Take Two :)

My second labour was intense and lasted about 4 hours.  I remember being anxious, event though I was still two weeks away from my due date.  My first had been two weeks early, and I was desperately hoping that this one would be, too!  My good friend had had her baby and I wanted mine!  (our first babies had been born on the same day, but we hadn’t know eachother then.)

My mother in law was up visiting us and to help if baby came.  This time it happened in the middle of the night.  I remember lying in bed thinking, “are these really contractions?”  After a couple hours the intensity increased and we were off in the middle of the night!  I was about 6 cm when we arrived and I did receive some IV Fentanyl to take the edge off.  Entonox made me nauseated.  After about 15 minutes of intense pushing, our beautiful baby girl was born.  I remember asking the Dr if I could go home later that day…hyped up on adrenaline at this point.

Even though she would have let me, I stayed one night just to rest.  The hospital had beautiful, spacious LDRP rooms.  One night was good, I was eager to get home!

My third pregnancy was great.  I was living in the Yukon and visited the nursing stations for my prenatal care.  My pregnancy was uneventful, I did get light headed and almost faint a few times due to the position of my baby.

There was this one time, I was 8 months pregnant…I remember sitting on the couch and baby did this flip…complete shift to one side of belly and the other side was concave.  But I didn’t think much of it.

When I was 37 weeks and 6 days we started our trip down to Whitehorse.  We camped in the backcountry at a lake just off the Klondike Hwy.  Everything was great.  The next day we got into Whitehorse and I had my prenatal.  The Dr did an internal exam to see where I was at.  I remember him saying, “you probably have a little while before baby comes.”  In the Yukon, you have to be in Whitehorse 2 weeks prior to your due date as they don’t deliver in any of the communities.

Later that day I was shopping with my friend, and I was having wicked Braxton hicks (or so I thought!)  I probably wasn’t much good to her, my attention was on my belly.  I remember getting back to the residence we were staying at and feeling frustrated.  We had just picked up pizza for everyone.  We ate and started getting the girls cleaned up.  By this point the intensity was unbearable and I said to my husband, “We need to go NOW”…15 of the LONGEST minutes of my life, we were on our way to the hospital.  I did not think I was going to make it.  It was just before 8pm (shift change) and we got to the hospital, registered, and got up to the labour floor.  Wow, that was intense, I can just imagine what people were thinking.  Of course they hadn’t received any of my paper work because I was only 38 weeks!  With some INTENSE contractions and pushing, our baby girl was born by 8:40pm.  No time for the IV or medication.  Thankfully she came early as she had a nuchal cord and true knot in her cord.  (I am sure she developed that knot from that time on the couch!) The Dr asked me if I had been a smoker because of calcifications on the placenta.  Never had I smoked.  They did insert an IV and give me some Oxytocin post delivery because of the fast delivery.

The one thing I remember was being in the shower shortly after and a steady stream of red going down my leg, then I got shaky.  So, I then got Duratocin, and did I feel those cramps! WOW, intense.  They give Duratocin to treat post partum hemorrhage. 

This Dr wanted me to stay four days!  Are you kidding me!?  I couldn’t wait to get home.  By day 2 I had convinced him to let me fly home (vs the 6 hour car ride).  That was enjoyable, plus I had the chance to show off my 2 day little peanut!