Happy Labor Day!

I got this from my fantastically hilarious, awesome friend (whom I really miss!), Tara. Go read her's too, it is awesome!!!

How long were your labours?
Anson? Far, far too long. My contractions/twinges started around 10pm Friday night (and I baked until 3am, nesting much??) & my water started "leaking" around 11am Saturday morning. I delivered him Sunday evening at 5:18. WAY too long.

Ryden? I woke up in labor, at like 5am. I had to pee, and noticed some pains every few minutes, then saw the blood. I forgot about the pains then. Ryden was born at 6:48pm. So just over 12 hours of active labor.



How did you know you were in labour?
Anson? I "peed" myself. Sort of. I didn't realize my water was leaking oh so slowly, I just kind of assumed I was leaking pee every so often. I went about my day, looking at houses, enjoying what would be my final meal until Sunday night (ergh), doing laundry. We went to my BIL's later that night, and then I felt some more wetness. I ran to the bathroom, & noticed that there was slightly more "pee" & I was like, whoa! I think my water broke!! I called the hospital, asking them about it, and the oh-so-helpful nurse told me that my water would gush, not leak. It just did not work that way. So an hour later, we called my husband's mother to chat with her. Garth mentioned the whole peeing myself incident, & she told me that is what happened when she went into labor with my husband. The helpful nurse was wrong! She asked if I was having contractions, and that's when we noticed that the twinges I had felt all day were about 7 minutes apart. We went home, I cleaned the apartment, got our bags & went to the hospital at 1am Saturday morning. I was just barely 4cm. 15 and a half hours later, I was barely 6cm, more so still a 5. I rocked at the whole dialating thing!

Ryden? Um, the pains every 15 minutes were a big clue. The blood was another "something is happening" sign. I called the hospital about the blood, at 7am. They told me to go to the clinc, which opened at 9. So I waited, went to the clinic. They told me to go to the hospital. I went home crying. Yep, I had a tiny bit of a spazz moment. I went to the hospital, & they hooked me up to the non stress machine. I was there for almost 2 hours. Not a movement. The nurse practioner called the doctor, and she told me to go home & come back around 2pm. Thankfully, I had a doctor in Saskatoon, and I called him when I got home. I told his nurse that I was bleeding, having contractions & just got off the monitor that did not record a single movement. She asked how soon we could make the 2 and a half hour trip. THAT realllllly freaked me out & I got a tiny bit hysterical. We made it to the city in an hour & forty minutes & went right to the ER, where I was whooshed up to L&D. A million and 3 people came in to ask me questions, including whether or not I had smuggled in any weapons. The third time they asked me, I told them that the baby had it, & to get both out of me. I may or may not have sounded like the possessed girl on The Exorcist.



Where did you deliver?
Anson? Hinton General Hospital, Hinton Alberta

Ryden? Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon Saskatchewan



Drugs?
Anson? Yes. About 6 and a half hours after I got to the hospital, I got the epidural. Had I known it would take the doctor almost an hour to get to the hospital, I would not have waited as long. That seriously sucked. I was MORE than ready to get the epi when I first asked, never mind having to wait an hour longer!!

Ryden? Sort of? It was an emergency c-section, so I got the spinal instead of the epidural (well, I guess they are the same, but the spinal goes in deeper, nice huh?)



C-section?
Anson? Yes. After DAYS of labor, they realized he was stuck. At 7am, I was 4cm. She threatened pitocin if nothing had happened when came back. She came back at 4, I was not quite 6. She checked me, & was like, oh. I feel a hand. I think. So she called in another doctor (a really HOT doctor!!) & he checked, & confirmed something was coming out first & it wasn't a head!! So they took an x-ray, & sure enough, the little sucker was coming out forehead first (brow presentation) & it was his nose they were feeling. C-section here I came!!

Ryden? Yes. I had an ultrasound & that is when they noticed his heart was enlarged, & was slowing down. WORST FEELING EVER. To have to watch my son's heart slow down, and to actually SEE that? I felt like it was my own heart slowing down. To watch it, & know that I was hurting him, he was dying because he was inside me, was the worst thing I have ever EVER had to go through. I barely had time to digest what we were watching, and what was going on, before they started to prep me for surgery. My grandparents were with me, & that is the second time in my entire life I've seen my granpda cry (the first being when his mother passed away in 2000), and the first time my grandma cried. In the 10 minutes it took to get me to the OR, his heart slowed from 120, to 60. By the time he was out, he was blue & unresponsive. We were told later that had we been any later getting to the city, he would not be here today.



Who delivered?
Anson? Dr Cafferty, assisted by my doctor, Dr Reiss (she was freaking AMAZING, best doctor ever!!)

Ryden? I have no idea. It was supposed to Dr. Sheridan (who, upon hearing I had had my baby early, popped his head into my room, flatly stated "you just couldn't wait, could you?" & then promptly walked out, for me to never see him again), but I just got the first obstrectian they could reach. I don't even know if the doctor was male or female! Nice huh? No other doctor ever came to check on me afterwards, just the nurses. In fact, the doctor that messed up, er, gave me my spinal had to tell me it was a boy!! Garth went to see him & I heard him ask the nurse, but didn't hear her answer. I didn't see him until he was 5 hours old, on a ventilator.


And those are my labor stories!! I'm glad to have gone through it, and that I have my babies. But it's not anything I wish to repeat in the near future. Can't wait to read everyone else's!!!