i've been wanting to do this post for a really really long time. but there always seemed to be something else to post about. better now than never.
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liam's birth story actually starts five days before i went into labour. my pregnancy was fairly easy, until we got to the end. at around thirty-three weeks i started getting super swollen, to the point where i couldn't even fit into flip flops. i had carpal tunnel in my hands. very strange to not be able to feel the ends of your fingers for weeks on end. by thirty-seven weeks my blood pressure had crept up to 130 over 90. now although this is not super high, it was for me. throughout my pregnancy my bp was usually around 110/105 over 60/70. needless to stay my doctors were concerned and the testing began.
on the morning of my thirty-seven week appointment (a monday) i had my blood pressure checked and was told to sit and relax for a few minutes. then they took it again. and again. and again. i had my blood pressure checked probably ten times in a row. i knew something was up ... and it was my bp. i was immediately scheduled for an ultra-sound the next morning at the hospital to make sure that our baby was doing okay, and then booked in for a doctors appointment for the following wednesday and friday. i was given a bunch of paper work and told to go and have a number of tests done at the lab. i was also put on strict bed-rest. i could get up to go pee and that was it. needless to say i was a little a lot freaked out. we immediately left the doctors office and headed to the lab for my tests. on tuesday morning we got up, had breakfast and made our way to the hospital for the ultra-sound, fingers were crossed that all was well with our little growing baby.
as we waited for our results i kept telling myself that everything was going to be okay. and it turned out that baby was doing just fine. but i wasn't. my body and organs were starting to show signs of the elevated blood pressure and it was the recommendation of the doctor to be induced right away. both rob and i opted to wait until we saw our primary doctor the next morning to get a second opinion. and i'm glad we waited. i had no desire to get things started unnecessarily. after reviewing my test results and the ultra-sound, my primary doctor agreed that induction wasn't necessary quite yet. but she was only willing to give me until the following monday to have this baby on my own, no induction. i had my cervix rimmed to see if that could get things going and we were encouraged to try all "natural" methods of induction. thursday morning arrived with a home visit from a nurse to check on me. she was also going to be the one monitoring me over the weekend just in case things went south. friday morning meant another trip to see our doctor. she was adamant that if this baby didn't come on it's own by monday i would in fact be induced. my liver was showing more signs of deterioration based on more test results from the day before. once more she rimmed my cervix, this time it was extremely painful, and sent us on our way. i spent the rest of friday hanging out in our cool basement watching movies. many, many, many movies. meanwhile, rob was trying to finish up tiling our basement bathroom so it would be finished before baby arrived. he had booked a couple of his buddies to come over the next morning to help out.
throughout my friday on the couch i felt mildly crampy, nothing worse than what i thought were braxton hicks. i wasn't in any pain and there was absolutely nothing in the way of a pattern. hind-sight, i really should've paid more attention to these because i think i was really in the first stage of labour all afternoon.
that night i headed to bed around ten-ish, i felt exhausted from the week and worried about the possibility of being induced. i remember laying on the bed listening to a thunder-storm that was rolling through and fell asleep with our cat. then i woke up around midnight. with horrible stomach pain. again, i didn't really think much of it because i thought i just had to go to the bathroom. which i did. but the cramps didn't stop. then i started thinking i had food poisoning. we had eaten chicken for dinner and omg, maybe it wasn't fully cooked! so there i was at two in the morning, googling food poisoning and cramps. that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks. i googled the question "can contractions feel like diarrhea cramps?" and the answer of course was "yes!" i immediately ran to our bedroom and woke rob up with "rob! somethings wrong." not the best way to put i know. but as he came to i was able to tell him that i thought i was in labour.
i called my sister-in-law, who had stepped in to replace our doula (very long story that i'm not going to share) who was a labour and delivery nurse at our hospital at the time. she could immediately tell that indeed i was in labour and asked if we were going to go to the hospital. my contractions at this point were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting a minute or so. yup, it was time to go to the hospital. it had only been about three hours since i had woken up, we figured that we had some time before baby was going to make an appearance. the best part of this story (other than the birth of our baby boy) was that when we pulled up to the hospital, instead of parking out in front of emergency, rob pulled up to the cancer centre, ran in and got me a wheel chair. still not sure why he drove passed emergency and to the cancer centre?? lucky for us, my sister-in-law and rob's brother pulled up right behind us and wheeled me back to emergency and up to labour and delivery while rob parked the car. we all laugh about this. a lot. poor rob. to be fair it was three in the morning.
