James Richard Watts was born May 6, 2015 at 11:05 pm. He shares a birthday and first name with Justin's grandfather, James Samuel Carson, who is exactly 104 years older than James (and still alive! I'll dedicate another blog post to that special meeting of men!) James' middle name is after my mom's dad, Richard Charles Beasley, who left this world much too soon, 25 years ago. I love that we went with family names for our son. And we are both so happy that we had a boy, as the Watts lineage would have ended with Justin had we not.
As most of you may remember, Justin and I didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl. When I was pregnant with Lila, I was POSITIVE it was a girl. I had three dreams about it, I could just feel it. I did not have any inklings with James, so take that as you will. The day before James was born, I had my weekly ob appointment and I was bummed that I was going to be full term (James was due on May 7th). I was tired of being pregnant, but more importantly, I was dying to know if it was a boy or a girl. At my weekly appointment, I was pleased to find out that I was already almost 4 cm. After all, with Lila, they admitted me at barely 1 cm because I was in so much pain. The next morning, I was having an errant contraction here and there but nothing to suggest the kind of labor I went through with Lila (lying on the bathroom floor writhing in pain, begging Justin to take me back to the hospital, where they had denied me twice before). Lila and I headed to the Melbourne Beach library for storytime with Ms. Di, at which point I think everyone there was as dismayed as I was that I was still pregnant. Because I was 4 cm the day before and having some contractions that morning, I decided to go ahead and call Pauline and Grandad to come up from Vero just in case I needed to make a quick exit to the hospital.
Lila and I ate lunch, and some strong contractions started around 1 pm. I timed them, and they got stronger, but nothing especially painful. I called Justin around 2 pm and told him that he should probably come home after his meeting. He got home around 3:30, and while I was having contractions that were a minute long, 5 minutes or less apart, for over an hour, I just really wasn't sure I was in labor. So we walked the neighborhood for an hour, and the contractions got stronger. A few took my breath away, but still I just wasn't sure. Around 4:30 pm, I said, Let's just go and see what they say. I think Justin was skeptical only because of how calm I was about the whole thing. We got the hospital bag, gave Lila a bunch of hugs and kisses, and drove to the hospital.
They checked and I was almost 6 cm! Of course, they admitted me right away, and my amazing OB was over in a half hour to break my water and get the epidural going. Things were rolling along quite nicely after that! Around 9:30 pm, it was time to push, and I will admit, this was the most difficult part of the whole ordeal. James, who we were yet to know was a boy, was stuck in my pelvic bone and I had to push for an hour and a half. Not fun. But soooo worth it when he came out and the announcement came, It's a boy! We were actually not too surprised when we found out the sex, the real surprise came when they weighed him - 9 pounds 11.3 ounces - INSANE. Lila weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces. No wonder my pregnancy had been so rough! I was carrying around a man baby - strong like ox.
Some second time moms worry that they won't have enough love for their second child. I never really worried about that - I knew I would love that baby. What surprised me though was the feeling as though your heart would burst thinking about how much you loved both of your children. And I realized that my second time around, I just love newborns. I was so worried with Lila but with James I've been able to relax and just enjoy his sweet, chunky self.
Looking back at these photos makes me sad to realize how big James has gotten in less than 4 months! And how light his hair has become . . . but that's a story for another day. I can now rest easy knowing that I've documented both births of our amazing children and with that, I'm headed to bed. The new Better Homes and Gardens awaits.
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