Naomi's birth

I "promised" a blog entry on Naomi's birth; so, here it is. For those of you who are wary of gory details, fear not. It was a mercifully short and simple labour and delivery.

The Coles' Notes version: I started having strong contractions around 3 pm on Friday, the 19th, called the hospital and babysitters at 4pm, parked at the hospital at 5 pm, had my own OB arrive in time to deliver, had my water broken for me, pushed 7 times (maybe only 6), and had a daughter at 6:11 pm. The End.

more detail for the terribly curious
I was feeling pretty good all through my second and third trimesters. I gained a healthy amount of weight that wasn't too burdensome to drag around with my nearly six-foot frame. At my 38-week check up, there were no signs of labour starting. I had finished my report cards on Wednesday, and so, I felt like I had been on vacation by the following weekend. Then Monday night, I had such strong fetal movements and cramping that I barely slept. Same thing Wednesday night and Thursday night. I could tell things were moving along and had our bags in the car and ready to go. At my 39-week check up on Thursday, I wasn't very dilated but 80% shortened.

In other words, we could expect the baby to arrive any time. In fact, Jenn, my OB, told me not to bother scheduling an appointment for the next week. She told me to show up at the hospital on Sunday morning, when she'd be on shift and she'd help things along, if the baby hadn't made an appearance yet. Thus, we knew the baby would be born Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. So, we made our last-minute child-care arrangements, stocked the cupboards and fridge, and Dion took Friday off work. Which... thank goodness.

I had a few contractions Friday morning, but never more than 3 in a row. Then around 3:30, I realised that I'd had 4 strong contractions spaced about 10 minutes apart. We waited for just a couple of more contractions to make sure this was the real deal. With my having had a short labour for Adam and with rush hour coming, we were not going to mess around. We called in the troops to take care of Adam, called the hospital, and called Jenn.

We were very lucky with traffic considering we pulled out of our building at 4:30. We chose a good route - Gerrard to River to Bayview to Pottery/Mortimer. We got to the TEGH parking lot in 25 minutes.

Jenn had instructed maternity triage to examine me right away. I was 6.5 cm dilated and at station 0. They got me to an L&D room post-haste - "There will be no babies in triage today!" In the car, my contractions had gone to 8 minutes and by the time I was in L&D, they dropped to 5 and then 3 minutes. Luckily, Jenn had been at her office, which is just 10 minutes away. She arrived after just a few contractions and had time to change into greens for delivery. It's really great to have had Jenn deliver both babies; there's something about a trusted friend's voice that is so encouraging and reassuring.

There's not much more to the story. It was just about the least "medicalised" hospital birth there is to be had. No IV, monitor, oxygen, anything. Jenn broke my water and stretched out one stubborn section of my cervix and we were good to go. I even managed to keep some semblance of a sense of humour. At one point, Alicia, the L&D nurse, said, "after this next push, your baby will be here." I replied, "Don't make promises you can't keep." But she was right. I think it was the seventh push and the last. Then Dion cut the cord. Jenn didn't even miss out on her Friday night family dinner plans.

The surprise ending was Jenn's announcement of a girl. I don't remember exactly what I said but it was something along the lines of, "You're kidding!" We were really, really, expecting the 21st Lew boy in a row.