June 09, 2005
Our Birth Adventure
I figured I better get this down now while it is relatively still fresh in my mind.
I started having mild tightening and some contractions on my birthday at about 3 a.m. I stayed up all night sitting on the couch just watching the time pass, having mild pains about every six minutes all night long. At around 7 a.m. I got up and showered for work, got the girls ready and started making my way into the office. Once I got into the office I continued having pains and although they weren't really painful I figured it was time to go home and get our bags packed just incase things started speeding up out of nowhere.
Once home I rested on the couch for a bit since I had been up all night. Woke up after a little nap, had something to eat, JJ and I went for a walk to the Canex ... basically trying to get things going. It seemed though the more effort I put into bringing on the contractions the more I could feel them getting further apart and not quite as strong. So I hopped onto the couch and had another nap, once I woke around 5 p.m. or so ... they were gone. I couldn't believe it. I had been up with pains for more than twelve hours and they were gone.
My night pretty much just continued with me doing a lot more eating and lazing around on the couch waiting for any kind of a twinge or sign that the pains were coming back. Eventually JJ and I went to bed around midnight and so. JJ and I decided that we would try fooling around one more time to see if that would bring on and any and well it was my birthday and all. So not two seconds after rolling over I was having pains again, but this was not overly uncommon so I didn't get too excited yet. JJ fell fast asleep and I decided to go back to my regular night spot "the couch" to watch more TV. I was a little hungry so I reheated my chinese food and sat down to watch a little CSI. At this point I'm noticing the pains getting much stronger and although normally I would have pains after fooling around these were actually painful. By the time CSI was over and I ate enough rice for three people I figured I better wake JJ up to get his bag ready just incase. Even though the pains were toe curling bad at this point and coming every six minutes on the dot I just didn't trust that they would stay. So I go upstairs and the second I open the bedroom door JJ wakes up and I let him know to start getting his bag ready just incase and I lay in bed for another hour or so in horrible pain coming at five minutes intervals while JJ tries to talk me into going to the hospital just incase. Eventually he convinces me to go for a drive so he could get a coffee and so we could see if the pains continued once I was up and moving around and atleast then we would be closer to the hospital. So I got up to go pee before getting dressed and there was a lot of blood, so that was all I needed to tell me that things were definetly going now. It seems once I got up and started moving around getting dressed the pains were getting worst and worst. I had two pains just trying to get down the stairs to the main level to get out to the van. JJ had everything ready, the bags in the van, the van on and ready to go and he even took he time to take out the garbage and cover his precious van seat with a garbage bags since as he said "the van hadn't made it in for its stain protection yet". I jumped in and we started making our way over to the Grace. I would have to say probably the longest fifteen minute drive of my life and I never really noticed how many pot holes and bumps were on that road until then. My pains at this point were about three minutes apart and the whole drive I was so scared I wouldn't get there in time for an epidural. This was my only fear throughout the whole pregnancy.
We get to the hospital and for some reason I tell JJ to park on the street instead of in the parkade or at the door. So it takes us a few minutes to walk over to the hospital and get into admitting, by this point I am doubled over in pain. I walk into admitting and before giving them my name ask for an epidural. When I got into the assessment unit they checked me and the nurse said I was three centimetres dialated. I was shocked that I was only three centimetres. I didn't even know my body did that. With both girls by the time I got to the hospital I was seven or eight, I didn't even know my body could be at three. My pains were bad enough that the nice epidural came in and fixed me up and that's when everything slowed down again. I just laid in the hospital dozing in and out while poor JJ sat in a chair staring at me. Then the doc came in at around 7:30 a.m. an broke my water because I had only progressed to four centimetres and she figured it was time to get the show on the road. I started having a lot of pain again, I thought it was just pressure that they kept telling me I would feel but eventually we realized it was labour again and they topped off the epidural for me again. They checked me again and I was fully dialated and ready to go but we waited for the doctor to get there. Since I was so frozen with the epidural I never felt the need to push. Once the doctor showed up they asked me to start pushing. At first I didn't want to because I anticipated the pain of pushing her out but eventually realizing I would never get out of that hospital room without pushing a baby out of me I started to push. It only took a few short pushes and babys head was out. The doctor had to quickly cut the cord out from around her neck and then I pushed the rest of her out. As she was coming out she pooped right away, then they handed her to me and she peed all over my arm. What a cutie eh? I was so shocked she was a girl I couldn't believe it. The whole pregnancy I was so convinced she was a boy! She was beautiful I couldn't believe my eyes. The doctor was amazed she was so big, she said she expected her to be around 6 lbs and she turned out to be a nice healthy 8 lbs 9 oz. My first glance at her I thought she looked just like JJ's mom and definetly JJ's lips and chin and she had soo much hair.
We spent our first night together at the hospital and it went well. She really is a great baby. I was released the next morning around 24 hours after giving birth and really felt amazingly well for having just pushed out a baby. I wasn't swollen or sore or even tired really for that matter. My body felt amazingly well, I was really rather surprised. We had a few problems with nursing at first, but everything has healed in that area and we are well on our way with breastfeeding now.
