Finally here's Aoife's birth story....it's quite long:
What a weekend...it all started with our cat, Jinx. She’s our 10 year old furbaby and she got sick the day before my due date. She was having “accidents” in the house which was completely out of her usual behavior. We headed to the vet to figure out what was going on. The vet wanted to get a sterile urine sample from her by taking the urine from her bladder with a needle. Off she went to the procedure room and we heard a lot of howling going on. Back came the vet...Jinx had gotten so mad/scared while they were positioning her that she peed all over the vet! Now she had to stay overnight so they could try again in the morning. I told the vet that my due date was the next day and that I would leave my mother’s number on the off-chance that I would go in to labor.
So, we left poor Jinx and decided to go up north to Alex’s parents, which had been our original plan for the day. We got up there in time for supper and decided to stay the night, to return home when the vet called us to pick up the cat....
We had an early night, going to bed at around 10:30pm....it had been a long day!
Fast forward to 2:50am. I got up to pee. As soon as I finished, I was about to stand up from the toilet when the first contraction hit. I was pretty sure that was what it was, but it wasn’t extremely painful. I got up and went down to the kitchen to walk around a bit. I was paying attention to the pains and noticed that they were coming around every 8 minutes. I decided to lie down because it was very manageable and I figured that getting more rest would be important if this was THE day.
I lay down in bed and about 2 minutes later I felt a “pop” in my pelvic area and felt a little damp. I jumped out of the bed because I didn’t want to make a mess in my MILs guest bed...ran back to the bathroom. I noticed a few drops of clear liquid on the floor. I sat on the toilet, all I could think to do at the time and waited. Sure enough, when I would get a contraction there would be a leak of fluid. OK...time to wake up Alex. I wasn’t worried, I just didn’t want to labor in my in-laws house. I wanted to get home. He got up and I told him what happened. After a few more contractions we were convinced that my membranes were in fact ruptured. He packed up our things and grabbed some old towels to put down in the car. He let his parents know that we were leaving and off we went. It’s about an hour to get home from their place (Val-Morin). The contractions were manageable but definitely coming regularly and about 6-7 minutes apart on the way home. I was using a timer on my iPad.
When we got home, I called Sinclair (my midwife). Woke her up...it was around 5:00am. She listened to my report and said I should try to get some rest and call her back a bit later in the morning. Right...rest now? I couldn’t sleep, partly from pain and partly from nerves. Alex did go to sleep. Contractions continued and the time between shortened to about 5 minutes, lasting around 45 seconds. They were more painful but I could still talk through them. We called Sinclair at 9:00am and she decided to come to our house to check me in about an hour. When she arrived she listened to the baby’s heartbeat (it was fine) and did a vaginal exam. She said that I was about 75% effaced and 1.5cm dilated. I felt ok with that and knew that there would be some hard work ahead. She suggested I stay home for my comfort and call her back when I wasn’t managing well anymore. Alright...I was fine with that. I was lucky because the day wasn’t too hot and I was happy to be in my home. I bounced on an exercise ball and took a couple of baths. Contractions continued. Alex made me a snack. The hours went by...
Meanwhile, my mother gets a call from the vet. Jinx can come home around 3:00pm. Great! I was so glad to know that the test had been done and she was ok. Around the same time, I start feeling like the contractions are intensifying. Still around 5 minutes apart but the pain has gone up a couple notches and they’re lasting a full minute. I’m having a harder time reminding myself that they will only last a minute and then I will get a break...It’s harder to find a position that eases the pain...If I try to move when a contraction has already started, it intensifies the pain...
I say to myself, try to make it until your mother gets home with the cat, then we can call Sinclair when I know that Jinx is taken care of and has had her medicine...
My mother arrives with Jinx...it’s around 3:30pm. She has peed in the car on the way home. Great! Poor cat has had a rough few days. And she stinks. Alex and my mom decide to give her a bath...she really reeks. Her fur is about 3 inches long. Needless to say she is unimpressed.
I’m stuck in our bedroom at this point because I’m getting hot. I’ve turned on the air conditioner and I feel like I’m struggling, not managing well. My cat is having a bath...I can’t go to the bathroom.
Finally they finish with Jinx and Alex comes back in to our bedroom. It’s time to call Sinclair. I have to stop talking when I get a contraction. It hurts. She says meet me at the birthing center in an hour. So, now I have something to focus on for a few minutes...making sure I get all the last minute items I wanted in the bag. Oddly enough, I remember that I want to mail a few thank you cards for baby gifts we received. Weird. Off we go, with a stop at the mail box.
