Dear Quinn,
On the day you were born, the sun was shining, turkeys
were cooking, pumpkin pies were baking and everyone was reflecting on what they
were thankful for.
On the day you were born, I was given my most precious
gift – YOU!
I will be forever grateful to have you in my life.
Love you little turkey,
Xo Mama
******************************************
On October 7th, 2011, I had my weekly
obstetrical appointment at the Civic Hospital. I was 39 weeks, 5 days. My OB
examined me and suggested that she perform what is known as a ‘stretch and
sweep’ procedure. I won’t get into details, but let’s just say it involved both
stretching and sweeping ‘down there’. Once she had finished, my doctor said she
wouldn’t be surprised if she saw me in labor and delivery that weekend.
I left the office feeling crampy, but otherwise good.
My grandmother had broken her hip a few weeks earlier and was hospitalized in
the same hospital so we went down to the first floor for a visit. We joked that
we would be seeing her later that weekend when we had our new baby girl; little
did we know, we were right...
I continued feeling crampy that night and began feeling
some tightening of my belly. I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions off
and on for a while so I figured that was all it was. We called our doula,
Victoria and told her about the stretch and sweep. She suggested that Simon and
I go out for dinner that night as it might be our last night together as a
party of two. Taking her advice, we went to Lonestar for dinner (my FAV). While
eating dinner, I started to notice the tightening was happening fairly often. I
got out my iPhone and started tracking them on my contraction app. The timing
was all over the place so we went on eating and enjoying each other’s company. I
continued to track the contractions when we got home but we decided it would be
best to ignore them and get some sleep.
At exactly 2:33am I was awoken by what can only be
described as a karate chop, a pop and then a trickle of warm fluid. I quickly
ran to the washroom and yelled at Simon to wake up. When I sat on the toilet
there was a huge gush of clear fluid so I knew this was it. I was officially in
labour! I remember we both just looked at each other in disbelief. This was
really happening. We were going to have a baby! We called our families and
doula to let them know we were on our way to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital around 3am and waited in
triage for what seemed like an eternity. At around 5am I and was assigned birthing
room 12. While Simon went down to the car to get our bags, I rode through some
pretty tough contractions. By 6am the contractions had gotten really painful so
we called the doula and asked her to come to the hospital. Victoria arrived
around 6:30am and immediately started helping me with the contractions. By
around 7am I was begging to get in the bathtub.
I remember it felt marvelous.
Simon and Victoria took turns aiming the shower sprayer on my lower back and
belly. It was the only way I could manage the pain. I recall getting in the tub
but everything after is a bit of a blurr. I can’t remember if I was in the tub
for an hour or four. All I can remember is taking the contractions one at a
time and thinking, “there is no way I can handle another”. The contractions
were relentless, with almost no breaks. Just one after another after another. I
begged for the epidural. Victoria, Simon and the
nurse tried to talk me out of it and suggested other things but I was hell-bent
on getting it...
Part Two tomorrow
Stay tuned!
xo, Vicky
