August 15, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
I had been so preoccupied with labour and all the pain that I hadn’t any time to really process the idea that very soon we would be seeing our baby for the first time. Would it be a boy as we suspected or would we be surprised with a girl? I had trouble actually grasping what would be happening next. A baby, our baby!
I was given a huge dose of epidural which sent me into tremors; they were so bad I started to chew on my blanket because I was afraid of chipping my teeth. It seemed like forever before Mike was brought in; I thought they were going to forget him. Finally he arrived and procedure started. I really felt out of control at this point. The drugs were intense and the whole experience seemed surreal. Once I was opened up I could hear Dr. Kym talking about to the baby, “oh you poor thing…oh you’re so stuck in there!” I didn’t know what was happening but I would find out the next day from the nurses that our nurse Madeline had to help Dr. Kym get our baby’s head out of my pelvis by going in through the vagina and pushing his head up while Dr. Kym pulled and while doing so the two of them touched hands! Madeline was quoted later as saying that that was one of the coolest things she had ever experienced!
The anaesthesiologist stayed by my side the whole time talking to me and keeping me company with Mike and helped Mike take pictures during the procedure. When the baby was removed I remember saying “breathe baby, just breathe”, and the anaesthesiologist said “that’s right, breathe”, and he did…our baby boy! He was sent over to a table where the nurses and Paediatrician examined him. Mike was allowed to be with him at this point.
Although the surgeon had cut the umbilical cord Mike was allowed to cut the remainder of it once it was clipped. Mike said that they gave him the dullest scissors for this; either that or they weren’t made for lefties!
The Paediatrician then examined our boy head to toe to make sure everything was ok and there were a few things that needed attention. He had a large birth mark on his chest, his hip was displaced and his foot was bent back in an incredibly awkward position, the left side of his skull was indented and had infant Torticollis in his neck. All of this information totally freaked Mike out, but I had no knowledge of any of it though I suspected something was going on as I tried to peak out from my curtained view.
Every mother dreams of their baby being born healthy and kicking and it never occurred to me that our baby may experience birth related trauma. Fear started to set in.
Categories: Motherhood Journal | 
Tags: birth defects, birth marks, birth related trauma, birth stories, hip dysplasia, infant torticollis | 
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July 31, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
Finally, about 45 minutes later the Doctor on duty that day, Dr. Kym, arrived to check out my situation. To all of their surprise when they checked my cervix I was fully dilated!!! Three centimetres to fully dilated in 45 minutes! That was what all the crying and screaming was about thanks! I heard a few gasps of disbelief by the staff and then it occurred to me that I might have missed my epidural window!
Dr. Kym said, “You’ve fully dilated, you are going to have to try and push this baby out now.” I said, “There’s no way I’m pushing out this baby without an epidural! I can’t do this anymore, I have nothing left…have I missed my window???” She said that I had to try and push and that pushing would help me feel a lot of relief. I didn’t believe her but they were right. When I started to push I felt some relief, but then Dr. Kym seemed to discover that the baby was in a posterior position. This seemed to be a surprise to everyone, everyone except myself, Mike and my mother! Why didn’t they know that! Mike thinks now that everything happened so fast that they weren’t able to read my chart fully to see that the baby was posterior.
Dr. Kym proceeded to tell us that the baby was in a posterior position and was still very high in the pelvis and that I was nowhere near being able to push the baby out. What did that mean for me and this dreadful pain!! So they decided to finally set me up for an epidural but they had to wait until my blood work was done! I began to panic again because I seriously could not take the pain anymore, it was so hard. Finally the anaesthesiologist arrived and proceeded without the blood work first but while he was inserting the catheter he was called away for an emergency c-section and left the dosage instructions with one of the nurses.
Once again, unfortunately for me there was a nursing shift change and a massive communication breakdown occurred as we were suddenly left with one very young and less experienced nurse! We went from having Doctors and residents and nurses to one nurse who apparently had cue cards with her! Meanwhile after having had the epidural my pain had not changed in any way! ”What the hell is happening? ” I began to think that maybe I was unable to receive an epidural; maybe my body is immune to it! Fear set in for all of us and our nurse told me that she cannot administer any more of the drug but I can boost it myself if I want, so she passed me the trigger and I pulled it…three times eventually and STILL no pain relief!
An hour and a half passes by and finally they get the anaesthesiologist back into the room where he proceeds to say that I was only given a low dose! “WHAT!!!” Everyone was shocked and finally I was given the appropriate dose and I was sent to heaven! What a difference, I went from absolute hell to feeling absolutely nothing. The room atmosphere suddenly changed and I was back to my usually optimistic self. I thanked everyone for putting up with my screaming and we all laughed and felt so much relief.
