Joanna's Birth Story

Almost all of the pre-labor symptoms I'd had (Braxton-Hicks contractions, pain in my cervix) completely stopped over the weekend. I was still in a lot of pain and had difficulty getting around, but, by Monday, I felt great. My body was less achy, and I was convinced that the upcoming birth was a while off.

Monday night (November 7), the contractions came back. There weren't many--maybe three--all evening, but they were more painful than before. I went to bed early just in case. Throughout the night, I woke up every half hour to two hours. I'd feel a few seconds of pain, and that was it. The baby was moving like crazy, and I had trouble sleeping. Oliver woke up every time I did, so Andrew had a restless night, too.

At 5am on Tuesday (November 8), I stopped trying to go back to sleep. I laid there and wondered if the contractions would lead up to labor. They were pretty painful, but they only lasted a few seconds. When I stood up, they increased in intensity, but not in length. I was experiencing contractions that lasted only about 10 seconds long every 4-5 minutes.

Oliver, Andrew and I all went downstairs at 6am for breakfast. I was confused about whether or not to call the midwife because my contractions were so short. However, they hurt so badly that I couldn't talk through them. I finally called her, and she told me to come in for an exam at 7:30am. My mother-in-law, Colleen, came over to watch Oliver while Andrew and I headed to the hospital. The drive was about thirty minutes. I only had two contractions during the drive. In between contractions, I thought that there was no way I was actually in labor, and I was wasting everyone's time. Their timing had slowed down, and they weren't lasting long. Then, a contraction would hit, and it hurt so much that I knew this was the real thing.

Andrew dropped me off at the ER entrance and left to find parking. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the contractions started to come much more frequently. By the time I was brought to my room, I started to have them about two minutes apart. My midwife looked at my face and said, "That is a woman in labor." She hooked me up to a monitor, and I learned my contractions were actually lasting a full minute each. I only felt about 10-15 seconds of them, though. Last week, I'd been dilated 3cm. At the hospital, I was dilated 5cm. I was admitted.

Because of everything that needed to be taken care of first, I didn't get my epidural until 9:30am. The last half hour of that was pretty excruciating. Getting the epidural wasn't painful, but getting the IV in my arm was awful. It was the worst part of labor, and I cried like a baby after the nurse dug into a vein for the third time and missed. Once the epidural kicked in, the pain stopped completely. I couldn't fall asleep, but I was able to relax and visit with my parents and my husband. My midwife checked me, and I'd dilated to 7cm. She predicted the baby would arrive by lunch time.

Lunch time came and went. I stayed dilated at 7cm for a couple of hours, but the most discouraging thing was that the baby wasn't dropping. She was at a -5 when she needed to be at a +2 to push. This is what happened at Oliver's delivery. My midwife started to talk about Pitocin. I wanted to yell, "No!" because Pitocin was the worst thing ever, and it didn't succeed in pushing Oliver down. Nothing did, until my doctor had let me try to push him down myself. I told my midwife that, and she responded kind of snippy. She said, "If you need Pitocin, then you need Pitocin." She said she'd be back in a little while to check me again to see if the baby would drop.

After my midwife left, I started to secretly push down (just a little) at the peak of some contractions. I couldn't feel the contractions, but I could see them on the monitor. When my midwife checked me next, she was thrilled at my progress--our baby dropped to -1! There was no more talk of Pitocin. As she felt my dilation, my water broke. I gently pushed down through a few more contractions.

At some point (I can't remember when because the day went by in a blur!), I needed to be given medicine for my low blood pressure. I'd been at increased risk of high blood pressure during delivery because of my increased HCG levels early in the pregnancy. That was not an issue! My blood pressure dropped low, and our baby's heart rate dropped in response. I was put on oxygen and given some sort of blood thickener (I believe).

Around 3pm, I could really feel the pain of the contractions through the epidural. I couldn't talk through them, and I felt like I needed relief. The anesthesiologist's nurse gave me a boost of medication. It took the pain away, and that was what I wanted. However, it also made me feel drowsy and nauseated. It numbed me a little too much, and I couldn't feel any pressure at all. That's when my midwife came back. She checked me and announced I was ready to push! She and a nurse quickly got things ready. I told them I'd need their help telling me when to push because I was completely numb. Right when the told me to, I needed to vomit. Andrew had to help me throw up in a vomit bag three times. Once I was done throwing up, the nurses told me to push. I pushed, and I could feel our baby's head. They told me when to push the second time, too. Then, they told me I just needed one more good push and to do it when I was ready. On that third push at 3:30pm, Joanna Elizabeth was born.

Jo was put on my chest immediately. I broke down in tears. Both times I've experienced childbirth, I've worried I wouldn't feel bonded to my baby immediately. Thankfully, that isn't a problem I've ever experienced. I felt a flood of emotion, but it was mostly love. She was beautiful. Somehow, she had dark hair, almond-shaped eyes, and even a cleft chin.

Andrew snapped this photo within minutes of delivery:

Five minutes or so passed, and my midwife asked Andrew to cut the cord. He did, and cut it cleanly with one slice (as he'd done after Oliver's birth). I held her and nursed her for her first hour of life. After that, Andrew got to hold her, and she was finally measured and weighed. Baby Jo weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces and measured 20 inches.

It took longer for me to deliver the placenta. It didn't detach by itself, and my midwife had to manually remove it. I wonder if the reason it didn't detach was related to the bleeding I'd experienced earlier in the pregnancy. Perhaps not. As my midwife worked to dislodge the placenta, I was quite grateful I was still numb from the previous boost of medication from the anesthesiologist's nurse. If I hadn't been, I think that would have been the worst part of the entire labor and delivery. She quickly stitched up a "superficial tear" that I assume only required one stitch. I was quite pleased that I wouldn't have to deal with another 4th degree tear!

