My Surprise 1st Child
My pregnancy/birth
story for my first child was a series of unplanned surprises for myself.
The
first surprise was discovering I was pregnant 2 months before my wedding. While
we were planning on starting a family after we got married, this was a bit of a
surprise, pleasant and a blessing but a surprise nonetheless. My due date was
January 20th. I decided that I wanted to give birth in the small rural hospital
where I worked under the care of my midwife colleague through the local Low
Risk Clinic. My goal was to have as natural of birth as possible. Well there
came the next “surprise”, during my pregnancy I developed low platelets which
put me at risk for bleeding and made me too high of risk to deliver in rural.
So I was referred to deliver in the city and managed to have my first
appointment arranged with an OB/GYN who practiced at my rural hospital as well
as in the city. I had my first appointment at 34 weeks and was instructed to
come in just after I was 36 weeks for my next appointment. Up until this time I
was working full time and was scheduled to go off work after a night shift
ending on Boxing Day. My plan was to spend the next few weeks “nesting”. I was
going to super organize and clean my house, bake, make meals and freeze them,
and spend time relaxing with my husband.
3 days later with
reservations made for the following evening for New Year’s Eve supper and a
snowstorm in the works I was in early labour. We made the trip in to the city
only to be told we were in very early labour and sent back home. The next day
was New Year’s Eve and by 5 am I was having contractions that were fairly
regular. By noon they were progressing to every 3- 5 minutes. Due to the poor
weather and having a 40 min drive into the city we headed in to the hospital
earlier than I had hoped, but better to be safe than deliver a baby on the side
of the road in my car in a snowstorm!
I
was nervous, my husband was nervous, we were excited and scared and full of
emotions! At this point I had wished my husband and I did prenatal classes
together (he had been working out of town for the majority of my pregnancy so I
attended a couple of classes by myself). When we got there I was 2-3
centimetres dilated but they decided to keep me as the roads weren’t great.
Luckily the labour unit wasn’t super busy at this point so I was given a labour
room on the Labour and Delivery floor which meant I didn’t have to stay and
labour in the small triage area. I laboured in the shower as much as I was able
to, never have I been so thankful to live in a country with an abundant supply
of hot running water!
After 4 hours of in hospital labour I was 4-5cms dilated
and the OB/GYN and nursing staff decided
I wasn’t progressing quick enough so they began a Oxytocin drip- “surprise” my
natural childbirth was looking less appealing as no longer was I allowed to be
in the shower as I was to be on the monitor which meant labouring in bed…This
was the most uncomfortable feeling ever, trying to stay still so the monitor
could actually monitor my baby but trying to be comfortable- it just wasn‘t
working for me at all. So after 2 hours of the Oxytocin with only 1 dose of IV
morphine, I couldn’t handle the pain anymore so I gave up my resisting and
opted for the epidural that had been offered to me when I had first arrived on the unit.
I was sad as I didn’t really want the epidural (being a nurse I had witnessed
the initiation of epidurals and the thought of the large needle going into my
spine didn’t really appeal to me but my lack of pain control won over my fear
of the large needle). As it turned out the insertion of the epidural wasn’t
really all that bad, I had in all fairness warned my poor husband not to watch
them put it in and he didn’t listen, he still feels bad for me getting that
needle- although it was a blessing for me as it made me calmer and I think
truly the decrease in my anxiety made my labour progress faster than any of the
drugs could have. An hour after my epidural was started I was ready to push and
half an hour later my beautiful daughter was born - yet another “surprise” as I
had thought all along I was pregnant with a boy(we had opted to not find out at
ultrasound but all the old wife’s tales pointed to a boy).
After delivery and when I got home I did feel
a bit sad that my “plan” of a natural birth didn’t work out. I felt that maybe
I could have been stronger and pushed through the pain or I should have stayed
at home and laboured in my comforting surroundings longer. But in the end when
I look back on it all I realize that I couldn’t have planned a more perfect
moment than sitting in my hospital bed holding my baby girl watching the New
Year’s Eve fireworks over the city skyline with my husband at my side. I guess
it is true that sometimes the best things in life are the surprises that come
when you least expect them.
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