once we got upstairs to labour and delivery my contractions were getting stronger, longer and less time in between. i was taken into triage to be assessed and see how far along i was. the nurse who assessed me couldn't believe that i was already six cm dilated. to ease some of the pain during my contractions i got up to walk around but didn't make it very far. i felt nauseous, threw up and then sploosh ... my water broke. it was at that time they moved me out of triage and into a delivery room. i figured for sure this baby was coming really soon, like in five minutes soon. but nope. we still had a ways to go.
i laboured in the shower and was up walking around for as long as i could, pretty much until i was in transition and literally couldn't stand up. this was fantastic and followed the birth plan that we had come up with. during the first part of my pregnancy i wasn't sure what "type" of birth i wanted. i think at one point i was fully convinced that i would only go through labour with an epidural. my mind completely shifted when rob and i took our birth and babies classes. this six week crash course in labour, delivery and bringing baby home was everything we ever needed or wanted to know. it really opened up my eyes to everything that could happen during labour and delivery. especially something known as the domino effect. basically the domino effect refers to the interventions used during labour and delivery. for example, induction can lead to an epidural due to the severity of the contractions. an epidural can slow the progression of labour requiring more interventions, up to the point of a necessary c-section. what i took away from all of this was the ability to make a more informed decision about the kind of labour and birth i hoped to experience. i say hoped, because really, i had no control over what this baby was going to do or how my body was going to react. at least i could make better decisions about the interventions that could be done. our, and more particularly my, decision was to attempt to have a fully natural, un-medicated labour and delivery with as little intervention possible. the way i looked at was that my body was designed to give birth and it knew exactly what to do. that being said, i wasn't hell bent on this and realized that if medical interventions were necessary to ensure the health of either the baby or myself then that was the way we were going.
i only laboured in our delivery room for about three hours before the doctor came in and told me i was ready to push. perfect timing, it was right at shift change for all the nurses. at 7:30 am on saturday july 17th, liam made his entrance into the world. we chose not to find out what we were having at our eighteen week ultra-sound. so when the doctor gave me our baby she asked "so what do we have?" i was so surprised when i said "it's a boy!" because i had been certain we were having a girl. it didn't matter i was elated and so was rob. this was the best moment of my life and i was overcome with emotion, crying my eyes out and just staring at this little person. i had no idea just how much love, joy, and everything else liam would bring to our lives. he will always and forever be my little baby boy and the absolute light of my life. i feel very lucky to have had such an amazing birth experience and that i was able to follow through with a natural and un-medicated labour and delivery. and i do not take it for granted.
(note: i had continued high bp for about six weeks post-partdum. apparently it is not uncommon for first pregnancies to bring on high blood pressure. but it was unusual for it to remain so high afterwards. i was on some medication for those six weeks after to bring it back to normal and haven't had any signs of high blood pressure since. this has been my biggest concern during my second pregnancy. as of thirty-four weeks not a single sign of high bp, in fact my midwives were a little worried it was so low. go figure.)
as we waited for our results i kept telling myself that everything was going to be okay. and it turned out that baby was doing just fine. but i wasn't. my body and organs were starting to show signs of the elevated blood pressure and it was the recommendation of the doctor to be induced right away. both rob and i opted to wait until we saw our primary doctor the next morning to get a second opinion. and i'm glad we waited. i had no desire to get things started unnecessarily. after reviewing my test results and the ultra-sound, my primary doctor agreed that induction wasn't necessary quite yet. but she was only willing to give me until the following monday to have this baby on my own, no induction. i had my cervix rimmed to see if that could get things going and we were encouraged to try all "natural" methods of induction. thursday morning arrived with a home visit from a nurse to check on me. she was also going to be the one monitoring me over the weekend just in case things went south. friday morning meant another trip to see our doctor. she was adamant that if this baby didn't come on it's own by monday i would in fact be induced. my liver was showing more signs of deterioration based on more test results from the day before. once more she rimmed my cervix, this time it was extremely painful, and sent us on our way. i spent the rest of friday hanging out in our cool basement watching movies. many, many, many movies. meanwhile, rob was trying to finish up tiling our basement bathroom so it would be finished before baby arrived. he had booked a couple of his buddies to come over the next morning to help out.
throughout my friday on the couch i felt mildly crampy, nothing worse than what i thought were braxton hicks. i wasn't in any pain and there was absolutely nothing in the way of a pattern. hind-sight, i really should've paid more attention to these because i think i was really in the first stage of labour all afternoon.
