The Nielsens: October 2011

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Wednesday June 23 (my due date) I woke up with my first strong contraction at 3:00 am. Well actually Violet had come into our room a few minutes earlier so that’s probably what woke me up. I took Vi to her room and rocked her for a bit in the rocking chair and BAM another really strong contractions. Once I got her settled into bed I went to the washroom and (ahem, prepare for graphic content) noticed I had lost my mucous plug. (sickess term ever) I crawled back into bed excited that I was actually in labour, ON my due date, and not nine days overdue as I had been with Violet. I woke Luke up and told him not to get overly excited, but that I thought I was in early labour. Little did I know it was VERY early labour. I continued to have contractions about every ten minutes, resting in between. The contractions varied in length and intensity.

At about 9:30 am I got up for the day and told my mother in law that I had been contracting throughout the night and about one minute after this, my contractions stopped. In the afternoon we decided (Luke, Mom, Violet and I) would get out of the house for a bit. We headed into town for some distraction. When we were in a dollar store I felt a gush of water. What a strange sensation. I thought perhaps I had peed myself, and then I felt another gush. Still in denial, we headed to another store and as soon as we walked through the door I felt yet another gush. I told Luke that I thought my water had broken or was breaking and that it was probably best if we headed home. On the drive home I had just finished calling a friend to give her an update when I felt a very large gush. Something was definitely happening, but my contractions were mild and sporadic at best.

When we got home we called the midwives and she told us as long as the fluid was clear to just stay the course and wait until the contractions were stronger, and more consistent. I had a bath, we went for a few walks and we cranked the tunes and tried to dance the baby out with a family dance party…LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem anyone? At 9 pm we decided to call it a night and get some sleep, hopeful that we would see some more action.

I woke up at 3:00 am with a strong, sharp contraction. I began timing them with my contraction app and let Luke sleep. They were coming every 5-10 minutes lasting almost a minute. Some were very strong and others were not. I tried to rest in between, but wasn’t having much luck. After feeling like I had been up all night, I came down stairs at about 7:30 ish and by this time my contractions had once again stopped. So frustrated and exhausted I remember just crying and wishing so badly that it could just all be over.

We called the midwife and she suggested that I take some gravol and try to sleep and that she would come check me in the afternoon. Around 2:00 pm the midwife came and checked me and I was about 4 cm dilated with irregular contractions. At this point it had been 24 hours since my membranes had ruptured and we needed to get things moving. I had two choices: hospital induction or castor oil concoction. The concoction was the sickest thing I have ever drunk. Juice, castor oil, lemon verbena oil and PEANUT BUTTER. Sickest. Thing. Ever. But I downed it while Luke tried to convince me it was some sort of delicacy you get in the tropics…yah right buddy. I think he should have drank one too….for moral support, but I guess the consequence could have been dire.

Hoping that things were going to pick up I called Jessica and asked her to come over as we were hoping she was going to be present for the birth. When she got to our house we decided (Luke, Jess and I) to walk to Save-On to pick up some things for dinner. It was in the middle of the crosswalk that my contractions really started to pick up and by the time we were on our way home I needed to hold onto someone to make it through contractions.

When we got home we called the midwife who came and assessed me. I was finally five centimeters and ready to head to the hospital. I had been fearing the drive to Surrey Memorial because my drive with Violet was super intense….(me standing in the back screaming that I was going to have the baby in the car, while Mackenzie was demanding I get myself under control, and Luke driving at a ridiculous speed) This drive was a lot less dramatic and I only had three strong contractions. We got checked into our room at about 6:00 pm.

Things had slowed down a bit and I was still having contractions but they were inconsistent. Luke and I went into the shower (this is how I laboured for the majority of Vi’s birth) and we hoped it would help pick things up. After an hour or so we decided to get out and I laboured on the birthing ball. Contractions were so intense, more so than I remember with Vi, but they were still inconsistent occurring about every 3 min. The midwife checked me at about 8:00 pm ish and I hadn’t made very much progress and I was now at 6 centimeters. At 9:00 pm I was still 6 centimeters and the baby’s head was starting to feel a little misshapen, so the midwife decided to consult with the obstetrician. Moral was definitely low. I was exhausted, in serious pain, and frustrated that labour was not progressing.

