It’s here, she’s come! Our newest child is a GIRL!
Baby girl made her way slowly into this world, teasing Mommy with contractions all day (a new experience for me) starting at 5:30 Sunday morning. I waited a half hour to see if they would continue before telling Jason. He had only been in bed a couple hours and asked if he could continue sleeping. I replied, “Of course”. I later got dressed and moved to the couch (all prepared to be heading to the hospital soon). I wrote everything down. The contractions grouped up, coming at 7-10 minutes apart, then 15, then back to ten. Well, they did this all morning… and all afternoon…finally changing in intensity around 5pm. By 6 I was convinced there was something going on, but not mentally ready to head to the hospital (that whole pain aspect held me back).
By 7, Jason talked me back to reality and we called the Case Room to see if they had room to at least examine me and let me know what was going on. We walked through the maze of corridors to get to the Emergency Room to check in. Going up to the Case Room I had a serious contraction in the elevator. We rode it up and down a floor to give me breathing time. I sat gowned up on my exam bed at 7:25pm. A nurse hooked me up to a fetal monitor for 40 minutes. At this point, I stopped recording in my notebook. The contractions were closer now, 2-3 minutes apart. Good choice on heading out of the house when we did. At 8pm, the nurse checked my cervix and said I was 4cm dilated. I was disappointed. After all I’d gone through that day, the waiting, the teasing… though it had been painless up to this point. At 8:25pm I was hooked up to an IV of Antibiotics, because I tested positive for Group B Strep (a gut bacteria that’s harmful to a birthing baby) earlier in my pregnancy. Five minutes later we were walking to Birthing Room 1. The nurse handed me the gas mask. Remembering how inefficient I used it last time, I was more deliberate and aware of how and when I sucked on that puppy.
After nearly a half hour of labour contractions, my water broke on its own- my first one (while I was on my side and gripping the bed rail). I said, “Either I just wet myself, or my water broke. That was such a rush!”. For a moment, the tremors stopped and I felt a peace. Then all hell broke loose and I said, “Whoa! Here it comes!”. They called my Doctor to see where she was, and tell her of my status. With my last birth, the baby was out minutes after they broke my water. Thankfully, Dr. Reynolds was walking through the hospital front doors. The transition to pushing pains was almost instantaneous. My Doctor didn’t have time to change, but donned a rubber smock and gave instructions to prop me up. “Take away that gas. We are going to have a baby.” she said.
She informed me that because of the G. B. S.and there was meconium in the canal, they’d be taking the baby to be suctioned and examined instead of placing it on my stomach right after delivery. Once comfortable to push (are we ever comfortable?), I gave about 3 pushes, was told to pause a couple times, and our bundle was out. What I wasn’t made aware of during the pauses, was that the cord was flipped over baby’s head. Not too seriously, but a minor complication. Our Girl emerged at 9:16pm. Jason wasn’t able to cut the cord. My Doctor clamped it off and took blood samples because of the G. B. S. He also didn’t get to see what the baby was since they whisked her away so quickly. We asked the gender, and they said ‘girl’. So sure ‘she’ was going to be a ‘he’, I said aloud “Oh, okay”. I got some stitches, and eventually got to hold our girl.
Since Jason and I hadn’t eaten at home, not sure when we’d go to the hospital, we were famished. He brought us Wendys at 11pm, then I showered. Soo nice. I was moved to the Ward at 11:30pm and Jason left. He could have stayed in my room on a cot, but decided our Queen size would be better. I stayed up and nursed. We both finally got to sleep around 1:30am. She had mucous, so we were woken up at 2:30 for a vitals check. They suctioned her and again at 3am. Baby Girl and I went back to sleep until 6:30am.
And so began our first day together.
