Alice’s Birth and Pregnancy story
Trigger Warning - Possible loss
Now my second time around I was wanting to come in more prepared for what to expect when in labour and how to fully be able to go through it without medical management and pain relief.
This pregnancy was not planned, we were using the fertility awareness method for preventing pregnancy after having an IUD in. The IUD was causing me to be emotional unstable during ovulation (or what would have been ovulation) so I had it removed after I believe 6 months.
Late April, Early Mayish I found out that my best friend Taylor was pregnant again. The day that she told me, she also jokingly said “come on, hurry up and get pregnant round 2” Ended up being pregnant already
Around that time I was taking LH tests every day, since I thought that was how you did the fertility awareness method. One week I started to realize that every day I had gotten a positive LH test (which is not what is supposed to happen) so I thought to myself “maybe I should take a pregnancy test”… It immediately lit up like a Christmas tree.
I let Chase know as soon as I could. Then my mom ended up finding out by seeing the test box in the recycling. She still thought that it was too early to find out (I was 4 weeks) cause I was I believe 2 weeks from my next expected period.
I held that in my mind, two weeks later, as we went up to Prince George for the weekend and I felt the tell tale gush of blood. I went into my aunt’s bathroom and double checked, it was blood. I cried a tiny bit, thinking that I started my period and I got all excited for nothing. Cue googling “can you get your period while pregnant???” long story short there, you can’t. Chase, Jack and I then went to the nearest Walmart and got a box of tests (which resulted as positive). This then began the thoughts of “Oh shit am I having a miscarriage!?” Luckily, the midwifery I applied for care for contacted me the day prior to say that they accepted me. I gave them an email and she sent me a requisition to go get my HCG levels tested for 3 days in a row when I got back home.
First belly picture
Those days then past and my HCG levels rose as expected for a viable pregnancy. In fact, when I looked at the results myself on the website it was high enough for twins at the weeks gestation I was at!
A month past and no more bleeding occurred until one night at work. I was talking with my student when I felt a gush, I went quiet and then excused myself for the bathroom. When I pulled down my panties, I found a tennis ball sized blood clot in it. I took a photo of it and then tried to find my favourite nurse (who thankfully was working that night). I found her and then bursted into tears when I was explaining what had happened. She then comforted me and walked with me to the emergency unit across the hospital.
I checked myself in at around 9pm, let Chase know what was going on. I didn’t get into see a doctor until 3am and he took an ultrasound and found a subchorionic hematoma. With that information he said that there was a chance that the baby could still make it but there was also a chance that it wouldn’t.
Subchorionic Hematoma -A subchorionic hematoma is a condition that can happen during pregnancy when blood collects between the wall of the uterus and the chorionic membrane. It's also known as subchorionic hemorrhage or subchorionic bleeding. The Chorion is the outermost layer of the amniotic sac.
The summer went by and I found out that I was going to be an aunt in early August. My sister in law made the post, the day of my first ultrasound, so I was excited about that and also about seeing my baby for the first time! During that ultrasound we had then found out that I was actually 3 or 4 weeks further along then we had thought…
So my due date was now February 1st, the day after my sister in law’s. Later on, Taylor’s due date ended up becoming February 2nd. This time I was a bit more mentally prepared that she could be later than my due date.
Jack a couple days prior to Alice’s birthday, going come out!
Luckily she was only 3 days over due. I had talked with my midwife a couple days prior and we planned that if I hadn’t gone into labour by the morning of the 4th I would take some midwives brew. The morning of the 4th came and I made myself the midwives brew at 9amish. Started having a little bit of gas and a tiny bit of cramping around 1130am. Midwife called to check up on me at 12 and I was telling her my symptoms and she said "I don't think this is early labour, let's plan to see you at home tomorrow if nothing happens. I say okay see tomorrow and then I go on to having a nap with my son.
When I woke up around 2pm, I started having more cramps, they weren't that painful so I jokingly downloaded a contraction counter on my phone. Carried on with the day thinking its going to happen today (my mom was saying you’re not in labour it's just the castor oil) and then around 7pm I lost my mucus plug and that's where the contractions were starting to get closer and longer.
I was in denial though because this was nothing compared to my first. I got into bed around 9pm and told my husband to go to bed early too because we don't know. This was the point when I look back and say I should have gone in. I remember looking at the clock at 930pm and thinking if this carries on in about an hour I need to call my midwife and go in. I went for a bath upstairs at my parents, after this and the contractions at this point were making me stop but I was still able to talk through them. I was using the comb trick and meditation to help with the pain management. After my mom got me out of the bath she cut me up some apples and got me some water. I ate a couple of them then we decided to call my midwife because it was starting to hurt more and I joked that I could have an epidural right now.
I hadn't been counting my contractions since I tried to sleep at 9pm and it was now 1030pm. When I had my midwife on the phone she said to count them for a little bit longer cause I wasn't sure if they were 5 minutes apart or not (they were way closer than that) and she said that she was expecting me to call back soon.
I went to go sit by my dad with my water and a piece of toast and then he went to bed. I'm still regularly contracting through all of this and able to talk through them all. In the meantime my mom is getting the car ready and waking up my husband cause we knew it was time to go to the hospital. So I paged my midwife and as I am leaving the message I get a strong urge to push and my water breaks. I started to cry and panic because I thought I was pushing too early and I wasn't at the hospital.
One of the few pictures my mom took after helping catch the baby. *Note the placenta in the bag to the upper left
My mom and husband were now upstairs and with me and I think I pushed again and then I felt her head in between my legs. So my mom called 911 at that point and then my midwife called back as well. We had both the 911 dispatch and my midwife on speaker at that point and my midwife instructed my mom to get me on my side and put my legs up to try to slow down labour and 911 was telling her to push my daughter's head back in a tiny bit.
My daughter wasn't having any of that and she came out fast at around 1123pm.
Shortly after my placenta came out and then the fire fighters came and the paramedics.
The paramedics told my husband that “when a birth is called out on the radio, its time to burn rubber..” Which made a positive impact on him. I found out later on that my dad went into auto mode when letting the paramedics and first responders in by telling them where to go and then moving their gear out of the way for them.
The view from our neighbours porch
They took us to the hospital, and we met up with another ambulance crew and they “cooed and awhed” when they say Alice. The ambulance crew ended up getting lost upstairs so I had to guide them to the maternity unit where we met up with my midwife and she looked us over and we were all good. As they took Alice to check her over we realized she had pooped.
I luckily only had a 2nd degree tear with her and the only thing with my daughter was that her left foot was stuck up right so we had to get an x-ray and a pediatrician referral in hospital. It was a nice little 2 night girls weekend away from the boys.
Little miss Jabba the Hut
I joke often that with both my kids I got a full maternity hospital experience. Because with my first I laboured and gave birth at the hospital but I didn't get much of the postpartum care cause I was mainly at the NICU. And then with my daughter we just had the postpartum care.
When we got home to everyone finally, I started to burst into tears and I scared Jack.
Proud big brother