Adeleine is just over 4 weeks
old and I still haven’t written down her birth story. Shame on me!
Without any more procrastinating, here’s her story. Be forewarned that this is for me as a record
of her birth, so if the details get tedious feel free to skip ahead. If you’d rather skip the whole story and just
look at the pictures know that we now have a healthy, happy little girl that
was born on the 16th of December.
Below is a picture of me and Remi a week or so before Adeleine was born.
Where to start, where to
start… This time around I was a bit
worried that this experience would be similar to Remi’s birth (which was not a
cake walk) but I was excited when I started to feel “ready” around 38
weeks. With Remi I just didn’t feel like
it was time when 40 weeks rolled around and I was content to wait until the time
was right. I don’t know if I really felt
different this time around or if I was just mentally done. It was so different being pregnant while
chasing around a toddler and I had more aches and pains than last time due to
the toddler thing and the fact that this was my second pregnancy. Either way I was ready for her to come and
really didn’t think she’d decide to arrive late. It was also relieving that my midwives were
very supportive of me waiting for as long as it took until my baby came, unless
something indicated that she wasn’t faring well - one less thing to stress about.
On the 15th of
December I started to feel some vague contractions around 11:30am but wasn’t
really sure that this was “it”. Again, I
was terrified that this would turn into the 72-hour marathon that I experienced
with Remi and I was very uncertain about what a normal labor felt like. These contractions were similar to some of
the Braxton hicks that I had had for the previous 2 months, which added to my
uncertainty. I called Shawn at work around
1pm and told him that maybe perhaps it was possible I was starting labor. I can’t remember his response but it was
something along the lines of “you’re not in labor, you’re not going to have the
baby until at least next week”. He was
expecting me to be late, again, and since the next day (the 16th)
was my due date he really didn’t believe that our little girl could come on
time. I called him again around 4pm and
told him that I was a little more sure that this might be it, maybe a 50%
certainty. His response was about the
same. At that point I decided to call my
mom, just to let her know the possibility.
The plan was for her to jump on a plane once I decided that I was in
labor. With another sister due at the
same time I was (who delivered a baby girl on the 12th) and with all
the Christmas stuff happening, we decided that she’d be on “call” in case I
happened to be 2 weeks late, like last time.
I called my mom and told her and she looked at the plane tickets but
didn’t get one quite yet because I was still unsure. I finally decided that I was pretty sure that
this was really it at around 7 or 8 that night (with a 10% uncertainty). My contractions were starting to regulate
(yay!) and they were getting more intense.
My mom got her ticket to fly out the next morning and I was hoping that
things would continue to go slowly because Paula, the neighbor who was to watch
Remi, was at her husband’s retirement party that night. Of all the nights that I could have gone into
labor, it happened on the one night that she was busy. I did have a nearby backup, but she was pregnant
with two kids of her own and I knew it might be really hard for her. Shawn and Remi went to bed, I stayed up
timing the contractions and trying to “sleep”.
I’ve known of people that can sleep through this stage, but really?! How do they manage that?! Laying down on the couch was torture through
the contractions, but I pretended to get some rest.
Around 2am my contractions had
been shortening to about 7 minutes apart so I called my midwife. Since I was Strep B positive, they wanted to
get me in early enough for me to have time to get 2 doses of antibiotics, in
order to protect the baby when she was born.
My midwife told me that even though it might still be awhile it was
better not to take chances, so she told me to head for the hospital. I called Paula and when she got here Shawn
was outside for a while stocking the wood bin in the front of the house. And then he came inside and leisurely packed
a bag. Haha! It was probably 30-45 minutes after she got here until we left
the house. I really think he thought
it’d be another day or so until our baby came.
Every time I’d have a contraction Paula would say “don’t you think you
need to go?” She was pretty concerned
but I was buoyant because my body was working as it was supposed to, I was
going to see my daughter for the first time and I was quickly on my way to
becoming unpregnant (yay!). When we got
to the hospital, the nurses asked us what had taken so long to get there and I
told them, laughingly, why it took so long.
Upon arrival to the hospital, I
was dilated to a 6 and 90% effaced. Since
they didn’t send us home I think Shawn was finally convinced that our little
girl was coming. My midwife, Lauren, got
there a little after we did and just sat, drank her coffee and chatted away to
me and Shawn. After a while I tried
taking a bath to see if that would help me focus.
It did not at all, but it kept me warm.
