Tutu's Birth Story

In labour in the birthing lounge at the hospital.

 During a contraction.

I have never publicly shared Tutu's birth story, which is odd since I am the first to share my experiences but his was unique. I have it written out what happened written shortly after his birth but this rendition will be how I remember it now. 

 

 When I got pregnant with Tutu was a very stressful time in our lives, my FIL had just passed away after spending months in and out of the hospital, my MIL wasn't well and we decided to sell both our place and her place and move in together, and we were renovating both places in order to sell. Also in the midst of this Rock and I had decided that we would have no more children.  While I wanted more, Rock was done and we compromised that until action was taken on the matter I could pray for a miracle.  I ended up getting pregnant 4 days before Rock went to the Dr. to ask about a vasectomy.  Since we weren't trying it was weeks before I even figured out I was pregnant but once the morning sickness hit there was no doubt.

As with the other 2 I had a week of pre-labour, it usually lasts about 2 weeks so a week into it I figure all was good I still had time. I was schedule for an induction the following week due to my insulin-dependent gestational diabetes. I woke up on March 25 and the contractions were different. I went in for my OB appointment that morning and I told him that I might be in early labour. He checked me and I was 3 cm along. He told me that because I tested GBS positive this time I need to go home have a good lunch and then go to the hospital to be checked because once labour is established I need to get put onto the IV antibiotics rights away.  He said I should go in about 1-2 hours.  

 I went to work to tell Rock and to see my co-workers, they had a shower for us the day before but we weren't able to attend as we spent the day at the hospital with MIL.  I caught up with co-workers and then was shooed out of the office because they were scared that I was going to give birth in the office. I told them not to worry we were still in early labour.  Rock and I went home, had lunch and packed up the last minute things and headed out to the hospital.

When I got there was checked out and confirmed that I was about 3 cm but that they didn’t' want to admit me yet to go walk around the hospital for about 1-2 hours and come back and be checked again. And so 10 hours of torture began, I walked, I contracted, and I walked. We visited just about every nook and cranny in the hospital. I got checked; we were about the same maybe slightly more dilated. Again we were told to walk, we repeated this process for the 10 hours but threw in some dinner and labour in the labour lounge a bit. This is not how I wanted to have my labour be. I wasn't admitted so I couldn't get comfortable somewhere I felt like a gypsy. I wanted to go home but they were reluctant to do that because of the GBS positive.  

My mother joined us around 10pm, I ran into my midwives at one point when I was getting checked and they had high hopes that things were progressing so that they could support me at birth (once I was diagnosed with the insulin-dependent gestational diabetes my care was transferred to an OB but the midwives could still support me during the birth) however at that time things weren't progressing. 

Finally around midnight I consulted with the OB on call and not the resident.  It was a hallelujah moment, the OB on call was my OB from Muffin's pregnancy, it was someone who I knew and she knew me and what I was capable of.  I told her that I felt I wasn't progressing because I wasn't able to relax and get comfortable and I wanted to go home to labour (this was strongly discouraged before because to the concern of the GBS). She agreed to let me go home and rest with the promise as soon as anything changes or my waters break I was to come back immediately.

I breathed a sigh of relief and went home. I ate a quick bowl of soup and went to bed to rest. I didn't get to rest long because an hour later my water broke.  This was a weird sensation for me because I have no gone into labour naturally, my previous 2 births were indication with my waters being broken at the hospital. I swear I was resting when it felt like there was a karate chop inside (more likely a kick) and my water broke.

I went into the bathroom and leaked a trail of blood and water there. I didn't realize at the time that blood in the fluid was bad. I had never had my waters break naturally and it made sense to me that there could be blood because well that's what supplies the embryo through the pregnancy.  I take a quick shower to clean up, get dressed and get Rock to get some dark towels to take with us. 

I'm trying to get dress, I keep falling to the ground in pain with the contractions and I keep vomiting. Rock is freaking out and wants me to hurry up and get to the hospital because he promised the OB we would get there right away and I just want to feel stable enough to travel.  In the midst of this my father is called to watch to the 2 sleeping children and Rock, my mom and I head back to the hospital.  

