Birth Story

It all began on Saturday August 15, 2009:

·      Woke up at 5:00 and felt a little trickle of fluid

·      Thought it might be urine, so got up to go to the washroom

·      Made it to the toilet just in time for a huge gush of water to come out

·      Felt like it would never stop

·      Felt elated and so happy that this was happening

·      Heart pounding, called out to K2 who came running into the washroom to see what was happening

·      K2 began to organize the bags and bring them into the car

·      I called the hospital to tell them what was happening

·      Hospital told us to wait for contractions to begin and if they didn’t begin by 3:00 to call again

·      Passed my mucous plug at around 5:30 am

·      Called my parents and Tanya to tell them what was happening

·      Took a shower and packed remaining items into bags

·      Went for two walks outside, but the weather was so hot that I couldn’t stay out too long

 

Saturday August 15, 2009

37 weeks 1 day

·      K2 did some weeding in the garden and went out to get more cat food

·      At 2:00pm, I called the hospital and they told us to come on in

·      Once at the hospital, the nurses asked if we were sure that my water had broken.  I told them that I was sure because we had almost drowned.  They all laughed.

·      We were taken to the birthing suite and told to change into the hospital gown provided

·      We had no clue how to snap up the gown, but K2 finally figured it out and I changed into it

·      A nurse named Angela came in and put cardiac monitors on my belly as well as a uterine monitor

·      She then put an IV into my arm that would deliver high doses of Oxytocin to help the contractions begin.

·      Mom and dad arrived shortly after 4:00pm to be there while we labored

·      I began having small contractions, but on a pain scale of 1-10, I classified them as a 2

·      J. called from just outside of New Brunswick (where he and L. were away on vacation) and said that he was on his way home

·      At 7:00pm, Angela left for home and a new nurse named Nicole took over.  Nicole would see us through to delivery the next day

·      Pain started getting more intense, but still nothing that I couldn’t handle.

·      By 10:00pm, the nurse checked me and I was only a fingertip dilated, so she advised that my parents should head home to get some rest and promised to call them back to the hospital when I was about 7cm dilated. 

·      Nicole kept increasing the amount of Oxytocin until the pain of the contractions was almost too much to bear

·      I couldn’t get comfortable because I had to keep the monitors in place to keep track of the babies’ heart rates

·      I couldn’t get a break from the contractions as they were coming one after another at least every two minutes

·      I held K2’s hand through each contraction and squeezed it so hard while breathing through each one

·      At one point, I had to use the washroom and when I stood up, I felt some relief from the pain.  I decided to stay standing through the contractions and to hold on to K2’s neck while I did

·      Unfortunately, the monitors wouldn’t pick up Baby Boy’s heart rate while standing, so I had to lie down again

·      By 12:00am, I was begging everyone for an epidural but since I was only 2-3cm dilated, they wouldn’t give me one (they like to wait until at least 4cm)

·      However, our nurse knew the agony I was in and went to ask the doctor if they could give the epidural to me early – he agreed, but it took until 1:00am for the anesthesiologist to arrive with the goods

·      The anesthesiologist asked me to turn onto my side, washed my back with some solution, put a drape over my back and inserted some numbing medication before putting in the catheter – this was a breeze

·      Within a few minutes, my contractions were no longer painful and I was a very happy camper

·      K2 and I were told to try to get some sleep so that we could be strong for delivery

·      K2 fell asleep in the chair/couch but I couldn’t sleep

·      Nurses kept coming in to monitor my vitals, to increase Oxytocin and to check on me

·      At 2:00am, J. called to say that he was home

·      By 3:00am, Nicole decided to check my dilation and found that I was 9cm dilated and +2 station.  She looked at me and told me that I should call my parents immediately.

·      We called my parents and J. and they arrived about an hour later

·      Another woman was in need of an emergency c-section, so the doctor came in to assess me first and decided that we could wait until the other woman was delivered

·      I remember feeling a huge sense of relief because I was terrified of a vaginal delivery

·      At about 6:30am, I was starting to feel some pain in my right side and got worried that the epidural was not working properly

·      Nicole came in and said it was soon time to roll me into the OR

·      K2 was given some scrubs to wear (a robe-type thing, booties, a mask and a head protector)

·      As I was being rolled into the OR, I saw my parents, J. and L. in the waiting area.  L. called out, “You go girl!’ as I was being rolled in.

·      Once in the OR, they moved me from my birthing bed to an OR bed and put my legs in stirrups

·      The nurses asked me to push with one contraction to see how quickly I would progress.  One of the nurses said I would need some time to push

·      The doctor came in, asked the nurses about my pushing, then said he would be just outside at the nurses’ station

·      The clock said 6:50am

·      It was difficult to know how to push, since I was fairly numb, but I listened to what the nurses said and began to get a feel for the right kind of pushing

·      With every contraction, I would bear down and hope to feel something

·      K2 pushed my shoulders up with every contraction since the OR bed was totally flat

·      At one point I looked up at him and he had broken out in a big sweat

·      Soon, I could feel the pressure of Baby Boy’s head very low and felt that he had the hiccups

·      With another big push, I felt the pop of his head being born and was then told to stop pushing.  So many people were telling me things that I couldn’t hear and didn’t know if I was supposed to push or not push.

