Bringing baby into the world part one....

So since my last post what has happened?. About ten minutes after posting my last entry Chris came down stairs apparently the insomnia was contagious. We watched a B list movie "Solomon Kane" and waited for McDonald's to open up. We drove down to McDonald's and had our breakfast at around 6:00am and tried to relax before our trip to the hospital at 7:30 am. When we made it to the hospital they hooked me up to a fetal monitor for about 40 minutes, then we waited for the doctor to arrive to assess us and begin induction. By about 2:30 pm the doctor finally arrived, he had been busy all morning delivering babies as apparently half the city went into labour on their own. I was still only one cm dilated, there wasn't enough nursing staff to monitor me through induction so the doctor gave me a quick ultrasound to ensure the baby was not in distress and sent us home to come back on Thursday (May 20th).

I was a little bit annoyed but also a bit relieved the weather was so nice on Tuesday that the labour room we were in was like a sauna, that coupled with the lack of sleep would have left me too exhausted for labour. My Mom and Dad arrived at our house a few hours later and we were able to get them situated in the house and have a bit of a visit.

Wednesday a package arrived in the mail from our friends Ed and Heather!!, It was the perfect pick me up after a disappointing day the day before. It had a set of cute onesies, some pink receiving blankets and an awesome pink blanket with a fluffy little bunny (which is now the babies bedtime blanket of choice)!!. Thank you both so much!!!. We spent the day walking around downtown with my parents and went out for lunch at a nice little restaurant on the waterfront we tried to enjoy our day as we knew Thursday we would be gone all day for round two of induction.

Thursday came and Chris and I both managed to get a better sleep (despite me having a bit of mild contractions that were spaced out irregularly) we woke up and prepared ourselves for the hospital. We arrived and had the fetal monitor placed on us and then proceeded to await for our assessment. Eventually the head doctor walked in, the best way to describe her would be a blond female version of Kramer from Seinfeld. She checked my cervix and lo and behold I was 2cm dilated and 50% effaced!! WooHoo!!!. She left me for awhile and eventually MY doctor came in and assessed me. Nothing had changed and it looked as if the labour ward was just as busy today as it had been on Tuesday. She checked me in so I would be in the front of the queue for Friday morning and then we waited around. A few hours later they brought me lunch (Beef stew with a side of Beef barely soup, I guess they got a good deal on beef that week). Chris left to go get some lunch and also picked up a copy of "Chuck Norris cannot be stopped" for us to read while we were in labour. I have to say I was truly unaware that the best part of waking up was not Folgers in your cup, but the fact that Chuck Norris did not kill you in your sleep. At about 1:30 another doctor came in and let me know they had no time for me today and that there was a bed shortage she may have to move me to a different area of the hospital. I let her know if she wanted we could go home and come back on Friday and she phoned my doctor to okay it. Which she did!.

When we got home my Mom had begun scrubbing my house from top to bottom (the first words she said to us when we walked through the door were "you're out of steel wool") and my Dad had begun making some repairs around the house. Everyone was a bit disappointed but My mom had made Lasagna for dinner so all was good after all!!!. We sat down for dinner and watched a few episodes of "Modern family", I started to notice my contractions were getting closer and closer together. I started to time them at around 6:30 and as soon as everyone else noticed my marking times they began to get edgy. "You should go to the hospital your only 7 minutes apart", I refused, I was not going back to the hospital until there was no way they could send me home. We decided to take the dogs to the park at around 8:00pm to ensure it wasn't false labour, by the time we got home my contractions were no longer small little cramps but sharp stabs of pain in my abdomen lasting 30 seconds at a time, three minutes apart. Still I realised that labour is a time consuming process and I wanted to be absolutely sure we were staying this time so we waited until about a quarter to ten to begin to drive to the hospital. At this point the pain was bad enough I had to stop moving when a contraction hit.

We made it to the hospital, once again we were strapped up to the fetal heart monitor, the RN on duty checked my cervix 4 cm dilated, SCORE!!! we were getting somewhere. ~turns out no one else was impressed with my measly 4cm. Time for you to go walk the halls for an hour. We changed out of our hospital gown and began our circular trek through the halls. Each time we looped around to the washroom I had to duck in. The pain was getting pretty darn bad at this point. I made a point of informing Chris that he had best enjoy having one child because that's all we we're having. We passed by the Nursery window and saw a new baby getting his or her exam and watching the little stinker took away a bit of the pain as I became more excited to meet our little bundle. Later on at the labour ward hearing other babies first screams and squeals as they made there way into the world worked pretty good at numbing the pain as well.