The contractions are kicking in pretty hard once my water breaks, at this point I am emotionally and physically exhausted from spending the whole day of the 24 at the hospital with MIL seeing specialists, who at the end of the day ended up getting admitted, and walking around at the hospital for 10 hours in early labour.  It's the middle of the night so we have to enter through the E/R the admitting nurses saw the bloody waters and whisk me into a wheel chair and wheel me up to L&D.  I insisted I could walk up on my own but apparently I was over ruled.  When I got upstairs the freaking out continued even though I tried to tell everyone that it was ok. I got whisked into a room, examined, the OB came in to check and chat. There was concern about the amount of blood. I was put on monitors and at this point I asked for an epidural. 

 Rock was shocked because he knows how much I want to do it naturally but like I mentioned earlier I was mentally and physically exhausted at this point and I needed something to take the edge off.  The funny thing is the epidural didn't work completely. I still felt the contractions but it did take the edge off. I just needed not to feel things as intense, sometimes things happen as they are suppose to. As I was labouring I asked the nurse when shift change was because I wanted to make sure I gave birth before then.  The next OB coming on was my current OB but I wasn’t comfortable with him as I got transferred later in this pregnancy and didn’t develop a report with him.  There were concerns throughout about the amount of blood and the fact that Tutu’s heartbeat slowed a few times.  The OB didn’t let me know there were any concerns; she let me labour without panicking me unless it was going to become a problem.  I trusted her and she trusted me to birth, as I needed.  

About 2 hours later my body started to push on it’s own. The nurses started to yell at me not to push yet. I told them that this is what my body does as I transition, they checked me as they were checking my body did it again and they felt the cervix dilate more. They let my body do its thing and the Dr rushed it to deliver. The team was all dressed in scrubs for an emergency c-section but they needed to be in with me as well. Thankfully it was a quick push period with Tutu like with his sister. With Muffin I pushed her out with 5 minutes of pushing, Tutu took 8.  He was healthy, safe in my arms. It turns out after I birth the placenta I had a partial placental abruption, which explained the blood loss. The Ob thanked me for being so quick and whisked off for the c-section.   Rock said the birth was scary, that there was a lot of blood in the room and that it was bloodier then the first 10 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.  All I cared was he was here and we were all safe. 

By birth number 3, both my mom and Rock knew not to touch me or talked to be as I pushed that I just needed to do my own thing and I just needed their presence in the room. I was grateful to have them with me.  

 Little Tutu all blue after flying through the birth canal.

After I was transferred over to the maternity ward, I was blessed with the midwives coming to visit with me. I didn’t have that with Muffin’s birth.  She talked with me about the birth and told me I was lucky he came 3 weeks early because the partial placental abruption could have been bad news for both of us. The talk freaked me out because I didn’t realize the danger we were in, I further got freaked out when we got home and I goggled it and realized that it was my actions that caused that by lifting my MIL the days and weeks prior.  

The after care with the midwives was amazing and everyone woman should have that experience. It’s sad that midwifery care isn’t readily available for all women.  It’s also sad that because of my insulin-dependant gestational diabetes I was considered high risk and not eligible for them to be my primary care givers during the birth and that they were not there.  One of the nurses I was speaking with after didn’t understand why they don’t’ change those guidelines that we could give birth with the mid-wives if in the hospital because there is an OB on call if something goes wrong but there is nothing different about the births themselves.

Thankfully with Tutu we were able to go home the next day, his sugars were good unlike his sister’s, which had us stay a few days in the hospital.  We went home and had follow visits with the midwives.  Because of all the stress I was under my milk was having a hard time getting established, I ended up having a lot of midwife visits and having to take herbal supplements to get it to come in.  We also ended up back in the hospital a few days later because Tutu had a very bad case of jaundice, and was required to stay 3 days under the lights and the blanket. 

I am sad that Tutu is my last baby, but I am grateful he is in our lives.  There was nothing easy during his pregnancy and birth but we were both safe and healthy in the end.  I truly believe that Tutu came into our lives so that I would be home that year, so that when my MIL’s cancer was determined to be terminal I would be able to fulfill her wish and take care of her at home her final days.  Had I been working that might not have been the case.  Everything happens for a reason.  My little miracle baby turns 2 today.

