Birth Story

Finally, after 7 weeks, I want to record little Alexandra's birth story. It's not that exciting (well...it was super exciting for me!) but I want to record it for myself.

My due date was Sunday Dec 12th. However, I was feeling fantastic and not "ready" to be done being pregnant. I thought when I was ready to give birth I would be so uncomfortable and ready to get that baby out! That was definitely not the case. I loved being pregnant. So, I worked until Friday December 10th. Then on Saturday the 11th I finished my final paper for my master's course. I submitted the paper at 10:30 pm on Saturday. Then, hubs and I decided to watch the movie Taken (good movie...I recommend). At around 11:30, I felt a gush. My water broke! I ran upstairs (leaving a wet trail behind me!) and grabbed a pad (good thing we had purchased the giant "Depends" pads...they were a MUST HAVE!) We didn't know what to do and were mildly freaking out. I wasn't having any contractions so we didn't know if we should go to the hospital. So I did what I always do when I need help..called my mom. She told me to call the hospital and ask...duh...I couldn't have thought of that on my own?! When we called L&D they asked about the colour of my water. It was not clear. It was more brown/green. They said that meant there was meconium in there so the baby might be in distress so we had to go in right away. We packed our bags (since I thought I was going to be WAY late we were exactly all packed and ready to go!). We drove the 5 minutes to the hospital and as we were walking in to the hospital at around 12:15am I had my first uncomfortable contraction. By the time I was checked in and hooked up to the monitors I was having some serious contractions. By 1am they were coming every 4 minutes and were super super strong. I was hurting. And, those stinkin' external monitors were so tight I couldn't breathe! ugh! I asked for an epidural around 1:30 but to my dismay (actually...to my absolute horror!) the anestisiologist was in emerg dealing with a car accident case. Ummm...hello! this is a giant hospital in a giant town and there is ONE stinkin' anethetist???! I started freaking out as we waited for him to come. These contractions were making my whole body quiver and shake. I was in agony. I don't wish labour pains on my worst enemy! I was squirming a lot so they had to take off the external monitor and put on an internal monitor on the baby's head. I was not pleased that they had to do this (she came out with a sad little scab on the top of her head..:( ). Oh well. When I finally got the epidural we waited an he pumped me up with a test dose. I was still feeling pain. LOTS. He pumped more meds in. Still pain. Major, worsening pain. He finally said that clearly this epidural didn't work because he had given me enough meds for a big man. This led to more MAJOR freaking out from me! Oh my god. I cannot do this without the epidural! So, he agreed to try to put it in again in a different spot. And thank the lord...it worked. I could breathe and relax. ahhhh......

Totally weird sensation though to have your legs completely paralyzed! My parents had driven in (1.5hours) after we called them so they arrived and were allowed to come and see me once the epidural was done. It was great to see them. So, at this point it was about 3:30am and they told us to take a nap. With all of the beeping and monitors and just pure excitement/anxiety there was no way I could sleep. Hubs on the other hand through in his ear plugs and passed out solid. hmmm...obviously that was a sign of things to come!

Nurse came to check me at 5am and said it was GO time! I was already fully dilated! OMG! This was all happening so fast! I thought I would be labouring for HOURS! We woke up hubs and prepped the room for pushing. She paged the doc (who I still hadn't met yet...) and we started pushing around 5:15am. Once the doc arrived we did 3 big pushes and an unfortunate episiotomy because her heart rate was dropping on the pushes. Out she came at 5:33am! Perfect. Beautiful. Amazing. As soon as she was out I started puking...EVERYWHERE! I overflowed 2 pails and it was all over me and my bed. Luckily it was just watery but it was still so gross. But hey, in the heat of the moment I didn't care and I wanted to see my baby. They cleaned her up, weighed her (5 pounds 8 ounces) and brought her right to me. I was IN LOVE. My life was forever changed. My baby girl was with me. Forever.

Immediately after the birth I was comfortable. That dang epidural worked so well! Thank god!
Unfortunately, it wears off. And I was hurting. BAD. I had lots of stitches and was passing blood clots the size of TENNIS BALLS! Totally gross and scary. I also kept puking everytime I stood up for about 24 hours. Those first trips to the bathroom were traumatizing and agonizing. I passed out the first time I walked. Scary.

Breastfeeding was easy and amazing right from the first moment she was at my breast. I know I am sooooo lucky for this.

The BEST thing for after treatment I got was the frozen maxi-pads to put in MY diaper. These were amazing an d helped the pain and inflammation sooooo much. I couldn't walk normally for atleast a week. Sitting was painful. The worst thing I did was LOOK at "it". Oh my goodness...that was scary and disturbing. I don't really recommend looking at that patch-work that is the post-birth-vagina! Ahhh!

So, that's it. My baby girl had perfect timing and arrived right on her due date, right when I was done work and my course and she came FAST and furious. Thank you baby girl!

Now 7 weeks later, I am walking normal, feeling better, and beginning to contemplate going back to the gym. But really, until this week, I was still feeling weird pain/pressure "down there" and it got way worse when I walked too much, so the gym was not even on my mind. But this week I feel much better.

I have my official post-partum check up in one week. We'll see how the doc thinks things look..cause lord knows I am not looking down there again until I know it is all clear!

I'm heading out now to my New Mommies Class but I have a post to write about sleep that I am resolving to write today or tomorrow! I am doing great reading blogs and keeping up with everyone else but having a hard time finding the time to post myself! I will get better. I love reading everyone else's updates and get disappointed when my bloggie friends don't post so I should definitely be posting more (obviously I'm assuming atleast someone wants to read my blog! ha ha! ).

I leave you with a few pics: