When Ellie was born...

Here is Ellie's birth story! I know birth stories are not everyone's cup of tea with words being used like cervix, contractions and breastfeeding, but if you don't mind all of that, read on :)

On Thursday April 12, I went for a routine check up to my doctor. She checked my cervix for the first time and let me know that I was 3-4 cm dilated, but that my cervix wasn't showing any other signs of change. I thought, okay, same as with Wren, no biggie. I was 5-6 cm towards the end of my pregnancy with Wren without any contractions or pain, and even then they had to break my water to get things going with her, so I didn't think anything of it. 

In hindsight, my doctor probably stripped my membranes at that appointment without telling me. That would be like her!

That night I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks. I was irritated with them and kept trying to sleep through, which I mostly did. Wren woke up at her usual leisurely time of 6am, and we were all up for the day. Kenton went to work, and I was supposed to meet my mom for breakfast with Wren at Highlevel Diner. 

I was super uncomfortable, the "Braxton Hicks" were still coming. I knew what a real contraction felt like so I didn't think this could be anything. Not to mention I was still almost 3 weeks away from the due date!

I had to call my mom to cancel because I wasn't sure if this could be labour slowly starting. She informed me that I needed to go to the hospital to get assessed. Yeah, yeah, yeah I said. There isn't a rush at the moment and what if they just send me home? However, I called the hospital and the nurse said, "Yep, sounds like you should come in". 

I called Kenton and let him know he had to come home. He thought he was coming home to watch Wren and wait for me to come back from getting checked at the hospital...nope! We had to pack a bag and prepare for the fact that there would be a chance we would be having a baby today! 

Nana came over to get Wren and we left for the hospital. 

It was so weird to be calmly driving to the hospital. After wandering the hospital lost because we didn't know that the Robbins Pavilion and the Lois Hole building were basically the same thing, a nurse finally directed us to Assessment to which I was told to go get a coffee because it will be about an hour long wait until they have a bed open to see me. Typical.

I get a bed in Assessment finally and they monitor me for a while. My contractions as they now were, began getting the tiniest bit stronger, but still nothing compared to what I knew they would be. A cranky resident checked my cervix and although it hadn't changed a lot, she let us know that we will not be sent home today. We are going to have a baby today...eek!!

Because I just had my doctor's appointment yesterday and she did a test for Strep B, the results hadn't come back yet. For precaution, they wanted to start an IV of penicillin just in case as it's not good to deliver if you are positive for Strep B without it. 

I wasn't happy...I hate IV's... I can handle a shot or getting blood taken, but a needle that stays in you?? Gross. I know, it's silly, but we all have our things, right?

Anyway, they start the IV and it's now a waiting game of 4 hours for the medication to be in my system. After that time, they may look at breaking my water to get things moving if it hasn't already on it's own. 

Boring. 

I send Kenton home for snacks and a book. 

Once in a while I get up for a walk. 

It's pretty busy with lots of women coming in to deliver babies. The nurses are busy with so many patients, but most of them that come in to check in on me know my mom and it's now gotten around that I am here to have her next grand baby. A couple even pop their head in to let me know she's called a few times to see where things are at!

Things have somewhat quieted down, so I want to get up for a walk. That's when a girl comes in labour and screaming bloody murder in a wheelchair. Apparently she had been there earlier that day and was sent home. The nurses told her they needed to get her on a bed and check her cervix to which she replied in screams that she couldn't. They checked her and immediately got her on a bed and into a delivery room, the baby's head was crowning! She was fully dilated and ready to push and screaming her head off... So after that I was a little unnerved to say the least.

One of my nurses later on asked me if I had a birth plan. I let her know that I was trying to be open to medication or natural, whatever happened, but after that girl that came in, I was leaning away from the natural birth plan a bit... :)

Around 5pm, Kenton went downstairs to get a sandwich. My nurse went on dinner break but I could hit my call button if I needed someone. Just after Kenton left, my contractions started to get a lot stronger. I had a method for breathing through each contraction- I would imagine I was kneeling on sand and every time a contraction came, I would push the sand forward and then back, breathing through each movement. The image was helping and gave me something to focus on. And imagining myself on a beach was nice because it was so grey and cold outside. 

I rang for a nurse and told her that my contractions were picking up big time. Kenton was now back and the nurse checked my cervix again and I was about 7cm now. (For the record, having your cervix checked 1790 times a day can really wear on a person. It's probably one of my least favourite things in life next to getting an IV!) 

It was time to go to the delivery room...

My nurse was encouraging me to try to do this delivery without an epidural. She felt that since it was my second, things would go really quick and I could do it.

No, an epidural will be required. Thank you very much.

The anthiestist was very busy that night as there were twins being delivered by c-section. I was starting to think my epidural wasn't coming. 

The nurse offered me morphine. 

Oh sure, I would love some, thanks. 

Then she let me know you only get three hits of that and that is it. 

Oh.

She offered me laughing gas but I wasn't a fan of a mask on my face, I'm fairly claustrophobic. You would think contractions would override this. It didn't.

The nurse got me on a birthing ball...I hated it. I was on this ball, with my arms and head slumped over the edge of the bed. My hospital gown was open in the back and my bare butt was bare to the world. That's when the aneisthetist walked in to give me my beloved epidural. Did I mention my bum was facing the door? 

I braced myself for the epidural (it's painful!) and accidentally squeezed the nurse's arm off thinking it was Kenton's.
The next while was more mellow as the epidural worked it's way into my system. I'm not going to go into great detail now, but let me just say that the time came to push and I did so for about 45 minutes. Let me also say that epidurals are helpful and make everything relatively painless up until the moment of truth when that baby is coming out. You feel...everything. Disclaimer: I actually don't know how much it feels like delivering a baby without meds, but if I felt what I did pushing Ellie out, I can't imagine what it feels like without it!
It all hurts in the end, either way.

But she came, and there was joy, relief, excitement and a million other feelings! It was 11:33pm and had been a long day. We were so happy to finally have our sweet Ellie here, all 6 lbs and 9oz of her :)

Kenton wasn't able to stay the night at the hospital with me as all the private rooms were filled and I was sharing a room with another mom in overflow. Ellie was taken to be bathed and brought back to my bedside all wrapped up, tucked in and asleep. She slept most of the night and I managed to get some sleep too which I didn't expect. Kenton was back bright and early at 7:30am and we were able to take her home with us later that afternoon.

We were too excited to take many photos at that time, but here are a few with our visitors that stayed up so late to meet Ellie :)