At Last...!

..My Love has come along!

Thomas Bruce Thomson

June 14th, 2013 1:55 a.m.

6 lbs 11 oz / 19 inches

My beautiful baby boy was born and here I am to share his story!

Mr. Man was due to come on June 4th but he had his own plans. After visiting my Obstetrician a few days after my due date, we set the induction date for Friday the 14th of June. Each night I was seriously hoping and praying that this little one of mine would decide to come into this world on his own. 

Well, it was clear that my little boy was just so comfortable being inside my tummy that he just did not want to come out. On the Wednesday before he came, Dale and I were talking about whether or not I would actually get induced on Friday or whether I would refuse it and keep waiting. I was starting to get quite worried because Dale was scheduled to work Thursday to Saturday that week. Which meant that the next day after having this conversation with him, he'd be gone from 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. till Saturday. 

But low and behold, Thursday came and Dale left for work. I had woken up when he left for work in the morning and needed to go to the bathroom. When I got out of bed I had quite a bit of cramping and noticed a little bleeding when I had gone to the bathroom. But I wasn't concerned about it and headed back to sleep. When I woke up around 10:00 a.m. I was still having some cramping but nothing that I was paying attention to because I was just trying to focusing on getting through the day.

Around 3:30 p.m. I was talking with my lovely sister-in-law Lauren and she was asking about any contractions that I was having. I told her that it was mostly just cramping and not a whole lot of contracting. Luckily, she told me that when she had experienced labour, mostly all of her contractions were like period cramping and that I should try timing them to see where they were at. So, that's when I started my contraction chart. At 3:30 p.m. they were about a minute long and still five minutes apart.

At this point I was bouncing on the exercise ball and doing laps around the house just to try and keep moving and getting the contractions working a little bit harder. Some how this made the time fly past and it was already 5:00 p.m. with my contractions only being 2 minutes apart and lasting a minute. Now, at this point Dale still wasn't home. I was mentally debating whether to call the "emergency" number or waiting a little longer to see if he was already on his way home. 

I waited about 15 more minutes for Dale to magically arrive and he didn't. So, I called up the "emergency" number to tell him to get home. Ring...ring...ring.....answering machine. Shamelessly, I let a little bit of panic set in. My mind was thinking "Great, the "emergency" number we planned out has no one there. What do I do?!" Then I remembered that he said there was one other number that I could try to reach him at. Ring...ring...ring...Hello? Thank goodness!! I asked the man on the phone if Dale had already left and he said no, so I told him I was in labour and needed Dale and this gentleman almost hung-up on me right then and there to go get Dale.

I waddled around the house, bent over the kitchen table, bounced on the exercise ball, packed any sort of food that I could easily get together so that Dale could have something to eat in the hospital.. everything that I could think of while I waited the longest 15 minutes of my life for Dale to get home. When he finally did get home he asked if this was the real deal. I showed him my contraction chart and how they were down to 2 minutes apart. He shyly asked me if he had time to have a quick shower and he was so smelly from work I was willing to part with 5 minutes more for him to shower. 

After he was all finished, I grabbed my pillow, my prenatal papers, and we were gone. Luckily we had the whole car packed ahead of time so that if this were to happen then we wouldn't be stuck panicking. 

Dale was being a very cautious get fast driver as we went to the hospital and somehow all the traffic lights worked in our favour! We were in the hospital by 6:00 p.m. and sent straight up to Labour and Birth. We got there and the unit was just hopping that night! They sent us straight into one of the birthing rooms because of how busy they were.

After them asking me the novel of questions and history about my pregnancy and my life and my deepest darkest secrets, they checked me. Now, up to this point in the hospital I had been 3 cm dilated since my Obstetrician's appointment so I was sooo hopeful that all of this meant progression! I think I might have held my breath while I was waiting for the results of my exam. It was music to my ears when I heard the words "You're 5 cm dilated and better get comfy here!" 

I'm pretty sure that I shouted out in joy when they said that. This was it! My baby decided to come on his own without needing induction! The next thing on my list to do was send Dale to the car to get all our bags so we could get comfy. He came back about 10 minutes later with our gear in tow and I hunkered down to get to work. 

