a mile in our shoes: She's Born!

I've never really thought much about recording my children's birth stories. Interestingly, I find reading other's birth stories quite fascinating. So, even though this is my third time going through all this labour & delivery stuff, it will be the first time I will have formally recorded it.

Here it goes.

First off, let me introduce you to the word "INDUCTION". An induction can take many shapes and forms. Believe me, this was my third and each one has been vastly different: there are balloons, gels, hormones, and the good ol' "membrane rupture". By 37 weeks my doctors deem it safer to deliver baby than to wait until I naturally deliver around 40 weeks. This means that before my body is physically ready to go into labour, it's forced into it abruptly. This can have the consequence of bringing on a VERY long and VERY draining labour (for Gwen, I was in the hospital for nearly 48 hours start to finish. Lily, 24).

SO, Monday afternoon (June 25) my parents came over to the house to watch Gwen and Lily (prepared to stay overnight), so that Tanner and I could head on over to the hospital. When I was first admitted, they did a quick ultrasound to check the baby's position as they would not want to start the induction process if baby was in any position other than head-down. She was transverse, stretched right across my abdomen. Not great. After talking about doing a ECV (External Cephalic Version, which means manually manipulating the baby into a head-down position) and possibly a C-section if the ECV was unsuccessful. The doctor left and I immediately started to casually massage my belly. Tanner rolled his eyes in disapproval as he thought I should just wait for the doctors to do their job. Still he smiled and let me do my thing (he gets me that way). Gently and slowly, I felt the baby rotate. When the doctor returned to set up an ECV I politely asked for her to do another ultrasound first. And, voilà! Baby was head down.

Let's get this party started!

7:30, I was in Labour/Delivery getting my membranes ruptured. This was nearly the most painful part in this story. I had a nurse practically sitting on my abdomen (or at least that's what it felt like!) holding baby so that she stayed head down while they broke my water. I couldn't breath and it hurt a lot, like, a lot a lot, as in this-was-the-only-the-time-that-I-cried a lot. At the same time I was started on Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) and contractions started almost immediately. I was totally surprised with how quickly they turned into strong regular contractions. Surprised, excited, and scared. I could sense that this was going to be faster and more furious than my other labours. By around 1:00am, I was exhausted and asked for an epidural. By 1:30, I was relaxed, and Tanner and I were able to get a couple hours of sleep.

Just before 4:00am, the contractions became much more intense and frequent. With the immense "pressure" my entire body started shaking. Labour had begun! However, I was still only measuring at 4cm. GAH! By 4:50 the pain, pressure and desire to start pushing was overpowering me. The doctor checked me and I was only 8cm, he also told me that the baby was face up (meaning a hard back labour). He and nurse asked me to relax and just breath, telling me I was not ready to start pushing. The doctor sent the nurse out to get more pain meds. "Just relax, just breath, you're not ready." - This is what they kept repeating over and over. But my body was telling me something totally different. So I screamed at the doctor and pushed. Out came her head. "She's out!" I yelled. Another push.

"SHE'S BORN!!"

Our baby girl was born under the blanket, hidden to the world. Only the heavens and I knew it. Tanner recalls seeing the blanket flutter, but didn't realize, at first, that it was our little baby landing onto the bed.

After what seemed to me to be several minutes, the doctor came over and lifted up the blanket to our little baby laying on the bed. (Actually, no, it wasn't the doctor, it was the med student in the room.) No one could believe it! Tanner leaned over and said "You did that all by yourself!"

Yes, yes I did.