Harrison's Birth Story

The weeks leading up to Harrison's birth had so much anticipation. "Would this be the day?" Which is what I thought every night before going to bed. Of course we all thought he would come early but we were all wrong. Avery & I made the move to Nanaimo on March 25th. It was an emotional trip leaving Chris & Finn at home but we knew we wanted to be in Nanaimo in case he came early. Finally Chris joined us on April 3rd. 

With 4 attempts of membrane sweeps & what seemed like endless doctor appointments (it was only an appointment every other day). Nothing seemed to be progressing. So I decided to start moving around more; the beach stairs, walks every night & attempting to keep up with Avery at the playground. I think I drank an entire box of raspberry leaf tea as well as ate some spicy food. All the myths of bringing on delivery 😉. Yet again, none of them seemed to work. I left my doctors appointment on Wednesday holding back tears because I saw the closure notice on the door for holiday weekend hours. I remember thinking "how could they be closed for 4 days?" Clearly I was at the end of pregnancy & only thinking about myself. 

On Easter Sunday I started having contractions. I was super excited as I thought they would progress. By evening they were virtually gone. However; around 11:00 they picked up again. By 2:00 they were increasing & back pain set in. I thought for sure this was the start. I text my doctor to tell him. We then decided to head into the maternity ward to be assessed. Timing them on the way still about 7-8 minutes apart. We were assessed & by that time they were slowing down & weakening (go figure). After we answered the million questions they ask we were told to go home & get some sleep. For some reason I wasn't upset about leaving. I knew that there must be something going on & at some point it will progress! I also felt good about getting checked out as you just never know. 

I followed up with my doctor the next morning. I'm sure he was wondering what had happened in the middle of the night. Plus I thought it had come time to have the conversation about induction (seeing as I never booked my appointment to see him Tuesday as I was as being optimistic we would deliver over the weekend). I called him & he knew all about what had happened at the hospital. He also agreed that I could be induced on Tuesday morning. He told me to call the maternity ward at 6:30 AM because they would want us there for 7:00 AM or 7:30 AM. I hung up the phone with such a sense of relief. I wasn't entirely sold on being induced but knew that perhaps this is the nudge my body needed. Now we somewhat knew when we would be expecting our baby boy!! 

I had contractions all night on Monday. Making it hard to sleep (but that was nothing new). I finally decided by 6:00 AM. It was time to get up. Chris made the call at 6:30 AM they informed us that we should come in for 7:30 AM. We got our things together, grabbed a coffee & off to the hospital we went! They brought us into the assessment room right away. I changed into a gown & began to answer a million questions again. We were now just waiting on the doctor in order to start the induction. He arrived around 8:30 AM & explained the whole process to me. I was curious how my body would react to the induction but trusted that he would be there to monitor & make sure it went smoothly. He decided that before he went ahead with it he would check to see how dilated I was. I was almost 6 cm's! He tossed the induction idea out the window automatically & decided to break my water. The nurse told him to move me to a room in order to do that. 

We were given room #16. Same room we delivered Avery in. I was given a set of antibiotics for an hour & then the doctor said he would be back to break my water. In that amount of time I sent everyone messages letting them know that today would be the day. He strolled in at 10:30 to break my water. After doing that we were instructed to walk around the ward to get things moving. I came back to the room & layed on the bed for a bit. Chris decided to go to the store to pick up some food for us. I remember eating an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie & stopping in between contractions. That's when I knew things were about to amp up & I would need to focus on breathing. Meanwhile, Chris had his contraction app open & was timing them. He got a notification that said "pack your bags it's time to go to the hospital" haha.  I laboured in my room for about an hour then I decided that I wanted to be in the bathtub. It seemed to be much more comfortable in there. Well as comfortable as you can be for being in labour. I remember getting into the zone, closing my eyes & breathing through each contraction. My body was working hard to progress. The nurse came & checked me again but I was only 7 cm's. Hearing those words made me a little discouraged because in my mind I thought we were getting close. Shortly after another nurse came in to relieve my nurse. She started to panic telling me "you can't have a water birth, you need to get out of the tub now! You're transitioning!" She was right, my body definitely was transitioning but I wasn't ready to push yet & I knew if I had to I would be telling her. I listened to her orders. Although I wasn't even sure if I could walk all the way to the bed without having another strong contraction. I heard the nurse on the phone calling my doctor to let him know it was time to return to the hospital because I was getting close to pushing. 

I asked the nurse if I could use the gas to work through my contractions. It didn't really do anything at first as I'm certain it was user error. I remember having an intense contraction then pushing at the end. I heard Chris say "are you pushing?" And me nodding my head. Just then the doctor walked in. It was go time! Exactly what I had a wanted... My doctor, a nurse & Chris in the room. The nurse & doctor were a good team together. They kept me on track & gave me firm instructions on what to do. I felt that I could really focus & make things happen. I pushed for an hour. Only to let out one giant scream at the end & baby boy was out!! He was born at 2:28 PM. They placed him on my chest & I just stared at him. I couldn't believe how big he was! But oh so beautiful!! I brought him up on my chest & melted in this moment. Once we had a chance to bond they took him over to have him weighed & measured. He weighed in at 9lbs 10 oz, 22 inches long. I couldn't believe it. How did he fit in my stomach? High on oxytocin I relished these moments of our new little love finally joining us!