wow. two years has flown by. so much has happened, and yet none of it has ended up on this blog. between a baby (now toddler), work, travel, and play, my personal writing has taken a backseat. to be expected i suppose, but also, not something i hope will continue indefinitely. 

however, as i opened up the blog word document that lives on my desktop for crafting my words before they reach the web, i noticed there were actually a few already written posts awaiting edits and publishing. oops. just another product of this new life we’re living.

but, before i go back and publish those, it is necessary to scrape my brain of all the details of our latest life event. another daughter.

seems only fitting that the last posts on this blog are my first pregnancy and birth story. time to add another one.

it’s already been two months. baby girl is two months old today. her entrance earthside already seems so faraway, but every time i’ve gone to put the memory down on paper, sleep and relaxation have won the battle for my energy. but today, i will battle through the sleep deprivation and take advantage of tilly having a babysitter…

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her due date was october 30th. and this pregnancy was much like my first – except for the beginning and the end. 

at my annual gyno appointment in mid-march, i was informed that i was eight weeks pregnant… and i had no idea. 

i had been traveling in the months prior and thought the slight nausea i was feeling was from a cold or food poisoning like a friend i was with had gotten. i even took a covid test at one point. (it was negative.) i had not missed a period, and yet, when i returned home and went to that appointment, sure enough, there was a fetus on the ultrasound screen. a two month old fetus…

surprise! (watch out for wedding anniversary celebrations folks.)

and so it began again. another pregnancy and another birth and another baby. all things we wanted, just not things we were officially planning for yet. i immediately thought back to my last couple months – hot springs, skiing, wine, ahhh the things we do when we don’t know we’re not “supposed to” yet. 

but more so than the straightforward changes that come pregnancy, like cutting out alcohol and raw fish, preparing for our second child came with decision after decision after decision. 

would we stay in hawaii? move to australia? should we do it immediately? should we buy a house? should we rent a different house?

who would be the medical provider? (since maui only has two for our insurance and the one we used for tilly no longer does obstetrics.) should we get a doula? should we get the same doula? 

would i try to go unmedicated again? would i choose an epidural? would i get a c-section to help prevent worsening my prolapse from my first birth?

should tilly start daycare? would she adjust to being a big sister? would we be able to handle two kids?

there were so many more decisions at the beginning of this pregnancy… and near the end. 

all was well at our appointments over the weeks. at 12 weeks, we found out it was another baby girl. (thank goodness we still had all of tilly’s stuff.) at 20 weeks, we found out she had all her body parts.

(pregnant with first on left and second on right.)

and at 36 weeks, i thought i’d get another final ultrasound showing me a head down, ready to be birthed baby.

instead, the nurse told me they didn’t do ultrasounds at this stage. i asked her if my baby was in the right position. she put her hands up by my ribs and said, yep, feels like a butt. i left the appointment a bit skeptical as i was feeling kicks in my pelvis. i immediately hired a trusted doula on island as maui doctors were leaving me questioning their competence. 

i had another appointment at 37 weeks, and when i walked in, they said they were going to do an ultrasound. oh sure, now you give me an ultrasound. and low and behold, baby girl was breeched. so much for that butt. she was definitely kicking me in the pelvis, and i had lost a whole week to try to flip her (as i had decided i didn’t want a c-section if not necessary).

and so i had another major decision. if i could not get her to flip, what would i do? but for the next week, i didn’t think about that and tried everything to spin that baby and celebrate tilly’s second birthday.

i did headstands and laid upside down on an angled board. i got acupuncture and made ryan hold smoking herb sticks (moxa) next to my pinky toes. i looked ridiculous doing front flips in the ocean. but this one was a stubborn gal. she was staying put. 

at my 38 week appointment, the doctor mentioned getting on the calendar to do an external cephalic version (ecv) to manually flip the baby. the success rate is 50/50, and everyone i talked to about it seemed to know someone who had a negative experience. but i was willing to try everything to avoid cutting into my abdomen, and so a few days later, we went to the hospital.

and it worked! in a matter of seconds the doctor took his hands and pushed baby girl into a summersault. what a strange feeling. it wasn’t very painful (many said it would be), just weird and uncomfortable. but there she was on the ultrasound, head down. finally.

now i just had to keep her that way for a week or two. easy. or so i thought…

while i was closing in on my due date, the news broke that the maui hospital staff was going on strike for three days in early november. are you kidding me?! despite my endless braxton hicks contractions, as my due date came and went, i had yet again even more decisions to make. this scorpio gal had a mind of her own.

would she come during the strike? would i induce to avoid it? would i wait to go into labor naturally? how long would i wait? how long should i wait?

i tried to calm my anxiety and savor the last remaining weeks of tilly being an only child. i tried to relax, while still eating all the dates and spicy food i could stomach. i tried breast pumps to induce labor, sex, curb walking, all the things… i was huge, and ready to pop, but she was comfy as could be in there. i even tried dancing her out on the halloween full moon to no avail.

and so i scheduled an induction. i decided to give her a little more time to come out on her own and scheduled it for after the hospital strike. november 9th was the day they had available. hopefully she stayed head down until then…