My Birth Stories

I have been blessed with three beautiful births.  I was very fortunate that they were all very uncomplicated and I was able to follow my birth plan of an unmedicated, natural labour and delivery.  Here are my stories of how my babies joined us this side of the womb.

Kira:  http://naturalbirths.blogspot.ca/2010/01/the-labour-and-delivery-of-kira.html

Joseph: http://naturalbirths.blogspot.ca/2012/01/joseph-eldons-birth-story.html

Lily: http://naturalbirths.blogspot.ca/2014/03/lily-graces-birth-story.html

Lily Grace's Birth Story

So this story begins Tuesday morning. Procedure dictates when a pregnancy reached 41 weeks, mom is supposed to have a Non-Stress Test and an Ultra-sound to make sure everything is still ok. However, this didn't get booked for me. So on Tuesday (41+1) we scrambled to get that done. I had had minor 'tightenings' that morning but really nothing. More like uncomfortable braxton hicks than what I would call actual contractions.

The hospital called at 9:00am and scheduled me in for 11:00. So the morning became a whirlwind of getting the kids breakfast and getting them to gramma's and getting myself to my appointment (I was late). The appointment went great and everything was looking fine.

Meanwhile, Ryan was at work and mentioned that things MIGHT be starting with me and the whole office freaked out. So he wrapped things up and came home. He would officially start his holidays the next day.

He got home at about the same time as I did, so we went and picked up the kids and decided to go walk the mall in hopes of picking things up. Although I did have a few more uncomfortable tightenings while I was actually walking, nothing really came of it. While out, we got a call from the midwives and found out that the

re was a good possibility that there was meconium in my amniotic fluid. Ryan and I decided that in stead of the home birth we had planned, it would be best for babe if we had a hospital birth instead.

Fast forward to Tuesday night. We went to bed around 11pm and I crashed hard (forgetting to take my heartburn meds) I was woken up at about 1:30 with heartburn. Disappointed that it wasn't contractions, I took meds and tried to go back to sleep. I had three contractions in about half an hour. That's when I decided to turn the tv on to try and ignore them and go back to sleep. I had another 2 or three in 20 minutes. Next distraction: Bath. I also decided to start timing to see if the bath was actually slowing things down. If anything they were picking up both in frequency and intensity.

I decided at this point to wake Ryan up. We got up got dressed and went downstairs. By about 3:30 I started dry heaving and at that point we decided to call the midwife and my mother-in-law to come and be with the kids.

We arrived at the hospital at about 4:00am She checked me and I was at 6cm. Because I was GBS+ the nurse hooked up an IV and we started the first (and only) round of antibiotics. Once those were done, my midwife checked me again (8cm) and broke my waters. As soon as that was done (which was a bit of a procedure) it was go time.

I pushed through about three contractions (MAYBE 10 minutes) and she was here. I caught her myself and pulled her onto my chest. I even got to cut the cord. I had one minor tear that required 3 stitches.

Lily Grace was born at 4:58am, March 19, 2014. She weighted in at 9lb 9oz and measured 21.5 inches in length. There were no complications from the meconium or my GBS+ status.

Joseph Eldon's Birth Story

First to set the stage: My due date was December 4, 2011 and my mom was in town with my aunt December 2nd to 4th. I remember talking to baby begging him or her to either come before the second or after the fourth. I really wanted to enjoy my mom's short visit and not have it occupied with silly things like birthing a baby. I had gone 41 weeks with Kira and was completely ready to do so with this little one as well.

So when I was woken up Saturday (Dec. 3) in the wee hours of morning with contractions I cried. I just really wanted a good visit with my mom before she had to leave. After I calmed down a little bit I realized that if this baby was going to come, it was going to come and there was nothing I could do about it, but unless things picked up dramatically I was going to ignore these contractions the best that I could. So Saturday went along exactly as we had planned. My cousin came over, and the bunch of us went shopping. I did my best to hide my contractions and ignore them. By the afternoon is was taking more and more of my focus to get through each contraction. I started letting others do things around me as I did what I needed to do. My mom made us a lovely dinner and we had a good little evening visit.

