Samuel’s Birth

Saturday February 14th, I started feeling sick again. Not the headache and blurred vision or I would probably have gone back in to get checked, but I was having abdominal pain and nausea. I went about my normal evening routine and watched some TV and I remember that I commented to my husband that I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions. But they weren’t painful and they certainly weren’t in any discernible pattern.

I went to bed at about midnight and slept until almost 2:00 but the pain was getting worse. I got up and wandered around the house; checked my email, Facebook, and Babyfit accounts but found I really couldn’t focus. I kept trying to go back to sleep but I just couldn’t get to sleep and I couldn’t seem to find anything that I could concentrate on except my discomfort. I went through this cycle of trying to sleep and getting up and wandering around several times.

I was not having noticeable contractions at all – except the occasional Braxton Hicks. What I was having was pain all around my rib cage and back but it was so high up that I honestly didn’t think that it could be related to labour. Not that it didn’t cross my mind, of course, but I figured that was just wishful thinking. It didn’t feel like any of my previous labours at all.

Still, I was pretty miserable and I finally went and got in a nice hot bath and it did seem to help and so I dosed there for around an hour or so. I got up and went back to bed thinking maybe I’d get back to sleep after all.

I laid down and decided I had to get up to pee again. (Even though I had just gone.) I felt a trickle of fluid down there as I got up, and I wondered if my water could have broke but decided it was probably just that I hadn’t dried off well enough from the bath tub. The sensation of leaking (just a tiny bit) continued my whole walk to the bathroom and then I had a bigger gush into the toilet.

This is the point where I finally clued in that I was in labour but I thought that it must still be very early because I wasn’t having contractions at all. (My other labours have all been quite long, my shortest one about 13 ½ hours.)

I was immediately concerned, though, because the fluid was not at all clear, it was very murky and I knew that was not a good sign.

I woke up my husband and he made me call in to labour and delivery. This was at 6:00 in the morning on Sunday the 15th. Of course they told me to come in and be assessed but I said that I have to find a babysitter for my other kids and it might be a couple of hours until we got there. My husband heard me telling them this and told me that we’d take the kids and go right away.

So, I got off the phone and started waking up kids. We told them to hurry and get dressed because we needed to leave right away. They were tired and cranky and confused. My oldest son was getting into his church clothes – he knew it was Sunday and we were in a hurry but he didn’t know what was really going on.

I was very scatter brained and had no idea what I needed to bring. Of course I didn’t have anything ready to go – I was going to be induced later in the week and had plenty of time!

We ended up going with pretty much nothing.

By the time we were in the vehicle and driving I was getting definite contractions. I was starting to get excited – I was really going into labour without an induction!

I was irritated by the paperwork going through emergency at the hospital as I was getting quite uncomfortable and I was pre-registered and I had phoned in already. I was embarrassed that I had to sit down and go through that because I was leaking right through my pad, underwear and pants by this time and I wanted to get up to L &D.

Anyway, we got up there, still with 4 kids in tow and my husband settled them in a waiting room and came with me for them to test the fluid and “check” me. I was only 2cm dilated but it was definitely amniotic fluid. I was right that there was meconium in the fluid and I was worried about that but they told me not to worry it’s very common.

We had already phoned my mother-in-law to meet us at the hospital and take the kids to her house.

They put me on the monitors for a while. The standard NST which I’d done so many times in the last few weeks already. By the time that was done my mil arrived and took the kids.

As soon as they were gone they moved me from the assessment room to one of the labour & delivery rooms. They gave me the hospital robe to wear and a giant diaper for the fluid leaking and told me to spend as many contractions as I could upright because the baby was really high and that would help him to move down.

We walked down to the cafeteria to get my husband some breakfast – a muffin and juice so that he could walk and eat at the same time. We walked the halls for a little while but I feeling really uncomfortable. Both in terms of the contractions picking up and also because I was paranoid that I would be visibly leaking fluid.

