I thought I would be able to get this blog out a lot
earlier, but as I had been warned, things tend to take a little longer when
there is a baby in the house! This is
going to be a long one and maybe a little more detailed than some might like,
you’ve been warned J
The Labor
So let’s start by going back to Sunday October 7th. That night, as a few previous nights I had
woken up in the middle of the night with mild cramps and wasn’t able to fall
back asleep. The few previous nights
that this had happened I got excited thinking that this could be the
night! On this night, I figured it was
another false alarm, just like the previous nights. I moved to the couch to see if a change in
location would help me sleep better.
When I lied down, I felt a little bit of wetness you know where. Figuring I had just peed myself a little
(which happens when you’re pregnant), I shifted my body to get comfortable…but
then it happened again, more wetness. At
this point I was frustrated and just wanted to sleep but I thought I better check
things out, at the same time trying not to get my hopes up that “this was
it”.
As soon as I stood up, I felt a gush of uncontrollable fluid
escape; I grabbed my housecoat between my legs and shimmied my way to the
bathroom making a clean escape! Still
not 100% sure my water had broken, I returned to the couch but as soon as I
lied down, it was an instant replay of what I just described. I was convinced my water had broken and to be
honest my first thought was “nooo, I want turkey dinner today!” I didn’t want to wake Carl knowing that we
would have a long night (or 2) ahead of us so from 5:30am Sunday morning until
about 8am when Carl got up, I shared my secret with 3 people, the nurse at the
hospital (to confirm what I was to do next), my sister in law Brittany who is a
maternity nurse and my younger brother David.
David lives in Smithers and by chance his work had to fly him back to
Smithers over the weekend, making a stop over in Vancouver. He was supposed to fly home Sunday night but
I texted him Sunday morning and said “my water broke, should have a baby within
48 hours, can you delay your flight?”
Sure enough, he was able to postpone his flight, a blessing that he was
here for the birth of his niece, if you ask me.
Carl woke up around 8am and was looking for his house coat
which I was now wearing because mine, was well a little wet…When I told him why
I was wearing his, he got a big grin on his face and we both started
laughing…Which of course had me running to the bathroom again! Since contractions hadn’t started yet we
decided to do what we could to get things moving. We went for a long walk and met up with
Brittany and Colin for a coffee (love living so close to those guys!). Once we arrived home we decided it was time
to head to the hospital to get things checked out. We knew we would likely be sent home but the
nurse I spoke to on the phone advised us it would be a good idea to come in,
just to confirm my water had broken and that baby was doing ok. Once we got the confirmation from the
hospital, it was off to my parents house for turkey dinner, YES!
It wasn’t until late Sunday night that contractions
started. I spent most of the night in
the tub, breathing through contractions and trying to sleep in-between them,
meanwhile keeping quiet so Carl could sleep.
Morning rolled around and by then my contractions were lasting about a
minute and were anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes apart. Because it had been more than 24 hours since
my water had broken, I was at a higher risk of infection so it was time to get
to the hospital.
We arrived around noon and right away I was hooked up to oxytocin,
which would intensify my contractions and hopefully get things moving
faster. At this point I was already
pretty exhausted and feeling a bit emotional that this was really
happening! It’s a tad frightening to
know that in several hours our lives would be changed forever! Not only was I hooked up to an IV, I also had
to wear 2 monitors around my belly, one to monitor the baby’s heart rate and
one to monitor my contractions. It
didn’t make it easy to move around, that’s for sure! I moved from the bed, to the tub, to the
shower, trying to find a comfortable position to get through the
contractions. My goal was to make it
through the labor with no drugs…after several hours of painful contractions I
decided to try the nitrous oxide (laughing gas). I didn’t find that it did much except make me
feel light headed.
