Israel's birth story/ 1 year later

Dear Israel,
Some day you may want to know the details. Or maybe not. Either way I want to make sure I remember the details. Keira's birth story is written in her baby book. You don't get a baby book. I don't have the time to do one and I figure the blog is as good as a space as any to store this story.
Friday morning Oct 9th started off all wrong. After a night of barely any sleep- like most nights for the past 2 months. I had been sleeping on the couch. Tossing and turning. Unable to get comfortable. Dealing with the lovely effects of late pregnancy. Leg cramps, back pain, a constantly full bladder, nausea. I was so frustrated, so tired, and so ready to meet you. Your little feet had been hanging out in my ribcage and you always were more active late at night also preventing me from sleeping. I was up early as I can only lie awake uncomfortable for so long. I decided to make scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast as I had an appointment with my midwife that am and I wouldn't be home to snack all morning to keep me from getting too nauseous. We had bought some new sausage- turkey sausage at the store a few days prior. I fried it up with the eggs and sat down to eat. Mike likes maple syrup on his sausage so he poured some on my plate and accidentally got some on my eggs, The turkey sausage ended up smelling gross and with the maple syrup on my eggs it proved to be too much. I took a few bites as I was starving- and started heaving. I ran to the bathroom and threw up. First time since 26 weeks. Great start to the day. Not even 20 min later Mike tries to start the truck to go to work and its dead. He jumps starts it- since I need the van for my appointment and takes off.
Memere comes over with Isaac to watch Keira and I head to my 10 am appointment in Concord. I beg the midwife to end my misery and "do something" She checks me and says I am 4 cm already- she pulls my cervix forward and disrupts my membranes. She says she thinks it will be soon. She made me dip my urine to check for a UTI as I had to pee 4 times while I was there for an hour- nothing wrong with my urine just a super super squished bladder.
After the appointment I head to the apple orchard that is 10 min from there to get some more apples. I am having some more contractions that actually feel like real ones- menstrual type with back pain. But nothing is regular. I had been having BH for about 2-3 weeks prior and also losing my mucus plug.
I head home to see Keira and head out in the rain to walk for a few min to see if I can keep the contractions going. They keep coming but again nothing regular. I go home and get ready to eat lunch when Mike calls and says the truck is dead again and he is stuck at work with no lunch. We needed both cars working in case someone had to take Keira during the home birth and we needed a car to transfer to the hospital in case of an emergency. I quickly make a sandwich and head to Mike's work- eating in the car while driving there. Memere stays with Keira and at Mike's work we jump start the car again and both of us drive to the Mall to get the battery changed out. We walk around the mall for 45 min while Sears changes the battery and Mike picks up his new saw from Sears. I keep having the contractions but still irregular. I notice some bleeding when I go to the bathroom. I call and let my midwife know and she says its probably just from the internal exam she gave me earlier.
The truck is finished around 2 pm- Mike heads back to work and I head home to relieve memere.
I get back around 2:20.. Keira won't fall asleep for her nap. Mike has plans to go help Anthony install a hardwood floor after work so he won't be home till late. I keep Keira up since by 3 pm if she hasn't fallen asleep its useless. I am exhausted at this point and still having irregular contractions that aren't getting any stronger. Keira and I watch Cinderella so I can hang out on the couch. I make Mac and cheese for dinner since Mike won't be home. By 6 pm Keira is super tired so I put her to bed and then I put on some movies and hang out on the couch with the computer. The contractions stop and I get annoyed as I am so ready to be done being pregnant.
Around 9 pm I attempt to sleep. Mike gets home at 10 pm. I sleep from 10-1 am. Mike gets up to pee and it wakes me up. I get up to pee and notice a strong contraction. I don't think much of it since I had been having them all day. I got to the bathroom and lie back down on the couch and have another one. Since I think they are just Braxton Hicks I attempt to lie down again only to get another one. They are too painful to lie down and sleep so I get up and walk around. A few min later I realize I am having quite a few of them and I start timing them with Contractionmaster.com. They are 2-5 min apart. I wake Mike up at 2 am more because I am lonely!! He gets up and gets busy covering things with plastic and turning up the heat and the water heater ( for the birth tub) in anticipation for your birth. I had brought the birth supplies up from the basement earlier in the day. BY 2:40 Mike insists I call the midwife and I do- cringing that I had to wake her up. I guess it goes back to my days as a nurse when I hated calling and talking to docs/surgeons late at night. Anyways she says they will head out soon. An hour later 3:30 am the midwife and her assistant Kate arrive. Contractions are still 2-5 min apart. I pace the kitchen and living room, pausing to lean over the counter top or stove when I get a contractions.
