how long was sibling w/caregiver during birth?

I'm afraid ds will be so wrapped up in the toys they have at the birth
center (and a lot of noisy ones too, go figure) that he'll miss the
birth because his caregiver won't be able to pry some noisy plastic
thing out of his hands long enough to see his sibling born!

-K-

Karen wrote:

my first labor was 45 hours long, and my second
was only 2.5 hours, so it could be *really* fast


This is the ballpark I was in first time around, so to hear you went in
2 1/2 hours second time is a) frightening! and b)encouraging. I was
thinking at most I would have like a normal, average "first birth"
length of time, didn't realize that we could go from one ridiculous
extreme to the other!

Believe me, it was a shock to me too! And keep in
mind that with #2, I count the 2.5 hours starting from the
time my membranes ruptured out of the clear blue sky (I
hadn't had any contractions that day before my membranes
ruptured, despite having prodromal labor for a week).
If you were to count from the time I'd have realized that
things were moving along quickly and I would have needed
to get moving, you'd have to take off a good half hour
or more from that time. Fortunately, we were planning
a homebirth, so the first call went out right after my
membranes ruptured (mw said call back when contractions
got significant) and the second call went out about a
half hour later to say perhaps she'd better hurry. She
made it in less than a half hour, by which time things
were fast and furious and she didn't have time to unload
more than her "essentials" kit from the car. The second
midwife didn't make it in time ;-) Believe me, I was
really glad we didn't have to go anywhere with that birth!
Personally, I wouldn't recommend such a fast
birth. It's a bit like being run over by a freight train.
There's hardly any time to wrap your brain around the fact
that it's happening *now*. My third labor was much more
enjoyable, at around five hours.
That said, while I know quite a few women whose
second babies were speedsters, there's certainly no
guarantee it'll go fast. I suppose it's even theoretically
possible that it'll go slower, though not likely ;-)
Of course, if you plan on it going faster, Murphy's Law
will kick in and you'll be guaranteed a really slow
labor ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka