As I'm sure most of you already know, our little Jude arrived 2 weeks ago! Very much to our surprise - he was 5 days early and made his entrance early in the morning on April 12th. My water broke around 6:10pm on Thursday evening and despite still going grocery shopping (hey, we needed food!) my contractions really picked up by 7:30pm, leaving me wondering "...uh this is just the BEGINNING?!" The plan was to labor at home as long as possible and then make our way to the hospital to deliver. I decided to go the midwife route with my pregnancy and I could not have made a better choice. My midwives arrived to my Mom's around 8:30pm to check me and after agreeing that yes, my contractions were consistent, they weren't long enough and I wasn't even in "active labour" yet. All that kept running through my mind was "um, excuse me?" They left to grab some dinner while I tried the bath tub to ease the pain. I lasted about half an hour before I looked at my husband and said, "I'm not going to be able to do this naturally."
My wonderful doula arrived somewhere around 10pm to help support me through these magnificent contractions (more like have her hand crushed by mine every 3 minutes). I tried lying on my side, on all fours, standing leaning on my husband, swaying, walking, dancing, toning - nothing was easing the gripping pain that was my sweet little child being pushed down and out. By the time my midwives got back, I think it was around 10:30pm (all time was lost to me at this point) they checked me and I was officially in "active labour" - 3 cm dilated and only 7 more to go! At this point, the only thing I could think about was getting rid of the pain. This meant getting to a hospital ASAP. So, without another thought about it, my shoes were on and I was having a contraction on my Mother's front porch in the middle of a storm. The ride to the hospital is a complete blur as I had left this world and gone straight to "labor land". My poor husband was doing his best to drive safely and get us there as fast as he could.
Arriving at the emergency entrance felt like a huge accomplishment. I waddled my way up to the maternity floor and all I could say to the nurse was, "Tell me about the epidural." Little did I know, I was hours away from receiving this miracle pain-reliever and proceeded to labor in the bathroom of my hospital room. My midwife suggested I try the laughing gas to try to take the edge off of the contractions and I remember huffing that stuff like it was my life line. It didn't do enough. Aside from feeling slightly stoned at the end of a contraction, they were too close together and too strong to be dulled by the gas. She checked me again and I was 5 cm dilated - still not close enough for me to forfeit getting the epidural even though my intentions was to go all natural. Finally, at 2:30am, the anesthesiologist arrived. I was sitting upright on the bed, leaning into one of my midwives and he kept saying I had to stay still while he was giving me the epidural. I was super nervous about this task because I had spent the last hour or so thrusting and contorting my body in every which way to try to escape, well, myself. Somehow, my contractions cooperated and I didn't have one for 4 full minutes - WOW! He was able to do it swiftly and painlessly.
Twenty minutes later - I was a different human being. It felt like I had opened my eyes for the first time in days. Everyone was able to rest for a couple of hours, although I definitely couldn't sleep. Being hooked up to so many different instruments was a first for me and my midwife kept switching me from side to side to make sure the epidural was evenly dispersed. She checked me at 4:30am and said his head was right there. I dilated 5 cm in 2 hours! I was getting really nervous about the pushing part - I was anticipating more pain but thankfully the epidural was still going strong and although I could feel my legs, everything else was pretty numb. My midwife taught me the position for pushing and had me do a practice push. A few minutes later my mom and doula returned from their rest in the hospital lounge and it was show time. I had a mirror so I could see what was going on (I only watched part of it) and 3 contractions later, they placed my slippery wet little boy on my tummy. He was finally here.
It was the most intense experience of my life and I wouldn't change a thing about it. For any pregnant ladies out there (or for those thinking about getting pregnant) midwives are the way to go. They are by your side every step of the way, caring for you and your baby before and after baby arrives. I felt like I walked into the hospital with this powerful team of women (and my husband, of course) that were there to make sure my labor and delivery was full of nothing but love and support.
Thank you to my doula,
Jannine Markou (highly recommend!) and to my midwives, April, Ann and Stephanie from
Burlington Area Midwives.
And without further ado...
Introducing
Jude Philip McKnight
April 12th, 2013
5:20am
6lbs 7oz
[Jude and his Glamma - my amazing mom]
[Jude and Grandma McKnight - my mother-in-law]