I only stayed in there for 20 minutes or so and decided that sitting in
the bed was the most comfortable position for me. At 7am, my midwives changed shifts (there are
three and they all rotate through the on-call status) and Tonia came in. Yay!
She’s very mellow and maternal and my favorite out of the three. I was hoping that she’d be the one to help me
with the labor process. She checked me
pretty close to when she got there and I was dilated to an 8 and 90%
effaced. Great! I continued to handle to contractions,
breathing through them. Tonia would stay
in the room for a bit and then leave me and Shawn because quiet is what I
needed most. If I ever needed her she’d
be there in a heartbeat but it was nice to have quiet so I could
concentrate. After about four hours I
asked her to check me again, my hopes high that I was almost there. She did and I had made no progress. Ugh! She
suggested that since I had not progressed that maybe we should break my
water. As soon as she mentioned that I
burst into tears. I remember that during
Remi’s birth, when my water broke is when the real pain began. I never wanted to experience that again and
here Tonia was, asking me to bring this on myself willingly. It’s one thing if it just naturally happened,
but quite another if I made the decision to bring that on. I sobbed and told Tonia this and she reminded
me that I had now been in the “transition” status for about 4 hours and this
phase is the painful phase and I was handling it like a pro. All I was
doing was wearing myself out. She
encouraged me to think about it and to take a walk to see if we could get
things progressing. Shawn and I took one
lap around the floor and then back in the bed I went. I really was able to concentrate on the
contractions the best when I was sitting in that bed. When Tonia came in I told her to go ahead and
break my water. So she did. I cried before and while she was doing it. After that there was not a huge change in the
pain – yay! The space between the
contractions just shortened to about every two minutes and I was able to handle
it because I had quiet and was able to concentrate. I remember getting mad at Shawn and almost
throwing him out of the room because he kept moving and making noise. He was bouncing his leg as I was holding his
hand and then he’d get up and walk around the room with his jacket swish-swishing. That was almost more than I could take. So he came and sat quietly, holding my
hand. Not too long after that I called
Tonia in and told Shawn to get me a throw-up bag and I started to empty my
stomach out. When Tonia came in I was
crying and told her I couldn’t do it anymore.
I couldn’t handle it. I wanted to
be done. She checked me again and I was
at a 9 (almost 10) and 100% effaced. She
had me push while she held back the “lip” that wasn’t quite dilated enough. I pushed past it and decided that I wanted to
have that baby to make the contractions stop.
I pushed for maybe 20 minutes and had forgotten that this is the most
painful part of the birthing experience.
I had only remembered that the transition period was horrid beyond
belief during Remi’s birth. How had I
forgotten the pushing phase??? It
hurts!!!!! I yelled at Tonia several
times to push the baby back in because it hurt too much. And then I just wanted it to be over and
finally put everything I had into it, holding nothing back. I touched her head as it crowned and then
caught my baby as she was born. 11:54am
on 16 December 2011. I was the first one
to hold her and cuddle her. Shawn cut
the cord after I had held her for a while and then I nursed her. During this time I kept bleeding so I was
given some shots of something and put on pitocin. Then they mashed on my stomach (horrid,
horrid pain) to get the blood clots out, which they had to do several times
over the next two hours because of bleeding.
I’m pretty sure I hit my midwife and nurse pretty hard on the arms as
they were doing this, yelling like a crazy woman. Pain does make you a bit crazy. Anyway, I got to cuddle with and nurse my
baby for about an hour before they weighed her – 8lbs 4oz, 20 ¾ inches. Soooo nice to be able to initially bond with my little
girl for that long. And then I got to
cuddle with her some more.
This birth experience was so
different from my last one and I’m grateful for that. With Remi, his birth was traumatic and I
didn’t really feel any attachment for him for a few days and had a long
recovery. With this girl, I felt that
maternal attachment to her as soon as I had touched her head. I believe that difference was due to the
different experiences I had during their births. I’m grateful that my body did what it was
supposed to – it’s a pro now! I’m grateful
for my wonderful midwife who was able to coach me when I needed it. I’m grateful for a husband who supported me and
was quiet (swish-swish) when I needed
it most - ha! Most of all, I’m extremely
grateful for a beautiful, healthy daughter.
After much thought (11 days
after her birth), we named her Adeleine Inez Robson. Her middle name (pronounced I-nis) is named after her
Great-great-grandmother, Inez Willoughby (Patch) – my father’s mother’s
mother.