Dr. Kym returned to check the baby’s progress and discovered that there wasn’t any change but encouraged us to try pushing for an hour if I could and see what happens. So from 9:30 to 10:30 we tried to push. Certain positions though were causing the baby’s heart rate to drop and in some cases stop. So they inserted an internal fetal monitor to be sure baby was doing ok.
After the hour passed Dr. Kym returned and we all made the decision to go ahead with a Caesarean. Around 11:00pm I was wheeled out of my room and on my way for surgery. Imagine that…all that work, all that pain just to be prepped for surgery!
Categories: Motherhood Journal | Tags: anaesthesiologist, birth story, epidural, labor pain, labor story, maternity doctors, pain relief | No Comments »
July 25, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
After we had a little breakfast we headed back to the hotel to clean up, but then around 3:30 I started to feel my first real contractions. They felt very much like gut cramps but a little more intense. I was so excited to finally feel that things were moving along and I could manage the contractions. However, in less than 15 minutes I was brutally attacked by a REAL contraction and suddenly I began to realise what I was in for! It was time to get to the hospital.
Unfortunately I couldn’t walk anymore as the baby had dropped enough that I had a pinched nerve in my right hip. So my husband had to run across the street to get a wheelchair from the hospital and bring it over to me. My contractions weren’t long but they were getting really intense and I wanted to be in the hospital pronto! Mike got back in great time though and we were off. We had to go through the back parking lot as there wasn’t a ramp at the front. After dodging parked cars and moving vehicles we raced across Burrard St. To the Emergency entranced and flew up to maternity.
Once again I was assigned to a bed in the fetal monitoring area. They hooked me up to another monitor and proceeded to check my cervix. At this point my contractions were getting more and more intense and I remember feeling that I couldn’t get any rest in between. Unfortunately for me my cervix at this point was only at 3 centimetres so the nurses felt that I was only just beginning my labour and that I was just another new mother panic stricken over this unknown pain. What they didn’t know was that my pain was actually very real as I was dilating extremely quickly.
The nurses tried to calm me down by giving me the nitrous oxide but it wasn’t really doing anything for the pain. It was also difficult to use. All I wanted to do was take deep quick breaths and breathing through that nozzle was really difficult and I felt suffocated which increased my discomfort. Instead I opted to moan louder and louder and eventually those moans became very loud cries! At this point I was still in the fetal monitoring room! The poor women admitted for monitoring must have been totally freaked out! I mean what does a labouring woman have to do to be admitted to their own room! Finally the nurses decided to admit me to my own room and I felt some relief for the poor women being tortured during a routine fetal monitoring session by my display, but my pain was excruciating and when I heard my nurse Oli say, “I’ll get the bath running for you” I knew then that they truly didn’t believe how much pain I was in.
The problem for me was that I wasn’t getting any rest in between contractions; it was one big long horrible contraction. Every once in a while I might have gotten 20 seconds of relief but that was it. Every time I would finish a terrible contraction I could feel the next one already starting, I thought I was going to die and the only thing that made it feel any better was yelling and crying as loud as I could, just like a newborn! I’ve never felt more desperate in my life for help. I remember thinking dying would be easier than going through the rest of this and I wondered how long it would be before someone took my pain seriously and let me have an epidural.
Categories: Motherhood Journal | Tags: birth, birth stories, contractions, epidural, labor, labor pain, labour stories | No Comments »
July 12, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
Just over a week ago we had to deal with our first eye infection! Already???? I suppose our first of many other bumps, bruises, scratches and illnesses. At first I thought that maybe I had caused it because of his bath the night before. During bath time I had washed him down with a wash cloth and later did his face again without thinking and I noticed that quite a bit of water got into his eye. Of course the water simply drained out and everything was fine. I didn’t think anything of it until the next morning when his eye obviously looked irritated.
How do you treat an eye infection? I boiled some water and the applied a warm cloth to it to see if that would help but over the course of a few hours his eye began to drain quite a bit of yellow sticky stuff and a little redness in the corner of his eye was concerning.
We decided not to risk it and took him into the medical clinic. Luckily the Doctor we had did confirm that it was an infection and at his age it is important to treat with an antibiotic ointment because there remains a possibility that this infection was passed on from the womb.
He prescribed us Erythromycin which is NOT an eye drop. In fact it is a gel like ointment which is incredibly difficult to administer. In order to use it properly it must be applied in the “trough” of the eye, which you create by pulling the bottom eye lid down. The tricky part is to not touch the eye with the tip of the tube as the infection can then transfer into the medication leaving it pointless.
The ointment is quite sticky making it difficult to release into the eye so if you are in a similar situation try your best to get it inside the “trough” and if you miss a little gently squeeze both eye lids together for a few seconds as the ointment will eventually melt onto the eyeball with time. If you really miss, try, try again!