The obstetrician came in and laid it out for us. We could: a) have a c-section b) get an epidural and start an oxytocin drip to bring on stronger contraction and see if that would bring babe down. The doctor said that the baby was having trouble moving down the birth canal and this could be because baby is overly big or tangled somehow in the umbilical cord.

Around 35 weeks baby had been breech and at 37 weeks I was sent to Women’s where they were going to try an external cephalic version (turn the baby with their hands), but despite an ultra sound at 7:00 am that confirmed baby was breech, by 10:00 am when the doctor was about to begin the procedure the baby had turned around. The Power of prayer people. So, because he was breech I had considered what it would be like to have a c-section, but I had never given any thought to having an epidural for pain management. When the doctor gave us the options all I could think was, “I don’t want either of those things.” I asked for a few minutes so I could think about it.

Things felt like they were getting out of control for me personally, I was having a very hard time handling the pain and was feeling exhausted. Part of me just wanted to have the c-section, but my team convinced me to try the epidural route and I know I would have been disappointed with myself if I didn’t at least try. Before they could start the epidural they needed to have 45 min of fetal heart monitoring which meant I needed to lie in the bed. I hate being in the bed while in labour! Thank goodness for the gas. The anesthesiologist was really busy that night and we needed her to get to us within ten minutes of the test ending or we were going to have to do another 45 min test! She got there with three minutes to go. Getting the epidural was actually a lot less scary than I thought and my oh my, the relief I felt when it started working. It was glorious. I dilated to 9 cm within a few minutes and that is when things took a turn.

Baby’s heart rate was having some major decelerations so the team was turning me from side to side trying to get baby to stabilize. The doctor was called in and then baby had a major deceleration from 140 beats per minute to 80 beats per minute and when it had not recovered after seven minutes a stat c-section was ordered. When I think back to that moment it still gives me the shivers. The doctor was yelling stat, the monitor was beeping, the nurses were scrambling to get all the machines mobile, my bed was stuck and the epidural was tangled and almost got pulled out. I felt like I was going into shock, I couldn’t find a familiar face in the crowd that surrounded me and I remember just closing my eyes and thinking, this might not turn out how I thought it would….dear Jesus please let this baby live.

I was hurried to an open operating room and the chaos continued. The nurses and doctors were working fast. I heard the doctor say, “There’s no time to count and there is no time to scrub….this is stat.” I was so scared. They were explaining the risks and complications and thrust a clipboard in front of me and a pen in my hand to sign my consent. I was shaking profusely. Then suddenly the baby’s heart stabilized and the doctor asked if I wanted to try to deliver vaginally, but before I could decide the monitors went and there was another deep decel and I said, “Just get the baby out!” They strapped my arms down, threw up the blue sheet and then an anesthesiologist (different from my earlier one) came beside my head and poked my stomach with something sharp and asked if I could feel it. I could and so he told me that he was going to put me under and that they would take care of me. His words really meant a lot in that moment as he placed the mask over my mouth and nose I searched for peace and just prayed.

And that was that. As the medical report states, “a live baby male was delivered at 2336 hours after a skin cut time of 2335 hours.” Ezra Shane Nielsen came out screaming and peeing! His apgar scores were great and once he got the once over from the pediatrician he was handed off to Luke for some skin on skin time. I was kept under so that they could give me an x-ray to ensure they didn’t leave any instruments or watches in me. Seriously! They loaded me with antibiotics because they weren’t able to scrub. Seriously! I woke up at 2:00 am to the sounds of gossiping nurses in some recovery room. I pestered them for details and learned I had a son; he weighed 8lbs 6oz and was healthy. I had to wait about 45min before I met my baby or got to see Luke. It was probably the longest 45min of my life! Finally, they wheeled me to my room and there they were all snuggled up, the two most important men of my life.