BIRTH STORIES



Joshua's Birth Story




*TMI WARNING It was the morning of August 3rd 2007 when I noticed an extreme amount of moisture in my underwear. At that point in my life pregnancy and the wonder of it was all new to me and every little pain no matter how big or small would have me rushing to the Labour and Delivery. I would receive disingenuous comments from the nurses on staff because not only was I a soon-to-be first time mom but I was a young soon-to-be first time mom. Deep inside I felt that they would say things like "Well lets check to see if your water is leaking" but what they were really thinking was "why is she wasting my time!" Well to my confusion it turned out that my water was not leaking and that it was just an over abundance of discharge so I was sent home and told to come back at 7pm that same night and they would check again.

It was 7pm. At that point I felt like I was wasting my time going into the hospital to be checked, they already told me my water was not leaking so whats the point!? Lucky for me there was no one else in the assessment room which allowed the nurse to quickly check me and have me and my husband out the door as I still was not leaking.

We went home and lounged around watching television for a little bit before I decided to call it a night and head off to bed. At around 4am in the morning I started stirring in my sleep, in that half walk / half asleep state when all of a sudden *POP* *GUSH* my water broke! no joke now...my water definitely broke. My surprise..well more like shock startled Aaron out of his sleep. "MY WATER BROKE!" I exclaimed, frozen in my position in bed. Quickly Aaron shot out of bed and started getting read, putting clothes on and grabbing my already pack hospital bag. Once i decided to throw my legs over the side of the bed more water gushed out of me, at that point I was laughing at Niagara falls that was flowing from between my legs. Aaron called a cab and I changed out of my wet cloths and grabbed some towels. Five minutes later a cab was waiting for us and we headed for the hospital.

Once I got there my contractions we not as strong yet so the nurse did the strip test to see if my water had broken, which I thought was completely ridiculous since I KNEW my water broke. Strip turned dark blue confirming the Niagara falls, but since my contraction were still not strong the nurse sent me downstairs to walk around for two hours.

Two hours later. OUCH!!! yes my contractions were strong! they admitted me into my birthing room where I then found out that my doctor would not be delivering my baby because he was on vacation at his cottage...great! Another doctor comes in, Dr. Caplan and he introduces himself..good looking in an "aw he's so cute!" kind of way. He also asked if it was okay for a student nurse to be apart of my delivery..she was so adorably excited, how could I resist?

After a few hours of labour the pain was getting way too intense..I needed the damn epidural! I was 4cm dilated and I could tell the nurses were trying to stall to get me to dilate more before getting the drugs, but I instructed Aaron to find anyone wearing scrubs and order the drugs! I tried sitting in the jacuzzi...didn't work, infact it was worse! I tried sitting int he rocking chair..nothing! so around 12pm the anathesiologist was called and I got the magic drug and all the pain slipped away and a smile finally arose on my face! My nurse instructed me to call her if I were to feel pressure in my rectum. Sure, no probem! At that point my In laws came and visited for a while then left once when I got another cervical check after which point I decided to take a nap.

Around 3:00 I woke up to pressure in my rectum, it felt like I had to go to the bathroom so I pressed the button and called the nurse, this time the student checked me and when I saw her eyebrows rise I knew we were ready to push. "His head is right there!" She told everyone in the room "Your 10 centimeters!" The other nurse went off to call the doctor, a few seconds later she came back and said "You're going to have to wait 30 minutes, He's at Ikea." ...Really?!..Ikea?! shouldn't he be waiting as anxiously as I am to delivery my beautiful baby into the world?..and Ikea out of all places, not the drug store of the cafeteria, but he went to purchase Swedish furniture.

Finally it was 3:30 and Dr. Caplan enter the room and I started to push. Aaron held my one of my legs back and the nurse held the other. Wow, pushing was hard! I could feel myself expand and I could feel something round making its way out but there was no pain involved. I pushed and pushed and at 4:35pm my beautiful boy was born!


Lucas' Birth Story 

Maybe it was that 1/2 fresh pineapple that I ate the night before. Maybe it was that big bowl of spicy/hot chili I had from lunch that day, whatever it was caused me to wake up from an afternoon nap at ~ 3:30pm on Tuesday June 22nd to find that I had started my bloody show. From that point on I had been having the worst braxton hicks contractions, they weren't painful but man..my belly got hard as rocks to the point where breathing became difficult. I also started to experience extreme pressure to my vaginal area that had me running to the bathroom every 10 minutes. Around 9/10pm is when things got worse. My contractions were become more painful, not too painful that I couldn't talk through it but painful enough that I had a feeling labour was starting. They were also inconsistent, lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute, 20-30 minutes apart. Around midnight is when things started to progress. The contractions were full blown labour contractions lasting 1 minute but they were still 3-10 minutes apart, I never had the 5-1-1 (five minutes apart, lasting 1 minute for an hour). At that point they had gotten so painful, that we decided that it would be best that we meet up my in laws so that they could take Joshua. Aaron packed the car, woke up Joshua and the 3...well 4 of us were out the door! Once I got to the car my contractions went from 3-10 minutes apart to a consistent 3 minutes apart. By 1:45-2am Joshua was dropped off with my inlaws. When we told him that they were going to take him to the McDonald play place and to the park he pretty much forgot who Aaron and I were. As we pulled out of the parking lot (we met at a mall, inlaws live 2 hours away) and I looked at Joshua for the last time as my only child he gave me an enthusiastic "Bye Mommy!" I felt better, I knew he was going to be okay!


We got to the hospital around 2:15/2:30am. I was assessed and my water was broken by the very aggressive nurse Fern, who seemed to have no mercy as I screamed for her to stop! I was rushed off to the birthing room where the anesthesiologist was rushed in to give me my epidural, that's when i found out I was already 8cm. Even after the catheter was placed into my back I still felt the next contraction...and then the next..and then WHOA! I NEED TO PUSH! luckily my doctor was in the room doing paperwork and tried to tell me "Hold on, close your legs!" Seriously! don't tell a woman who's epidural hasn't kicked in yet to "Hold on!" because working against the urge to push is THEE most painful thing I have ever experienced. I was literally screaming out in pain like you see in the movies! I pushed and pushed and 15 minutes later....

...there he was!

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