Friday, January 18, 2008

Advice for the Expecting #2- Gravity is thy friend

I have heard many a horrifying labour/birth stories. I actually felt like I had to leave my church in Toronto because pretty much every woman had at least one, if not two very scary birth stories. One woman was in labour for 48 hours- they had to use the vaccuum, forecepts, the whole nine yards. Another woman's bladder, vaginal wall, uterus- all ripped. Yikes.

So basically, I mentally prepared myself for the worst. One of my bigger fears was that Chris would actually miss the birth. Or that I would at least go into labour while he was on duty. We prepared for this scenario so much so that we brought Chris' brother, Robert, with us to the hospital tour and everything, just so he would be ready to step in if he was needed.

I went in to my weekly doctor's appointment on the Monday before Lily was born (2 weeks before she was due). The doctor checked me out and told me I was 4 cm dialated and 60% effaced. Pretty good numbers if you ask me. The doctor couldn't say anything for certain, but she kept alluding to the fact that she would see me 'Soon'. Probably at the hospital. We shook hands and I left feeling great. I was definitely going to have this baby this week! And the days went by. And nothing happened. I work in a tax office for my father in law, and being March- we were pretty busy. So I went to work as usual. No just sitting around for me. And plus I felt like if I stood more, then the baby would come out sooner.

I acutally was pretty active during most of my pregnancy. The last time I played 18 holes of golf was two weeks before Lily was born. And my last day of work was on Friday, and Lily was born on the Monday after. As I waited and waited for a contraction- nothing happened. I was SO CERTAIN that I was going to have the baby on Friday. And so was Chris- which is why he didn't go to work (his Sgt actually gave him the weekend off cause Chris was so on edge about me going into labour without him being around. He's so sweet. The Sgt and Chris.) But nothing happened. We actually had sex that night because I thought that might kick start something- anything. But alas, nothing. The next day we went to the zoo with some of our friends. We walked around for three hours. Nothing. We were tired and smelled kinda bad, but I insisted that we go to the mall to buy Chris some new basketball shoes that he had been needing. I really just felt like I still needed to be walking. So we went to the mall, got some expensive basketball shoes, and nothing else happened. The rest of the week was spent vaccuuming, shampooing the carpets, walking up and down stairs- and all for 'nothing'...

I made it back to my weekly doctor's appointment much to the surprise of my doctor, and to myself in fact. Got checked out again- 6 cm and 80% effaced. The doctor asked me if we wanted to have the baby that day and we said "YES". So she called the hospital to make sure they had room for us, and they did. She told us to go home, get some rest, eat some lunch, and then to check in to the hospital at 1pm. So we did just that. We went home, played some cards, made sure we had everything we needed in our hospital bag, then we went to have some pasta for lunch- so that I could get some carbs going on. And cause Chris had made me watch all 3 Godfather movies for the past week, and everytime they ate pasta- I wanted pasta.

So, we ate, drove to the hospital in all calmness, and we just had to praise Jesus for how awesome the whole journey to birth was for us! We got settled into our room, and then the doctor who would be delivering Lily came in to talk with us. He looked at my chart and looked fairly concerned that we were coming in early to have the baby. He said it was risky to do that in general, and Chris and I were very surprised because no one talked to us about any risks for having our baby early. Something about how it could actually take a lot longer than if we just waited this thing out, blahblahblah. Then he checked me out and was surprised to find that I was already as dialated and effaced as I was. So he told me to forget everything he had just said about risks, and that I was going to have the baby TODAY! He broke my water right there and then with a white stick that he seemed to magically pull out from under him. I felt one contraction before they gave me my epidural, and the rest was history. It was about 3pm when they broke my water, I went into hard labour at 8, and LIly was born at 9:02. Not bad at all!

Anyway, so even though all the walking and standing and stuff didn't make me go into labour early- or even at all. It did make a lot of the 'hard work'- the dialating and effacing- very easy. So women, I just want to encourage you to get out there and walk walk walk! And just cause some of your friends may have had horrifying birth stories- it does not mean that you inevitably will too.

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