Well, it's been another whole year since my last blog post, so I figure this is as good time as any to write another one! Maybe (likely) it will be another year til the next one!
So apparently it's a "thing", (and I read many of them during pregnancy) to blog about one's birth story. If you're into birth and have a stomach for reading such things - enjoy! If not... close this and never open it again.
The day before Lucas was born included a long walk around Granville Island with my Mom, and then 20mins of accupuncture at Accumamma - an accupuncture clinic specializing in prenatal, labour and post partum accupuncture. At 2 days overdue, I was up for trying weird and wacky things to get this babe out! Ten hours later... my water broke!
12:02am, after one hour of sleep, my water broke. Mild contractions started right away, which felt like regular waves of cramps. Because I was GBS positive, which meant I had bacteria in my vagina that could be harmful to the baby once the "seal" (water) was broken, we had to go to the hospital right away for IV antibiotics to treat the bacteria. So at 2am we headed to the hospital where I was admitted and set up for and IV. The midwife had a kick of a time finding my vein - "too tanned" I was. Ah well, all that swimming was about to pay off. At 4am we were sent back home and told to come back at 8am. Hooray. We got gas on the way home, not knowing how many of these hospital trips we would have to do. Twenty minutes to the hospital (who knew there were so many potholes and speed bumps in this city!?) was starting to suck.
Back home I popped Tylonel and Gravol, hoping to catch some zzzzz in the wee hours of the morning. No luck! The mild contractions kept me awake. By 7am they were getting a bit stronger and we called our doula (and great friend!) Hillary. Hillary came over and hooked me up to the Tems machine - a little electroshock system that sent buzzes to my lower back. I would turn it on when I was contacting and off in between. It was awesome to have control over something and I used the system for hours.
At 8am we headed back to the hospital for the next round of meds. I told Mom I'd see her back home, as I was certain they'd send me home again. Who knew though... the hospital was super busy - I had to wait in the waiting room for about half an hour before they had a bed in triage open for me. Then I had to wait for meds. Then it took half and hour to receive the meds. By the time they were done I was approaching active labour and like hell I was getting in the car again! The midwife came and checked me - 4cm dialated and things were progressing. I could stay! Hooray!
Because the hospital was so busy I had to wait another hour or so until a room was available. Nothing like waiting in a busy triage, in labour, listening to other women in labour. Shoot me.
10am - Hillary wanted me to walk to my room, once was ready. "Helpful" it would be. Maybe... probably... but again, shoot me. I had probably a dozen contractions along the way and missed the elevator how many times? By the time we got into my room and I saw a real blanked on the bed I cried with relief!
Right away Hillary and my nurse suggested I get into the bathtub. So I laboured in the tub for the next couple hours - had to say goodbye to my beloved Tems, and curled up in the warm water for about an hour, working through the contractions, following the coaching of Hillary and appreciating (demanding) Andrew to push my lower back through every contraction. Poor guy couldn't even eat his pizza in one go. He was a champ.
After about an hour, things were getting painful. My nurse and Hillary recognized this and suggested the laughing gas. Oh... the laughing gas. I always wanting to try laughing gas! What a wonder. That good stuff got me to 10cm! They wheeled it right into the bathroom and I had a nozzle ready and waiting by my head every time I felt a contraction. It totally took the edge off and again, was something I could control with every contraction. It probably would have been helpful if it was just oxygen; it helped my psyche and regulated my breathing.
12:30pm ish. Hillary kept asking if I felt anything in my butt. "Ummm... no? But my toes are starting to tingle!"... and then... my butt. The URGE to push was unreal. And then they told me I wasn't allowed to. Whhhaaaa!? Hillary expertly coached me through my contractions, how to contract without pushing, to put all that urge into squeezing her and Andrew's hands. Andrew describes my strength as "surprising" at this stage. They called the midwife to come in and check how far dialated I was, so I got out of the tub and on the bed. She checked - 10cm - hallelujah! Now I was allowed to listen to my body and puuusssshhhhhh!
1:00 - they had me try many different positions on the bed - pushing is not like the movies, it's highly uneffective to push while lying on your back! I was on my side, hands and knees, and squatting. The most effective for me was the squatting bar - a mini-chin up bar attached to the end of the bed. I would lie on my back resting inbetween the contractions, and Andrew and Hillary would heave me up on the bar, into a squatting position when I felt the contraction coming. I pushed for an hour to bring him down.
2:00ish - head crowning! I thought I was almost done! I was not. I pushed another hour to get his head and shoulders out and MAN was this hard work. Longest hour of my life. I had never imagined myself working this hard, ever. I was able to reach down and touch his head and feel the [slow] progress. The most encouraging part of all of this was seeing Andrew become GIDDY as more and more of our child appeared! Eventually my midwife announced that we had eyes... a nose... a mouth... (am I done yet?!)... and in a blur, his shoulders were out, the rest slipped out, and a screaming little HUMAN was placed on my chest at 3:20pm! WhhooOOOooAAA! Andrew announced it was a boy and I knew our little babe was our Lucas! What a great surprise!
There was a blur of delivering the placenta, snuggling, cord cutting, stitching (hello laughing gas round 2), baby checking and weighing, the first breast feed, cathedar (hello laughing gas round 3) and Andrew going to get my Mom to meet her grandson. Introducing my Mom to Lucas Joah - this is when I cried. So much joy and pride to share our baby with my Mom!
We had to stay in the hospital for 24hrs for Lucas to be observed because of the GBS. The night was long - so many tests, nurses, doctors, pediatricians, nursing, napping... more of that the whole next day... eventually we were given the a-ok and got ready to go home. I took a shower/bath (amazing), we passed our car seat test (aka officially cleared to be parents), and sweet glory, went HOME!
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| Sweet cuddles with our sweet babe. |
Lucas Joah Hartung
July 4th, 2014 @ 3:20pm
9lbs 11oz
54cm long