It seemed like every hour they were increasing my intake of
oxytocin, making contractions more frequent and more painful. I opted for a shot of morphine and again
found that it didn’t do much except make me sleepy. Finally the doctor came in to check how far dilated
I was. I want to say it was around 6pm
but I really have no idea. Figuring I
had likely dilated a bit the previous nights with the cramps I was having, and
now going through all this, I thought I would be at least 5 centimeters…But it
wasn’t so. I cried when the doctor said
I was only 3 centimeters; there was still a long road ahead. Two hours later, I was only 4 centimeters. I think it was at that point that I decided
to get the epidural, which also meant another tube to attach me to, a catheter! I remember feeling the warmth of the epidural
flow into my body and looking at the anesthesiologist and saying “you’re my
favorite doctor so far!”
Two hours later, around 10pm the epidural wasn’t working as
it should and I again was having painful contractions. The doctor checked me to find that no
progress had been in the previous 2hours and I was still only at
4centimetres. The baby’s heart rate was
going up slightly and I was starting to develop a fever. There wasn’t much of a choice but to opt for
an emergency C-section. At this point, I
was ready for it! I was wheeled into the
OR, with Carl beside me pushing the bassinet that our baby would be brought
back to our room in.
Finally after 42 hours since my water broke and about 26
hours of contractions, we were going to meet our little girl. Once in the OR, I was prepped and given a
local anesthetic…which didn’t work. I
could still feel the contractions and any time something touched me. Throughout the whole labor, I was accepting
of the drugs, the epidural, I was even ok with the C-section, although it’s not
at all what I originally wanted. But when
they told me they would have to put me under for the C-section, that was the
worst part. Not being able to see my
baby girl right when she was born or have Carl by my side was upsetting. Carl was taken away and had to wait in a
little room by himself until the baby was brought to him. Within 15 minutes of being escorted out, he
heard his daughter’s first cry and shed a few tears of his own. Our baby girl was born October 8th
at 11:52pm weighing 7lbs 2oz and 20 inches long. She spent her first hour of life in her
Daddy’s arms.
I came to, just over an hour later and was very dizzy. The nurse was about to go get Carl and our
daughter but I refused, I was so upset that I couldn’t see clearly and wanted
to remember the first time I got to see my daughter. But after about 20 more minutes, I couldn’t
wait any longer. Carl was brought into
the recovery room carrying our baby girl.
I looked at them and said to Carl “what’s her name?” “Hannah Jae” he
replied. We weren’t 100% decided on the
name beforehand but we didn’t really have any other solid options.
Hannah got some skin-to-skin time with Mom and then tried breast-feeding
for the first time. She was born a
pro! We were wheeled back to our room
where my mom, dad, brother David and friend Catherine met us in the
hallway. By then it was close to 2am and
time for some sleep!
We were awake again by 6am, excited to see our daughter and
spend some time with her. It was neat
because Brittany, our sister in law, Dan my brother and Laura my friend were
all either working or doing a practicum in the hospital. We had about 18 visitors that day, which was
great but we were exhausted by the end of the day!
The Name
We had a difficult time deciding on a name but the name
Hannah had been in the forefront for us for a while. Hannah means gracious which we really
like. I kind of wanted her middle name
to be a family name but we couldn’t decide who to name her after. I wanted to name her after my great Grandma
Jessie, but wasn’t a huge fan of how Hannah Jessie flowed, so we shortened it
to Jae!
Adjusting
We came home Wednesday night.
We debated on staying one more night but Carl
was originally going to go back to work on Friday and we wanted one day to
adjust at home. However, once we were
home and saw how immobile I was, we decided that Carl needed to stay home on
Friday as well. Luckily his work has
been very supportive. We are all
adjusting to our new life. I’m learning
to live off of less sleep and to accept the fact that if I get one thing done
during the day, even if it’s just a shower, it’s an accomplishment! Hannah seems to have a fussy time between
about 6 and 10pm and wakes up every 3 hours at night to be fed. She is a noisy sleeper so even when she’s not
awake, she’s keeping us awake. At her
last doctor appointment she weighed 7lbs 4oz so she is feeding well! As for me and my healing, I think it’s going
to be a slow recovery!
Overall, we are in love with our new family and feel so
blessed to have a healthy baby girl. We
are overwhelmed with all the support and love we’ve received from all of our
family and friends – THANK YOU!
