My own birth story

We all are blessed with our own birth experiences. I just thought I'd share mine, cause why the heck not.

I was over a week past my sons due date. I was so uncomfortable and very very impatient to meet my son. So after talking to my midwife I decided to try the old midwife cocktail, to get things started. Now I can't tell you exactly what was in it, because I simply blocked it out. But I can tell you that it worked. Boy did it work. You are supposed to take the concoction once in the early morning and then if things haven't progressed you take a second dose later in the afternoon.

First dose went well, was able to handle the taste but nothing happened. I went to take the second dose but could hardly stomach the smell. I ended up throwing up after just walking into the kitchen. After this things started picking up speed. Man oh man was I not prepared for what contractions felt like.

I will never take for granted the opportunity to practise pain management skills before going into labour. Since I completely squandered that time and was left at the mercy of my body.

Being as this was my first pregnancy things didn't move too fast. This was a blessing because my husband had to get home from school before leaving for the hospital. He got home just before my midwives arrived to check me. Once they checked what they needed too, we were off to the hospital.

The drive to the hospital was the worst part of my labour hands down. You can't quite get into a position to help ease the contractions. On top of that I was throwing up the whole ride there and of course every route had construction to go through. If I wasn't already interested in trying a home birth with my next pregnancy, that car ride would have been reason enough.

We get to the hospital finally and I waddle my way to our room. Now I hadn't gone on a hospital tour so I wasn't sure what to expect. But it was pretty nice for a hospital, and big. It had a nice deep tub and enough space to set up our birthing pool.

Let's talk birthing pools for a minute. I had rented one because I heard all these great stories of how much it helped with the pain and minimized tearing. That last piece of info I think is enough for anyone to give it a shot. Well as it turned out it didn't do much for me. From what I was told I was having back labour. So as much as the warm water was nice between contractions, unless it could perform counter pressure it wasn't going to cut it. I didn't last as long as I'd hoped in the water. I was dehydrated and low on energy from having thrown up everything I had in me. So I decided to try other pain methods.

After getting hooked up to fluids, which helped so much, I started with the TENS machine. This is a machine that uses shock therapy to help muscles to relax. Though it helped distract me a little from my contractions it wasn't enough. Then my midwives suggested trying a different technique before I saw the anesthesiologist. Now I don't know what it's called but the gist of it is injecting water under the skin to help release some of the pressure. This helped a little. But I was just so ready to get an epidural. Finally the doctor came and it was my turn. But he was a busy man so unless I wanted to wait till he came back, I had to sit as still as possible during a contraction for him to stick it in my spine. This was easier said then done.

The decision to get an epidural, though it made me feel a bit weak, was the right decision for me. As my husband put it I was like a different person after. I was actually smiling instead of looking exhausted and in pain. This was break time for everyone. My husband slept a little, my midwives got to sit down and eat something and I rested as I wasn't able to sleep.

After a while I noticed the epidural hadn't spread out evenly so when I had a contraction I still felt it but only in one tiny spot. I was given the option to "top up" my epidural. Of course I said yes, why not. Big mistake. It worked too good, my left leg went numb. We called it dead leg. So when it came time to push it made things difficult. I had to get help to lift that leg. It was quite funny actually. I feel like this situation really changed the atmosphere of the pushing part of labour. To my surprise though they were able to ween the epidural pretty quickly. So it didn't take long before I was able to try different positions for pushing because I was able to use both legs again.

Now that it has been 9 months since giving birth I can't quite remember how long I had to push for before Xavier come into the world. I'm sure it felt ALOT longer then it actually was. I'm also sure that if I hadn't have had an epidural I would have had him out a lot sooner. Not being able to feel labour is a nice thing but very counter productive when you can't tell if your pushing properly.

So I'm pushing and then baby came out, but he came out with some merconium as well. This was a big concern for the staff and they called in the team of nurses to deal with it. The concern was that baby could have inhaled some of the merconium(first poop). If he had and they didn't get him cleared out it could lead to respiratory issues in the future. Thankfully this wasn't the cause for my little guy. The down fall about this situation was that as soon as baby was out they took him away. I didn't even get to see him or hold him first. This was super disappointing to say the least to an emotion, tired momma. Thankfully my midwife recognized what I was going through and went over and took a picture of baby Xavier so I could at least see him before they finished up. When they finally brought him over I was an emotional wreck but tried my best to keep it together with a room full of people. HE WAS PERFECT!!!

Of course everything after this was an unimportant blur. They had to clean me up and give me stitches as I had second degree tearing. So baby was going between me and Etienne for skin to skin time. Oh man was it a precious sight seeing my shirtless husband cuddling our tiny little boy. After that it was just attempting to shower, making sure I could pee on my own because of having a cathidor and getting me and baby dressed.

People say the ride home is always so stressful with a brand new baby in the car for the first time. But I was just so thankful that my perfect little family was all together and heading home that I didn't have a care in the world. The days that followed were just a tired blur with a huge learning curve.But thankfully with the help from family, my attentive husband and my midwife who I'm sure I drove a little crazy with all the texts asking questions, we survived.