We put Kira to bed as normal, and everyone else was in bed by about 9:00pm. Ryan and I were still trying to get settled when I decided to take a bath. I told Ryan that I was going to slow these down a bit so that I could sleep and that I didn't think that anything was going to happen that night. By 10:00pm I realized that that was probably not the case and got Ryan to start timing. We called the midwife at about 10:45pm and she agreed we should probably meet at the hospital. Her exact words where: “Yup, it sounds like you are probably in it for the long haul, but no hurry, I'll meet you at the hospital at about 12:00am”

Since my mom and aunt were staying with us, we just woke them briefly to let them know we were leaving and left Kira to sleep. It is (in normal time) only about a 10 minute drive to the hospital, but for me it felt like an eternity. At one point I very calmly looked at Ryan and said “I know you have absolutely no control over this, but would you please refrain from hitting bumps while I'm in the middle of a contraction.”

We got to the hospital around midnight and Nicole met us at about 12:15. She checked me and I was 8.5cm dilated. I remember in my head doing a mental fist pump and thinking “YES!!!! I'm a rock star” LOL Baby's heart rate was a little bit elevated so the nurse wanted to put a monitor on me just for a bit. I also had to get up and pee and the nurse was supposed to check my hydration levels.

Nicole asked if she could break my waters and I agreed. Everything after that was a total whirlwind. Nothing that was just talked about occurred. Once my waters were broken I was ready to push and there was no time for anything else. In the middle of one push I had sat up in such a way that I could see baby's head and I was able to watch as he was being born. After only about 10 minutes, my sweet baby boy was born. '

Joseph Eldon was born 12:38am, December 4, 2011. He weighed 8lb 12oz and was 20 inches long. We were home from the hospital by noon that day and my mom even got to meet her grandson before she had to go home that day.  

The Labour and Delivery of Kira Elizabeth

Kira's due date was December 5th, 2009. That came and went uneventfully. I didn't even have any Braxton Hicks contractions. So I was given a few suggestions on how to bring on labour and we made an appointment for a non-stress test for December 12th.

Thursday morning (December 10th) at about 3:30 am I woke up with major pain. It felt like a really bad period. It being the middle of the night, I had no idea what was going on. All I knew is that I'd get this pain, I'd sit up and it would go away so I'd lay back down again, and sure enough it would come back. I went on like this for about 2 hours before I finally realized that maybe these might be contractions.

My contractions were not very regular and over 1/2 an hour apart, so I decided to carry on with my day as planned. (Both Jane and Jocelyn had told me to try and ignore these for as long as possible) I went for coffee that morning and none were the wiser. (Except for my mom who I told). After coffee I decided it might be a good idea to phone Jane (Our Midwife) and Jocelyn (Our Doula) and give them a heads up on what was going on. Jane assured me that this might go on for awhile, so my mom and I went shopping.

Jane came over to our house Thursday night to see how I was doing. When she checked me I was 2 cm dilated. She also noticed something interesting about my contractions. After feeling my tummy through a few contractions, she realized I was actually only feeling about half of the contraction. She gave me some strategies on how to cope and told me to phone her if things progressed. So when I was ready to go to bed I took a long bath, which slowed down the contractions and I was able to get some sleep. I repeated this process at about 2am and got some more sleep.

Friday I laid low. Nothing was really happening. The contractions had gotten a little closer together and a little more regular, but they were still about 10 to 20 minutes apart. I spent the afternoon sleeping in 20 minute naps. I talked to both Jane and Jocelyn throughout the day. Jocelyn had told me that the contractions needed to be 5 minutes aparts and a minute long for an hour before it was considered active labour. She had also mentioned that she was going to drop by and see how we were doing at about 7:30 pm.

So that was my goal. Ryan and I started roughly timing my contractions. Sure enough, come 6:30 pm my contractions started being 5 minutes apart. Jocelyn arrived a little before 7:30 and we started writing down contractions. at about 8:00 pm Jocelyn phoned Jane to tell her where we were. Jane told her to put me in the bath. If the contractions slowed down, I wasn't in active labour yet. If the sped up or stayed the same I was in active labour. After being in the tub for about half an hour, 45 minutes, it was clear these contractions were NOT slowing down. THANK THE HEAVENS.

