Birth Story

Alright, Cordie is napping, Duncan is off at Nikki's (I am so over that guilt thing *grin*), I've had breakfast and thought I'd better post it now or else it will never get done.

Thanks 1st of all to everyone for your congratulations and support. We are, of course, thrilled and amazed by Cordie. She is doing so awesome. The health nurse was over yesterday. Cordie was 8lb1oz at birth, 7lb10oz at discharge 2 days later. Yesterday, 5 days old, she is already 8lb4oz - so not only has she regained her birth weight in 5 days, but some additional weight too! This is awesome. A little jaundice, but we're taking care of that through nursing - which is also going great.

So here is the story, in all gory detail! Warning!

As I indicated before, I had been scheduled to be induced on Friday May 15. The hospital was totally bombarded by deliveries though and were actually sending people to other hospitals unless they were going to be delivering pretty quick. So my induction was postponed to Tuesday, May 19.

Saturday afternoon I woke from my nap and my water broke - about 3:30. So we called Mom to come stay with Duncan, went and returned our video rental (it was funny how nonchalant we were about it), and then off to the hospital. They did a NST, and at that point, 4:30, contractions were about 7 minutes apart. They couldn't tell for sure if my water had broken though. Not that they didn't believe me, but b/c of the strep B + they didn't want to hook me up to the iv until it was necessary, and if it hadn't actually broken, and labour stopped, then it would have been for nothing. So they said go home, come back when you're about 4-5 min apart. I said I have a feeling I'll be back in a few hours and they said they agreed. So we went home, had dinner, got Duncan to bed, and then contractions were about 5 min apart, so I went back in - I'm about 5 minutes from the hospital. This was 8 PM. I said to them I am going to want the epidural, so they said okay but we'll see how you progress - not wanting to do it too early (although by this point contrations were 2 minutes apart - we were going fast!). So I used the nitrous oxide and things just went so fast. I said to Bill inbetween 'CAN THEY NOT HEAR ME! TELL THEM I WANT THE EPIDURAL!' So she came to check me and it was time to push! Two pushes and she was out. That quick! We got there at 8, delivered at 9:51. So yes, I survived with no epidural, but had it been longer I would have still wanted it. It was funny b/c the doctor says to the nurse "it's too late for the epidural" and the nurse says "you tell her that, she said she wanted one..." LOL.

And, YAY! No tearing! So as far as that goes, I'm actually not in pain.

So off to my room - yay I got private, which was awesome. My Dad was there to see her quick, and then off to relieve Mom from Duncan duty (who of course was fast asleep and didn't even know we were gone).

Then things went sideways. I'm holding Cordie and I feel a gush (this is where it gets gory). I buzz the nurse and told her I was gushing. They check. Yeah - I'm hemorrhaging. Things went real fast then. Bill had Cordie in the corner, and I'm bleeding - alot! There are nurses running in and out - well I think, I was on the verge of passing out b/c I was losing so much blood at that point - and they are sticking me with this and that, and stat blood tests, and this in my iv and that in my iv and massaging my uterus. Said and done I lost 3 litres of blood - about 1/2 my volume! They said after when it settled down that b/c the delivery went so fast the uterus didn't know to contract again and all the blood vessels kept pumping blood in. Apparently it's quite common - we could tell they knew what they were doing, but it was still quite scary. I was praying during that, and Bill was too. He said he knew I was going to be okay, but just watching it all and all the blood and all he was thinking 'I can't do this on my own Lord'. And to top it off my Mom was waiting out in the waiting area and she knew something was going on, and so she was freaking out too. But we got it all settled down.

Mom spent the night - Bill was so exhausted at that point, so I sent him home. My Mom is awesome. We knew this, but I'll just note it down here. I couldn't get up of course, but she held Cordie 1/2 the night until I made her pull out the cot and get some rest. We tried getting me up in the morning - b/c frankly I felt fine, but I almost passed out on the nurse - so that was a little too quick. Doctor came in and discussed blood transfusion, but needed to wait until my morning blood test was back for hemoglobin levels. It came back and very much to everyones surprise it was awesome. They thought the count was going to below 60 and I was at a 96 or something. The doctor said I actually had better blood counts than most women who have normal delivery and don't bleed like that! He said I must be very healthy. I was pleased.

Monday morning was time to go home, and I was ready to. When talking to the health nurse on Tuesday she's warning me to watch for clots that are larger than a loonie - and everyone always tells you this. Tuesday evening I passed a reall large one. So, I was off to Emergency. Once again Mom was with me. She came to watch Duncan but he took one look at her and said "NO OMA!" Which is funny. He loves his Opa. He loves his Oma too, but he pretty much knows that Oma coming over means Mommy and Daddy are going out. For the record Oma comes over all the time just to visit, but he just makes that connection. So we decided Mom would go with Cordie and me - Cordie had to come b/c we didn't know how long I would be. They did more bloodwork and I was sent home and Wednesday morning the ER doctor called me and said my numbers were lower again, and so to start taking iron pills and see my doctor in a week and I'll get another blood test then. So I guess I'm not out of the woods yet. It just means I need to "take it easy" which is hard to do when you feel fine otherwise. Okay, I'm exhausted, but I have a newborn, so that's part of the deal :) But everyone keeps commenting on how pale I am. Okay...I'll wear make up out *grin*.

So, real quick, Bill is amazing. Honestly, he doesn't even need prompting or anything - he is taking care of Duncan, taking care of me, keeping all the house stuff up, and you can tell he is still totally comfortable on how to handle a baby. None of this "she's fragile" handling - just comfortable and being Cordie's Dad.

Duncan is also being awesome. He is just in love with Cordie. Gives her kisses, brings her her teddy bear, tells her "it's alright" whenever she cries. He is such a great kid. And big too!! He seemed small until Cordie came along, and now he seems huge!! But he is 2 1/2, and is a big healthy kid, but you don't realize it until you've got a newborn in comparison.

Okay, I'm going to nurse little missy again and then go catch a bit more shut eye.