My legs regained feeling fairly quickly. After an hour, I was able to get up, walk, and use the washroom (albeit slowly and with help from the nurse). Shortly after that, we received our first visitors.

Here is our first family shot, which captures the first time Oliver met his baby sister:

Oliver was very cuddly and didn't want to leave my side. I got to hold both of my babies. Amazing.

Grandpa Larry got to hold his first granddaughter, Joanna:

Grandma Judy also got to hold Jo, the grand baby named after her mother:

And here is Grandma Colleen holding Jo, who she believes is the most beautiful baby to enter the world since Oliver:

We transitioned to our room in Maternity. I was pleasantly surprised they had a room for us! Apparently, there were so many births between Monday and Tuesday that they'd run out of rooms. Many people had to stay in their labor rooms.

This photo of Jo was taken about 6 hours after birth. She still hadn't been cleaned from delivery. In fact, she didn't get cleaned until nearly 1:00am--that's how busy the hospital was!

We didn't even get to try sleeping until the wee hours of the morning. Even then, nurses went in and out, dropped things, bumped into our beds, and just generally woke us up all night. Jo, on the other hand, slept soundly through it all. I had to wake her to nurse, and, even then, she was too tired to try latching on a couple of times. We managed to survive the first night, and, in the morning, we were rewarded with a visit from Oliver! Once again, he was thrilled to see us and his sister.

Joanna, Day 2, finally cleaned up:

Mother & Daughter:

Father & Son:

Oliver even taught Grandpa Larry how to play Angry Birds:

More Pregnancy Updates

I have yet to go a full day without any bleeding, but today and yesterday were fairly heavy again. I feel like it's my fault because I've had to do more since Andrew returned to work on Tuesday. I try not to pick up Oliver at all, but it's impossible. He had a doctor appointment yesterday, so I had to pick him up to get in and out of the car. I had to pick him up to bring him upstairs for his nap because he refused to go up himself. I also have to pick him up to get him into his high chair. My abdominal muscles felt sore on Tuesday from working for the first time in a week, and I knew that wasn't a good sign. It breaks my heart, but there is just no way to not lift him at all.

I saw my midwife today. My blood pressure is still good at 100/60. I got to hear the heart rate (140s). We went over my ultrasound some more. She told me my risk for a pre-term delivery is "slightly higher" than the 6% I'd been told. I just wanted to cry. I didn't ask her what she thought the chances were. At that moment, I felt emotionally defeated. I'll be 17 weeks tomorrow. I feel like I've gotten so far. I just wish I could know it's not all for nothing.

More on HCG

I finally heard back from my midwife today! Talking with her made me feel a lot better.

First, she explained to me about the fetus's risk for chromosomal abnormalities. She told me that the risk for Down Syndrome baby in a woman my age is normally 1 in 620. After my screen, it went way down to 1 in 3500. She then discussed the risk for Trisomy 18. She said the likelihood of a woman my age giving birth to a baby with Trisomy 18 is 1 in 2200. After my screen, my risk dropped to 1 in 10,000. She told me that the results from my screen are very reassuring, and my risk is very, very low.

She then went on to talk about the HCG. She explained that HCG is very important for at-risk women in the first trimester. It can indicate if a pregnancy is progressing well, if a woman at-risk for a miscarriage might miscarry (in the case of low HCG). She said it can indicate a molar pregnancy (in the case of high HCG). She then went on to say that I'm in the second trimester (well, almost), and she said that monitoring HCG is not really important any more. Kate said she doesn't know the exact statistic, but she'd estimate that about 10-20% of women have elevated HCG. Basically, she said, it's not a rare condition that causes a lot of alarm.

At this point, she said, we're not really worried about what caused the HCG, and the cause is unknown. She said we're now worried about the potential side effects from the high HCG. She told me that the place I went to for my screen, Obsentrix, deals with high-risk women all the time. She said they handle women who are pregnant with triplets and quadruplets, and she said they really know their stuff. She didn't call them experts exactly, but it seemed implied. Kate said she would never tell anyone to ignore their advice. She added that baby aspirin poses little risk to a pregnant woman, and they want me to take it to reduce my risk for high blood pressure. She said that research has shown that women who have pre-eclampsia often have high HCG in their second-trimester screen. She said they want to reduce my risk for hypertension later in the pregnancy and during delivery. She went on to say that the research is mostly on women who start the baby aspirin early in the first trimester. Apparently, women who are at-risk for the condition (based on past pregnancies) are often put on baby aspirin from the moment they know they're pregnant. Kate told me that there's not a lot of information out there on women who start baby aspirin during the second trimester, but she said she'd try to find an article on the subject for me.

I told Kate I was reluctant to take baby aspirin to reduce my risk for hypertension because aspirin can be so dangerous to the fetus and placenta. It's true that my blood pressure rose during my last pregnancy (my systolic went from under 100 to close to 140 during the second trimester but then dropped off again during the third), but I have very low, stable blood pressure right now and have a fairly healthy diet and lifestyle. I made a mental note at that moment to sign up for prenatal yoga classes, too. She told me that I am an adult and should be able to make that decision myself. She told me it's her job to arm me with information and then let me choose what is best for me. She said if this was absolutely vital for my health, she would tell me so. She said this isn't one of those recommendations that is an absolute must.

I'm so glad she said that. Sometimes, I feel like doctors give you their medical opinion and then treat it as the only option. In those situations, it's frustrating to not be able to have an opinion or a voice in the decision-making. I feel good to know that the baby aspirin is recommended to me as a preventative measure to help ensure my good health, but it isn't absolutely vital. There's a chance I'll kick myself later if I develop high blood pressure, but at least I'll know it was my choice.