On my way to and from Jo's school I pass the hospital where Opie was born. A few days ago a fluorescent pink sign appeared in one of the windows, facing the street: IT'S A GIRL! It made me smile each time I passed.
When Jo was born, I had a c-section after many hours of labor. By the time my OB ordered the section, I had no problem giving up on the idea of vaginal birth. (I believe my exact words were "I don't care how you do it. Just get it out so I can have a drink of water!") After Jo was delivered, I was a basket case, given that I'd been in labor for nearly two full days without eating or sleeping. I was in no shape to call anyone to deliver the biggest news I'd ever be able to share. (AND they still wouldn't give me any water. Boy was I mad.)
I realized later that that was one of the things that made me the saddest about the c-section. I hadn't realized how badly I wanted that big Announcement Moment, where I got to tell family and friends about our baby girl. Instead, Jeff had to leave the room to go make the calls--since we'd told everyone hours and hours before that the birth was imminent, and our mothers were starting to completely lose their minds.
When Opie was born, I again had a c-section preceded by labor, just not quite so much of it. I recovered from the surgery more quickly and was able to make a few phone calls. No giant posters or candy cigars or clever websites--just a few spoken words, but it felt amazing.
Did you do anything special to announce your children's births?
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Jo and Tacy entered the world in much the same way. Kyle called both sets of grandparents and my aunt Linda that night, since all of them wanted to get the news regardless of the hour.
With CJ, I emailed people with my Blackberry. But with Oliver, I was back to letting Kyle announce the news. Jaded, I suppose.
Love the idea of a neon pink sign!
When we heard I would need a c-section with #1, my hubs called my parents and they came to the hospital so they were waiting outside the OR when I was wheeled to recovery. After I was in my room I called people.
#2 and #3 were planned c-sections, so the first call was to the older sibling(s). With #3, #1 was at school so I called her at school.
SwingDaddy made calls to all the grandparents. After Q-ster was born, I was exhausted and relieved to just rest for a while. With Buster, things went smoother, but I still wasn't ready to move out of my baby&me-focused bubble.
Now that I'm on Twitter, would I be tempted to tweet the whole birth? Probably not.
I was induced with my first, so we made all our calls ahead of time. After he was born, I fell asleep and had nightmares. I had nightmares for 2 days, actually, reliving the birth.
With my second, everyone I wanted to tell was nearby. (Except 1 sister.) I can't remember who made the calls; I just remember all the most important people coming by. That was really, really nice.
My son was born after hours of labor/c-section, too.
My family was in the waiting room, so they saw him as soon as he was brought to the nursery.
The next day I sent an e-mail to everyone else with the details, but it just didn't seem to do the news justice.
I wish we had a neon sign, too.
I threw up. So, um, no, that was pretty much it.
I made jubilant calls after Briar's birth, Sean made them after Ave's, both of those births being completely without drugs. Fin, though, well with her I asked for a little help right at the end and the nurse was anti-drugs, she shot me so full of demerol that my head was lolling about on my neck. I vaguely remember Sean handing me the phone to talk to my dad and being unable to string together more than a couple of grunts.
Sorry for hijacking the comments.
With the oldest they wheeled me out into the hall with him and everyone in our waiting room (about 20 friends and family members) came to us so that we could tell them. With the middle one they were allowed into the room right after they got me all sewed up...which was pretty fast. Same with the youngest. But with the youngest, we knew he was a boy already and so did everyone else.
I have no idea. I was in recovery for so long. My husband called people and sent a group email, but I had nothing to do with any of it.
We had birth announcement cards done.
The problem with that is that by the time you go to the photographer, get the cards made and mailed, it's like 8 weeks later.
Since Declan came 8 weeks early, we had the weirdness of having his shower AFTER he was born and WHILE he was still in the hospital. Talk about strange. We had those "HIMSHEY" bars made up for the party, though, which were fun.
I may have to make a post about that sometime.
I just wanted my husband to email out a picture to all our friends and family. A picture without me in it.
My eldest and yours were clearly separated at the womb. He arrived more than two days after I went to the hospital to be induced. A C-section. And 16 days late, to boot. So I was mostly just having to deal with people wondering if I was an elephant with its remarkably long gestation period.
Here from the Greeble. My best friend had an emergency c-section two months ago. She feels she doesn't have a birth story because it all went so fast. I wish I could have found her a big old pink neon sign!
When I gave birth to CJ--my first-- it was 9:45 pm and we were living in L.A. at the time so it was 12:45 am east coast time when I called my mom in NJ to tell her the news. As we were both crying I said, "Now what do I do?"
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