My Birth Story - Georgia Rose

Monday May 10th, 2021.

My due date. The day that I was supposed to meet my ‘surprise’ baby. See, we didn’t know what we were having, so I was eager to find out the sex of our baby. My stomach was very large, and I had been measuring ahead with my fundal height my entire pregnancy. I have an OB appointment on May 10th, and my OB chuckled as I asked him what I was measuring. 46 weeks he said…oh great. I knew this baby was big, but I was hoping they wouldn’t be THAT big. I mean, Drake was 9lb 4oz, wasn’t that big enough?

The days creeped by and I wasn’t having any signs of labour.

Thankfully I wasn’t emotional about it. When I went overdue with Drake, it felt like a personal attack. I cried and cried on my due date. Why doesn’t this baby want to meet me?? I can’t wait to meet them!

Although not emotional, I did still find myself googling '“how to naturally induce labour?”

Sex, squats, stairs, walking, pineapple, midwives brew, castor oil, membrane sweeps (3 to be exact) - you name it, I did it. I was really motivated to go into labour because not only was I done being pregnant, but we had bought a house back in March, and our move in date was May 17th, 2021. Exactly 1 week after my due date.

On Sunday night before our move, I turned to Nathan in bed and said “okay, all I can hope for now, is that this baby doesn’t come until after our move. Then they’re welcome to grace us with their presence.”

Monday May 17th, 2021.

Moving day! Yay! We’re SO excited to move into our new house. We are still living in the same city (Fort McMurray), but switching subdivisions. Our new house is closer to amenities, we back onto a pond, AND we have a driveway. What more could I ask for? (okay, a lot of things haha - maybe a bigger backyard??)

I sat up in bed, knowing we had a busy day ahead of us, and I felt a small gush of fluid. Great. Now I can’t even control my bladder. I quickly got up, went to the bathroom, cleaned myself up and got dressed. Drake was going to be playing with his aunt Larissa that day while the rest of us moved our belongings from 1 house to the next.

I had an NST appointment scheduled for 9:15am that morning, so I dropped Drake off at 8:30am and off I went to the hospital. The baby was most active at night time, so when I was holding the clicker to monitor the baby’s movements, the nurse actually had me lay there an extra 20 minutes just to get a few more movements recorded. I had mentioned the ‘gush’ that I had earlier, but I had also said that something similar had happened on Saturday, and the OB checked and said it wasn’t amniotic fluid. Talk about embarrassing.

My induction date was set for Tuesday May 18th, so I wasn’t overly concerned even if my water HAD broken, because I was coming in the next day to have the baby regardless. She did a swab and it came back negative, but she sent me upstairs to the Maternity Ward to get assessed by the OB just to be sure. When I went upstairs, I had a more thorough swab and sure enough - my water had broken. Great. Good timing, baby.

I was GBS positive, so I had to be hooked up to antibiotics ASAP to ensure the baby was safe while delivering. The doctor turned to the nurse and said “get her paperwork done up, she’s getting admitted.”

Wait a SECOND. I am supposed to be helping move my house and I didn’t come to the hospital thinking I was getting admitted. I needed to grab a few things beforehand! Truthfully, I did have the baby’s diaper bag and my hospital bag in my car…I just really had a guilt complex over having other people move my house and me not even helping at all.

The doctor agreed to give me the first dose of IV antibiotics and then let me go for 3.5 hours. I was to come back after that to be admitted for good. He also assured me that even though contractions hadn’t started, they were going to slowly induce me; as to not shock my body, or the baby. I felt on-board with this plan. Although on-board, I still felt really nervous since the OB that was on-call that day, was actually a locum and he was filling in for another doctor who was on maternity leave. I knew I was having a big baby, so I really wanted someone who would empower me to deliver naturally, rather than encourage me to get a c-section. I asked the nurse beside me what she thought of him, and she said he was amazing. Easy enough.

After my dose of antibiotics, I quickly drove home and met my mom, and my good friend, Krista. They were there to help pack the ‘little stuff’ into our vehicles. We loaded laundry baskets, clothes, garbage bins, food, kitchen supplies, and more. All of the things that didn’t quite fit the bill to be packed into boxes. As Krista and my mom did countless trips from my front steps to our cars, we were ready to unload at the new house.

Oh also, did I mention it was pouring rain? We were soaked.

Finally, at the new house, we unpacked our vehicles into the garage, loaded up and made 1 final trip to ‘Dafoe Way’ (old house) and then I was summoned back to the hospital.

I said my final goodbyes, and off I went. Alone. With covid, you’re only allowed 1 support person with you in the hospital, and even though my water had technically broken, my labour hadn’t started. Nathan was busy moving and offered to come with me right away, but I felt like he would be of better use at the house, then at the hospital waiting around with me.

Once at the hospital, they immediately hooked me up to Pitocin and gave me another dose of antibiotics. My nurse Heather was so great and informative, and I felt sad when she went off shift at 7pm. Heather told me that my next nurse would be in shortly and that under her care, every mom had their baby. She was the baby whisperer. I laughed and wasn’t sure if I believed her - only because the doctor told me he was taking things super slow with my induction.