Ania

Muffin's Birth Story

My Muffin Turns 4 today.  Below is her birth story written  3 days after I gave birth to her.

Thursday night I went too bed in hopes of getting a good night's sleep so that I could wake up in the morning and give castor oil a try. I figured I could try and have Muffin more naturally then an induction at the hospital on Saturday. Woke up Friday morning sicker then a dog. Every muscle ached, I had a runny nose ans a cough that made your whole body shake. Ok so there was a new plan in place. It was time to get better. I rested a lot, napped all in hopes of beating this cold. Except for running to the store in the evening to pick up a couple last minute things I was home all day. Once I got Monkey to bed took my last long hot bath and off to bed I went myself since we had to be at the hospital at 8 am.

Had a pretty good night's sleep and woke up feeling much better, not 100% but way better then Friday. Off to the hospital we we went. Monkey woke up just as we were leaving so I got to say goodbye and give her a present from mommy and daddy letting her know we still love her and so it would act as a distraction while we were gone. She loved her aquadoodle bear.

Got to the hospital and they hooked us up to the monitors and listen to baby after an hour the Dr came in and examined me and I was 2-3 cm but still had a longish neck on my cervix. She inserted cervadil in me and had to go back on the monitor for another hour. After that they had us walk around the hospital for an hour in hopes that it might get things moving. The Dr doing the induction was the Dr on call but from what my OB told me and the nurses she took a more natural approach to childbirth like my OB did so we really lucked out having her there. After we walked around we went back to be checked and since nothing was happening we were sent home with instructions on what to do and when to come back. Basically we were to return either in labour or 10am the following day.

Came home, had some lunch and went up to bed to nap. I figured that 1) I needed to rest to try and feel better and 2) I needed to rest in case I went into labour. I tried to sleep but it wasn't really coming. I kept drifting in and out of sleep but I did rest for 2 hours. Rock had joined me for the last hour and snored away. My parents were over and watching over Monkey while we rested. Woke up in time for dinner and for contractions to start about 5:30pm. They were uncomfortable but very bearable. Not very predictable, no pattern to the yet. I ate my dinner on the birthing ball and would get up to lean against the wall and sway my hips during contractions while moaning. It took me a while to eat dinner. After dinner I went up and took a long hot shower, my mother stood guard in case I needed help and told me I was taking too long. I told her no one asked her to stand watch and she could go and sit down. After the shower I went to lie down with the Ipod and rest while labour began to establish itself. As things got stringer I would chant through the contraction "They are not stronger then me, they are me". Around 7:30 Monkey wanted me to nurse her to sleep. I obliged and nursed her down in our room. Just as she fell asleep, things got more intense for me. I continued to lay on my side and work with my body. Things were getting pretty intense so I went on the computer and started timing my contractions with a website I found. they were about 3 minutes apart and lasting about 40 seconds. I figured we should probably start getting ready to go as things were getting intense. This was around 9pm. We gathered our things and my dad drove us to the hospital as it was snowing quite badly out. On the way there I remember about using my combs as pain relief. So I pulled out my combs and placed them on the acupressure points. They did help relief some of the discomfort. I yelled at my dad for speeding in the snow. I told him this is still going to hurt weather I'm in the car or at the hospital so take you time driving because I don't need to be in a car accident while in labour.

We get to the hospital and get assigned the most awesome nurse in the world. She brings me into a L&D room. Unfortunately it was one of the smaller older rooms because they are so busy. She checks me out and I'm only a good 3cm dilated. I am so disappointed. I thought I would be at least a bit further along. They hook me up to the monitor to check baby out and she was checking if another room become free. Once we were told this is the room we were stuck with I got my dad to get the bags from the car. Called my mom and let her know what's going on and told her it would probably be at least a few hours before anything would happen. Called Rock's parents and told them the same. Rock went down to get me an egg salad sandwich from Tim Horton's as I was hungry and it was time for my snack and I figured I needed to keep my strength up since we still had a while. The Dr came in and checked me still 3, both the Dr and the nurse said I was doing very well and that I would have no problem doing this naturally. They said I was coping very well with the contractions especially since they were coming pretty close together (a side effect of the cervadil). The Dr said that I had a high tolerance for pain since I didn't flinch during the internal exams. I told her I thought they were rather uncomfortable and I thought I was being a wimp. She gave me a choice if I wanted to speed things up and ensure I had my natural birth she recommended we break my waters to help things move along. I asked her if she thought it was best and she said it would speed up labour and ensure that I had my natural birth. They were very supportive of me and having my natural birth. Even when things pick up later on the nurse keeps reminding me that I wanted to do this naturally and I really don't want the epidural but now I'm getting ahead of myself. I go to the bathroom and come back and get my waters broken. Just after that was done Rock and my dad get back in the room. I tell them that the waters were broken. This was 10:50pm. The nurse tells them were to put the bags out of the way in case things pick up and they need to get ready to deliver, I wanted to eat but they wanted to monitor the baby a bit. I get on my left side, with my combs in hand, Ipod on and alternating between moaning and chanting between contractions.

