How the Grinch Stole Christmas...and Our Hearts: A Labour Story

As our due date approached and then passed by, I frantically tried getting everything in order for the arrival of our little one. Little did we know, Muppet had no plans on arriving on time, in fact, our little monster decided to stay so long, that our doctor decided we needed to be induced on December 27. Originally she wanted us to come in on Boxing Day, but later decided we'd probably like a day of shopping. We were so crushed to hear that we would have to be induced, and I spent all the days leading up to our induction crying and trying to figure out how we could postpone our appointment. We both really wanted to do things as naturally as we could, and didn't want to force the baby out before it was ready, as this was truly the opposite of our plans. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any answer, so I tired to face the upcoming hospital visit as positively as possible (not so easy).

I did keep busy though by finishing up Muppet's Christmas stocking, though I was so sad to know the baby would be missing Christmas holidays and all the presents we had gotten for the little one, including the most adorable Baby's First Christmas ornament made by our friend Lesley Wellington from 'The Cat's Pyjamas'. She makes the cutest cake toppers and ornaments and I know I will be buying many for years to come! You can purchase her amazing and unique artwork from her website which links to her Etsy store: www.lesleywellington.ca.

On Christmas eve, we headed to Chris' family's house to celebrate Christmas. It was a little difficult to get into the spirit of the holidays knowing our baby wouldn't be able to celebrate with us, but everyone did their best to keep us in good spirits and even helped me keep my mind off of the sad news by looking up natural ways to induce labour. We read that drinking red raspberry leaf tea, primrose oil, pineapple juice and walking around a lot can help speed up labour. At this point, I was willing to try anything, so I spend Christmas eve drowning in tea and juice and playing with Sawyer at the dog park in the snow. All day I had constant braxton hicks contractions, but around 11pm, after opening Christmas presents, I started to notice the contractions were coming in a pattern. I quietly began timing them, without telling anyone, and after an hour of them being evenly spaced out, I showed Chris. Neither of us wanted to get our hopes up, as we had experienced this before, and they just turned out to be plain old braxton hicks, so we decided to just keep an eye on them. As the evening wore on, they got stronger and more frequent until they were 3 minutes apart. We decided to head home so I could labour at home (if this was labour) and be closer to the hospital. All night I had contractions, until finally around 4am Christmas day, we decided to go to the hospital.

At the hospital they decided that I needed to dilate more before they could admit me, so they had me walk around for 2 hours through the mostly empty hospital. Thank goodness for all those railings throughout the hallways! I was constantly stopping, turning to the wall, gripping the railing and pressing my head into the wall. By the end of our hospital adventure, my forehead was very bruised. I was finally admitted into the hospital and brought into our room, which was the room of my dreams! It was large with it's own bathroom, kitchen, rocking chair, television and birthing ball. It was nice and private, which was very important to me. They found my contractions to be strong, but not quick enough, as they slowed down from 2-3 minutes apart, to 5-6 minutes, so they had me go and walk the halls again to see if that would speed things up. Around 7am, I called my family, as they were expecting us to show up for Christmas breakfast around 8am, and I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it. ;)

After calling my mom, we went to see if we were progressing, but sadly my body was not learning how to labour properly. They decided to break my water, and when they did that, they found that the baby had already passed some meconium inside me which can be a sign of the baby being under stress, or simply be dangerous for the baby to ingest while in utero. They decided they needed to monitor the baby, so I had to be hooked up to some machines and had to stay in my bed (which was exactly what I didn't want). Again, I was a little crushed. After a few hours of moitoring, our nurse spoke to the doctor and they decided that the baby looked okay, and that I was able to walk around as long as I checked in every half hour for monitoring. I am so thankful for our nurse. She really understood how I felt, and tried to do everything to make this labour easy on us.

After 5 hours of not progressing any further, they decided I had to have pitocin to speed up my contractions. Apparently my body was not getting the hang of this "labour" process. I again didn't want any medical intervention, but knew they were concerned about the baby being inside with meconium, so I said yes. My labour pains intensified strongly from then on, as pitocin not only speeds up contractions, but makes them sharper as well. I tried to deal with the pain, but it came to a point where I was so tired from having no sleep and being confined to a bed again that I gave in and got an epidural. My feelings on the epidural are mixed, as I really appreciated the sleep I was able to get, and don't think I could have pushed in the final stages of labour without it, but I didn't like feeling just strong pressure without the sharper pain, as it didn't make sense in my mind. I also hated being confined to bed. They found the baby was sunny side up, which was causing me to have intense pain in my lower back, so in came the "Baby Whisperer", who reached in the turned the baby around. It was a little crazy!

They topped up my epidural with another medication that would wear off when it came time to push, and that just knocked me out. I couldn't feel anything, not even pressure, and I fell into a deep sleep. The next thing I know is someone is shaking my shoulder and telling me it was time to push! Push what? I didn't even know I was still in labour! I was supposed to push with each contraction, but because of the drugs, I couldn't even feel when I was having them at first. After a while, the drugs began wearing off, and the pain came back. All I wanted to do was get up and walk around, but I was hooked up to machines and my legs were numb from the epidural, so I was unable to. This became the worst part of my labour. I would take the pain over not being able to move around any day! I started to feel claustrophobic and began panicking. I kept saying, "I need to get up, I need to get out of here!" The nurse and Chris both tried keeping me calm, but I could see the worry in Chris' eyes and just wanted the whole ordeal to be over. As I pushed and the baby's head came out, they told me to wait and not to push, and I'm pretty sure I freaked out and said, "Either take it out or put it back in!" I was not happy with it being half in and half out. *shudder* With the next contraction I pushed hard, and finally our little Muppet was born!

