The Birth

Well, it's pretty 'graphic' info to post about your child's birth, but I'm weird and like to remember what my baby's births were like. So, with no further ado, here is my birth story for Lucas!

On May 15, I had my weekly doctor's appointment. I had had 2 weeks of prodromal labour (pre-labour) and I was sick of the contractions and up-all-nights due to this annoying side-effect. Not to mention, my PUPPPS was getting worse, I couldn't breathe out of my nose at all, and I was exhausted from being pregnant. I was DONE.

So I asked Dr. Muller to strip my membranes. He said it has a 50/50 chance of working; I took my chances. When he checked me, I was 3 cm dilated, and baby was "very low" (to the point that he could feel his head!). When he was done stripping my membranes, I was 3.5 cm. I started getting serious contractions as I was walking out of the doctor's office.

At home, I had 15-minute-to-45-minute apart contractions until 10pm. Then, they stopped. Completely. I had a shower at 10 and no more contractions. I was not impressed. I even cried!

I woke up at 1am with one big contraction. It hurt enough to wake me up and force me to go to the bathroom. I went back to bed, and woke up at 1:45 with another one. 45 minutes apart - nothing to worry about. But, then I had another one, about 10 minutes later, and strong enough that I couldn't stand through it. By 2:15, they were 5 minutes apart and consistent. So I called my parents to come watch Aryn, I woke Ryan up (yes, in that order) and we got in the vehicle. The drive to the hospital was awful.

We got to the hospital at 2:40am.

*Side note: I can't believe how different my labour with Lucas was to Aryn. With Aryn, my water broke as I got up from bed at 8:30am, after a great night's sleep. Contractions started at 10am, after a nice relaxing morning of a shower and getting ready to go to the hospital. Then I had non-stop contractions for 12 hours. Literally, they never stopped for a second. It was awful.

With Lucas, I'd get a contraction, then it would stop and I could breathe. Then I'd get another. It was how I expected labour to be when I was pregnant with Aryn.

The doctor checked me, telling me I was the only patient in "active labour" at the hospital, but lots of women were there in not-serious-labour. He then did the internal check and I was 3cm. Yes. I closed up 1/2 a cm!! I got mad at him because the contractions were so bad.

They ended up giving me an IV because I had asked for Fentanyl (I'm allergic to morphine). Why no one can do an IV the first time is beyond me. I think the IV pain hurt more than the contractions! I was cursing the poor nurses who were trying to get the IV in. They did get it in, but they never gave me any Fentanyl.

He came back after about an hour and I was 5cm and the contractions were closer together and stronger. I started on the gas to make it through each contraction. The doctor asked me about drugs and I actually considered an epidural! Ryan convinced me not to, thank God.

This labour had no music. No standing. No swaying. No massage (Ryan tried massaging my shoulders once - because I NEEDED that with Aryn's labour - and I told him to stop touching me hahaha)

I laboured in triage until about 5:30am, when they finally got a room for me - like I said, it was super busy that morning! It took me about 10 minutes to walk to the room 50 feet from my triage room because of the contractions. I finally got in there, they laid me back down on the bed (again, I couldn't lay down when I was in labour with Aryn - I stood the whole time. This time, I HAD to lay down). They had to do another internal. The doctor ended up breaking my water (5:45am). Then I asked for the fentanyl because it hurt so bad. The nurse literally was putting the needle into the IV bag when I yelled out that I had to push. Then my body started pushing. The nurse yelled at me to open my legs so they could look. I told her no (I didn't want to move) and she said "you have no choice!" So I did, then she told Ryan to press the "big red button" and yelled at the doctor to come deliver.

One mama push later, and Lucas was out. Literally one push.

He was born at 6:18am, weighing 6lbs 13oz, and 19 3/4" long!

We were supposed to be in the hospital for 2-5 days due to the situs inversus. The NICU came and took Lucas away quite quickly after he was born to assess him. It was a very confusing, frustrating conversation with a woman who did not speak very good English, telling me that they are going to keep him for 24+ hours and they will give him formula if they see fit. She was saying this to me as they were stitching me up (3 tiny 1st degree tears) and I was meeting my son. She even kept telling me they would give him formula after I said I wanted him to be exclusively breastfed. I was about to refuse NICU, until another nurse came in (who spoke English) and agreed that everything we wanted would happen. So Ryan went with Lucas to the NICU while they cleaned me up and got me ready to go.

Lucas ended up spending a total of 5 hours in NICU, instead of 2-5 days. He was perfectly healthy, and there were so many not-healthy babies there that they did not see any reason to keep him there. They gave him an ultrasound, confirmed the situs inversus, but stated that he's fine. The only thing we need to watch for is that he has a vein (name?) that runs from your leg to your heart. His crosses his heart so it *could* be an issue when he's older, and will most likely need ultrasounds throughout his life to make sure he's ok. But there's nothing anyone can do about it. So we may not have our star hockey player, but he's going to be amazing at whatever he does in his life. And I can't wait to see what he does in his life!!

We got to go home the very next day (again, instead of the 2-5 day recommended stay!). I was healing great, Lucas was happy and healthy, nursing was going fantastic (and still is!) and everything is fantastic!

Now for sleep....