We got back to the room and I was starting to find the contractions hard to deal with so the nurses recommended that I get in the shower to help take the edge off. This was what I wanted to do anyway, as that was what got me through my youngest daughter’s birth. (Her’s was my first time making it through without taking anything for the pain.) I don’t have any idea how long I was in the shower but it was getting really hard to cope and I was moaning pretty loudly so they made me get out so they could check me. I was already 6-7.

I don’t know what time any of these things happened other than my water broke just shortly before 6:00am.

They wanted to put in a IV and I asked if that would mean I couldn’t get back in the shower because I really wanted to get back in. They put in the IV and I was starting to feel pressure and get “grunty”. They must have called my OB because he showed up but I don’t know when they called him.

The pain and pressure, and the contractions were so hard to deal with at that point that I was screaming a bit. They had warned me earlier that it would be very important to not push when they told me to stop because they needed to suction the baby as soon as the head was born (because of the meconium in the fluid). I could feel the involuntary pushing in my body. I had the urge to push as well and I had to do it, I couldn’t not do it – and I was screaming as the head came out. My husband told me the head was out and then the nurses were all in my face not to push. Which was OK, because I didn’t even feel the urge for that time period and they suctioned him and then the doctor told me to push again and baby came the rest of the way out. It was 9:07 am. My husband told me that he was definitely a boy.

They took him away to the NICU right away only showing him to me for long enough to give him one little kiss.

weight: 6 pound 11 oz./3030 g
length: 19 inches/48.25 cm
He has those dark blue/grey eyes common to newborns, I expect they’ll turn lighter blue like all his siblings and he has only “peach fuzz” for hair. Strawberry blond at the moment.

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Oh, and here’s my Babyfit journal if you want more baby-related chatter.

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November 5, 2008
My doctor prescribed insulin for me today.

Baby’s heart rate is still in the 150’s. And my blood pressure is still really good so far.

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October 23, 2008
I neglected to record this sooner because I’m not sure how much I trust it and I don’t want to get all excited about whichever gender only to find out that it’s the other. However, the educated guess put forth by the ultrasound tech is that we’re having a BOY!

Which, if true, will be so much easier because for reasons that I don’t understand myself, we have a lot more boy clothes that are still usable than girl clothes. I’m not throwing/giving anything away until this is confirmed, however. Also, we have a boy’s name picked out but are totally butting heads over girls’ names. (And no, I’m not going to tell you any further name details until this baby is in my arms. We have to have something left to announce on his birthday, you know.)

Also in the ultrasound report, they noted that I have a low-lying placenta that could possibly mean that I end up with “placenta previa” and need a c-section. Statistically, this is not really likely to be a problem and so I choose not to really worry about it at this point. If it’s still looking like a potential problem at my next ultrasound (at about 30-32 weeks) then I can start to worry about it.

And hopefully, that will also be the chance to confirm the gender. I don’t really care whether our baby is a girl or a boy… it would just be nice to know which.

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September 15, 2008 — I had the ultrasound today. I’m 15 weeks, 6 days pregnant. I’ve changed the ticker to reflect that. That puts my EDD as March 4, 2009. Baby looks fine, heart rate 148, about 5 oz. The tech put the sex in her report but apparently can’t tell us. I wonder if the doctor will just tell us, or if I’ll have to ask… because if I have to ask, I might just wait. 18-20 weeks is optimal for getting a good look at baby’s sex so it’s still a bit early to be sure anyway. Honestly, I feel a bit let down by this whole experience. I guess I’d just built it up in my mind too much.

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September 10, 2008 — Update: Today I heard the heartbeat for the first time. Doctor said it was about 154, and that that’s great. Also, he decided to send me for an ultrasound which is booked for Monday the 15th! Usually it takes a month to get in but they had a cancellation so I will get to “see” the baby in only 5 more days! I am SO EXCITED!

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I took this picture (and this test) June 28, 2008.