Nathan arrived with Subway minutes before shift change. Beautiful. I was starving, and the hospital’s steamed carrots and rubber chicken weren’t doing it for me.

At shift change, in walked a literal angel. Ancy. This was the baby whisperer. She was a midwife before, and had 3 kids of her own. Her personal and professional experience made her so relatable and her advice was always on point. I told her that I had submitted a birth plan and basically the only 2 things on there were “no episiotomy, and I want an epidural. stat.”

I had a failed epidural with Drake, and that left me with a lot of fear and trauma surrounding the birthing process. I felt unequipped to deliver him and the pain was so intense I thought I might die. I didn’t want to relive that experience.

She assured me that the Anesthesiologist would happily give me an epidural, but that she recommended I wait until labour starts getting too intense to handle. She said that the epidural can slow the birthing process, and she had many other pain-relief suggestions before jumping right into the epidural. I trusted her.

Every 30-60 minutes, Ancy would come in and increase my dose of Pitocin, making my contractions grow stronger. She came in frequently to check in on me and she encouraged me to start walking the hallway. She said the force of gravity would help bring the baby down, and it would help my body kickstart labour even more.

Nathan walked beside me as we went back and forth down the same hallway for over an hour.

Things were starting to get really intense for me and I wanted some sort of pain relief. Ancy gave me some options and I chose Morphine. A long needle got put into my outer thigh administering the drug, but it didn’t really help me out much. Ancy coached me on how to properly control my breaths while contracting. Her advice felt magical. She suggested I go into a hot shower since that can help my body through labour. I felt skeptical, but listened. As I stepped into the tiny hospital shower with the hot water pointed at my lower back, it felt so good. Better than anything I had been doing before. The pain seemed to lessen and my contractions felt tolerable. Ancy came back with 2 popsicles while Nathan pointed the shower head at my lower back for over an hour.

Tuesday May 18th, 2021.

12:30am rolled around and I was ready to get out of the shower. My contractions were intensifying and I felt like I needed something more than hot water hitting my body to help me cope. Was it time for the epidural yet?

My nurse suggested I try Fentanyl. I got a shot of that and felt SO tired. I could barely keep my eyes open. I was still in pain, but I just didn’t care about it. At around 1:30am, Ancy asked me if I wanted to get the epidural now. I said YES and she called the anesthesiologist right away.

He came in and was very compassionate and understanding when I told him I was nervous that it wouldn’t work because of my previous experience. He assured me that it WOULD work, and that if it didn’t, he would make sure I got pain relief somehow.

I have no words for how much of a relief it felt to have the epidural work. Sweet, sweet relief.

The weird (but amazing) thing was that I could actually move - even while having the epidural. I wasn’t allowed to walk, but Ancy recommended that I get into a child’s pose on my bed (face bowing down, bum up) and try to rest there. She said that this positioning was so good at getting the baby lower, and that my body would be doing lots of the work while I tried to rest. At this point, I was exhausted. Tired from being awake for so long, and also tired from being in pain.

I was actually able to ‘sleep’ for 2 hours. Ancy stayed with me the entire time. Rubbing my back and coaching me through breathing while I contracted - even in my dazed state. The contractions started intensifying again, so I asked if maybe I needed a top up on my epidural. What I was actually feeling, was SO MUCH PRESSURE in my pelvis. Every time I had a contraction, the pressure felt unreal. Ancy checked me and said to my surprise “you are fully effaced and 10cms. You can start pushing whenever you feel ready.”

Whenever I felt ready.

I had never been given the ‘option’ to push before. I had just been told previously when and how to push.

I told her that I was actually not ready. I needed a few minutes to mentally prepare myself and that I would let her know.

10 minutes went by and I had gathered up all of my courage and strength to push. It was now 4am.

She told me it would be quick because she could already see the top of the baby’s head. I knew this baby was big, so I wasn’t so optimistic on the timing.

The OB came in and was encouraging me with every push. “Great job! You’re doing it! Baby’s almost here!” He would say. I felt empowered.

After 14 minutes of pushing, our sweet girl was born.

“How much do you think she weighs?” the doctor asked.

“9lb 2oz” I guessed.

“She is 10lbs and 7oz!!!!” The nurse chimed from the scale.

Wow.

I just birthed a 10.5lb baby.

I felt like a rockstar!

My OB then proceeded to tell me how great of a job I had done and how he was so proud of me for following his direction and trusting him when he would tell me to wait, give big pushes, and to even give small pushes. He then proceeded to suture me and then he went over to Georgia and cooed at her, telling her how cute she was, and how she was so special.

Seriously, this man loves his job.

Ancy swaddled our sweet girl up after I had nursed her, and she placed her in a bassinet right beside my bed. Nathan and I tried to get a little sleep since we were so exhausted from not only moving day, but being awake all night long.

Because I had given birth to her in the early morning, the Pediatrician was coming on shift soon. She swung by our room at 8am to check in on Georgia and discharge her. With no complications on my end, we were fully discharged and leaving the hospital by 9:30am. Fantastic.

We drove home in a blissfully tired state, but we felt so complete. Excited for Drake to meet his sister, Georgia.