There are no words to explain what Jesse and I felt when we first saw our baby girl. I’m even tearing up now remembering that moment. I will end this blog with the story of Sofia Elizabeth Ward’s birth.
Saturday February 19, 2011
2:00am: I woke up to some cramping in my pelvic area and especially in my back. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to walk around a bit to see if it would either get worse or go away. I went to the bathroom and there it was... the bloody show (or mucous plug). It was my first sign of impending labour.
3:30am: The cramping worsened and started to feel more like contractions. They were about 5 to 6 minutes apart and lasted about 30 to 45 seconds long. So I called Milton Hospital to see if I should be coming in. They said to try and sleep it off and if I can go back to sleep it’s not real labour. So back into bed I go.
4:00am: I could not fall asleep whatsoever. My gut told me to go to the hospital as the pains continued to worsen. Jesse packed us up and off we went into the dark.
4:30am: We arrived at the Milton hospital and I was hooked up to the monitor. The nurse checked me and to my disappointment I wasn’t at all dilated. My cervix was apparently not far down enough and they were going to send me home. This news was devastating to me because I was in soooo much pain with each contraction. They advised that the baby’s face was in a position that was causing me to have back labour. So they gave me a shot of morphine and gravol and sent me home with a sleeping pill. The contractions were a bit more bearable with the meds.
12:00pm: By this time I was having intense contractions. The morphine/gravol/sleeping pill just allowed me to sleep in between the contractions. But otherwise I was awake and on all fours with each contraction (hoping that by being on all fours the baby was not pressing so much on my back). Jesse was massaging my back for each contraction which seemed to help also. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take. I didn’t want to go to the hospital to only be told to go home again.
2:00pm: Jesse had made me a hot bath in hopes that it would help with the pain. Unfortunately the bath didn’t take the pain away and the contractions were increasingly intense and frequent. I had then started to bleed quite a bit so we started getting ready to go back to the hospital. There was no way they were going to send me home this time! That car ride was so painful! Going over bumps while having contractions is not fun. I think Jess ran at least one red light on the way there too. Haha.
2:30pm: I arrive at the hospital and told the nurse (my saviour – Jackie) that my contractions are 1-3 minutes apart and that I was bleeding. Instead of taking me to the maternity ward I notice they take me into a birthing room. I knew then that this could be it. When the nurse checked me my water instantly broke and she told us I was 8-10 cm’s dilated. Later Jackie told us that I was more like 9cm’s. I was going to deliver this baby any second! I asked Jackie for the epidural but she didn’t give me a yes or no. She kind of skipped around the question, which sent me the message that it was too late for one. I couldn’t panic; I had to get through this no matter what. She rolled over this nitrous oxide and said I could this to take the edge off.
4:00pm: I’m about one hour into pushing and apparently making good progress. They had rolled away the nitrous oxide because I had taken way too much. There were times were I was just staring into space and not responding. Haha. Each time I would try to push her out the back pains were insanely painful. I asked for everything possible to make the labour quicker: the epidural, the vacuum, a c-section, etc... Of course they kept refusing, she was almost here and I was just desperate to end the pain. Jesse was so comforting, he would take my hand and say: its okay Em you’re almost there you can do it. If Jess wasn’t holding my leg I would see him looking out the window probably trying to take a mental brake so he doesn’t pass out. Having him there with me definitely helped and I’m glad that he was able to see her being delivered.
4:27pm: After one and a half hours of pushing Sofia was born. It was like a dream seeing her in front of me. No words can explain it. Jesse and I were so happy and relieved that she was okay. She cried right away and was healthy.
Thank you so much for reading this blog and for your support. This was such an incredible journey and I wanted something that I could share with Sofia when she’s older; to show her how excited we were for her to join our little family.
Love,
Em
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