Midwife and her assistant get the tub set up and start filling it with hot water. She checks my cervix- 6 cm and checks baby's heart rate. All is well. I get into the tub and hang out for about 45 min. The contractions slow a bit as I get super relaxed. Midwife checks me again and I am 8. She asks me if I want her to break my water as its about 5 am and I want this baby out before K wakes up around 7 am. Also she said water bag is huge and bulging. I just want everything over with so I agree. She breaks my water ( 5:15 am) but only a bit leaks out as baby's head is blocking the rest of it. The contractions get super intense. Mike and I walk down and up the stairs to really get things going. I hang out on the birthing stool for a few mins and then after walking the stairs get back into the tub. I can feel the baby descend and suddenly there is so much pressure. I keep asking the midwife if your head is close and they keep saying its close... I can't seem to get in a good pushing position in the tub and midwife senses this. She asks me if I want to get out. I agree- I am in so much pain at this point. I can feel your head putting so much pressure down there. I am moaning and crying out in pain ( but not that loudly I am told). About 2 min after sitting on the stool and a total of 15 min or so of pushing ( felt like years!) your head pops out. Right before your head was out midwife said your head was super close. She told me to reach down and feel it. I did and all I could feel was your hairy head! Your head then popped out and 2 seconds later the rest of you and instant relief!!!!!!! They placed you on my chest and you just blinked and looked around and made little baby noises. No crying at all. I just held you and looked at you. So excited to finally see your face. I had wondered and wondered since Jan what you would look like and who you would be. A few min later the cord stopped pulsating and the placenta came out. They cut and clamped the cord and then daddy held you while I got stitched up. I then nursed you. After that we put some clothes on you ( you finally started crying!), weighed you ( 7 lbs 9 oz and 19.5 inches). Mike made me some breakfast and then we snuggled up on the couch till Keira woke up to see you.
Your birth was beautiful and amazing and one year later it feels like yesterday! I can't believe its been a year already.
We quickly realized how non mellow you were. That first night I slept on the couch as I was too sore to get in and out of our bed as its pretty high off the ground. Mike slept on a air mattress on the floor and we put the crib mattress right next to daddy for you to sleep on. I nursed you, swaddled you up tight and called it a night. Or so we thought. You would not settle. You fussed, whimpered, I tried nursing you again, daddy held you, nothing worked. It was a long night. The second night we got smarter and instead of swaddling you we just put you on your belly and BINGO you slept. Not 6 hours straight like you sister did at 2 days old but at least an hour or two. And from that day on you slept on your belly for every nap and at night and 1 year later you are still a belly sleeper. It was a rough couple of months in the beginning. You were fussy, gassy, colicky, and you didn't nap well. At night you were up every 1.5-2 hours and we had to switch positions alot with you. You slept right next to us in your crib, then next to me, then snuggled up next to daddy. It was crazy and we didn't get much sleep. Finally at 5 months old your new room was done and we moved you upstairs and you then started sleeper longer stretches. Around 5.5 months you started army crawling and than you began a happy content baby. You kept yourself busy and amused crawling all over the house and getting into things. Are you so different than Keira. Much more serious and you study things. You notice things that others wouldn't like the light switches. You will stand up under them and whine until we pick you up and let you play with them and figure out how they work. Once you started standing up and cruising you started climbing. Wow are you a climber. ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. You can figure out how to climb it. You are great at stairs. You are very busy though and need constant vigilance. You particularly like electrical outlets and pulling cords out of them and trying to put them back in. Luckily daddy is on top of things and switched every outlet in our house to the brand new tamper resistant outlets. You also like garbage cans and throwing things in them. The toilet is another favorite. Have I mentioned how busy you are??? You have a few words but "No no no!" cracks us up every time. You use it appropriately like you will say "no no no!" As you toss your dinner onto the floor but it doesn't stop you. You bring so much joy into our lives Israel.!! Daddy and I think you are going to be an engineer because you love to see how things work and you love electronics.