The Morning After

I've found that one of the most difficult things about dealing with progeny number two (and any subsequent ones, I would imagine) is preventing yourself from caring for them based on the expectations created by caring for progeny number one.  It started with my assumptions for labor and delivery.  Liam was early, born at thirty-eight and a half weeks, and since conventional wisdom states that subsequent births happen more quickly, my anxiety increased the closer I got to thirty-eight weeks.  Then I was thirty-nine weeks.  Then forty.  

I worked right up to the day I gave birth with Liam.  But he was born during Interim and this time around I was due during Session.  Those are two very different work environments.  At two weeks out from my due date, I had worked seventy-three hours while nearly nine months pregnant and while it felt like a cop-out, I decided I had had enough.  Besides, I reasoned with myself, he's coming any day.

Well, Valentine's Day came and I was still very, very pregnant.  But I knew number two was coming because I had spent the whole day, and the day prior, in pre-labor.  That was another difference.  With Liam, I had one contraction, my water broke, and then there was nothing until the Pitocin kicked in.  Number two wanted to make sure I had plenty of warning that he was coming.  I spent Valentine's Day night (my due date) with fairly strong contractions coming fairly regularly.  And then around 3:30 a.m. the morning after, my water broke in spectacular, movie-worthy fashion.  Good thing my sister was here to stay with Liam while Mikey and I rushed to the hospital, me hoping beyond hope that I didn't deliver in the car.  

I couldn't even walk into the hospital.  I got out of the car and just stood there, in pain until Mikey came around and helped me into one of the waiting wheelchairs.  I was contracting the whole time.  Again, based upon expectations developed based on my first pregnancy, I expected things to progress fairly rapidly.  And I suppose they did, but not the way I expected and not the way they did with Liam.  With Liam, my body had to be goaded into completing the process.  This time around, my body was going to finish whether it was ready or not.  There was one, interesting similarity, though.  With Liam, my water broke at 3:30 a.m. on the Saturday of a three-day weekend.  This time around, again, my water broke at 3:30 a.m. on the Saturday of a three-day weekend.  But whereas the first time I was in the labor and delivery room for thirteen hours (I was not technically in labor the whole time), this time I was there for about three.  We got to the hospital around 4:00 a.m. and by 7:00 a.m. we had a new member of Team Monkey.

Ewan Malcolm Hotaru Ng

Ewan was born at 6:38 a.m. on February 15th.  He weighed 7 pounds, 9.5 ounces and was 20.25 inches long.  Although I wasn't sure I could do it again, Ewan was born naturally, with no drugs and no epidural.  And as I told Mikey, I'm done.  But I've got two gorgeous boys and with my handsome husband, I'm happy to hang out with all three of my men.

Liam has thus far been okay with the addition of Baby Brother, though it's been a bit more difficult to get him to the sitter in the morning and to bed at night.  In the morning he wants to stay and play with Mama and at night, although he starts out in his own bed, he eventually wakes up and wants to sleep in Mama and Dad Dad's bed.  He also is very excited to help out with Baby Brother.  He brings us diapers and gets us wipes and wants to feed Baby Brother "myself."  We've told him he'll have to wait for that, but I love that he's showing such a nurturing side.

So far, Ewan sleeps much more than his older brother did.  We're hoping this trend continues, but if it doesn't, we've got plenty of practice going sleepless.

And when he's awake, he's generally pretty mellow.  That's also a new experience after our spirited, high-energy Liam.

We asked Ewan how he felt about being the newest member of Team Monkey.  His response?  "Oy vey!"