The drive to the center was not too bad, but I had more pain when we drove over bumps. I made it there, still leaking fluid all over the place. I had used up almost every towel we owned at this point, leaving them in a heap in our bathroom at home.
We got “settled in” to the room with the bathtub and Sinclair checked my cervix. 100% effaced and ...2cm dilated?!? It was 5:00pm. I had been at this for 14 hours...what? She told me not to be discouraged...this was average and normal. It would speed up as I worked through the contractions. I remember feeling a bit let down, but I didn’t feel derailed...there was more work to be done, that’s all.
The next hours are more of a blur to me. I remember having contraction after contraction...feeling like I was finished, that I couldn’t continue. I told this to Alex and Sinclair. “I don’t know how many more I can do...” Sinclair said “You’ll do as many as you need to...” Logical, what I needed to hear, but still kinda hard to take...I labored standing up in the corner of the bathroom, sitting on the big ball, in the bathtub, back in the bathroom, on hands and knees on the bed. I was thirsty, drinking a lot of water and Gatorade.
I ended up in the bathtub again and that’s finally where I started feeling the urge to push. I guess this was around 11:45pm...not sure exactly. My body would just start to take over and push really hard. It hurt a lot. I was remember that woman who came to our prenatal class who said it had been a relief to push...I wasn’t feeling that. I realize now that for the first half hour I was resisting the pushing, sort of fighting against it...not good, but I didn’t know I was doing it at the time. Alex says that the contractions were coming every 1-2 minutes at this point. He said that I would fall asleep in between, actually snoring, until he would see my eyes pop open and he knew that another contraction was starting. I know that I was dozing off, but to me it felt like I had gone to sleep for 15-20 minutes, not 1 or 2. By this point I had had a bloody show, so Sinclair said that things were definitely moving along.
Sinclair suggested I get out of the bath and change positions. I got on the bed and she was helping me brace my legs. I got a really bad cramp behind both my knees which made it quite difficult but she braced my legs and helped me. I don’t know how long I continued to push. Then she suggested that I get up and sit on the toilet. The gravity might help the baby come down. I sat on the toilet and had more bloody show which was encouraging. A few pushes and it really felt like the baby was finally moving. Back to bed I went and Sinclair helped me to brace my legs again. She talked to me about how she may tell me to hold back pushing to help avoid tearing and that the time was coming soon. I remember that at one point she said to put my hand down and I could feel the baby’s head. She told me that she didn’t have much hair. Wow! I was really doing this! I was almost done!
The ring of fire was exactly like it was called but although it was really intense pain I don’t think it lasted very long. All of a sudden the baby’s head was out and I wasn’t sure what to do! Sinclair didn’t tell me not to push but I heard her say that the cord was around the baby’s neck once, but not pulled tight. Then, my body pushed again, not really me doing it consciously and instantly there was relief of pain and I realized that the baby was all the way out. Sinclair place the baby on my chest. It was 2:26am. I was looking down at this marbly greyish-bluish-purplish-reddish tiny human. Eyes were open looking around, making noises but not screaming. Very calm. She had very little vernix on her skin. Very fine fair hair and those special navy blue newborn eyes. Really long finger nails. Before my eyes, the baby started to change color becoming more pink and red instead of marbled...
I still didn’t know if we had a boy or a girl. I asked. Alex said “I don’t know”. The baby was covered in a little blanket. I said “Could you check?” I couldn’t really move to check my self as my legs/entire body was still cramped up. He said “Oh, ok...” and lifted the blanket. He announced that we had a girl! It was amazing because he had had a premonition during the pregnancy that the baby was a girl. It became a lot more real once I knew what the gender was. This all happened so fast. He cut the cord when it stopped pulsing and then we waited about 20-25 minutes for the placenta. I got an injection of oxytocin because I lost about 500mL of blood after delivering the placenta and Sinclair massaged my uterus a lot and then the bleeding slowed down. My placenta was shaped like a heart and the cord was attached right at the edge in the point of the heart. It was amazing to see.
I couldn’t believe that I had grown this baby and then managed to push her out on my own! She looked perfect and we were so happy. I was excited that we got a girl. We tried to rest but I guess the adrenaline was still running high because I didn’t sleep after for several hours. She showed some interest in breastfeeding at first, then after a few hours she drifted off into a long newborn sleep. We went home at around 4:00pm.
Oh ya, and after all that, Jinx is ok. She had some antibiotics and is back to her usual self. All 3 cats are fairly unimpressed with Aoife...nervous of her crying and loud noises and feeling upset because they thought that we had renovated her room for them...