The next day our little guy woke up with a crusty eye, however after cleaning it that morning the puss never reoccurred. This does not mean that you stop using the medication. In fact you must use the medication twice a day in BOTH eyes for 7 to 10 days to be sure the medication has done the job. These infections are very contagious and can very easily be transfered to the other eye and to Mom and Dad’s eyes. It is also important not to clean the infected eye with a cloth. Instead use a soft facial tissue and throw it out and don’t forget to wash your hands frequently.
It is important to realize that these eye infections in newborns should be treated fairly seriously as when left untreated can cause eye damage including blindness in certain cases. It isn’t worth risking, so get them checked out!
Categories: Medical Procedures | Tags: Erythromycin, eye infection ointments, eye infection treatment, eye infections, how to administer eye ointments, newborn eye infections | 1 Comment »
July 4, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
I began to get a feeling that maybe I would be one of those poor women who had to be induced three times before being told they had to have a c-section. After all I was already at least 9 days overdue as our ultrasound indicated that our due date was April 27 rather than May 1st!
To my surprise however that night around 4am I awoke with some relentless cramping. It felt like diarrhea cramping so I got up to use the washroom and hopefully relieve myself, however they remained constant and I realised that I did not feel the cord to my Cervidil. I fished around a bit for it and concluded that it had fallen out. I debated what to do next and thought seriously about going back to bed but thankfully I smartened up and decided to call maternity. I snuck out of the room and made the call and the nurse told me to come back to the hospital. So I tried my best to sneak around the room to collect my things without waking anyone but to no avail. My mom and Mike had that sixth sense about them and got straight out of bed. We left Joanne to get a few more hours sleep so she could be rested and more with it than the rest of us!
When we got back to the hospital we were assigned to the fetal monitoring room again and they began to monitor the baby. They had to be sure things were still good with the baby before they decide to give me my second cervidil. We also had to wait until the next resident went on shift which was at 6:30am approximately 2 hours from when we first arrived.
After a few hours we were greeted by the new resident on duty and our Doctor, Dr. Anderson who was still on duty from the night before. They hooked us up to a contraction monitor which measured my contractions and the baby’s heart rate to see if the contractions were having an effect on the baby’s heart rate. Unfortunately during a contraction (which I could not feel) the baby’s heart rate dropped way below the optimal heart rate zone and that was enough to make the Doctors feel that I needed to stay and be monitored longer. It could have only been a coincidence.
So we waited a few more hours before they agreed it was a coincidence and proceeded to induce me again. Once they inserted the cervidil I had to be monitored again for another hour before they can let me go to be sure that the drug does not affect the baby’s wellbeing. During that time I heard a gut wrenching scream. At first Mike and I thought it was a baby, but we were quickly corrected when we heard it again only this time it was accompanied with “GET IT OUT, GET IT OUT!” At that moment I was completely and utterly afraid of labour! Our eyes were wide with shock and fear! I could not get the sound out of my head and an epidural was beginning to seem like a no-brainer!
At 9:30 I was discharged again with a new cervidil and we decided to go out for breakfast and get some rest for the obvious road ahead!
Categories: Pregnancy Journal | Tags: baby blog, birth diary, birth stories, giving birth, labor, labour, my birth story | No Comments »
June 9, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
What can I say…I had a dream pregnancy, I enjoyed every waking second of it. I felt great, I looked pretty good and generally had a great outlook on the new direction my life was going. Was all of this glorious well being going to end up being a unfavorable omen??
Every pregnant women has her very own labour experience and each one is uniquely different, however we are also confident that our personal story is by far the greatest! At least I felt that mine had to be the most difficult and yet every woman I speak to about their labour would tell a similarly difficult story! Regardless of the story, labour is difficult, painful and very frightening and I was not spared from either adjective!
Mine began on Sunday May 9th 2010 which happened to be Mother’s Day! I’ll never forget it. I was to be induced at St. Pauls Hospital downtown Vancouver around noon. My husband, mother and myself were traveling down from Whistler and it just so happened to also be the Vancouver Sun Run! This is Canada’s largest marathon so traffic getting into the city was likely to be tragic…and it was! It took us at least 45 minutes to get from Lions Gate Bridge to the hospital but we arrived and not too late either.
Once checked in I was hooked up to a baby monitor and examined. Later they inserted the induction drug cervidil which resembles a flat tampon placed beneath the cervix. Once that was complete I was allowed to leave the hospital as the cervidil may not work in the first try. In fact in some cases it can take up to three attempts before Doctors will consider scheduling a Cesarean. Fingers crossed I was not one of those women.
So more of the unknown…it was bad enough waiting 9 days passed due date and now we had no idea whether induction would even work! The last addition to our labour team arrived and met us outside the hospital that afternoon. Joanne also lives in Whistler so now the pressing issue to deal with was accommodation! What if it takes me two days before I go into labour, and what if that ends in a Cesarean? We could be looking for a week in a hotel! Not an expense that we had accounted for.
