Things
started to get exciting on Wednesday, March 27th. I opted to stay home from
youth that night as I was starting to have fairly strong contractions. Since
I'd already been having braxton hicks contractions for months upon months, I
knew that these were different! I tried not to get too excited, and instead
tried to get some sleep (I think I got about 3 or 4 hours). In the morning my
contractions were still about 8 minutes apart and manageable, so Mike went to
work and Jadyn and I baked muffins and had our regular daily fun. By
mid-morning the contractions had slowed down, so trying to not be too
disappointed, we went on with our day. Thursday night was awfully similar to
Wednesday night with short, interrupted sleep and strong contractions. But once
again Friday morning, things died down and I tried not to get my hopes up.
Friday
night was different. It was a night of absolutely NO sleep, and strong enough
contractions that I had to concentrate and breathe through the pain. At about
midnight they were around 9 minutes apart and by the early morning light they
were coming regularly at 5 minutes apart. I decided to get ready for the day -
showered and did my hair (just in case we would be heading for the hospital;
knowing I probably wouldn't get to do that for a while!), finished packing our
hospital bag and Jadyn's sleepover bag, and made breakfast for Mike and Jadyn.
But once again, after breakfast the contractions started to slow down again.
They were still happening regularly (and painfully), but things just weren't
seeming to really progress. So I convinced Mike that we needed a little day in
the city, so we packed us all up (in our new van, by the way) and headed to the
city for some much-needed grocery shopping and a family lunch out. Saturday
evening we spent at Mike's parents house where my contractions once again
became stronger and regular. While I didn't yet think 'this is it', we called
the maternity ward and decided to go in to have a non-stress test make sure
everything was fine and that baby was doing well with this long, drawn-out
'labour' (wasn't sure if I could call it that yet). We were taken in right away
at the hospital for the non-stress test. We found that my contractions were
definitely regular, strong and that baby was responding very well throughout
the contractions. So no worries, praise the Lord! They did an internal check
and found that I was 50% effaced and 3 cms dilated. So things WERE happening -
slowly. So while they said we could stay and labour at the hospital, we decided
to head back home and labour there. And are we ever glad we did! I had a great
sleep that Saturday night and Sunday (my due date) and Monday were incredibly
uneventful in comparison!
Tuesday
morning I woke up with strong contractions once again, and was excited about it
because I had my doctor appointment and I was hoping we'd find that I was
further dilated! So instead of watching the clock until 11:00 when I would
leave for my appointment, Jadyn and I headed to bootcamp here in Rosenort where
I squatted and lifted and gave it my all, trying to help this baby out - only
taking a break if I couldn't squat through a contraction! After bootcamp, I got
our bags packed in our van and dropped Jadyn off at Grandma & Grandpa
Thiessen's house (just in case we would end up going into the hospital) and
picked up Mike at work so we could both head to the appointment. My appointment
was at 12:00 and, like usual, my doctor was right on time! We had a GREAT doctor
(Dr. Earl) throughout my pregnancy. I was a little uneasy at the start of my
pregnancy because my family doctor had just moved out of the province so I
needed to start seeing someone else - but it turned out to be a great switch!
After telling him about the contractions that I had been having throughout the
last week, he suggested we do an internal check and if I wanted, he would do a
membrane sweep to see if it would help things to get going. I said YES, as I
was very ready to have this baby; although again I wasn't getting my hopes up
as I had four sweeps done with Jadyn and none of them seemed to do anything.
The internal check revealed that I was 4 cms dilated, and easily stretched to 6
- and so I consented to having a sweep done. Dr. Earl suggested that stick
around Winkler/Morden over lunch in case things began to happen - and then
wished us well and said he hoped to see us soon in the hospital. After the
appointment we went to the nurses area where I got to do the usual - pee in a
cup and get weighed. As I was leaving the area, picking up my purse to head out
of the clinic I all of sudden began 'peeing' myself. My water broke!! I was
SUPER excited! And it felt very weird. Like I was constantly, uncontrollably
peeing. So wet pants and all, we headed for the hospital (which is just 5
minutes from the clinic).
It was
about 12:30 when Mike dropped me off at the front doors so I could get in line
at the admission desk (and so I didn't have to walk through the contractions
which were already getting stronger than the morning). Seeing that I was very
pregnant, a young woman in line offered me her chair which I politely refused
saying that "My water broke, so I'll just get it soaked." There were
also two older women in line whose ears seem to perk up at what I had just
said, and they gave me their congratulations and proceeded to tell me where
they were when their water broke 'back in the day'. Seeing as I was in a great
mood, and very excited about this baby coming - I welcomed the stories to pass
the time waiting in line (which turned out not to be very long as they all
encouraged me to go first).
Minutes
later I was upstairs in the maternity ward and was admitted into the very last
maternity room available (it was a busy day!), which also happened to be the
same room that we were in with Jadyn! As my water had just broke and I hadn't
really had time to 'time' contractions from the short drive from the clinic to
the hospital, they strapped on the monitors to see what was all going on.
