EXPANDING OUR FAMILY

My second pregnancy was in 2020, and if you know, you know. I have a lot of gratitude that I was able to experience pregnancy and birth prior to this time in the world. I felt really robbed of some of the experience I wanted to have, as I think many mothers feel who gave birth at this time. There is a collective grief of sorts that came along with the restriction and fear of 2020, but that’s something to dissect another day.

While I enjoyed being pregnancy again, this experience was very different than the first due to the conditions of the world and social climate at that time. 2020 was year that involved a lot of chaos and uncertainty. This unfortunately, and inevitably, impacted my experience of pregnancy and birth with my second son, Oz. As grateful as I am to have had a wonderful and healthy pregnancy it was still very isolating and kind of sad.

I had a really nausea filled first trimester, much worse than my first time around, but again a very “textbook” pregnant overall. Being pregnant with a toddler at home was a wild ride to be sure, but thankfully Strider was (and still is) a very chill kid. We had a lot of sweet, cuddly downtime and spent a bunch of time in our neighborhood walking around together to get out and about.

My husband works over seas and was stuck there due to no flights allowed in or out because of Covid for 6 straight months. We knew we were pregnant right after his first week away and by the time he got home to us I already had a big belly. We had a lot of concerns he wouldn’t make it to the birth but I am beyond grateful to say that he made it back for that too!

We went into the hospital early on a Friday morning in October. Just me and my husband, as they wouldn’t allow anyone else to be present during, and no extra visitors after. My parents stayed with Strider at home but I would have loved if they could have been there with him. I was booked for an induction but when I got there I was already dilating and labor was well and truly on its way! They pushed a tiny bit of Pitocin and my water broke and Oz’s labor was short and so, so fast. He was ready to come out and was born a few hours later with a full head of fuzzy blonde hair.

We left the hospital the next morning to get home and settle in as a family of four. Strider wasn’t quite two at this time and he wasn’t overly interested in his new baby brother right away. I’m happy to say they're the best of friends now. I love watching their relationship flourish.

This was a very difficult postpartum for me, maybe more so than the first time around, and again I look forward to sharing more of my postpartum experiences with you all later.

xx,

Ashley