So we all piled into Earls restaurant to watch the Canucks game and brainstormed what to do about finding a place to call home for an undefined amount of time. Luckily my mother had just purchased an Iphone and it was seriously invaluable as we were able to research hotel prices in the area. Unfortunately for us there were no deals in sight and this was starting to look incredibly pricey for us. However we had noticed a “motor inn” located directly across from the hospital over top of a “seven 11″ , a hotel we would not have considered any other time but today it was worth a try.To our luck it was good enough, great price and right across the street from the hospital. It turned out to be a fantastic find and we were so glad we gave it the benefit of the doubt.
For good measure we all went for another long walk along the water hoping to help this baby along, then we turned in for the night and watched movies in bed while I waited to experience my first contraction which may or may not ever come…
Categories: Pregnancy Journal, uncategorized | Tags: labour stories, my labor story, the labour experience, what is labor like | No Comments »
June 3, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
I feel so guilty about my lack of posts during a time where I have so much to talk about!! My posts will have to become smaller now that I realize how luxurious free time is! I have so much catching up to do! These last three weeks have been such an incredible roller coaster ride and I need to be sure to write about all of it, so I have decided to take paper notes on what has happened over the last three weeks and I will begin to write about them all once I get better with this new schedule that I’m on (which is baby’s schedule!).
I have not forgotten my blog, I aim to get back at it real soon…gotta go… spit up is happening!
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May 24, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
Eleven days over due and finally here. Our little boy Jackson Ryan Kyle was finally born at 12.09am on May 11th 2010!
The labour story is an interesting one that will all be told at a later date. Presently I am still hosting my parents and getting used to my new life and writing is definitely taking a back seat to that.
I do expect to try and get back to some sort of routine soon but I am not holding my breath! So until then…
Categories: Pregnancy Journal | Tags: | 3 Comments »
May 7, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
Yesterday we headed back down to the city for our fetal monitoring appointment. My mom, husband and I were all pretty excited since the night before I had lost my mucus plug and was expecting to go into labour at any moment! However that wasn’t the case, nor is it the case that losing your mucus plug means labour is right around the corner!
We arrived and I was hooked up to a monitor where they document the baby’s heart rate for an extended period of time. The baby’s heart rate was all over the place! It would go from 155 all the way down to 119 and then back to 135 etc. I assumed that the steadier the heart rate the better, but that is not the case. What the nurses are looking for is exactly that variation as it proves that the baby’s heart is responding to activity. When the baby is active the heart rate increases, when it relaxes, the heart rate decreases. So baby is healthy, happy and very very comfy!
After about a half hour the nurse took me off the monitor and did my history. We also requested that she perform a vaginal exam so that we could see if I had progressed at all since Tuesday. At least this would give us a better idea of whether we should be getting a hotel for the night or go all the way back to Whistler. Unfortunately there was no progress! What a disappointment!
We were also told that induction doesn’t always work! I could be induced up to three times before they consider doing a Cesarean! This was a shocker to me because the idea of driving back and forth everyday for a while is a real drag! It’s starting to look like I may not be celebrating Mother’s Day this year after all and that is truly a surprise. I was so sure I would be holding my baby by now!
Categories: Pregnancy Journal | Tags: fetal monitoring, losing your mucus plug, over due, over your due date, pregnancy journal | 1 Comment »
May 5, 2010 | Posted by Jennie
Well it is now May 5th and I am still with child! Yesterday I went down to the city to see my Doctor once more and have my “membranes swept”. If you have not heard this term before it essentially means that your Doctor or Midwife inserts their finger into the cervix to sweep around a little bit. Sometimes this can help to naturally induce labour and can have results in 24 to 48 hours.
This also allows your caregiver to see which position your cervix is in and whether it has begun to dilate or not. At present my cervix is still in a posterior position meaning it is facing my back and has not started to descend. This isn’t necessarily an issue though as it apparently does not take long for the cervix to reposition. The good news was that I had actually began to dilate on my own however I am only at one centimeter…still a long way to go.
What I did not understand is that all this can happen without feeling contractions. I thought that when labour started so did contractions, however that is not the case. Your cervix can efface, reposition and dilate without experiencing any pain! Contractions only start when the uterus is preparing to push baby out! Interesting.
After the membrane sweep I did experience some bleeding so be prepared! (I was not!) Hopefully we will see some movement over the next couple of days otherwise we are scheduled for induction on Sunday. Tomorrow or Friday we are off to the city again (if M.J. doesn’t bring us there sooner) for fetal monitoring and another ultrasound. Hopefully everything is “tickety-boo”.
Categories: Pregnancy Journal | Tags: cervix, cervix dilation, cervix effacing, cervix repositioning, membrane sweep, sweeping the membranes | No Comments »