On Sunday Sept 21st my grandparents arrived from visiting a close family friend in the Okanagan. The following day my grandpa left for home and my grandma and I spent the day grocery shopping. We were going to spend the week cooking meals we could freeze so when the baby came dinner was one less thing to worry about.
By the time we got home we were tired and decided to start cooking the next day. Danny and I went to bed that night around 10. Around 11:45pm I woke up warm and needing to pee so I rolled out of bed (I was in a lot of discomfort from my pelvis separating at 25 weeks so getting out of bed took some work) and waddled to the bathroom. I was surprised to discover my underwear was wet but because I was warm and sweating I chalked it up to sweat. Danny woke when I turned on the bathroom light and asked if everything was ok, I told him it was. He was just about back to sleep when I decided I needed new underwear and asked him to get me some. When he handed it to me I "peed" again and thought either I peed myself for my water broke so I remained on the toilet to see what my body was going to do. I asked Danny if the bed was wet at all and he told me a little bit, so I went back to thinking it might have been sweat. Then I "peed" again. I told Danny "I think my water just broke", he was up, awake and alert in about 2 seconds.
I could hear my grandma was still up and so I asked Danny to go and get the phone and my wallet, the number for the hospital was in it, but asked him not to say anything to my grandma since we weren't 100% sure what was going on. By the time he came back there was not a doubt in my mind my water had broken. We called the hospital and they told us to come in for a non-stress test since I wasn't feeling any contractions yet. We got dressed and went and told my grandma what was going on. She drove us to the hospital (Danny was a little too in shock for me to trust him driving us to the other side of town) and I spent the next 2 hours hooked up to machines - Danny enjoyed telling me when I was having contractions and I was enjoying not feeling them.
Around 2am we headed home since the baby was fine and I wasn't in full labour. We called the various grandparents that were out of town and wanted to be there for the baby's birth when we got home (it's not as cruel as it sounded, my mom was already up and getting ready for work and I left a message for my stepdad, who never heard it anyways). By 3am we were back to trying to get some sleep. By 9am we called our sisters and told them what was going on (Danny's youngest sister was going to be at the hospital for extra help for me) and called my doctor to get in to see her.
We saw my doctor around 10am and talked about what was going to happen next. We were to go to the hospital for another non-stress test from her office and then go back again that evening. If nothing progressed on its own by Wednesday morning they would induce my contractions.
At the non-stress test a resident (I think that's what she was) came in and introduced herself as she had been assigned to work with my doctor on my case. I knew who she was; we went to highschool together and her best friend is the sister of my best friend. What a small world!
We finished the two non- stress tests, came home to a house quickly filling with family, and eventually went to bed that night preparing to go to the hospital in the morning (we had to be there at 8am). I was so tired from all the hospital trips I slept well that night, honestly it was the best sleep I had in over a month.
At 7:30am on Wednesday Sept 24th we were on our way to the hospital to kick start the contractions - I was still feeling nothing and was quite happy about it. At 8am I was checked in, situated in my own room and eating breakfast (once I was given Oxytocin I wasn't going to be allowed to eat and I was worried about my body throwing in a migraine in the middle of labour). By 9:30am I was given the Oxytocin and told by the nurse it would probably be a few hours before I started to feel mild contractions so we called my stepdad, who had come from the Island, to come in for a visit. While he was visiting I told Danny to run to the gift shop and buy me a crossword puzzle book so I had something to do while I waited for the contractions to start. My stepdad then decided to go out for a smoke and Danny came back about 10 minutes after that. In those 10 minutes I was alone in my room my contractions started and not mildly. Danny left the room with me talking to my stepdad and came back to me having sharp painful contractions (well, they were more painful than the ones I wasn't feeling before). I told him to ask my stepdad to leave when he came back inside. By now it was about 10:30am and I was in full labour - a few hours until I feel mild contractions.... not so much.
Around 11am they checked how dilated I was - this was more painful than the contractions. The head was so low they had to try to feel around it to see how far along I was, which was excruciating. To make things worse the nurse checking me thought I was at 8cm, which was alarming since I had been on the Oxytocin for less than 2 hours. She had to go and get another nurse and they both checked me twice. They compared notes and decided I was at 8cm (it was really hard for them to tell) and called my doctor since they thought the baby was going to be born soon. While we waited for the doctor we called our family and said they should get to the hospital.