·      Before I knew it, Baby Boy’s entire body was delivered and placed on my belly. I couldn’t really see his face because they had placed him on me facing away from me, so I just rubbed his arms and waited for him to cry. K2 cut his cord and the baby was whisked away to the Special Care Nursery

·      I can’t begin to describe the mix of shock, elation, happiness and excitement I felt at this time. 

·      The doctor checked to see the position of Baby Girl and she was still head down, but turned to the side. He asked Nicole to reach in and feel the suture lines of Baby Girl’s head so that she could try to tell which way the baby was facing. 

·      He reached in and turned her so that she was head down.

·      Pushing began for Baby Girl and within 30 minutes or so that same familiar pop of her head being delivered was felt.  The rest of her body was delivered quickly and once born, she peed on the doctor while on my belly. K2 cut her cord and she, too, was whisked away to the Special Care Nursery

·      At this point, the doctor said that he had some work to do on me (had to stitch up a 2^nd degree tear and deliver placentas, so he told K2 that he could go with the babies to check on them, to take pictures and to give news to our family waiting in the hall.

·      The placentas wouldn’t detach, so the doctor had to massage my belly (massaging really hard) and then reach up into my uterus to dislodge them

·      It was the worse pain I have ever felt in my entire life

·      He asked the nurse to give me nitrous oxide for the pain, but it didn’t help

·      I squeezed Angela’s hand (she was now back on shift) that I’m sure I broke it

·      After about half of an hour, the placentas came out and the doctor began to sew me back up

·      I really wish that K2 could have been there through that part of the delivery

·      The nurses helped me onto my original bed, gave Baby Girl to me to hold, and wheeled me back to the birthing suite where my family was waiting

·      I remember being very emotional as they wheeled me into the room.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of Baby Girl and at the same time, I was terrified for Baby Boy

·      My family and K2 assured me that our son was okay and that he just needed some monitoring for now

·      The nurse allowed me to have some skin-to-skin time with Baby Girl and told me that as soon as I could pee (I had had a catheter) I could see my son.  I was up and peeing before anyone could blink

·      The nurse wheeled me into the NICU so that I could see our boy

·      He was hooked up to some oxygen monitors and had an IV in his hand, but otherwise looked perfect

·      I hated that he had to be poked and prodded, but knew that it was for his health

·      An x-ray revealed that our son had lower right lobe pneumonia and he would have to be on a 7 day course of antibiotics before he would be released from the hospital

·      Blood tests revealed that our daughter was born with an antibody that elevated her immature white blood cell count and which made her more prone to jaundice

·      Within a day, our daughter had to be put under the bilirubin lights for 24 hours

·      It was incredibly difficult to know that both of our children had to be in the NICU and it was lonely for K2 and I to be without them in a hospital room

·      The NICU nurses would call K2 and I when it was time for feedings and we would make the long walk to the NICU to care for our babies.  I usually cried all the way back to our room after we left them

·      The nurses at this particular hospital couldn’t have been nicer to K2 and I.  They all knew we wanted a private room (if we weren’t able to get a private room, K2 would not have been able to stay the nights with us) so they moved heaven and earth to ensure that we had one.  It meant that we had to change rooms often, but it also meant that we could all stay together as a family for the week. 

·      On Tuesday, we were moved to a pediatric room (it was the only private room available) and we asked the NICU doctor if we could have our boy and girl bunk with us in that room instead of having them in the NICU.  The doctor agreed that our boy was stable enough and our girl was out of danger and allowed us to be together in the room as a family of four.  It meant that the NICU nurses would have to come in every hour to check vitals on both babies and to give doses of antibiotics, but this was a small price to pay for being able to be together.

·      Our girl was slowly losing a lot of weight and by Wednesday she had lost almost 10% of her birth weight.  She would not be discharged until her jaundice levels lowered and until she gained back some weight.

·      The rest of the week went by slowly.  Thankfully, we had family who came to visit (we limited friends’ visits because of the nature of the babies’ illnesses) which made the time go by quickly.  One of the nurses brought K2 and I 20+ DVDs of movies to watch (this particular room had a plasma TV donated to it) but we were only able to watch a portion of a couple of movies

·      On Saturday, the doctor told us that our girl was ready to be discharged and that our boy would be discharged after his 6:00am dose of antibiotic on Sunday morning.  He said that as soon as the doctor on call came to see us Sunday morning, we could leave.

·      We asked if we could, instead, leave right after the 6:00am dose, and he agreed.

·      We were so excited to finally be coming home that after the 5:00am feeding on Sunday morning, we packed up and waited for our last dose of antibiotic

·      We were on the long road home by 6:30am - we've never seen a more beautiful sunrise as we did on the dy we brought our babies home