Alyssa's Birth Story Part 1

During the last 4.5 months of my pregnancy Danny was already living in the lower mainland and Lynden and I were still in the Okanagan, which made planning for Alyssa's birth difficult.  I was solo-mommy with a toddler who would need someone to watch him when I went into labour and we were trying to plan it so Danny would be able to maximize his week off from work.  Knowing that second babies have a tendency to be early and deliveries faster made it more difficult to plan the unknown.  Since Lynden was a week early and knowing the doctor was off by a week on the due date it was a huge guessing game as to when our baby girl (we found out the sex with Alyssa) would make her debut.  Danny and I were very worried about him missing her birth. 

I had told my doctor I was moving back to the lower mainland at the end of January and with my due date being the 18th we knew she was going to arrive before the month's end.  At my 37 week appointment my doctor started trying to kick start her birth.

On January 13th she did a membrane sweep in the hopes that would convince my body (and baby) to get things moving.  After the appointment I had to do a small grocery shop and was having mild and very irregular contractions, which had started mid-December.  That afternoon my sister flew in to help me start getting the house packed and anything else I needed while we waited for the baby to do something.  I had talked to Danny after the appointment and told him that he should tell work he wasn't coming in the following week (all along he kept telling me that all I needed to do was say "you need to come now" and he'd be on the road) since I had feeling she wasn't going to be late.  Before he was done work I had changed my mind and told him to tell work he wouldn't be coming in the next day, after some talking we had settled on him coming Friday instead of driving up the Coquihalla, which had a major snow storm earlier int he week, in the dark after work. I continued to have mild and irregular contractions.


Me and Alyssa
Jan 13th



Lynden and a very pregnant me
Jan 13th

The following morning, after a very restless sleep, I woke up around 7:30am not noticing any contractions.  I called Danny to find out what his plans were before he left, as we were in no rush, and to get an ETA, which was around 3 or 4pm.  Lynden was up and sitting on the couch watching cartoons when I needed to pee (this is not uncommon for a pregnant woman).  While sitting on the toilet I had a feeling I had had before, and thought my water had broke.  After sitting there for awhile to see what was going to happen I decided it hadn't broken yet but was about to.  Another call to Danny to tell him he should think about coming sooner since I thought my water was about to break.  After that call I had to pee again (yes, sometimes it's that frequently) and while going my water broke. 

Action time!  My doctor, who was aware Danny was not in town, had told me if I thought I was in labour to "get to the hospital, don't vacuum, do the dishes or anything else just get to the hospital" because my first labour was 4.5hrs and the second goes faster.  I called Danny back and told him my water had broken and he needed to come NOW!  I called the hospital to let them know I was coming and the nurse, after looking at my chart and read my first labour was so short, told me to get there as soon as I could.  I called my father-in-law (Danny's younger sister was my backup person but she was in Mexico) to get him to come to my place to watch Lynden for the day and called my neighbour downstairs to see if she could watch Lynden until my father-in-law arrived.  During all this my sister was hauling hospital bags down to the car.  It was around 8:30am.

Before leaving the house I pulled Lynden into his room and cuddled with him.  I had a hard time thinking about losing my one-on-one time with him (I had been off work for 2 weeks and it had been just us for 14 whole days and it was wonderful).  As I held him I told him mommy was going to see the doctor because baby sister was coming, I had talked to him a lot about it before hand, but I would see him very soon.  I think I hugged him and kissed him about a million times (I'm getting teary eyed thinking about it).

My sister and I were off to the hospital and I was having fairly regular contractions by now.  On the way I asked my sister if she would be ok being in the room with me, to which she lied and said yes (she's a good sister), since we didn't know if Danny would make it.  I gave her a crash course in breathing and how to deal with me based on what I could remember from Lynden's birth.  By 9:30 we were in the maternity ward (1 hr down, 3.5 hours to match Lynden's labour time). 

I had another resident, I didn't know him from anywhere (unlike the resident I had when Lynden was born), who was going to assist my doctor in my labour, any the 4 other woman in the ward that day.  Much like my labour with Lynden they had a hard time telling how dilated I was and her head was so low they had to reach around it to tell, which was just as painful as I remembered it to be.  Somehow that pain which  I know I was in but don't really remember from Lynden all came flooding back in those moments of pain this time.  Although this labour was totally different; it was all back labour, I knew it was going to be from the pain in my back during those irregular contractions I'd been having for almost a month.  It was awful!  During contractions the nurse would rub my back and told me it was as hard as a brick.  That was worse than the actual contractions. 

By 10:30am (2 hours down, 2.5 hours to match) my doctor had cancelled all her appointments for the day and was ready for me to pop out a baby.  When she checked me I wasn't as far along as we hoped I would have been.  By now we had checked in with Danny, who had hit construction in Chilliwack (there's ALWAYS construction in Chilliwack) and managed to time the reopening of the highway outside Hope just right.  The nurse, training nurse, doctor and resident were all trying their best to help keep her in so Danny wouldn't miss it but it was a race against the clock.  No woman in labour has ever clock watched like I did that day. 

Around noon (3.5 hours down, 1 hour to match) Danny checked in and said he was an hour away.  By now I was in a lot of pain and taking something for the back pain since it was so over whelming (they had taken the laughing gas out of the hospital due to a pluming issue).  At some point during his check in Danny asked to speak to me and the moment I got on the phone with him I started to cry, all I wanted was for him to be with me. 

By now the final countdown was on.  Danny was an hour away and I had 1 hour to go to match Lynden's labour time, who would arrive first?