November 16, 2011
I was expecting to have an overdue baby and a shorter labor as that had been my mom’s experience with all 3 pregnancies, plus this was our first, which I heard that generally they tend to come late. My scheduled due date was November 17th, so on November 15th, I was pretty sure I had about another week before baby would arrive. We had planned to go out for dinner with friends that night and they had let me choose the place jokingly saying “Where would you like to eat your last meal?” I thought there was no way that would be my last meal before baby would arrive. By about 4pm that afternoon I had noticed waves of what seemed like menstrual cramps coming and going but I didn’t make the connection that they could possibly be contractions. By the time we sat down for dinner (at the restaurant of my choice) I clued in “These are contractions I’m having!” So we found a contraction app on my iphone and we started timing my contractions throughout the evening. They were light and tolerable, I thought they may even go away and come back later, still not convinced that I was going to have this baby so soon.
We got home at about 10pm and worked on the baby room until it was completed. By midnight my contractions started to really intensify. We tried to go to bed and get some sleep, knowing from our class that they could last all night like this, and we wanted to get some rest. Throughout the night my husband (Colin) timed every contraction, needless to say we didn’t get any sleep. They ranged from 5-15 minutes apart all night and were pretty intense in my low back. I remembered Sue saying that warm water helps with pain so at one point I decided to try having a bath. This helped with the pain but seemed to slow down my contractions to 20 minutes apart. Colin had texted Sue and she had said this may be a sign that I am still in early labor. I really wanted to speed up the process so I decided not to do the warm water thing anymore and started moving around the house a bit more.
Colin was amazing. He stayed awake with me and brought me water after every contraction and fruit bars for energy. We were waiting for my contractions to get to about 4 minutes apart consistently but it didn’t seem to happen that way for us. They just kept getting more intense. Sue was an amazing help to us, assisting us in our decision making along the way. Her and Colin talked and texted throughout the process and she gave us confidence in the choices we were making. She confirmed that all the signs indicated that I was definitely on my way to having a baby very soon.
By 4:00pm on the 16th my contractions were really intense but still only 5 or 6 minutes apart. Colin consulted with Sue and she thought it would be good to get to the hospital, so we decided to go. Both Colin and I were worried we would arrive and they’d send us home because I wasn’t dialated enough. This would have been really discouraging to hear considering the long haul we had put in laboring at home. We arrived at the Rockyview hospital right after 4pm and they checked me and I was 6 cm dialated. They put my right into a labour and delivery room. The first thing I did was go into the hot shower and I pretty much stayed there until it was time to push. After the first hour they checked me and I was still 6 cm. This was hard to hear as I was getting pretty tired. At this point they wanted to break my water and offered me a lot of different things for the pain. The doctor who was on at the time said “If she’s made it this far without taking anything for the pain, she can do this on her own.” I didn’t want them to break my water and I remembered Sue saying that if there is no emergency then you have the option to say no to things they offer you to speed up the process. Colin texted Sue and she said the same thing…”consider giving it some time and see how things progress on their own”. After another hour and a bit of really intense contractions, I was getting really tired and had a bit of a breakdown thinking I can’t do this any more, even though I knew there was no way out at this point. Colin was a constant support.
My doctor was scheduled to start at 6pm but was caught in traffic…during this time my whole body had an overwhelming urge to push that baby out and the nurse was telling me not to push, it was intense! They finally got me onto the delivery bed and checked me and I was 10 cm. Very relieved! My doctor showed up and I was able to start pushing. I think it took about 5 or 6 contractions and I pushed baby out. He was born on November 16th on his grandpa’s birthday. He was 6 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches long. This truly was the best day of my life!!! I’m so grateful for taking those classes we learned so much and felt we were well equipped to make our first baby experience one we will never forget.
Kyla & Colin