We made our trip around and around for an hour or so and went back to our room where the contractions were getting worse. I was assessed again and nothing had changed I was getting pretty tired and just wanted to nap but the intensity of the contractions was making that dream an impossibility. A few hours later my Doctor came in and realised I was still only 4 cm dilated, she asked if I was okay with her breaking my waters to speed up the labour process. I agreed, she began to poke around inside of me trying to rupture my membranes, which I will tell you right now hurts quite a bit, I will also make note that having your cervix checked is no peach either in the pain department, now both of these combined when your in labour are a f*cking nightmare. I looked down on the pad they had placed beneath me and saw green mixed in the waters and I knew that the baby was sitting in a womb filled with meconium ( babies first stools). The fetal monitor was placed back on and the nurse came in a bit more frequently to check the read out.

They placed an I.V onto my arm to administer the antibiotic for the group B strep and I waited. I would say about half an hour later I began throwing up, Chris was running to me with a bucket each time I needed it, he almost ended up gagging on me himself. About an hour or so after the throwing up began my body began to convulse involuntarily, the pain of my contractions ran down my legs and through my abdomen. The best way to describe the feeling of a contraction is the pain you get in your stomach when you have to throw up coupled with the pain of diarrhea cramps and menstral cramps. I was miserable. Finally the Nurse came in and asked if I wanted an epidural after hours of this and still only being dilated to 4cm I said yes, I didn't care if it lasted long enough for the pushing stage of labour, I just needed to take a nap and have some relief.

The nurse popped in before the anesthesiologist and took a look at my chart, "okay I need you to lie down on your left side now" she said pleasantly "the baby seems to like it better". I knew she was saying the babies heart rate was dropping to a level of concern. I rolled to my side and apparently the babies rate came back up as she told me to stay in that position and left the room with my read out again. The anesthesiologist came in and I could hear him talking behind me He sounded just like Alan Rickman, I could hear him talking to the nurse asking why I wasn't being taken to the O.R right away for a c-section as they both knew which direction this labour was going in. "Thanks guy~ I'M IN THE ROOM!!!!" The epidural was in and shortly after I was a much happier camper. I turned to Chris and remember saying "Stupid f*cking hippies and their natural childbirth, if they like pain so much I should go beat them with a hammer" (no offense to anyone who has done the natural labour thing in fact congrats to you for the endurance!!! ~at that point I was relieved from the pain and angry at how flowery all the books had made childbirth sound).

Two nurses came back and asked if they could put a fetal scalp monitor on the baby, I agreed as I knew that her heart rate was not doing too good and they needed to watch her closely. The nurse was now coming in to check the read every five minutes or so. My doctor came back and they explained to me that I may need a c-section if the baby became distressed but that it wasn't something they were concerned about at that time. The doctor left and about ten minutes later the nurse came running in and told me to put my face down on the cushions and my bottom in the air, she stuck an air mask on me and the Doctor came in and told us we needed to go to the O.R, if we had dilated any further than 4 cm or were making any progress she would let us try labour but the baby's heart rate was already dipping they didn't think she could handle the trip through the birth canal. Chris was given his scrubs and the nurses started to suit up. After staying in that position for a little while it was deemed safe enough for me to lay on my back to be rolled into the operating room.

Chris had to wait in the hall while they set me up. I was moved to the operating table, they put up my curtain, put my oxygen mask on and I could feel them cut open my hospital gown and begin to paint me up. The anesthesiologist came and told me he had upped my epidural and I should only feel pressure not any of the cutting but if I felt any pain to let him know right away. A few minutes later Chris showed up but at that point I didn't really notice him, I could feel hands pushing around inside of me, while not painful it is a very disturbing feeling. It felt like they were digging around inside of me forever, I just kept my ears perked up listening for the sound of my baby's cries. Finally there it was a blood curdling scream and my eyes began to water up. I forced the tears back I wasn't going to be one of those women who cried in the labour room. I was just so relieved that she was okay.

I will never forget Chris, he stood up just like a meerkat and peeked at the baby over the curtain at the cleaning station, his eyes were lit up and he had the goofiest grin I swear you could see his smile through the mask he was wearing. The nurse brought the baby around to meet us when she has done being checked out and the pediatrician came around to tell us she was doing good. He said when a baby is stuck with its meconium for awhile they are usually not so robust but my daughters loud screams were a great sign she was strong and she didn't have too much goo in her lungs. Chris and I had a few pictures taken then he was given the baby and had to leave the O.R. I was there for what seemed like an eternity while they stitched me back up and took our cord blood sample. I was so tired and just wanted to nap but I refused to fall asleep until I met my baby, by the time they had me fixed up and moved to a new hospital bed I was eager to go meet my girl.

Unfortunately I had to be put into observation for 45 minutes to ensure I recovered from the drugs properly. The nurses in recovery apparently heard the baby wailing and were laughing at how loud she was, I guess she was pretty upset about being evicted from her cozy womb home. When I was finally able to be moved into the Mom and baby recovery unit I was so tired but then I saw Chris with a giant bundle of blankets and a tiny little head poking through. I was finally able to hold my baby and relax.