Things start to get a little intense, the contractions at this point are starting to come one on top of the other I'm starting to to be able to handle the pain, I'm starting to scream through contractions they are so intense I start to BEG for an epidural the pain is too much to bear.Rock  tells me to chant and starts to massage me. In not so polite ways I told him not to touch me. I tell the nurse I want the epidural, the nurse reminds me that I'm doing this and I didn't want the epidural. I tell her if I could have a break between contractions then I could do it but there is no rest. She tells me an IV needs to be run before she can get me one. She takes her time getting the IV pole and tells me she needs to check me before she starts the IV to see how far along I am. At 11:30 I am 5-6cm. I am literally screaming through each contraction at this point. My body starts to push on it's own. The nurse asks me if I'm pushing, I told her I think I am. She told me to stop I told her I can't my body spasmed  that way. She checks me again it's 11:40 I am 7-8cm. I told her to screw the epidurall at this point we're doing this. Again my body spasms and I push, she checks me again at 11:45 I;m fully dilated. They help me turn onto my back, call the Dr in and tell me to start pushing. I start to push, they tell me to stop screaming and use that energy to push. I scream, I push, it burns as the baby crowns. 11:51 Muffin literally shoots out of me. They put her on top of me We delay clamping and cutting but I feel the cord tugging. They clamp cut and my placenta comes flying out not even 10 minutes after Muffin was born. I had no tears just a lot of swelling. Poor Muffin's face was all bruised from her fast arrival into the world. I was still trying to process everything that was going on. While I was pushing my mom was calling my dad to come and pick her and Monkey up because Monkey woke up and wanted to come to the hospital. She woke up as her sister was being born. My dad had finally gotten to see a birth of his grandchild. He left to go pick up Babcia and big sis. I tried to digest what just happen as they cleaned me up. Rock makes some calls I look at my baby girl and can't believe she is finally here. They leave us alone for a bit. Big sis comes to meet her sister about 20 minutes after she was born. We get moved into a recovery room around 2am.

Just as we get into the room the fire alarm goes off and everyone is trapped in the room until the all clear is given an hour later so no sleep fr the new mommy. Nurses keep coming in to poke and prod both of us because of the diabetes.I get about 1 1/12 hours sleep. I was ready to go home right away but hospital policy is you have to stay at least 4 hours. Unfortunately be cause of the diabetes we needed to stay 24 hours at least to make sure Muffin is ok. Her blood sugars were borderline and a 2 were low so we ended up staying longer then 24 hours. There was some issues with how the hospital handled that and I HATE the fact that they try and bully you and use scare tactics to keep you there because they say they are so concerned but their actions don't echo their words. they told us at the 24 hour mark we couldn't go home because of the prior test results and they needed to do a few more test and we had to stay. So we did stay and not a single test was done. A very strongly worded letter will be going out to the hospital and I may take some other actions in regards to this because I'm sick of the medical community invoking panic for no reason.

We are all finally home and even though mom and big sis are sick ( we had to go to the Dr right after coming home from the hospital because of this) we are adjusting well as a family. Tandem nursing is interesting. I think it's harder because of the fact that Monkey is sick and wants that comfort from mommy. My milk came in last night which delighted both girls and now I can go bra shopping for some nice fancy nursing bras. So this is the long version of the birth I think it took me longer to type this then the actual active labour (but I did have my nursling on hand while accomplishing this).