didn't think I'd make it, because early dilation usually does not occur in pregnancies after the first.

I was only 36 weeks and she also said that if I go into labor before Monday, they would try to stop it, even though I was enormous and my due date could be inaccurate. You see, I never had a cycle between pregancies so there was no way to tell how long it had been since my last period. They used measurements from the ultrasound to try to pinpoint the date.

My sister decided to return the favor and visited us on the weekend. She said it would be nice if I had the baby now, since she would be unavailable to come if I waited too late. On Saturday, I had some strong contractions in the evening, painful but endurable.

On Sunday morning (7/28), I had some spotting but since the midwife said I had already lost my plug, I called in. She said to wait and see if any contractions started. The normal painful ones I had been having continued but became more frequent. I knew this was it but didn't have anything ready - no bag packed, no laundry done, no babysitter, so I waited around the house, stopping when a contraction came, and tried to spend my last free moments with Eric alone. I cried on the way to the hospital because I knew this would change his life so and he was so little.

I finally went to the hospital about 1:00 PM. They checked and I was already at 6 cm - I was staying. An hour later they broke my water and the contractions were really painful. They gave me Nubane but all that did was make me groggy. I was upset later that I asked for it because it didn't do much except make me a zombie since Travis was born shortly afterwards. A few strong contractions later (maybe only 4 or 5) it was time to push. I couldn't believe how painful it was! I didn't want to do it after I realized how much it hurt but everyone was telling me I had to (ha, ha - like I had a choice!).

The midwife decided not to do an episiotomy and I had an awful 4th degree tear. It was so bad she had to call the OB on call to repair it and that took over an hour. I was upset because I didn't get to try to nurse Travis. All I wanted was to hold and feed my baby and they took him away and left me strapped to the table to repair the tear.

So in some ways, the birth was great because it was so short even though it was painful. But I definitely felt more in control than the first time.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about Travis' entrance into this world. Let me know if you have any similar experiences or are having fun with two kids with a close age difference.

Michelle Smith