Tuesday's Tot Talks (1) Molly's Birth Story

Like many first-time moms, I spent a lot of time worrying about labour and delivery as I neared the end of my pregnancy. I remember someone telling me that the worst that could happen was a c-section, so if I prepared myself for that possibility, I would not feel disappointed if things went that way. In the end, I did have an emergency c-section and labour was nowhere near as "easy" as my pregnancy had been...but it was definitely worth it!! Now, almost 2 years later, there are parts of all of it that I don't even remember!! haha. Here's me with Brian looking super pregnant around 37 weeks:

Here's a timeline of events in Molly's birth.

Sept 1, 2011 - Last day of work. Starting to feel really tired these past few weeks, and finding it difficult not to nap as soon as I got home. Went to bed at around 8pm and tossed and turned most nights. Relieved to be finished with work.

Sept long weekend - Went to our good friends' house for their daughter's 1st birthday.Went to my aunt's house to celebrate our family's September birthdays. Kept on trucking. Feeling excited and a bit nervous.

First week of September - I cleaned the apartment from stem to stern. Washed floors by hand. Went for some walks around the neigbourhood. Read, slept, relaxed.

Sept 9, 2011 (Friday) - (2-3 days overdue at this point) ordered chinese food for supper. Spicy food = labour, right?!! Woke up unable to sleep around 3 am and cried my heart out...haha. Started having contractions at 5:15 am, woke up in pain.

Sept 10, 2011 (Saturday) - We timed my contractions using an iPhone app and went into the IWK hospital around 9 am to check on labour. We were told to go home as I was only 2cm dilated, and to come back in later if the contractions worsened. We went home, went for lunch at a nearby pub, and I had contractions about every 5-10 mins (I think?), and went for a walk around the neighbourhood. Nothing else was happening. We had a yummy supper with the in-laws at our apartment, but I soon got violently sick to my stomach. I could not stop vomiting, so we went back to the hospital around 9 pm. They admitted me overnight with a gravol drip IV for the nausea. We both "slept" in the birthing unit that night, and contractions were not increasing in frequency or duration overnight.

Sept 11, 2011 (Sunday) - We woke up after sleeping a bit on and off all night and I was still very sick to my stomach. Tried to walk around hospital and advance labour or we were going to get sent home again. I had a bath, walked outside, walked inside, puked, etc. I honestly could not keep anything down. This went on all day without much advancement. They broke my water around 3 pm in the hopes of advancing labour. I finally decided that I needed the epidural around 9 pm when I was in incredible pain and too weak to walk much further. I had advanced to about 5-6 cm at this point. I was being constantly monitored by nurses and they were also checking on the baby a lot. At about midnight, the doctor checked on me again with the baby fetal heart rate wire thing (hmm, actual term?) and announced that, unfortunately, I would need a c-section. The baby was in distress and the heart rate was not good. I was upset, confused and disappointed, but it happened so fast that I did not have the time or energy to process it all. I did not really have a choice in the matter either. I signed a consent, Brian changed into scrubs and we went to the OR immediately.

Sept 12, 2011 (Monday) - Molly Irene was born at 12:45 am on Monday, September 12 via emergency c-section. Our anesthesiologist was amazing and talked me through the entire surgery. I was also grateful for my amazing husband (fiance at the time ;)). He held my hands during the surgery and held Molly for the first 3 hours (ish) of her life while I was in the recovery room shaking from all of the drugs. It was emotional, and it was a painful recovery but it was worth it. She was 8lbs and 13 oz at birth and 21 ¾ inches long. She was perfect, and she was all ours.