Grant's birth story

Short Version:

Thursday June 10, 2010 - 
3:00 PM water breaks at work when I was 34 weeks 4 days PG
4:15 PM arrive at L&D
5:45 PM assessed to be 2 cm dilated
8:20 PM had epidural inserted at 5 cm dilated
10:00 PM 9 cm dilated and feeling of pressure
11:15 PM started pushing

Friday June 11, 2010- 
12:01 AM Grant Michael was born 18" long and 4 lbs 11.5 oz by spontaneous vaginal birth. No induction, no episiotomy, no vacuum or forcep assisted delivery.

Very Long Version:

My birth story really began at Week 32. Since I had a low-lying placenta at my anatomy ultrasound, I was sent for another at the beginning of the week. It was done at the hospital because the results would be available faster than if I went to a regular ultrasound clinic. The tech told me that judging by his measurements he was estimated to weigh almost 4 lbs. The next day at a routine prenatal check-up my MW found my blood pressure was reading high. My diastolic pressure was over 90 which is what they consider to be concerning. She checked it again and decided to send me to the hospital to meet with the MW on-call there for a repeat. When I got to the hospital I didn’t even bother to pay for parking (first 15 mins are free) because I figured a blood pressure check on one of their machines would be very quick. Little did I know, I was about to be hooked up to an external fetal monitor, subjected to a series of blood pressure checks, a urine test and blood tests for the next 2.5 hours.

Luckily, the result of all this testing determined there was no protein in my urine and my liver enzymes were normal so the only troubling thing was a consistently high blood pressure. Unluckily, developing Gestational Hypertension made me a high risk pregnancy out of the scope of my MW’s practice and my care had to be transferred to an OB/GYN for remainder of my pregnancy. I was put on labetalol to control my blood pressure, but I felt disappointed and defeated now that things were seemingly out of my control. I had a good talk with my MW afterwards and she reassured me that she would still be attending my birth and conducting my post partum check-ups. She said that my blood pressures were not really so high that they would be dangerous and I didn’t have any other signs of pre-ecclampsia. Some women’s blood pressure shoots up towards the end of pregnancy. What was concerning was that my blood pressure went up so early. In hindsight, I guess I was near the end of my pregnancy after all! Still… to be on heart medication when my entire pregnancy up until this point was so perfectly uneventful, really had me down.

The following week (Week 33), out of desperation I went back to my chiropractor to see if an adjustment might help. He relieved some of my back and hip aches and put me on Omega-3s and probiotics to prepare my body for birth. I had my first follow-up appointment with the OB/GYN. My blood pressures were normal on the medication yet the OB suggested that I may want to consider finishing work and offered me a note if I wanted it. Being totally stubborn and somewhat in denial, I turned down the note and decided to wait another week to see how my body was feeling. She said next week we would check the status of my blood pressure again and also do a GBS swab, all very routine. A few new things happened in Week 33: I discovered that if I squeezed my nipple the random burning pain I was getting would feel better but that I would also excrete my first colostrum (weird!), the baby was noticeably more active which I attributed to the chiropractic adjustments increasing blood flow to him, exerting myself physically too much like walking quickly would cause strong false contractions, my appetite was touch and go though I was able to eat normal portion sizes again, and I actually vomited up my breakfast one day which was odd for me having had no morning sickness all pregnancy. At the end of Week 33 my in-laws threw me a baby shower in Sarnia where we got some much needed baby gear, like an infant carseat and a breastfeeding pillow. Again, in hindsight, these were necessities for the very near future.

Week 34 found me feeling large, uncomfortable and easily irritated (mostly at work-related things). No position was good for sleeping and I was still alternating between being hungry and having no appetite at all. The baby was still very active in my belly and I had put on a little more weight which made me happy, considering at this point I was only 13 lbs up from my pre-pregnancy weight. On Wednesday (34 weeks and 3 days) I ate half a piece of toast and promptly threw it up. That evening I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to eat for dinner. We drove around to several different fast-food places, rejecting everything from roast chicken, ribs, subs, pitas and finally out of lack of inspiration decided to just throw in the towel and have McDonalds. For no discernable reason I passed on my usual Jr. Chicken and had a Big Mac Meal. It didn’t agree with me at all. A couple of hours later I had some cramping and diarrhea, which didn’t surprise me considering the junk food I had for dinner. I didn’t consider at all that my body was evacuating.

The next day I went to work as usual. I didn’t feel any different at all. I was having a semi-good appetite day so my coworkers and I decided to get shawarma take-out. I had had a lot to drink that day because I was really thirsty and as usual that meant my squished bladder had me in the bathroom every 10 minutes or so. Like usual I had contractions off and on throughout the day, with the last one I remember being shortly after 2:30 PM… no big deal since I had been averaging 1-2 major contractions a day since Week 29 (I remember because they started on my birthday). Just before 3 PM I returned to my desk from a pee break. I got up and walked 2 cubicles over to ask my coworker a question. As I was talking to her I felt a gush like I had just peed myself. I stopped mid-sentence and told her I wasn’t sure but I think my water just broke! I rushed to the washroom and sat down just in time for the next gush. Looking into the toilet I saw a bit of mucus that I guess was my bloody show but nothing that looked like meconium (thank goodness). Suddenly a couple of my coworkers came in to check on me. The water kept leaking out of me while I explained that my water definitely broke. One of my coworkers said she’d grab some stuff for me and take me to the hospital. She came back with her arms full of stuff – garbage bags, a whole roll of paper towel, my purse & jacket, her shawl to wrap around my waist, her purse and her BBerry. I wasn’t feeling any contractions but was still leaking through my pants in little gushes. I wrapped her shawl around me and we quickly went back to my desk for a couple more things before leaving.

