Our Precious Pumkin's Birth Story

On October 15th, our Second Anniversary, Joe and I went to the OBGYN for another ultrasound. The doctor scheduled us for a c-section for Thursday, October 18th as he was 41+ weeks gestation and had not engaged and seemed to be perfectly content to stay inside. We were dissapointed, but ok with the decision.

That evening, Joe and I celebrated at 82 Queen, where we had our wedding reception and where we eat dinner on each anniversary. After dinner, we walked a little bit up King Street and then went home after I started feeling unwell.

When we got home, I went upstairs to work and Joe was downstairs working. Around Midnight, I emailed my boss and said I was done working for the evening and was going to bed and hoping the baby would calm down. When I hit the mattress, I started having weird pains. They were not like the Braxton Hicks pains I had had previously. Finally at 2:30, I couldnt' take it anymore and took a bath and got Joe to get up and bring me the cd player and I started listening to the Hypnobabies cds. I was able to relax enough to lay back down. Joe was zonked. I laid next to him and for each contraction I put his hand on my head as that was one of my "relax" cues. After each one, I would turn his wrist to see his watch to see what time it was and how far apart they were.

At 5:00 am, and with only the dozing between contractions, I got up and called my mother who immediately told me to contact the doctor on call. I did so and the doctor told me to go to the hospital, do not pass go and do not collect $200.

So called mom back and woke up Joe at 5:30. We showered, dressed and finished packing and loading the car. We got to the hospital at 7:00 am (I took my time to wait for my doctor to come on duty and there was rush hour traffic). I got to our room and they hooked me up to teh monitors. The Doctor B came in and checked me. I was 70% effaced and 1 cm and baby was still high. She told me that we could try laboring, so I said ok. She said she would be back at lunchtime.

I was allowed to get up and walk around for 30 minutes and afterwards, hooked to the monitors for 30 minutes. While being monitored I used Joe's laptop and worked on my work. After walking when they hooked me up to the monitors, the baby had some drastic heart decelerations. When Doctor B came back at lunchtime, the baby had another deceleration and I saw the concern on her face. I was 80% effaced and still 1 cm. She was leaving as it was her half day and left me in the hands of one of her partners.

After having another episode in the afternoon, I was confined to the bed. I was also put in some very awkward positions to help the baby's heartbeat. Labor was intensifying for me and was becoming increasingly painful as I was not able to move and relax through the contractions.

Around 6:00, Dr. W came in to check on me. Before she came in, Joe, my mom, the nurses and I had a chat about what to do. I had been in labor for 18 hours. I was convinced to go on pitocin and get an epidural as this would speed up labor and we could get the baby here faster since he was not doing well.

Well, when she came in, she checked me and I was still only 1 cm after 18 hours. I said, "ok, let's do a c-section." I knew that if my precious baby was not doing well in "early labor", I knew he would not tolerate hard labor. After we made the decision, everyone started "hoping to it"

I was rolled out of my room at 6:45 and put in the OR. I was given a "spinal" and they began the surgery and then let Joe in.

Our baby was born October 16th, at 7:14 pm and weighed 7 lbs and 14 oz and was 20" long.