Warning: contains detailed information not everyone might want to know or read about.
Wednesday morning – 3:30am – I am having some lovely back labour Braxton hicks – 10 minutes apart for an hour. I was going to wake Adam and say – “I think it’s time” – but they started to peeter off. So back to sleep.
9:30 am – doctor’s appointment where I get an internal – find out I am 3 cm dilated, and the doctor offered to strip my membranes (a way that sometimes helps bring on labour) – I am all for it – let’s get this party started.
Come home (by the way, Jackie is with me all day), and contractions started around 11:30am – but they are not consistent – and with the amount of Braxton Hicks I have had – who knows.
1:00pm – I start writing them down – becoming more painful and definitely more consistent – Adam has been notified of possible impending “come home” phone call.
3:15 – Adam calls to check in with me – just as I am reaching for the phone to say, I need help – the contractions are about 12 minutes apart – but I am now dealing with a toddler as well (oh and I am being blessed with both back and front contractions).
On his way home, Adam called his Mom to come in – she is coming from work in Banff – but has to stop at home – so she is a good 2 hours out. Once he is home, he called our in the city, come as soon as possible person – Brenda to come over. She has just left work and heads right over. Contractions are now ‘stop me in my spot’ and 10 minutes part. Once she arrived, this gave us a bit of time to go through a few things and then head out the door.
On the 20 minute drive to the hospital the contractions are 8 minutes apart – very hard core back labour.
We arrived at the hospital and there are no assessment (triage) rooms available – so off to the waiting room, but thankfully 15-20 minutes later a room opens up.
Once in triage, I am hooked up to the machine that monitors the baby’s heart beat and my contractions. The contractions are okay – still mostly in the back, but not horrific… yet.
After an hour in triage, the nurse comes in and says we have a room ready in delivery – time to move. Anderson had been moving A LOT and this point and they were having a hard time getting a good read on his heart rate, so as soon as we are in the delivery room, they check me – 5 cm – and attach a heart rate monitor to Anderson’s head.
Immediately – I ask for the epidural – I am not a martyr like last time and the back labour pain is horrific.
It take a little bit to get the anaesthesiologist, but about 8pm he arrives and gives me the sweet bliss of drugs. Another check – 7cm. But Anderson is upside down (babies are suppose to be face down coming through the birth canal – he is face up – the cause of so much back pain), so the doctor works on turning him – she was successful – but oh, am I glad I had an epidural for that ‘fun’ procedure.
Now we are at 8:45ish – I send Adam to get himself some coffee and a bite to eat – I am doing well and we are just waiting for those last 3 cm and the “urge to push.”
Adam is still gone, the doctor comes in to check me – I am guessing the nurse saw something on the monitor I did not – but once the doctor came in she said we need to push now! Adam is not even in the room – I said can’t we wait – the doctor said – we will page him – but the baby is in a bit of distress (low heart beat – we found out later it was down to 50-70 beats / min), so we need to push.
At that moment Adam came in the door – he walks in to me in full position – doctor right there and nurses moving around – it was a pretty full room. But he made it for the first push – the doctor said she would give me 3 pushes to get him out – after that she needs to use the vacuum. Well, after 3 pushes he was not quite there, so on goes the vacuum and he came on the 4th push.
Once out, everything was fine – I am not really sure why the heart rate dropped so much and I guess it doesn’t really matter, he is out and perfect.
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