Chris, the proud new papa, looked down and exclaimed, "It's a boy!" I have never seen him prouder. :) Chris even cut the cord! As they cleaned him up (and stitched me up), I remember saying, "He's so cute..and I can't even see him!" That's really how you feel, no matter what they look like, to you, your child is the most amazing and beautiful baby ever created. In that moment, I couldn't tear my eyes away from Chris and the baby. It is a vision I never want to forget, as I've never seen such pure love shown before.

Little Oliver Sullivan Ysebert Gallant-Turner *whew* was born December 26 at 1:20am, weighing 7lbs 4.6 ounces and measuring 20 inches in length. He just missed Christmas and was a little grouchy because of that. He also made us miss Christmas, so we think of him as our little Grinch. :) I also think it's interesting that he arrived the day before we were going to be induced. Maybe that was his gift to us. I have to say, this is a Christmas we will never forget, and now this wonderful winter holiday will be even more special to us each year, as we truly spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day waiting for the arrival of the best Christmas present ever.

And I have to say...Our hearts grew three sizes that day. <3

=^..^=

Week 39...Will We Make it to Week 40?

Well, week 39 was a week for preparation I tell ya! I spent much of the week having more intense braxton hicks contractions that seem to be happening more frequently, feeling Muppet do the mambo (I swear it's more active then normal lately) and crazy nesting.

One night I had such intense contractions, I almost woke Chris up as I thought I was going into labour. It took me a long time to get to bed that night, as Muppet was very active, and then for the next 3 hours, it was a routine of having a contraction, followed by Muppet protesting with lots of movement, and so on. I also started to feel nauseated so I moved from bed to sitting on my birthing ball to try to make the contraction leave. Apparently, braxton hicks contractions generally go away when you change positions unlike real contractions. Sadly, this was not the case that night. I tried walking around the room, sitting in a chair, laying in different positions in bed, but nothing worked. Eventually they died down though, and I was able to sleep. I don't know what it is, but since that night Muppet has been crazy active, flipping around completely, kicking hard and nudging my bladder with it's head. It must be practicing it's exit routine. It mostly does it at night, and always responds quite intensely after each contraction.

Since that wild, sleepless night, I've gone into crazy nesting mode. The other day I decided to clean things that truly had nothing to do with the baby. I started cleaning closets, cupboards, breaking down boxes, looking for clothes to donate, organizing my hallowe'en costumes and folding my fabric I use to make my stuffies. The sudden burst of random energy had me a little nervous, as I was sure this was a sign the baby was coming. But no, at the end of the day, I dropped in bed, totally exhausted. I did get a lot done that day though... :) Next time, I'll clean things that are more important...like the bathroom, or the fridge. ;)

I did do more cooking as well during my frantic cleaning phase. I made a belly warming beef stew that was so full of flavour. It reminded me of a yummy roast dinner with veggies and yorkshire pudding...mmmm.... Again, a delicious soup for the winter months. Luckily we have some left over, so we have a meal or two ready for when Muppet is here. :)

Finally, after 9 months, we were able to do something I had been just dying to do. We parked in the 'Expectant Mother's' parking spot!! I was so excited that I made Chris take a picture of the sign. I know it's dorky, but hey, you can only do it so many times in life, you might as well enjoy it! ;)

We had our prenatal the other day as well, and I was supposed to get an internal pelvic exam, but after doing some research, I decided to ask the doctor to wait until I was at least 40 weeks along. Since it wasn't really necessary as I haven't had any spotting, the baby is still (very) active and I am not really wondering if I'm dilated or not, I didn't see the need to risk jump starting labour or introducing infection or bacteria into my body. The doctor was great and had no problem with my request, so all my practicing my reasons for not wanting the examination in the mirror was a waste of time. :) Oh well!

At 39 weeks, Muppet is truly ready to go. It is still continuing to plump up so it can regulate temperature when it is out in the world. It is starting to lose old layers of skin, so newer skin can form. At my last prenatal, I had lost weight, which is seen as a sign that the baby is done growing in there and will be coming into the world pretty soon. Muppet's heart rate was 147, is still head down and has it's back turned on my left side with it's feet on my right side, which we had kind of guessed as we had been playing "grab the foot" the night before in bed. :)

Well, it looks like I'm making it to 40 weeks! Muppet is not an early bird after all! It is like it's parents... ;) I suspect it will be soon though, as those crazy Toni Braxton Hicks contractions (as Chris calls them) are increasing everyday, and the baby seems to be heading south for the winter. ;) It is really doing a number on my bladder, I tell ya! It still seems unreal that very soon we will actually be holding a real baby in our arms. This has been the most amazing adventure we've ever been on, and even when I was sick and sore, I enjoyed every minute of it. I know I will never be able to do anything more important or special in my life, and I am so glad I was able to share it with all my loved ones.

*Note: My sister and brother are now home for the holidays, and we are just waiting for Chris' brother and our soon to be sister-in-law to arrive. Hopefully Muppet holds out until everyone is home safe and sound!

=^..^=