The Big Day

My water broke at 2pm on October 31, 2013. It took me half an hour to verify my suspicion that it was, in fact, my water that had broken. Afterall, most women’s water breaks mid-labour at some point. Rarely does the water break like in the movies. But, it did for me. So my first instinct was to call Matt; however, I called the labour and delivery triage instead. I wanted to explain what happened and ask them what I should do. They suggested that I go to the hospital to get checked out. Once the water has broken they want to deliver the babe within 24 hours due to the chance of infection. So then I called Matt. And I texted him. And I emailed him. No answer. So I called my mum and let her know I was in labour, and then I took a shower. I was planning on taking a shower right when my water broke, so I figured I would feel better if I followed through. When I was done, there was still no answer from Matt. So I called his office manager and left a message with her (as was the plan if I couldn’t get ahold of him). I started packing up snacks etc. to take to the hospital and finally Matt called me 45 minutes after I first tried to get ahold of him. He gathered up his things at work and promptly came home. He changed and we finished packing our things to stay overnight. He was very calm and reassuring. But I wasn’t in any pain. If I was having contractions I wasn’t feeling them.

So we made our way to the hospital. They checked me out at triage and after a few tests they verified that indeed my water had broken. But I was only 3cm dilated and wasn’t feeling any contractions. They suggested that we go home and come back when the contractions were 5 minutes apart lasting 1 minute each and having been going on for at least an hour. So we got home after 7pm, which meant that we missed all the kids coming to the door (it was Halloween!!!). After having dinner, Matt went to bed for a few hours. I, however, could not sleep as contractions had started. I watched tv for a few hours and recorded whenever I felt a contraction. Matt woke up after 1am and we decided it was time to go to the hospital. It had been over 11 hours since my water had broken afterall.

When we got back to the hospital I was only 4cm dilated and the baby hadn’t moved down much at all. We were wheeled into a delivery room where I labored for a few hours without medication as the contractions were still tolerable. But after a few hours I remained at 4cm dilated. The doctor suggested they give me an IV which would speed up the process. At the same time I decided it was time for the epidural, so both were administered at about 6am. Within the hour our nurse rushed into the room flipping me to my side pressing buttons and calling for help. I had had a 6 minute intense contraction (not that I felt it) and the baby’s heart rate had dropped. The medication was doing the trick alright of speeding up the process. My contractions were coming hard and fast but this 6 minute contraction was too much for the babe who didn’t get a ‘breather’. So in changing my position and waiting for a few minutes, the babe’s heart rate increased to the safe range again. The doctor reduced the medication I was receiving thinking it was probably too much for me. Again, I got about an hour’s ‘rest’ before the nurse rushed in again followed by a swarm of doctors, residents and medical students who had no qualms about flipping me around and ‘checking’ on the babe. Matt certainly saw more than he bargained for. The babe’s heart rate increased again after a time, and the doctor again reduced my medication. After the third such incident, the doctor talked to us about the possibility of a C-section. I was only 5cm dilated and the babe had not moved down at all. It was 10-ish in the morning and the real fear was letting my very slow labour progress past the 24hr mark as to when my water had broken. The doctor’s recommendation was to have a C-section if I had another incident of the babe’s heart rate dropping. I was disappointed and really needed the time to process the suggestion. But with Matt’s stalwart and rational help, we decided together that it was the right thing to do. Again within the hour, our medical team rushed in to save the babe and we were almost instantly wheeled into the operating room.

Now, it wasn’t an ‘emergency’ but the C-section needed to be done quickly. I was wheeled into the operating room and even though Matt had been right behind me, he didn’t enter the room. I figured he must be ‘scrubbing in’ or something, so I let it slide. But what sucked was that no one told me where he was. Rather, I felt like a slab of meat thrown on a table with bright lights shining on my naked body for the entire world to see. I tried to cover up but the nurse shooed my hand away and insisted she needed to clean my abdomen. But I argued that didn’t mean she needed to expose ALL of me. She didn’t listen to me though. At the same time I had 3 anesthesiologists poking and prodding, and a few people were off in the corner talking about their weekend or something. Here I was naked and anxious without any support surrounded by seemingly uncaring and ‘process-minded’ medical professionals who treated me like just a widget caught up in the assembly line. Finally the head anesthesiologist spoke to me and told me where Matt was and that everything was going to be alright. That’s all I really needed was someone to treat me like a human being. A few minutes later the doctor came in and she was really great. She told me what was going to happen, that Matt was just about ready to come in, and she truly reassured me. She really was great. However, she pretty much started the incision right away, and Matt wasn’t in the room yet! I started telling the doctor I wanted her to stop until I had Matt at my side but then Matt finally came in. He sat right by my head, stroking my hand and reassuring me. I could feel my insides being pushed around and there was one really big push where it felt like all my insides were pushed towards my ribcage. Then the doctor declared, “It’s a blonde…” waiting… waiting… “boy!” It was so weird! I could feel the weight reduced. And I, of course, started to cry. I was so relieved when I heard him cry. They took him to the side and cleaned him up. I had previously told them I wanted to do skin-to-skin right away, so they brought him to me and placed him across my neck (the sheet was still up so I couldn’t see what they were doing to my lower half – hence, the only place to put him was my neck). Here’s the first moment we had together.

 

You can see he had his fist over my eye. I didn’t mind one bit. I kept stroking his back and talking to him while Matt held his hand. We stayed that way for quite a while as they stitched me up. Then we got our first family pics.