I paged my MW from the parking lot to explain what happened. She said that I should call Labour & Delivery to let them know and head to the hospital immediately. The hospital would alert my OB and my MW would join us later on for the birth. Since I was still feeling ok, my coworker drove me home in my car (luckily she was able to drive standard) to pick up the carseat and my half-packed hospital bag. On the way there I phoned my husband at work to let him know. At first he thought I was joking but then quickly realized I wouldn’t bother him at work for a joke. He was sure that they would tell me to go on bedrest at the hospital and send me home. I kept trying to explain to him that no, since my water broke, THIS IS IT. There’s no stopping labour now. At home I changed into PJ bottoms, quickly finished packing my bag, grabbed the camera and carseat and off to the hospital we went. My coworker and I laughed and joked along the way about how crazy it was to have my water break at work so unexpectedly, especially since we were just talking at lunch about how I should probably get cracking on my birth plan.

At the hospital around 4 PM I was taken to the assessment room where they hooked me up to the external fetal monitor and we waited. My husband met us there. The nurse swabbed me for amniotic fluid but at first she couldn’t get a clear reading. By the time my OB arrived around 5:45 PM I was 2 cm dilated and she confirmed the fluid was my bag of waters. Since I was only 2 cm and barely feeling cramps, we decided that my husband should go home to feed the dog and grab himself a bite to eat since we were probably in for a late night.

My coworker stayed with me and we chatted to pass the time. The cramps got increasingly uncomfortable and I was having difficulty lying on my side during them. I was transferred to a birthing suite and hooked up to an IV there since I was “GBS unknown”. I actually had an appointment with my OB for the following week to have my GBS swab done. Unfortunately being on an IV meant that I had to labour lying down which I was hoping I could avoid. Around 7 PM I was really having trouble talking through my contractions and my coworker suggested that she text my husband to hurry back. I kept saying that there is no point worrying him since I knew he wasn’t taking his time at home and would get there as soon as he could. At 7:15 PM she finally convinced me that she should text him, which I later found out was because she overheard the nurses saying that they were going to call my MW to the hospital now (when I was admitted they said they would not call the MW until I was getting nearer to the end).

This is the text message he received on his way to the hospital:
“Mike. This is Candice and Jen. Things are moving faster than expected. Baby is coming sooner than thought.”

Talk about burning rubber getting to the hospital after that!

Once he arrived I felt much better to have him near. My coworker wished us luck and she left us at the hospital. The contractions by that point were very intense and since the anesthesiologist was just up the hall my nurse suggested that if I wanted an epidural, now would be a good time. It didn’t take much convincing – I requested the epidural and the following 30 minutes waiting seemed like the longest 30 minutes ever. Finally the anesthesiologist came to my room but it took a while to insert the catheter since my back muscles were so tight. At 8:20 PM the epidural kicked in and it was like heaven. By 8:40 PM I was assessed again and was at 5 cm dilated. My midwife had arrived but was sent home again. I was told to try napping but I was too excited to really fall asleep. The nurse told me to signal for her if I needed anything – there were a few women in labour at that moment and it was a total gamble as to who would be the first to give birth that night. We joked that I’d try to get the baby born by 10:30 to make things easier for them.

At 10:00 PM I started feeling a very strange pressure down below. I paged the nurse and she that I was 9 cm dilated and would call my MW back to the hospital. Things began happening very quickly after that. Carts of gear were wheeled into my room. People I didn’t know started arriving and suiting up for the big event. Aside from my husband, my midwife was the only person I recognized in the room. At 11:15 PM she and the nurse worked together to get me pushing with each contraction… a difficult feat at first since I couldn’t feel any of the contractions. Once I knew what to look for I pushed as hard as I could while holding my breath and pulling back on my legs just like they described. It was so exciting to see if this was going to be a Thursday or Friday baby as we were so close to either or. Pushing was very tiring and I felt like I was getting nowhere. Finally just when I thought I was too exhausted to continue, out came our baby boy, Grant Michael at 12:01 AM, Friday June 11th, 2010. He was 18” long and weighed 4 lbs 11.5 oz.

I remember someone saying that his umbilical cord was very short so they clamped him down below, and shortly after I delivered my placenta (which I didn’t feel at all). He let out a loud wail and I immediately felt relieved that he was able to breathe. The respiratory therapist, pediatrician and nurses assessed him then the RT held him up to show me while the OB on-call stitched up my one tear (a 2nd, almost 3rd degree tear). It was amazing to see this red angry little baby screaming his lungs out and incredible to think that he came out of my tummy.

He was taken immediately after that to the Special Care Nursery. My husband and I got a moment to reflect on the night’s events and the baby we had created before I was helped into a wheelchair and wheeled to my recovery room. Once my epidural wore off enough for me to feel my feet and Grant had his IV put in, we were able to visit him in the Special Care Nursery around 2 AM. He was sleeping like a precious angel.

The next 10 days were a total gong show including a roommate from hell, getting transferred to another room, calling everyone to announce our surprise, cancelling my baby shower, having trouble controlling my blood pressure, getting discharged from the hospital the following Monday without our baby, and numerous trips to the hospital to visit our little boy in the nursery. The nurses let us do as much hands on work as possible such as bathing him, taking his temperature, changing his diaper and feeding him my pumped breastmilk through an NG tube. He had to spend 3 days off and on under the UV lights for jaundice. Eventually we worked up to bottle feeding and then to breastfeeding. On the 10th day after getting back up to his birth weight plus 48 hours of well-tolerated oral feeds he was ready to come home and we’ve been a family ever since.