Jack's Birth Story

Today my sweet little man is six months old. I will wait to share his stats, since he has his six month appointment on Monday. But I thought I would share his birth story.

39 weeks pregnant

After weeks of labour stopping and starting I was getting exhausted. On Thursday April 29 I started having contractions around midnight. They were very sporadic, but I knew they were getting stronger and I was getting closer to delivery.

I had a stretch and sweep booked for 9:30 that morning, so I thought I would just go ahead with that and let my midwife know then that I thought maybe labour had begun as well as get checked to see of my cervix had made any changes. She checked me, and did the sweep and told me I was now 5cm dilated. She felt my belly during a contraction to see how strong it was as well as timed it. because they were only lasting 25 seconds, and she said they felt relatively mild that this was not necessarily going to turn into active labour today.

I shed a few tears at this point as I had barely slept in a couple days because the contractions were painful enough to keep me awake. I told her, I did not think I could go on like this for days on end anymore. She asked me if I wanted to have my baby today, and I of course said, "yes please". She told me to go home and try to get some sleep so I'd have energy for delivery and she would come over around 3 or 4pm and break my water. She said because I had been in early labour for so long, and was quite dilated that my body might just need a little push to go into active labour.

So I went home and tried to sleep but the contractions were too strong for sleeping even after taking gravol and tylenol. I sat on the exercise ball through the contractions as well as standing and rocking my hips side to side. Around 11 we tried to eat some lunch, but I could only get half of it down because the contractions were getting so strong.

I went upstairs to my bedroom at this point and alternated between sitting on the toilet and kneeling on the floor with my arms on my bed through contractions. Around 12 I told Denis I think he needed to call the midwives. My contractions were still not lasting a minute, but my gut told me it wouldn't be long.

The midwives got there sometime between 12:30-1:00pm, I'm not exactly sure when. I threw up right before they got there, so I knew I had made the right decision calling them. My midwife checked me and I was a good 6cm. I was so happy and relieved. By the time I was 6cm with Claire, I was asking for drugs and wanting to die. This time I found it painful and hard work, and I just wanted it to be over but I was coping so much better. I knew I could do it.

She broke my water at this point and we noticed the fluid was slightly stained with meconium. It wasn't dark and thick though, so my midwife was not too concerned. I expected the contractions to really pick up in intensity at this point, but I didn't really notice a huge difference. My midwife encouraged me to make a deep moaning sound through contractions which really helped me focus. After a few more contractions I could feel the baby getting lower and knew it wouldn't be long before it was time to push.

At just before 1:30 I got on the bed and started to push my baby out. That feeling freaked me out. It was a lot harder than it was with Claire which should have clued me in to his position. I pushed through the intense burning and at 2:05pm Jack came into the world weighing 8 lbs, 12 oz, almost two pounds bigger than his sister was. He was 21", 1 " bigger than his sister was.

 
He came out not making much noise and his colour wasn't the greatest, so the midwife had to cut the cord right away and take him to suction out his lungs. He had swallowed some meconium. After a couple minutes, he started crying and was placed back in my arms. At this point they told me he had come out in a posterior position. I couldn't believe I had just pushed out a sunny side up baby. No wonder it was such hard work pushing him out. And I didn't even tear. I was so happy to not have to be stitched up this time.

Having him at home was so nice. I had a shower and got to climb into my bed and just cuddle, and nurse my baby. My mom brought Claire home a couple hours later and she has proven to be the sweetest big sister. She is quite taken with her little brother, and proudly shows him off to visitors.

Claire meeting Jack for the very first time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting Daddy

Brother and sister bonding

Beautiful Boy