I had such a great pregnancy with Huxley. I felt good, I was able to still do a lot of the things I wanted to, it seemed to go by quickly... that is until I hit 36 weeks. My entire pregnancy in my mind I couldn't go into labor until after 36 weeks, because that is when we were at Tally Lake, but once that was over I could have the baby whenever... so the last 4 weeks where horrible! I was sooo impatient! I started trying anything and everything to induce labor once we got home from Tally. Obviously nothing worked.
I started having false labor after my 37 week appointment where I had insisted my Dr strip my membrane. Those continued until we had the baby at exactly 40 weeks, my due date. That made for a long 3 weeks! And even when I finally did go into labor I wasn't sure whether it was the real thing or whether it was going to stop like it had so many other times. But after all is said and done, just like one of the ladies Dahlin works with said, I did eventually have the baby.
Here's the details:
I had a Dr appointment September 2 and got Dr. Adolph to strip my membrane for the third time, hoping that something would happen. A couple hours after the appointment I started to cramp. By 10 that night I was having contractions about 10 minutes apart, but not very strong. Dahlin and I decided to go to bed and try and get as much sleep as we could in case this was the real thing. I woke up again around 2 still having contractions, for the rest of the night I dozed off and on timing my contraction when I was awake. By 5:00 I knew this was it, so I got up and made sure everything was organized and ready for us to go. At 6:30 we left the house in the pouring rain to head for the hospital. Both boys in tow, Syler having to miss his second day of grade 1. On our drive into Lethbridge I had only 3 contractions, my contractions had been every three minutes when we had left home so I was pretty discouraged at this point. We decided to keep going despite this set back because the contractions that I did have where really intense, and Dahlin is terrified, rightfully so, of us having a baby in the car! We met Shannon in Lethbridge so she could take the boys the rest of the way to Magrath. Once we got to labor and delivery they hooked me up to the monitor and we just waited, by this time my contractions had completely stopped. In the 20 minutes I was hooked to the monitor I never had a single contraction. I was pretty nervous they were gonna send me home, Dr Adolph came in and we talked about what was going on, she decided to see if there had been much change since the previous day. Hurray there was, I was almost 4 cm dilated, from 2 cm at her office earlier, and she was very positive that this was it, I just needed a little help to keep things going. So she decided to brake my water. We had talked earlier in my pregnancy about me wanting to try and do things more natural this time, letting my water break on its own and not putting me on pitosin, but she felt that the only way I would progress was with a little help, and at this point I was all for it! Once she broke my water things didn't take long to get going again. We were quickly moved into one of the delivery suites and by 8:30 they had me on pitosin and we were waiting for the anesthesiologist to come give me my epidural. I had the best nurse Haylee, she was so proactive, I was just genuinely impressed by her. I didn't have to bug her for my epidural once! The anesthesiologist had my epidural in and going by 9:00, unfortunately this epidural didn't work as well as my previous ones. On my left side it was great I had no feeling, but on my right I could still feel everything. We tried rolling from side to side and sitting in different positions but nothing seemed to help. Haylee said we could call the anesthesiologist back to try and fix it but the pain was tolerable and at the same time the baby started to have big drops in its heart rate every contraction so it really wasn't a priority. Shortly after 10 the contractions started to get way more intense so they checked me again and called Dr Adolph over as it was go time. I started pushing and 10 minutes later the baby was born. This was a whole different experience than my previous deliveries. I felt everything! Although the pain was excruciating I am so glad that it worked out the way it did! I felt so much more in tune with my body and way more in control of everything that was going on. I felt more involved with the delivery, with Syler I couldn't feel anything and the nurse actually had to tell me when I was having a contraction. It was a way more emotional experience than my previous deliveries had been. When little baby sea monkey finally came out I felt so much relief and pride in what I had just done. Huxley was born at 10:36 am, 7 pounds 7 ounces and 21 inches long. He had a head full of bright blonde hair and was as pale as could be, (like seriously pale if I has been a respiratory therapist at the delivery I would have without a doubt given him some oxygen). They took him over to the warmer and got him all cleaned up and then Dahlin held him until they were finished stitching me up (they had to do an episiotomy, because the babies heart rate was dropping) He was so so sweet and when I finally got to hold him I forgot all the impatience and disappointment of not having a girl. I knew that this little baby was suppose to be mine, and that he wasn't suppose to come until right then.
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