At this point, I started to become very personal about labouring. I kept quiet, rocked my hips back and forth and silently accepted or rejected different things that Dale offered to me. Luckily I had some very awesome nurses. Right off the bat they made sure that I knew that they wouldn't push anything on me as far as medication went. They let me know that if I wanted something then I was encouraged to ask them for it but they would let me go about my labour, my way. I was so overjoyed to hear that I wasn't going to have to worry about being asked constantly about medication or told that it was what I needed. 

My birth plan was all in mine and Dale's heads. I wanted to labour on my own for as long as I could without getting an epidural or laughing gas. By this point my contractions were almost on top of each other and the pain was getting really intense. I made eye contact with Dale and he knew that I was asking him for some form of help. This was when I asked to try the laughing gas. They brought in the gas canister and gave me the instruction on how to use it and then I was free to use as much as I wanted.

Not only did the gas not work for me but it made me feel very nervous and uncomfortable. I was sticking a mask up to my face, covering my nose and my mouth and with each breath in through my nose I could feel it stinging in my nostrils and with every exhale out my mouth I felt my throat getting scratched up. I was off the laughing gas as quickly as I was on it. 

With the gas not cutting it for me, I had Dale sit down with me and we contemplated the epidural. We had done lots of research into it, we knew the pros and we knew the cons. Dale told me that either way it was my decision and that I was supported the whole way through. So, with that in my mind, I asked for the epidural. The nurse told us that the anesthetist had just gone into a Cesarean section and would be a minimum of an hour before he could come in and give me the epidural.

While waiting for my turn with the anesthetist, labour was hard. I was no longer quiet. With every contraction came a deep low moan that kept getting louder. Luckily Dale kept reminding me to use my breathing otherwise I think I might have stopped all together. Having this length of time waiting to get an epidural really relieved my mind about my birth plan. I wanted to labour as long as I could without medication and that was what this hour long wait was letting me do. I was in hard labour, with my husband by my side, without medication. Once I did get an epidural, I wouldn't feel like I let myself down. 

The anesthetist finally got to my room and prepped my for my medication. I sat on the edge of the bed, propped my feet up on a chair, bent my shoulders and folded my neck down. He told me that he wouldn't be able to wait to insert the epidural between contractions because my contractions were on top of each other. With that, he said the hardest thing that he would need me to do is not move while he inserted it. Let me tell you, that really was the hardest part. Not only was there quite a bit of pain from the epidural itself, but adding the pain of the contraction on top of it without being able to try and relieve it, made it quite hard to do. But, they all kept telling me that I was doing an excellent job and that's all I needed to hear. 

With the epidural in place, and starting to take effect, I was the happiest girl in the unit! I could only feel a contraction as some pressure in my bum. Once they made sure all was good with the procedure they turned the lights down and let Dale and I get some sleep. Luckily, I got a great 2 hour rest from the pain of contractions and when they had come back in they told me they could already see baby's little head and that I was ready to push!

This was were it got a little tricky for me. They were telling me to push deep and right into my bum, but I couldn't feel anything past my ribs and had no idea if I was pushing how they wanted me to or not. But with the pushes that brought on good progress, they would get excited and give me praises so those were the ones I would try to mimic all the time.

After only an hour and a half of getting some really good pushes in, they lifted up my baby's head and told me I had done it! One shoulder, two shoulder, body, and Dale shouts "It's a boy!" I had done it. I had brought this little miracle into my family. While Dale showered me with kisses, I hear baby's first little cry as they place him on my belly. No matter how slimy he was, he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. 

Dale dutifully followed my baby over to get washed and cleaned and make sure that he was protected.After he was all clean and weighed they brought my boy, all bundled and content, over to me. Again, he was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen, and he was totally our son. When I grabbed him and was holding him, I looked at his face to see him blowing bubbles out of his mouth and smiling. 

Words couldn't describe how happy I was that I had done it. I repeated it over and over and told everyone that came up to me. "I did it!" 9 months was well worth the wait and the labour wasn't that bad at all when you get a miracle out of all of it in the end. But I think I will be perfectly fine waiting a year or so to experience it again.

Welcome to our silly, fun, and extra loving family , Tommy!! We love you!