Here is the full story of how it all came to be...
Tuesday, December 3rd:
I was 11 days overdue and VERY ready for this baby to come. Being so far overdue, my midwife requested I get an ultrasound and a non-stress test done at the hospital to make sure baby was still doing fine. I went to the hospital hoping for good news. The ultrasound technician didn't say anything out of the ordinary to me and all she said was baby was going to be 7 pounds (give or take 1 pound)... I then went upstairs to the maternity ward for my non-stress test. That test showed that baby seemed very happy and content. I was sent home to wait for baby to come.
It was Darren's mom's birthday so we had dinner plans to go out with her. We went to White Spot with Cheryl and Darren joked about it being "the last supper!"... well, he was right!!! We got home to numerous messages from my midwife and my best friend Alli (who also saw the same midwives as me and they knew we were close)... I listened to the message from my midwife Amy and it said I had to go in to the hospital that night to be induced!!! It was 7:15pm and I had to be at the hospital at 8:30pm! Eek! Needless to say, my blood pressure sky-rocketed! Darren calmed me down and we got everything ready to head to the hospital. We got to the hospital at 8:20pm and met Emma (our other midwife) there. Up we went to the maternity ward where I was hooked up to the monitoring machines and they inserted cervidil to ripen my cervix. If contractions started within 2 hours I had to stay in the hospital and if they didn't I could go home and rest. Well, they started pretty much right away! I got "comfortable" in the hospital bed and they turned out the lights and I was to try to get some rest!!! Ya, right! The contractions were not that bad, but enough to be annoying and they were coming every 5-10 minutes. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. I did, however, get to listen to Darren snore away as he slept in the big lazyboy chair in the delivery room!
Wednesday, December 4th:
By 8:30am the next morning, I might have gotten 1.5 hours of sleep in total throughout the entire night. Emma, our wonderful midwife, spent the entire night in the hospital with me constantly monitoring the readings from the machine. She recommended breaking my water to the OB as I was 2cm dilated. He agreed and broke my water. Hard labour contractions were pretty much immediate! It was bearable as I knew I would get to meet my sweet baby soon! Emma checked me at 10:30am and I was 4-5cms dilated. I was happy at how fast it was going! Then Emma checked me again at 2:00pm and I had only increased to 6cm! I was pretty sad that it had slowed down. At this point, I had been in hospital for 17.5 hours and had not eaten since "the last supper"! They didn't want me to eat anything as there was a chance of getting the Oxytocin drip for more induction. Emma was worried I wouldn't have enough energy to push so she recommended I get an epidural to be able to rest. I agreed. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist couldn't get there until 3:30pm! Emma also wanted to start me on Oxytocin right away... that was NOT fun! Contractions with Oxytocin are CRAZY PAINFUL!!! Until I could get the epidural, Emma injected Fentanyl into my IV to take the edge off the contractions... I guess it helped a bit! My contractions were constant and extremely painful. I was in full body shakes and I was soooo ready to be done! Emma checked me at 4:00pm and I was 9cm dilated!!! And the anesthesiologist still hadn't gotten there! 10 minutes later I was telling Emma that I felt like I needed to push... she didn't think I was fully dilated yet so she quickly checked again. Sure enough, I was ready!
I started pushing around 4:15pm... this was not a quick process! The baby was pushed way over on my right side so it was not an easy go to push it out. After 2 hours, I thought it was never going to end. I remember asking Emma if I was even close or if progress was being made. She kept reassuring me that little by little we were getting there. My mom was holding one leg and foot while Emma did the same on the other side. Darren was amazing and such a wonderful support person. He had a cool cloth on my forehead and constantly reassured me that I was doing great. Finally, I felt a big shift and the pushing became a bit easier. She had shifted to the center to be a more straight shot down. Eventually, by 6:52pm, Everly came to join us! My mom said "it's a girl!" and I responded with "what?"... I was convinced throughout the whole pregnancy that I was having a boy! She was absolutely gorgeous... and small! Based on the look of my placenta, it was a good thing I had been induced. It had lots of calcification and scar tissue. This would explain why she was so small for being 12 days overdue! She had to be put in the warmer while the pediatrician sucked out meconium from her lungs.
Eventually, Darren cut the cord and she was put on my chest. We were in love from the minute she joined the world! The rest of the night was a blur... I ate a bit of food (it was terrible hospital food) and nursed her. We had to stay another night in the hospital so they could monitor her sugar levels since she was so small. I was whisked away to my private room and Darren went home to be with the dogs. I lay in bed all night staring at such a beautiful little girl that we had waited so long for!
Joanne (another one of our midwives) came the next morning and checked us over. We were discharged from the hospital at 11:30am and we could finally go home! We walked outside and it was the first snowfall of the winter! What a perfect way to get to go home!
This was the beginning to a life-long story of Everly Lyn Birnie!
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