Since there have been some inquiries regarding the birth story, I decided to post it on this blog rather than the baby blog (it might be too much information for Ron's side of the family). ;)--------
It started on Wednesday evening - Nov. 24, 11:30pm. I felt a small pain around my pelvic area, but thought it was just something I ate. Ron and I went to bed and then around 1am, the feeling suddenly became a cramping feeling that came every 10-15 minutes or so. I had downloaded an application for my ipod-Touch to time contractions, so I thought I’d try it out!
Around 3am, I felt wetness on the pad that I had put on that night (just in case!). It was enough to fill the pad, but everyone told me it would be a LOT, so I didn’t think anything of it (plus we had gone to the hospital a few days before because I thought my water broke, but it was a false alarm so I didn’t want to make that same mistake). I did, however, notice the next time I went to the bathroom that my mucus plug had come out.
At 5:30am, the pain was getting more consistent and a lot more intense. The pain was tolerable, but I decided to finally go and get it checked out. They HAD to be contractions! I woke Ron up and told him that we should go to the hospital. I wanted to get there before rush hour hit, so we took our time getting ready to go.
We arrived at Sunnybrook hospital around 7am in the Triage unit. They put monitors on me, and the resident doctor and nurse checked out my cervix. It turns out, I was already 4cm dilated! They said that’s considered ‘active labour’ and that they would need to admit me. This was IT!
We got admitted to our room around 8am and met our nurse and doctor. They hooked me up to the monitors as each time I had a contraction, the baby’s heartbeat would go down. By 11am, however, they found my contractions were getting further apart and almost had come to a complete stop. They wanted to pump Oxytocin in me to get my contractions going again. I agreed to it, and then they asked me if I wanted to get the epidural. They said that if I wanted the epidural, it was best to get it before they put the Oxytocin in me, as it might be harder to do after. I agreed even though my pain was tolerable at the moment, they said it would get much worse!
Here’s where my only complication came – the epidurals! In total, I had to get THREE done on me (all while I was having contractions)! The first one was done, and then they put the Oxytocin in me. I could still feel the contractions!! The anesthesiologist was called again, and she had to redo it. At her second attempt, she decided that she couldn’t do it, and that she would call the ‘specialist’ to do it. So another person came and finally, the epidural was working. Let me tell you how HARD it was to hold still when you’re having a freaking contraction!!!!
Ahhhh drugs! I was able to sleep through my contractions at this point, so I just slept until they checked my cervix again, and I was at 6cm! By 7pm, I was fully dilated. At 8pm, it was time to push!! The nurse had asked me if I wanted to see… I said SURE! I wanted to know what all this pushing was for! So she brought in a mirror, and I could totally see the head coming out each time I pushed. It was a great visual for me to see the progress of it all! Ron held one leg, while the nurse held the other leg. They were very good at helping me with the motivation to push!
At 9:04pm, I did one last push and saw my entire baby come out!! It was the most amazing thing… I started crying (probably because I didn’t need to push anymore!). :P
They put baby on my chest, and the doctor, resident doctor and nurse did the rest of their duties – getting the placenta out, checking the placenta, and then checking me out for any rips so they could do stitches. “I don’t see any rips Sally. That’s amazing! I haven’t seen that in years. You did great!”
After bonding with baby, they finally took him from me to check him out and do measurements. And that folks, is how baby Jacen Jordan came into this world!
