Sophie's Birth Story

Sophie arrived on Friday January 22 at 11:39pm weighing 8lbs 13.5oz.

After over 3 weeks of prodromal labour, I finally had some "show" on Thursday night at around 11:30 (just as Conan was starting) and told Dave this is it, I'll be in labour in no time. He didn't believe me and was convinced that I'd end up being enduced the following Friday (I've never gone into labour on my own, always induced). Parker woke up so Dave went to crawl into bed with him and I started getting fairly strong contractions every 15-20 minutes that increased in strength and frequency until they were about 4-6 minutes apart by 530am. I told Dave I'd have another shower and then we'd call the m/w and my MIL but by the time I got outo f the shower, they slowed down until they pretty much petered out. I was very disappointed as I thought for sure it was it, contractions were real and very strong, lots of bloody show, etc. So I sent Dave to work and went on with my day.

By 9am they picked up again but were still far apart. I called Dave to come home at aroud 3 because they were getting closer together and were quite strong and I was having a hard time getting through them and taking care of Parker. By 5pm they were 5-6 minutes apart so i went upstairs to get some rest when they started to get really irregular from 4 minutes to 15 minutes apart. Grr! By this point I was feeling very frustrated and worried because I knew the baby would be born the next day and I had no sleep and would probably have another night of no sleep so I called my m/w to talk about options. She came over around 830pm and said I could do a few things... she could check me and if I was 4 or more we could go to the hospital and have my waters broken to get going or I could go to the hospital to have some pain meds and sleeping aids or I could just go with it and see what happens. I asked her to check me and I was a very stretchy 4cms and baby was station -2 and had a decision to make. Being that my goal was to avoid an induction, I decided to stay away from the hospital as I didnt want any interventions. Instead I decided on taking a few gravol and a glass of wine in the tub to slow down labour so I could get some sleep.

She left at 9:50pm and within 5 minutes of her leaving I had a big contraction and thought... hmmm... maybe I shouldn't have taken that gravol. Parker woke up so Dave went in to lay with him and I had a shower. IN the shower I had 5 very strong contractions and came out and instantly had two more with an urge to push. Woke up Ally to lay down with Parker and told Dave it was time to go NOW. We left the house at 10:40 and I fought hard to breathe through the contractions and urges to push. My m/w had a room ready for me when we got there and she checked me, I was 10 cms with no cervical lip (had that issue with my previous births and was a huge worry for me this pregnancy). I cried I was so happy that my body was doing this and that I didn't "need" medication like the other times to cope with fighting the urge to push for up to two hours.

Sophie was born within 40 minutes of arriving at the hospital and it was just beautiful. I instantly fell in love with my daughter and although it sounds weird, I fell in love with what my body was capable of and the whole birth. It was perfect.

But... then I started to hemmorhage really badly and it got scary. An OB was called in to manually check my uterus for clots and remove them and I was worked on for about 1.5 hours to try to stem the bleeding. They would get it under control with oxytocin, some other meds (can't remember the name) and massaging but then it would start up again. And just as the OB was getting worried, it all stopped and didn't return!

My recovery has been very easy though and I attribute that to a natural labour and delivery without augmentation or pain meds. Adjusting to life with a newborn has been easier than I thought although Parker has been having a hard time sharing momma and specifically momma's milk.

Sophie is an absolute blessing.. she's so calm and breastfeeding has been going great. I couldn't be happier and more content with my life than I am right now. She has completed our family and I'm just in absolute love!