At 11:30am it was my doctor's turn to check me and she said I wasn't 8cm... I was 3cm... she thought. So, she checked again. I was in tears from being checked, it was beyond painful. She determined it was 3cm and that I had a ways to go; she said she didn't expect the baby to be born until 6pm which was fine for her since she had a riding appointment at 3. I joked "so, 2:30 would work for you?".
After the doctor left I was in a lot of pain and asked for something - there went my "no drug birth". They gave me a drip of something that only worked for 10 minute intervals, not ideal and didn't work much. At some point (I was quite out of it now) I went and rested on the ball in the shower. I don't remember much of it as I was literally sleeping for 30 seconds between contractions. At one point Danny had to go to the bathroom and I said that was fine but his sister needs to come in then (before labour we had talked and I told Danny I was fine with his sister helping but if I went in the shower I didn't want her in there. Your modest goes out the window when you're in pain) and I remember thinking it was funny she was wearing nice dressy boots and they were going to get wet.
At some point I couldn't handle the pain anymore and asked for the epidural. They said that was fine but it was going to be about 30 minutes as someone was ahead of me for the anesthesiologist, I was not impressed. They suggested I try the gas until he was able to come in and this was not a good idea to me. It meant I a) had to get out of the shower, which meant I had to stay awake between contractions and b) had to get to the other side of the room somehow. I remember just getting up after a contraction because if I didn't do it then I wasn't going to do it at all. The nurses dressed me before I made it to the chair outside the shower to have another contraction. I think it took me a few attempts but I made it to the gas mask but had a hard time breathing with it (I think I was having a hard time breathing in general) so a nurse held it to my face while I went through them.
I am a believer the gas does not help the pain but you have to focus on your breathing so you don't notice it AS much. By now the anesthesiologist was available (the person ahead of me got bumped somehow) and was ready to give me the epidural. This sucked! When you get an epidural they have to stick a needle into your spine, to do this you MUST be still. How easy do you you think it is to stay still while you're having the most painful thing to ever happen to you occur over and over again every 30 seconds? Answer: it's just about impossible. Danny and at least 1 nurse had to prop me up and hold me down so I wouldn't move.
I remember the very weird sensation of my spine getting cold, what an odd feeling. After some time I laid in the bed while I watched them take an ice pack and ask "can you feel this?". It was another very weird feeling to feel ice on one part of you and not the next. The epidural did ease the pain and the plan was I was going to try to nap but this didn't happen since instead of contraction pain I would get this burning sensation on my stomach that would spread with each contraction.
If you've lost track of time here it's because I did too. I do know shortly after 2pm, which was not much longer after the epidural, the nurse decided she should check me since I wouldn't be able to feel anything. As she goes to check she says "I see hair, this baby's coming" and called the doctor. By 2:30pm the doctor was in the room and I was pushing (I must say I LOVE pushing with an epidural, it was SOOOOOO easy). At 2:42pm Lynden was born weighing 7lbs (exactly) and measuring 19".
We didn't know what we were having and I wanted Danny to be the one to tell me. After the baby was out Danny went in a hugged me and the doctor asked him if he wanted to look to see what it was. The look in Danny's eye as he told me it was a boy and leaned down to hug me is the one moment of Lynden's birth I will Never forget and it still brings a tear to my eye.
They then weighed and measured him and when everything was all cleaned up I asked what time he was born at. When they told me I reminded my doctor about my joke of "2:30 works for you?".
Thankfully, the grandparents, who we called at 11:30 to come down and had arrived by noon, were still waiting in the waiting area and were able to see Lynden within the first 30 minutes.
Shortly after having Lynden, while still in the delivery room, Danny asked me if I would do it again, to which I replied "in a heartbeat". As painful as I know it was (I don't remember the actual pain) I knew it was something I would do again (and did). He was and is worth every moment.
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Lynden's first out of belly photo |
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| Proud Daddy |
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| First family photo |
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| One of our favourite shots |
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