My Journey ~ Part 2

A Journey In Motherhood Part2

It is now February 3, 1997....baby #2's due date.

After a long very cold day of walking around the neighborhood playing with my 2 1/2 year old son and talking with neighbors about my up coming birth... I thought I was peeing in my pants. So I excused my self and went inside. It was around 7:30 pm. I made some calls,and was told to come in and get checked,that it could be my water broke! or was just trickling??
I was in no pain so I thought I would wait a while at home to see what happened.

I got things packed in the car,got my sitter in place for my toddler and decided to eat a snack. I craved PB&J sandwiches and plain Lays Potato Chips.

My hubby had worked all day in the cold (he does construction) and was taking a nap, so I gave him a nudge and told him tonight would be the night,then let him go back to his nap!

I was flooded with last minute fears and doubts...Could I love this child like I do my first? What if I don't make it to the hospital on time? What if I can't read my body and I can't tell if the baby is coming? Should I leave now to the hospital like I was instructed?

I went up upstairs to watch the Melrose Place Movie. I tried to get some rest and keep my thoughts and fears at bay!. I started to get nervous...this was it. I soon would be the mother of 2 children. I had enjoyed my pregnancy and it soon would be over! Would I be having a boy or girl?

I never got to watch the ending of my movie...with 15 minutes left to go,my water broke....it was not a trickle like earlier! It was a title wave.

It took some doing to get my hubby up from his slumber... after all it was 10:45 pm.
and he had been up since 4:30 am working hard outside in the cold! I LOVE my man!

After some beautiful chaos,we were on our way...back to the hospital were our first child was born. I still was not in any pain. I was worried that the baby would come soon... now that my water had broke. With my last labor I had little to no pain. I began to wonder if I should have left for the hospital earlier? How quick will this baby come?

The nurses hooked me up to the monitor to check the baby and put in the routine hep lock. My contractions were showing very strong readings on the rector scale (that's what I call it), but I was not feeling anything and had no pain. (I go drug free)

The nurses told me to walk around a bit.... to get things going. It was now 12:30am Feb.4 . I walked 1/2 way around the hall on the maternity floor.... then out of no where,like being hit by a train....the pain came. I could barely walk back to the room. My contractions were coming every 2 minutes. It took deep focus..an inward focus to manage the pain.
The nurses thought I was joking about the pain; I was talking a few minutes ago? It was like night and day. I endured the pain for about 1hr and 20 min.the contractions came one after the other with little break. After a quick check, I was 10 centimeters dilated and told to PUSH with my next contraction!

We did not know the gender of this child until his birth. After just 4 pushes he was out. All 8#6oz of him. Yes, it was another boy! His hair was the color of a shiney penny. He went staight to the breast to eat. We locked eyes and it was true love. WOW! I was the mom of 2 now!!!

I never once thought about not having a girl. I was just glad the pain was over! My hubby and I tried to get some sleep.(it's hard to do in a hospital). My folks went over to pick up our toddler from the neighbors house. They would keep him over night until we got home.

Soon it was time to go home. The breast feeding went much better from the start than it had with my first child. Life was good! (I nursed my second baby through my next pregnancy,with baby #3. and then tandem nursed both.) I weaned baby this baby (#2) at 3 1/2 yrs.

I decided that I would give cloth diapers a try. I got my first batch though a catalog (Natural Baby I think). I got the pre-shaped ones made of unbleached cotton. They needed to be laid in a water proof shell and there was no folding. I purchased the waterproof covers at Fred Meyer of all places,for about $7.00 each. I only used my cloth diapers for about 4 months on and off.
I did not ordered enough diapers,so it seemed like a chore to use them.
I was washing them every 1 and 1/2 days. If I was busy,they did not get washed. I then grabbed for disposable ones.
Lesson learned :order plenty of cloth diapers or it may feel like more work than it really is.

Things get tricky going from one child to two. There are two schedules to juggle.
There seems to be a love,hate relationship between the two kiddos. My toddler will be nice one minute then hurtful the next. My first was an only child until his brother arrived on the scene. Things did get figured out and everyone found there place in the family. OH the Joys of being a mother!

I forgot to mention that we ALL started co-sleeping after our second child was born.
It did not feel natural to have One Boy in his room and the new baby in ours with us..he felt left out! That was not the kind of family we wanted to have...anyone feeling left out. Our decision to co-sleep just felt natural,so we all slept in one room on the California King from then on! We loved it!

It was fun to watch the two boys grow in their relationship. I would just glow with love as I looked on... both boys playing nicely together and saying loving things to each other.
I liked spending the day playing with them both. I started going to a mom's group at church and a play group called The Mother Goose Program. We enjoyed many outings to the parks and children's museum etc.... With my first child I felt restless at times,somewhat board I might add. Now that I had two children,I was becoming more settled in my role of being a mother. I now had a 3 year old and a 20 month old.

We were still using the BOMA method of birth control. I thought since I did not have a girl and would be trying to have our third(and maybe our last and final child) I would get the book on what to do to get a girl! Dumb idea I know,but my story is a journey...a growth in faith. I read the book over and over and then we tried to get pregnant. I was REALY hoping for my girl!!!!


It did not take long and I was pregnant with baby #3! I was due August 1, 1999. Would God give me my girl this time? I don't like to find out the gender by ultra sound so I would have 9 months to wait. I love the surprise of finding out at the birth.
I did pray for God to give me a sign....

to be continued.........


I hope you all have enjoyed reading about my journey so far~ to read Part 1 go here!

Like always feel free to say Hi and leave me a comment~

Peace in Christ,
Georgiann