If "baking babies" didn't take 40 weeks I would certainly have a dozen of them!
I started having mild tightening and some contractions on my birthday at about 3 a.m. I stayed up all night sitting on the couch just watching the time pass, having mild pains about every six minutes all night long. At around 7 a.m. I got up and showered for work, got the girls ready and started making my way into the office. Once I got into the office I continued having pains and although they weren't really painful I figured it was time to go home and get our bags packed just incase things started speeding up out of nowhere.
Once home I rested on the couch for a bit since I had been up all night. Woke up after a little nap, had something to eat, JJ and I went for a walk to the Canex ... basically trying to get things going. It seemed though the more effort I put into bringing on the contractions the more I could feel them getting further apart and not quite as strong. So I hopped onto the couch and had another nap, once I woke around 5 p.m. or so ... they were gone. I couldn't believe it. I had been up with pains for more than twelve hours and they were gone.
My night pretty much just continued with me doing a lot more eating and lazing around on the couch waiting for any kind of a twinge or sign that the pains were coming back. Eventually JJ and I went to bed around midnight and so. JJ and I decided that we would try fooling around one more time to see if that would bring on and any and well it was my birthday and all. So not two seconds after rolling over I was having pains again, but this was not overly uncommon so I didn't get too excited yet. JJ fell fast asleep and I decided to go back to my regular night spot "the couch" to watch more TV. I was a little hungry so I reheated my chinese food and sat down to watch a little CSI. At this point I'm noticing the pains getting much stronger and although normally I would have pains after fooling around these were actually painful. By the time CSI was over and I ate enough rice for three people I figured I better wake JJ up to get his bag ready just incase. Even though the pains were toe curling bad at this point and coming every six minutes on the dot I just didn't trust that they would stay. So I go upstairs and the second I open the bedroom door JJ wakes up and I let him know to start getting his bag ready just incase and I lay in bed for another hour or so in horrible pain coming at five minutes intervals while JJ tries to talk me into going to the hospital just incase. Eventually he convinces me to go for a drive so he could get a coffee and so we could see if the pains continued once I was up and moving around and atleast then we would be closer to the hospital. So I got up to go pee before getting dressed and there was a lot of blood, so that was all I needed to tell me that things were definetly going now. It seems once I got up and started moving around getting dressed the pains were getting worst and worst. I had two pains just trying to get down the stairs to the main level to get out to the van. JJ had everything ready, the bags in the van, the van on and ready to go and he even took he time to take out the garbage and cover his precious van seat with a garbage bags since as he said "the van hadn't made it in for its stain protection yet". I jumped in and we started making our way over to the Grace. I would have to say probably the longest fifteen minute drive of my life and I never really noticed how many pot holes and bumps were on that road until then. My pains at this point were about three minutes apart and the whole drive I was so scared I wouldn't get there in time for an epidural. This was my only fear throughout the whole pregnancy.
We get to the hospital and for some reason I tell JJ to park on the street instead of in the parkade or at the door. So it takes us a few minutes to walk over to the hospital and get into admitting, by this point I am doubled over in pain. I walk into admitting and before giving them my name ask for an epidural. When I got into the assessment unit they checked me and the nurse said I was three centimetres dialated. I was shocked that I was only three centimetres. I didn't even know my body did that. With both girls by the time I got to the hospital I was seven or eight, I didn't even know my body could be at three. My pains were bad enough that the nice epidural came in and fixed me up and that's when everything slowed down again. I just laid in the hospital dozing in and out while poor JJ sat in a chair staring at me. Then the doc came in at around 7:30 a.m. an broke my water because I had only progressed to four centimetres and she figured it was time to get the show on the road. I started having a lot of pain again, I thought it was just pressure that they kept telling me I would feel but eventually we realized it was labour again and they topped off the epidural for me again. They checked me again and I was fully dialated and ready to go but we waited for the doctor to get there. Since I was so frozen with the epidural I never felt the need to push. Once the doctor showed up they asked me to start pushing. At first I didn't want to because I anticipated the pain of pushing her out but eventually realizing I would never get out of that hospital room without pushing a baby out of me I started to push. It only took a few short pushes and babys head was out. The doctor had to quickly cut the cord out from around her neck and then I pushed the rest of her out. As she was coming out she pooped right away, then they handed her to me and she peed all over my arm. What a cutie eh? I was so shocked she was a girl I couldn't believe it. The whole pregnancy I was so convinced she was a boy! She was beautiful I couldn't believe my eyes. The doctor was amazed she was so big, she said she expected her to be around 6 lbs and she turned out to be a nice healthy 8 lbs 9 oz. My first glance at her I thought she looked just like JJ's mom and definetly JJ's lips and chin and she had soo much hair.
We spent our first night together at the hospital and it went well. She really is a great baby. I was released the next morning around 24 hours after giving birth and really felt amazingly well for having just pushed out a baby. I wasn't swollen or sore or even tired really for that matter. My body felt amazingly well, I was really rather surprised. We had a few problems with nursing at first, but everything has healed in that area and we are well on our way with breastfeeding now.
If "baking babies" didn't take 40 weeks I would certainly have a dozen of them!
