Micaela's birth story

In the name of making sure I have all of these memories written down somewhere (as if I would be keeping baby books!), here is the story of Micaela's birth and relevant details.  Hopefully this will be a help to Auntie Jamie when she makes Micaela a really nice keepsake book for her first birthday, the way she did for Avery... :)
And onto labour - I think my first contractions started at about 10:30 on Sunday morning, Jan 24th, but didn't really get "regular" until about 2 or 3 pm.  Over the course of the day, Greg, Avery and I went to buy Avery a helmet, went grocery shopping, and I did a few loads of laundry.  Thankfully Sandy showed up at about 3pm to look after Avery because I wasn't coping super-well anymore.  I did manage to throw some dinner on the table, but then I basically did my own thing for the next few hours.  At about 10pm, with my contractions still everywhere between 5 and 10 mins apart, I decided to lie down for a while.  This slowed everything down to about 15-20 mins apart and I actually managed to fall asleep a couple of times.  However, I got up to go to the bathroom at about 11 and all of a sudden, the contractions were about 4 mins apart, and seriously painful.  Time to call the midwife!

We headed into the Monfort Hospital and got there at about midnight.  Despite the freezing rain storm, driving wasn't too bad.  We made a little pitstop on the side of Montreal Road approximately 500 feet away from the turn into the hopital, because I thought I was going to throw up.  I gagged on the side of the road for a minute, didn't throw up, which was good because the sidewalk was sheer ice and I don't think it would have ended well.

Once at the hospital, our midwives Joanne and Claudia assessed me, decided I was about 9cm dilated, and told me it wouldn't be too long before the baby was born.  A little sidenote - as part of my "birth plan", I had decided I didn't want an epidural if I could manage not to have one.  Clearly at that point, it was getting to be too late.  I was open to possibly having laughing gas, but the contractions were so close together and strong that I didn't even feel capable of asking for it, and, as I learned, the midwives are very non-interventionist.  They weren't going to offer anything, but would have provided it if I had asked.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really capable of asking at that point.

Anyway, we were put in a birthing room, which was fantastic by the way.  The Monfort birthing centre is quite impressive.  I was told to "listen to my body" and if I felt the need to start pushing I could go ahead. Huh?  They weren't going to tell me when to start pushing?  This is when I realized I was in for a very different experience than with Avery, when the nurses and OBs at the General told me exactly what to do and when.  This time, the midwives offered that I could push standing up or lying in the bed - another huh?  Greg told me that I had to lie down, because if he saw anything bloody he was going to end up passed out on the floor and that the midwives had enough to deal with.  I ended up choosing the bed and started pushing.  I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, but they kept telling me that it was going well and that I should keep it up.  Eventually Micaela's head made an appearance, I gave one last big push and she popped out.  Really quickly.  And she apparently pooped everywhere while doing so! :)  It was 1:27am, she weighed 7lbs and half an ounce, and was 20 inches long.  The midwives put her on my chest for a little bit and then took her to have some mucous suctioned out because she was a little "grunty" as they said.  Turns out being born that quickly can have some drawbacks...she was fine after a little while, we bonded for a bit, did some preliminary nursing, and then took a little nap.  The hospital actually wanted us to go home at 4:30am - they send you home really quick when you have midwives, because they will visit at home within 24 hours - but given that it was pouring rain and was the middle of the night, we managed to stay until about 7:45am.  We were home by 8am.  Isn't that insane?

Anyway, this is the really condensed version - I think I was pushing on the bed for about 10-15 mins and I thought I was going to die it hurt so much.  I was also really scared, but that is where the midwives came in handy because they seemed to sense it and reassured me enough.  I also tore like crazy, again, and later an OB had to come stitch me up because the midwives weren't sure they could do it in the way that was necessary.  All that to say, I am glad I didn't have any drugs, but I am honestly not sure what I would do if I had to do it again.  Thankfully, we don't plan to have any more kids so I probably won't have to make that decision. :)

Overall the midwife experience was a really positive one.  I was followed very closely, had ample time at each appointment to discuss issues and ask questions.  When we had the Down's Syndrome scare with Micaela back in Sept/Oct, Denise (who was actually my primary midwife but wasn't on-call when I went into labour) was a great help and very proactive about making sure we had all the information we needed to manage the situation and any decision-making.  I appreciate that things more or less went according to my birth plan, but I do wish I had been more aware that the midwives were going to be that hands-off during the process.  If I had known, I would have made it clear that I was going to need more direction and guidance.  By the time I figured out what was going on, I wasn't really capable of asking for more help.  Of course it all worked out, but that is the one thing that I would have changed.  The post-partum care has also been great - 3 visits at home, some very specific help with breastfeeding, and follow-up calls in between have been very useful. I would highly recommend using a midwife to anyone, but would just suggest that first-time moms at least discuss the birthing process in great detail beforehand, and be prepared to go home from the hospital very quickly.  It wasn't so bad for us, being that it was our second child, but it would have completely freaked me out the first time around.

Anyway, that is the story of Micaela's birth - next post will be an update on how we are all doing...