My Birth "Support Army"

When my husband and I decided that we were ready to start a family I couldn’t have been more excited. Of course, I am a person with very little patience so once the decision was made I was ready to be pregnant like yesterday! Unfortunately, nature had other ideas for my “grand master plan”… you know I will be pregnant this month and have a baby by this day … and it was a good 9+ months before I finally got that lovely positive sign. Sadly after that initial excitement I miscarried very early and was devastated. Being a nurse I knew the statistics and research about early miscarriage, but it was still very emotional and hard for us, especially because I thought this was finally it.

After a few weeks I began to lighten up and took my own advice to relax, knowing that it is not at all abnormal for it to take up to a year or more to get pregnant. Low and behold not long after that I found out I was pregnant again!! This time around I was filled with nervous excitement, I didn’t know if I should let myself become too excited “just in case”, but luckily my pregnancy progressed uneventfully.

Of course, as my due date came and went my lack of patience surfaced again and I was so ready to finally hold my baby in my arms. Again baby had a different plan, and I had to be induced because he just did not want to come out. So the morning of my induction we packed up and headed into the city, we had e-v-e-r-ything and I am sure the nurse’s in labor and delivery thought we were moving in! Of course all of my support persons wanted to come, so in the end I had my husband, mom, sister and mother in law there, it was more like my “support army“. I was all ready to go…but after my first day of induction I was no further ahead. I admit I was frustrated; I had tried everything to try and help my labor start and progress but alas no go. So we packed up our “party room“, went home, and came back the next day to start over. This time things finally started to move late into the afternoon. Of course by this time I had not taken the advice that I give so many expectant parents, which was to rest before labor and in early labor to save your strength, and so I was exhausted before too long. When I was told I was 5cm I realized that I would need some help in getting through labor so I opted for an epidural. Once I got the epidural I finally let my body relax and I went from 5cm to 10cm within an hour. I was still able to try different positions for pushing with the help from my wonderful labor nurse and “support army” and just before midnight delivered my beautiful son!!

All I wanted to do was to hold him and kiss his head, and I so wanted him to go right to my belly after he was born, but he was having some breathing issues and they needed to assess him. That was the longest 5 minutes of my life, being in the hospital bed looking over at the nurses and doctor huddled around my baby, who I still had not seen, not knowing what was going on. When they finally brought him to me it was the most wonderful moment of my life, knowing he was ok, and finally here. I was able to breastfeed him right way and we stayed like that for I am sure over an hour. I am so fortunate that I was able to be surrounded by those I love and who supported me during my labor and am so grateful everyday for my baby. Even now when I look at him and how he has grown he continually amazes me and I am so grateful for every moment with him (even the ones where I feel like I am going to pull out my hair!)