The whole story

Well...for those who want all the gory details, continue reading. If you'd like to skip details, just look at the pictures and moooove on! :)



So at 6:30am I woke up feeling uncomfortable. I'd never gone into labour naturally and so wasn't entirely sure that what I was feeling was contractions, when I timed them and they were regular then I was sure. By 7:15am they were pretty darn hard and it seemed like anything I did brought on another one...so I was moving slowly trying to get as much time between those stinkin' contractions as I could get! So we didn't leave until around 8:30am. I REALLY wanted pain relief and so voted for Red Deer Hospital (forty minutes away) instead of Edmonton (an hour and a half away AND neither of us had actually been to that hospital yet). I remember trying to figure out if we called 911 and they sent an ambulance, did the ambulance give epidurals? Nope...gotta go somewhere where they could give me DRUGS! I even gave some serious thought to asking someone to just knock me out...I really wanted to be OUT OF IT. The midwives have since explained that this is part of what is called 'transition'. However, at the time I just felt like I was slightly losing it. We got ready to leave and a contraction hit in the kitchen. While Big E rubbed my back I heard a friend reassure Little Dude that we were having a baby today. I thought to myself, if this takes all day just kill me now! We got in the car and headed to Red Deer. Big E said, "You're going to kill me, but we've got to stop for gas." AHHHhh! Actually I think I kept my composure pretty well and just said to stop at a pay at the pump kind so he could still provide counter pressure on my back when a contraction hit. By the end of the drive I had my eyes closed and felt VERY open. Got into Emerg and leaned on the security guard's desk when a contraction hit (about 2 minutes apart by this time) and I think I may have asked him for an epidural! :) The nurses didn't have any of my information since we weren't planning on going to that hospital and so they were asking me questions. I answered as quickly as possible so I could get to the really important part, "And I need an epidural as soon as possible." The nurse took me to the examination room and told me I needed to be a bit quieter because I was scaring her other ladies...LOL....I thought, "SO?" Anyway, she gave me the news that I was 9 cm dialated and so couldn't have an epidural, how about I have a baby? Hahaha. Then she wanted me off the bed and into a wheel chair. The thought of getting my knees close enough together to fit into a chair was beyond the last thing I wanted to do...I told the nurse "no". She assured me that the delivery room was just around the corner and I said, "Don't these beds have wheels?!?" Long and short, I got out of the bed and perched on the edge of the chair and resisted efforts to get me to move back...the room was just around the corner, RIGHT!? Got in to the deliver room at 9:15am, they strapped monitors on me, by that time I didn't care too much. They tried to insert an IV in the left hand...tried twice with no luck and so moved over to the right hand. Broke my water, and 2 pushes later out he popped. NO drugs in spite of my insistence that drugs were exactly what I needed! :) 9:28am he arrived. It was a very different experience from the previous 2 c-sections. Both boys LOVE their new baby and seem to have an ongoing competition on who can love him to death first! :) Now we need a nick name for him for the blog....any suggestions??