Jocelyn phoned Jane back and Jane decided to come and check on us. Jocelyn had to go out for just a little bit to organize her family for the night. So Ryan and I were on our own for about an hour. Both Jane and Jocelyn were back with us at about 10:00pm.

When Jane arrived she started doing her assessments. She discovered that I was severity dehydrated and needed iv fluids to prevent any complications. So before we headed to the hospital, Jane put an iv in and got the fluids going. (I remember she ended up giving me like 2 bags in about 45 minutes) They then got me into the car and off we went. From this point on things get a little cloudy. I will recount the best that I can.

We got to the hospital around midnight. Once there they got me settled as much as possible and checked me again. I was 5-6 cm dilated. My contractions were strong and steady and things seemed to be progressing well. At this point everyone (Jocelyn, Jane and Ryan) was trying to support me in what ever way they could. Holding me, supporting me as I bounced on the birthing ball, dancing with me and rubbing my back.

At one point, I was sitting on the bed and Jane was sitting in front of me. I had my hands on her hands on her lap. After a particularly strong contraction, she very calmly said to me “Michelle, I know it is very intense, but you need to relax your muscles in between contractions. I can handle a lot, but you are crushing my hand” I let go and laughed and apologized.

After a couple of hours of this, it seemed like I had sort of stalled out. I had not really made any progress. Also baby hadn't even engaged yet. Jane could feel baby's head just sitting at the top of my pelvis trying to figure out which way it wanted to go. It was about 3:30am and Jocelyn went and told my mom (who was in the waiting room) that it would probably be quite awhile yet because there hadn't been a lot of progress.

When it was apparent that I hadn't made a lot of progress, Jane and Jocelyn went into pro-active mode. They started steps to help me progress. I remember them making me squat down in the shower in hopes of dropping baby down. At one point they made me get up on the bed on my hands and knees. They then took a sheet and lifted up on my very heavy baby belly. That part felt really good. What they did next did not. They began jiggling my tummy back and forth. I was very thankful they didn't do this during a contraction because it was awful.

Lastly they made me walk. I remember hearing Jocelyn tell Jane that we were going to walk 3 laps around the ward. In my head I thought “Ya right, I am NOT walking” I protested a bit, but they forced me anyway. It was the very longest walk I have ever taken. I counted every corner and made sure we only made one lap.

At some point after our walk, the contractions became unbearable. No matter what I did I just couldn't cope. I would just cry through them. I remember whimpering that I just wanted to sleep. I was so tired. I begged Jane to give me something to help me sleep. She reminded me that I was so close and that I could get through this. Looking back, I was obviously in transition.

I asked for the laughing gas. Jane told me that it wouldn't help me sleep, it would only take the edge off the contractions. I tried it anyway. I got so dizzy after the first contraction that I had to sit down on the bed. As the second contraction came, Jocelyn handed me the mask again. I went to put it to my mouth and thought “I don't want this” and threw it. Jocelyn had to catch it and put it back on the bed.

I was doing a lot of moving back and forth from the bed to standing to try and find a position to help me cope but it just wasn't happening. At one point, I stood up and there was a huge gush of water and I couldn't help but push. I ask Jane if it was ok to push because I couldn't stop it. With every contraction I was pushing and pushing hard. Jane got me to quickly jump back up on the bed and check and sure enough I was fully dilated and baby had finally gotten in position and was on her way.

I was on the bed in a super awkward position. I was up on one hip and refused to lay flat. It was a position that was working for me and I did NOT want to move. They did wiggle me closer to the middle of the bed, but other than that, they did their best to just support my body in the position that I was in. At one point a nurse brought me a mirror so that I could see, but it was tiny and not in the right place and I told her to get rid of it because she was distracting me.

I only pushed for twenty minutes, but it seemed like the longest 20 minutes of my life. My support team was wonderful and helped me through every moment. Kira Elizabeth was born 5:15am December 12, 2009. She came out with her hand on her cheek and because of that I tore really badly. I spent the next hour being stitched up.

In the meantime Kira was examined and weighed and measured. 6 lb 12oz. We were all completely shocked. We were expecting a 9lb baby boy and here was our perfect little 6lb baby girl. It was love at first sight.