We're Home!

Wow... what a whirlwind couple of days it's been! Forgive any typos, spelling and/or grammar mistakes I make... I'm running on about 7 hours of sleep in the last 48+ hours.

All day Sunday I was having Braxton Hicks contractions, but they didn't get uncomfortable until around six or so when they started to feel a little achy. Nothing horrible, just like dull period cramps. We were over at Michelle and Paul's so I casually mentioned over dinner that they were coming around 15 minutes apart so we started timing them... and realized they were more like 10 minutes apart. I kind of blew them off because I couldn't believe they were strong enough or painful enough to be labor pains. We talked about leaving Matt over at their house overnight, just in case, but again, I didn't really think it was labor and decided to bring Matt home to sleep in his own bed. We told Michelle that we'd call her if we needed her and headed home.

Once home, the contractions started getting a little stronger and closer together, and finally by the time they were coming 4-6 minutes apart, around 10:00 or so, we called Michelle to come over and decided to go to the hospital to be checked, just in case. I knew they'd probably send me home. We arrived at the hospital, bags packed, around 10:30 and they put me in a room and hooked me up to the heart rate and contractions monitor and called the doctor on call to check me (Dr. Lemonnier was in Montreal for the weekend).

Unfortunately, according to the on-call doc, I was only 1 cm. dilated, 50% effaced... and although the contractions were coming regurlarly every 5 minutes or so, the nurse said that they "weren't strong enough" and since I was so tiny, the contractions I though I was having were really "mild cramps." Yeah right lady, easy for you to say! She also said that I'd "know" when I was really in labor and to keep my prenatal appointment on Wednesday. I bet she was eating her words later that night!! The last contraction I had on the monitor was a doozy, but I couldn't convince the nurse of that and they sent me home.

We got home at 11:30, and Michelle convinced us to let her stay and sleep on the couch, just in case. Good thing she did, too, because as you'll read later, I don't think I would have made it to the hospital otherwise.

Mark and I tried to take the nurse's advice and go to bed, but my body had other ideas. The contractions at this point were still coming every 4-6 minutes but now they were starting to get pretty uncomfortable and painful. Around 1:00, every time I had one I had to get up and lean against the bed and rock back and forth to deal with them. Around 2:00 I told Mark that I thought we should head back to the hospital and I jumped in the shower. The shower felt GOOD, although I had 4 or 5 pretty strong ones in the shower. We left around 2:30 and had to go in through the ER because the main entrance closes at 11:00. Mark told the triage nurse that I was in labor and the triage nurse told us that we were the 7th couple that night in labor!! He said it happens with every full moon. So, needless to say, we had to wait for someone to come down and get me. I had three really bad contractions waiting there - so bad that I had to lean up against Mark and squeeze his hand. I think I even whimpered a little {{blushing}}. FINALLY, at around 3:00, a nurse came and brought us up.

Once in the Maternity ward, we saw the nurse that had sent us home earlier and she had this look on her face like, Oh, it's you guys again. I really thought she thought she'd be sending us home again. She put us in a room and came back a few minutes later with a midwife to check me... Wasn't she shocked when she found out I was 7 cm. dilated and she could feel the head!!! I told her I wanted an epidural and she said she'd see what she could do since it was so busy. She went out and I looked at Mark and said, "There's not going to be time for an epidural, is there?" That was around 3:15 AM.

I was in a LOT of pain at this point. The contractions were really strong in my belly, but also in my hips and butt. Little did I know I was probably in transition. Another nurse came in and said that they were going to get me some relief, but the doctor and midwife wanted her to check me again one more time... I was now 8 cm. dilated - 5 minutes later. She had this look of pity on her face as she told me that there wasn't going to be time for drugs of any kind - no time for an epidural, no time for an IV, no time to even take any blood or have me fill out any paperwork.

I panicked!! Everything started happening REALLY fast at this point... the midwife and the doctor came in, they were trying to fix the bed, put pads under me, etc. and I was writhing and yelling, "nonononononononono!!!" LOL! I hate to admit it, but I was a screamer. I think I was so insane because I was completely unprepared - unprepared to go without drugs, and unprepared to be in labor in the first place! Every time a contraction hit (one after another at this point), I'd start yelling "NOOO!!" and "It's coming!!" and "I don't want to/can't do this!!" and "Make it stop!! Knock me out! I can't breathe! I'm going to pass out!" etc, etc. LOL!! The doctor kept saying, "Look at me Kelly, you're doing fine, you're doing it." He put my foot on his shoulder and Mark held my other leg (no time for stirrups!) and I was lying flat on my back in between contractions (I think in the rush they forgot to raise the bed). I DID NOT WANT TO PUSH! I was terrified. My water broke at some point during all this craziness (don't forget - this is all happening within a 1/2 hour period of time) and I said, "Here it comes!! NONONONO!!" {{embarrassed laugh again}}

They told me to push and I felt that "ring of fire" I felt the head coming down, fast. I pushed twice and the head came out, again and felt the shoulders come out, the doctor told me to do "little pushes" (Yeah RIGHT!!) and I felt the rest of body slither out and they put her on my chest. :) Instant relief, by the way! It was 3:42 AM... almost an hour after we arrived at the hospital. She was beautiful. And she was blue. for about 5 seconds, although it seemed an eternity, she just laid there, not crying... they rubbed her down and finally she let out a giant squawl. :) The doctor told us that not only was the cord wrapped around her neck twice, but she had an actual knot in her cord (that could have killed her in utero... she's a very lucky girl).

I could immediately see that she looks a lot like Matt did when he was born... dark hair, long fingers and toes, same shaped face... I also checked *just to be sure* that she was a girl. You never know. ;-) She also has a perfectly round head. She came too fast to have a cone head. ;-)

As a side note, no tears, no episiotomy. YAY!! That made the recovery SO much easier. I was actually able to get up and walk around within hours and felt absolutely fine. Everyone was commenting that it didn't even look like I gave birth. :)

I felt so well and Jillian is breastfeeding so well that I asked if I could go home early and both Drs. Lemonnier and Harris had no problem with it, so I came home yesterday afternoon around 2:00. I just missed Matt too much, and it's much less stressful here with my own bed, supplies, food, etc.

Jillian nursed like a pro from the very beginning. She latched right on and does beautifully every single time. She does seem to have her days and nights mixed up, though. She does NOT like to be put down which made for two very much sleepless nights so far. Hopefully now that my milk came in this morning, things will be a bit better. We just need to get her into a good routine. :)

Matt seems to be doing fine, too. In fact, when Jillian woke up this morning, you could hear Matt saying "Beebee" in the next room. LOL! Whenever we go up to change her or take her out of the room, he asks for her. I'm not sure, though, that he "gets" the fact that she's not going anywhere. LOL! I have a couple of videos to post of his reactions when Mark brought him to the hospital on Monday... I'll post them later. I'll also upload some pictures of Jillian. :)

Whew!! With two kids, that took me a long time to write! I started it around 8:00 last night and it's now 9:45 AM.

By the way... check out Jillian's pool to see who won!