Details

This post may provide Too Much Information about the birth of my sweet baby, and is definitely too long, so feel free to stop reading.

Around 10:30 PM on Friday April 8th I was getting ready for bed and I lost my mucus plug. I knew that this did not necessarily mean I would be having the baby anytime soon, but it got me feeling both nervous and excited and it kept me mostly awake.

I think it was about 12:30 AM when I started having contractions. I was tired so I wanted to lay in bed and sleep, but they were less uncomfortable and painful if I sat up. So I’d sit up for the contractions and lay down between them. I tried to be alert enough to time how far apart they were and they were usually 9 to 10 minutes apart. It didn’t take long for it to wake up Hot Cup. I told him I didn’t know if I was in labor or not but that either way it was probably best if he went back to sleep so that he’d be rested later.

When I sat up for one of the contractions around 3:30 AM, my water broke. I woke up Hot Cup and told him I thought that’s what happened and after cleaning up called the midwife. She said that maybe it was my water but maybe it wasn’t (meaning maybe the baby’s head hit my bladder and I wet myself), but that either way my contractions weren’t close enough together so to shower, eat, and keep timing them until they were closer.

Well, after that they went immediately to being 5 minutes apart. And then soon they were 3 to 5 minutes apart. And I decided that my water had in fact broke as I went through a few more sets of clothes. I was glad to have Hot Cup to help me. He’s a wonderful husband and labor support person! It was probably 5:30 or 6 before I called the midwife again. She listened as I breathed through a contraction and said that first labors are always long and that I’ll want to be home for the next few hours. She asked how long the contractions lasted and I had to admit we hadn’t been timing that. After hanging up with her again we timed them and they were all at least a minute. So less than an hour later I called and talked to her again. She still thought I had a while to go and that I should stay home but said we could head to the hospital if we wanted. I said we did, so she called to tell them we were coming.

We got to the hospital around 7:30 and they took me to the room where they assess you to see if you’re really ready to be admitted or if you should be sent home. (When they showed us this room during our hospital tour they said that most of us probably wouldn’t see that room, so I’m guessing the midwife told them to take me there.) After hooking me up to the contraction monitoring thing they agreed that my contractions were strong and that I should go to a Labor & Delivery Room.

The midwife I’d been talking to on the phone was the only one I’d met in the practice that I hadn’t really liked. So that combined with her not thinking I should come in made me disappointed that she was the one on call. But when I got to the L & D Room I discovered that the shift must have just switched as one of my favorite midwives from the practice walked in, yay! She said I was about 7-8 cm dilated.

From there it all seemed to go by really fast. I split my time between sitting in a chair next to the bed, standing up and leaning on the bed, and visiting the restroom. After a little bit I got to where I couldn’t breathe through the contractions anymore so the nurse got me to the bed and got everyone in so that I could start pushing.

I was amazed at how many people they had in the room to help me. And I was surprised at how much I probably needed it. Besides Hot Cup, the nurse, and the midwife, there were maybe three others helping me. They set up a mirror so I could see him come out, which I was glad for because I think that otherwise at times I would have interpreted their encouragement to mean I was further along than I really was. Between pushes they’d give me oxygen. I remember that one time when they told me to push I shook my head no, even though I could tell it was about time to push. Everyone was like, yes push; I guess you don’t get to rest during that part of having a baby, haha. My baby boy would squirm and kick at times. I always loved feeling him move inside me so it was comforting to feel him then. And the others seemed to like seeing it.

Finally he came flying out and the midwife put him on my belly. He was so tiny and beautiful. After Hot Cup cut the cord they quickly took him because they saw that he’d had his first #2 before coming out so they had to clean it up. They also took his footprints and weighed and measured him while I got my 2nd degree tear stitched up. He didn’t leave the room though and was soon back with me. He was born Saturday April 9th at 10:47 AM. He was 7 lb 10.8 oz and 21 inches long.

It's been 4 weeks and he's getting bigger, but he’s just as precious and just as cute and Hot Cup and I love him so very much!



Epilogue

When the nurse (who was great and I really liked and whose name I don’t remember) took us to our room in the Maternal-Child Unit, she told us we need to come to the hospital earlier next time. I think we were there a good amount of time but I’m glad the midwife finally agreed to have us go, I wouldn’t have liked being much later.