Strapped on for 20 minutes, we found that they were regularly at 5 minutes
apart. Dr. Earl then came to see us (I was his last appointment at the clinic,
so he probably actually beat us to the hospital). He did an internal check to
find that I was now 6-7 cms dilated, and he said that he hoped things would
continue to move along quickly for me! He also said that out of 100's of
patients that he's done a sweep on, I'm the first (that he knows of) to have my
water break right after! After the standard blood pressure, heart rate, and
temperature checks I was taken off all monitors and we were left alone to
labour. We settled into our room, still very optimistic about things happening
quickly (or at least quickER than with Jadyn) as my contractions were very
strong and very regular!
Now
this is where the story gets a little dull and a little foggy for me. But I'll
give you the gist of it. As much as the doctor and nurses thought things would
move along quickly for us, they didn't. Contractions got harder and harder and
closer together (by late afternoon they were 2-3 minutes apart), but an
internal check around suppertime revealed that I was still 6-7 cms dilated. No
change. At all. So after a little supper (I was FAMISHED as we missed lunch -
thank goodness Boundary Trails lets patients in labour still eat meals!), we
continued to labour on. The next few hours consisted of a lot of walking, a lot
of squatting, a lot of labour-lunging, and a LOT of focus on breathing through
the pain. It was about 8:00 p.m. when things started to become a lot harder to
bear. It was 8 hours into hard labour (not counting all the hours I had at home
'prepping' me for this) with no progression and I was growing weary of handling
the pain. The contractions continued to be 2 or so minutes apart, which left
little time for rest. Some time in there, I tried laying down as I was getting
to be exhausted. This slowed down the contractions back to 3 or 4 minutes
apart, but didn't lessen them in strength. I couldn't lay down for long though,
because during a contraction I couldn't be lying down because I couldn't bear
the pain in that position. It was around 11:00 p.m. when Dr. Earl came to see
us again to see how things were progressing. Much to my extreme dismay, I was
STILL only 6-7 cms dilated. He found that while the baby was head down, he
figured she was a little bit 'tilted' or transverse, which was why things
weren't progressing like they had in the beginning. As the baby was still
reacting very well to contractions and my vitals were all still good, we decided
to labour for a few more hours before inducing with medication/drugs. As happy
as I was about that decision (because I wanted things to happen naturally), a
few minutes later I was falling to pieces because of the pain. I'm sure I told
Mike that the pain made me want to die and that I was going to black out. The
contractions at that point were 1 minute apart and the only thing that would
get me through it was being in a scalding hot shower during the contraction and
then in my 30 second break before the next one I would sit down on a chair
right outside my shower in the cool air so I wouldn't pass out.
Now we
get to the more exciting part, instead of reading about me whine about the
pain! It was about 1:15 a.m. (13 hours into my agony) and I was in the shower
having a contraction when all of a sudden I HEARD and FELT a sudden pop. I
bolted out of the shower yelling for the doctor because I needed to PUSH and
push NOW! Dr. Earl came in immediately and found that I was 10 cms dilated and
100% effaced! Praise! The! Lord! There was a 'rim' though, so he said that I
needed to wait for 2 contractions before starting to push. And as any mom knows
- NOT pushing when you NEED to is the worst thing ever!! Hardest 2 contractions
of my life. When the third contraction
started, I told the nurse that I needed to push (Dr. Earl was out of the room
for a moment) and so I did. After the contraction, she ran to get Dr. Earl as
she said that she could already see the head and that things were going to
happen quickly. Two more contractions-worth of pushing, and at 1:25 a.m., our
beautiful Aubrey entered this world, superman style with one arm up! She was
perfectly formed, petite, with beautiful little lips and short, dark brown
hair!
She was
placed onto my chest and like magic (and with a tiny bit of help), she found my
breast and started nursing within the first 2 minutes of her life. (it SO did
not happen that easily with Jadyn!) A few minutes later her cord was cut (by
MIKE, believe it or not) and since Aubrey was breathing well (she had quite the
first few screams), good color, etc, we were left alone to cuddle with her for
the next few hours with a few regular blood pressure checks to make sure things
were all ok. Later on that morning she was weighed and measured: 8 lbs, 1 oz
and 21 inches long (although a re-measure a few days later found that she's
actually only 19 3/4!). She spent the next 24 hours of her life (and really the
first week) pretty much constantly nursing and occasionally sleeping :)
In the
afternoon we had family and friends come visit. Jadyn and Aubrey exchanged
gifts at the hospital. Jadyn picked out a pink hippo 'cozy' for Aubrey (which
she was SO excited to give to her) and Aubrey gave Jadyn a Cinderella and
Beauty & The Beast sets of Squinkies. She then held her baby sister for the
first time (for about half a minute until she started crying) and then spent
most of her time on the bed with me, pushing the buttons to make it go up and
down, up and down and running downstairs with Mike (we definitely missed her)!
We decided to stay the night in the hospital and left for home the next morning
to settle down into our new regular! I know posting her birth story is a few
weeks late (a newborn and a two-year-old is BUSY), but I want to thank all of
you who were praying and anticipating together with us the arrival of our
beautiful new daughter!
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