Baby #3's Dramatic Arrival

Holding her baby sister for the first time!

I had expected our third daughter's arrival a good week before she made her appearance. We had packed our bags, placed them in the car, and even sent our two girls to Grandma's, so sure was I that the baby would arrive a week earlier.

I had been woken up at 4 am by mildly tender contractions, and started timing them. They were 5 minutes apart! While I waited for my husband to return from dropping the girls off at Grandma's, much to my surprise, I fell asleep. 

As the contractions were not tender enough to keep me awake, we decided to delay the trip to the hospital. The following day, we picked the girls up from Grandma's as the contractions had not progressed.

This went on for the entire week leading up to the baby's arrival.  My contractions occurred every 5 to 20 minutes, but they were not tender. Thankfully, my husband had a week of vacation scheduled that same week, so he was able to help out with the girls.

On Friday August 9, I had a doctor's appointment. On exam, she declared my cervix to be 4 cm open, and 50% effaced. After performing a sweep of my membranes, she predicted that the baby would arrive in the next 24 hours.

Within 30 minutes of leaving the doctor's office, my contractions became mildly painful, and more frequent, occurring every 5 to 15 minutes. Things progressed rather slowly during the day. But finally at around 18h, I declared myself ready to go to the hospital. So we packed our girls into the car, and my husband dropped me off at the hospital on his way to Grandma's.

I arrived at the case room around 18:20h. After mentioning the frequency of my contractions, and that this was my third pregnancy, I was asked to wait in the waiting room! "I won't be sitting," I explained to the nurse that asked me to wait, "I will be walking back and forth as it it too painful to sit."

15 minutes later, I was summoned to a reclining chair where two monitors were attached just over my uterus. One to monitor the frequency and intensity of the contractions, and the other to measure the baby's heart rate.

After approximately 1 hour on the monitor, at 19:45, my cervix was examined by a nurse. I was told I was now 5 cm dilated and 80% effaced, and that "I guess we will admit you". The nurse then paged my doctor to let her know that I was in the hospital, but that "she could take her time". By this point, my husband had dropped the girls off at Grandma's and wanted to know if he could get a quick bite to eat on the way back to the hospital. I replied that I was only 5 cm, and probably we had a few hours before baby's arrival.

The same nurse then escorted me to a delivery room, and asked me to get changed. Little did she know that 30 minutes and a few contractions later, our baby would arrive!

She left the room while I got changed, but quickly returned when she heard me screaming. She then summoned the resident, medical student, and attending doctor as she now suspected that things would progress quickly. She called my own doctor back to let her know that she should not take her time, and I texted one word to my husband: "Hurry!"

The baby arrived at 20:16, one minute before my obstetrician arrived, and 3 minutes before my husband entered the room. I had a particularly painful contraction, I grabbed the attending doctor next to me and screamed. "Something's coming out" I kept screaming, over and over again, although I was not pushing. In fact I was trying to hold "it" in...but to no avail. 30 seconds later, our third daughter made her sudden appearance. 

My husband arrived on time for the delivery of the placenta. The medical student had cut the cord, and the senior resident on call had expertly delivered the baby. So that's what it's like to deliver a baby without an epidural, I thought to myself!

My husband and I were disappointed that he had missed the baby's delivery. Had the initial cervical exam by the nurse been incorrect? Or had I simply progressed very, very quickly? I suspect it was a little of both, but in the end we could not be happier with the arrival of our lovely, healthy third daughter!

Baby # 2's Arrival

Baby # 1 holds Baby # 2 for the first time

Baby #1's last day as an only child was February 10th 2012. The day did not go quite as I had imagined it would. Earlier in the week, both my husband and Baby #1 had developed gastroenteritis. By Thursday February 9th, they were both feeling better. Right before going to sleep that night, I turned to my husband, and mentioned that I was relieved (mostly for Baby #2's sake) that I had not gotten sick.

Sometimes it is best not to say certain things. For at 3AM on February 10th, only a few hours after I spoke those words to my husband, I woke up, ran to the bathroom, and as my father would say "tossed my cookies". Several times. Then again a little later on in the day. I remember at this point hoping that Baby #2 would stay in my uterus a little while longer. Luckily, my mother was over on Friday to play with Baby #1. She left shortly after 14h, once the Baby had fallen asleep (napping was a rare event recently, but she was still recovering from her gastroenteritis). Even though I was feeling a little nauseous at this point, I thought I would also nap…and that my husband would be back from work soon enough. As it happened, Baby #1 decided that she had napped long enough, and woke up at 15h. I had just tossed my cookies again, and found it difficult to entertain my toddler. And to make matters worse, my Braxton Hicks contractions were occurring more frequently.

At this point, I decided to call my husband. And for the first time in a long time, I could not reach him. He was not picking up his cellular phone, nor responding to my text messages. I would later find out that he was in a meeting, and had turned off his phone. At long last, a little before 16h, I was able to reach him. He said he would leave right away.

By the time he got home, a little before 17h, I suspected that my contractions were not Braxton Hicks, but in fact early labour. I waited an additional 30 minutes, and as the contractions occurred more frequently, and were more and more painful, I decided to go to the hospital. My husband drove, and I sat behind with my toddler. We decided that I would go in alone, as we were nearing in on Baby # 1's bedtime. If in fact they would be keeping me at the hospital, I would call my mother to take care of Baby #1, and my husband would join me later on at the hospital.

I was placed on a monitor as soon as I arrived, but I waited a good hour before being examined. Initially I was going to wait for the exam before calling my mother, but as the contractions got more and more painful, I made the call shortly after arriving at the hospital. Normally, my sister would have driven over with my mother, but she too had caught the gastroenteritis that my toddler had no doubt given to her. They were going to call a cab, but finally some relatives offered to drive my mother to our house. 

Back at the hospital, my husband arrived shortly before 20h. By which time I had been admitted to the hospital, was in my own room, and had just gotten the epidural. I thought that I would forego the epidural the second time around, thinking surely everything would happen very quickly. But on exam, I was only 4cm dilated, and 100% effaced. So I knew that it would be at east several more hours of painful contractions. While the epidural was partially effective, I continued to feel the contractions right up until the end.

My obstetrician happened to be on call that day. She examined me initially, and several times thereafter. She ruptured my membranes just a few minutes before my husband arrived at the hospital, whereupon he said "I always miss the good stuff." At a little after midnight, my doctor re-entered the exam room, examined me, and declared that it was time to have a baby!

While the labour didn't progress as quickly as I thought it might for a second pregnancy, the pushing was very easy compared to the first. For baby # 1, I had pushed a good hour and a half before her arrival. This time around, I pushed approximately 10 times over 4 contractions. And out she came! My obstetrician suggested that I should pull her out myself, and that I did! My husband cut the cord, and before I knew it, Baby # 2 was on my chest.

And then I fell in love all over again...