that night i headed to bed around ten-ish, i felt exhausted from the week and worried about the possibility of being induced. i remember laying on the bed listening to a thunder-storm that was rolling through and fell asleep with our cat. then i woke up around midnight. with horrible stomach pain. again, i didn't really think much of it because i thought i just had to go to the bathroom. which i did. but the cramps didn't stop. then i started thinking i had food poisoning. we had eaten chicken for dinner and omg, maybe it wasn't fully cooked! so there i was at two in the morning, googling food poisoning and cramps. that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks. i googled the question "can contractions feel like diarrhea cramps?" and the answer of course was "yes!" i immediately ran to our bedroom and woke rob up with "rob! somethings wrong." not the best way to put i know. but as he came to i was able to tell him that i thought i was in labour.
i called my sister-in-law, who had stepped in to replace our doula (very long story that i'm not going to share) who was a labour and delivery nurse at our hospital at the time. she could immediately tell that indeed i was in labour and asked if we were going to go to the hospital. my contractions at this point were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting a minute or so. yup, it was time to go to the hospital. it had only been about three hours since i had woken up, we figured that we had some time before baby was going to make an appearance. the best part of this story (other than the birth of our baby boy) was that when we pulled up to the hospital, instead of parking out in front of emergency, rob pulled up to the cancer centre, ran in and got me a wheel chair. still not sure why he drove passed emergency and to the cancer centre?? lucky for us, my sister-in-law and rob's brother pulled up right behind us and wheeled me back to emergency and up to labour and delivery while rob parked the car. we all laugh about this. a lot. poor rob. to be fair it was three in the morning.
once we got upstairs to labour and delivery my contractions were getting stronger, longer and less time in between. i was taken into triage to be assessed and see how far along i was. the nurse who assessed me couldn't believe that i was already six cm dilated. to ease some of the pain during my contractions i got up to walk around but didn't make it very far. i felt nauseous, threw up and then sploosh ... my water broke. it was at that time they moved me out of triage and into a delivery room. i figured for sure this baby was coming really soon, like in five minutes soon. but nope. we still had a ways to go.
i laboured in the shower and was up walking around for as long as i could, pretty much until i was in transition and literally couldn't stand up. this was fantastic and followed the birth plan that we had come up with. during the first part of my pregnancy i wasn't sure what "type" of birth i wanted. i think at one point i was fully convinced that i would only go through labour with an epidural. my mind completely shifted when rob and i took our birth and babies classes. this six week crash course in labour, delivery and bringing baby home was everything we ever needed or wanted to know. it really opened up my eyes to everything that could happen during labour and delivery. especially something known as the domino effect. basically the domino effect refers to the interventions used during labour and delivery. for example, induction can lead to an epidural due to the severity of the contractions. an epidural can slow the progression of labour requiring more interventions, up to the point of a necessary c-section. what i took away from all of this was the ability to make a more informed decision about the kind of labour and birth i hoped to experience. i say hoped, because really, i had no control over what this baby was going to do or how my body was going to react. at least i could make better decisions about the interventions that could be done. our, and more particularly my, decision was to attempt to have a fully natural, un-medicated labour and delivery with as little intervention possible. the way i looked at was that my body was designed to give birth and it knew exactly what to do. that being said, i wasn't hell bent on this and realized that if medical interventions were necessary to ensure the health of either the baby or myself then that was the way we were going.
i only laboured in our delivery room for about three hours before the doctor came in and told me i was ready to push. perfect timing, it was right at shift change for all the nurses. at 7:30 am on saturday july 17th, liam made his entrance into the world. we chose not to find out what we were having at our eighteen week ultra-sound. so when the doctor gave me our baby she asked "so what do we have?" i was so surprised when i said "it's a boy!" because i had been certain we were having a girl. it didn't matter i was elated and so was rob. this was the best moment of my life and i was overcome with emotion, crying my eyes out and just staring at this little person. i had no idea just how much love, joy, and everything else liam would bring to our lives. he will always and forever be my little baby boy and the absolute light of my life. i feel very lucky to have had such an amazing birth experience and that i was able to follow through with a natural and un-medicated labour and delivery. and i do not take it for granted.
(note: i had continued high bp for about six weeks post-partdum. apparently it is not uncommon for first pregnancies to bring on high blood pressure. but it was unusual for it to remain so high afterwards. i was on some medication for those six weeks after to bring it back to normal and haven't had any signs of high blood pressure since. this has been my biggest concern during my second pregnancy. as of thirty-four weeks not a single sign of high bp, in fact my midwives were a little worried it was so low. go figure.)
thank you for sharing your story :) I'm 36 weeks with my first, and have loved being able to read all kinds of different birth experiences.. it really calms my nerves! So I appreciate your willingness to write this out !
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