Back to our little adventure....
I left off with us settling into the dreaded room No.8, with Karen now having contractions almost like clockwork at 5 minutes and their strength getting stronger. No more chit-chat when they started now it was all about the breathing and visualization. side note:Visualization was important to us during Grady's birth, and Karen got some really good advice on meditation and visualization from a psychologist at her work for this birth so we keyed in on these to try to get past the hard moments (anytime you see me leaning into Karen's ear during the labor videos I was probably giving her a cue for visualization or asking if I could go for a smoke). For this birth Karen's trips to Wikenish Beach in Tofino would be the main focus and waves specifically due to their similarities to labour. I really think this helped and recommend it to anybody who's going to have a baby... go see a shrink (there's a joke in there somewhere I'm sure).
So with the ipod hooked up to radio ready to play 1.6 days worth of music, we set about getting this baby moving in the right direction. To make this happen the books all say that a good relationship and bond with your nurse is vital. So when Trish our first nurse told Karen that she needed an IV (which happened to be no.4 on Karens "Do Not" list) and Karen balked at this idea, I cringed in horror as the next words out of nurse Trish's mouth were "if you don't get an IV your baby might die"; Oh God I thought we got Dr. House as our nurse. I was a little stunned by this and I'm sure Karen was too and thankfully Trish left the room right after this to go confer with Dr. Ange to see if we could hold off on the IV. (Which in the end they did, only giving Karen a IV lock).
Great... lets go thru the checklist- Room 8, IV and death Nurse this is not a good start.
Well things turned for the better shortly after. It turns out Trish was a good nurse in the end and we all connected really well for the next four hours (if you are ever in Richmond on N0.12 road by the airport and there's a women in a nurses uniform watching 747s come in over her head that's Trish...).
From Grady's birth experience we all learned that during labor Karen once in a position is not likely to change that position so for this birth I was to insist that she keep moving and changing positions (see Birthing Handbook for John- section 129, paragraph 10). A lot easier said than done but with the help of the nurses we moved her around. One such position involved the "birthing ball" (just one of those exercises balls that were all the rage in fitness 5 years ago, much like yoga and boot camps are now...) which funny enough in the end may have had an effect on the dramatic end to this adventure but more on that later. Anyways Karen quite enjoyed this position and so spent the next 3 hours shifting between this and standing at the end of the bed slouched over during contractions to sitting in the labor chair until 7:30pm which was shift change for the nurses, so bye-bye nurse Trish, and hello nurse Trena.
So how to introduce yourself to a new nurse you ask? Well Karen found it perfectly acceptable to projectile vomit green bile all over her and herself as well as Dr. Ange. Hello Nurse, welcome to room 8. After this nice greeting it was deemed Karen better start getting more fluids in her or the dreaded IV would come into play. The doctors examination at 7:30 revealed that Karen's water needed to be broken (see Do Not list... again), Dr. Ange reassured Karen that this would help things progress as she was still at 4cm (although the baby had shifted lower and was fully engaged). I want to say at this point I was having a strong Deja Vu experience, everything was almost exactly the same as Grady's labour and I feared that the "C"-word would soon be brought up. (it was eerie how similar everything went during this labour to Grady's, makes me wonder if what happened during this labor in it's late stages would've happened for Grady's??).
So with renued vigor I really pressed Karen to focus on getting her fluids, trying new positions as often as possible and keep visualizing what was supposed to be happening in her body to give birth to this baby.Thankfully about this time Debbie and her son Jordan arrived, this was good time as I was wearing down (read: Had not had a smoke in awhile) and Debbie is a very assertive person (i don't think our nurse really appreciated how assertive).
I was able to convince Karen at this time that she needed the IV to maintain hydration so she would not burn out, so connected to an IV pole and hardwired into a baby monitor we continued on. Another side note to would be father's the monitor is an interesting connection for us to the actual labour. But it should not be used as a "early warning" device for announcing coming contractions, I learned this during Grady's birth and had to bite my tongue during this labor not to state what obviously is very obvious to the mother. Also here's a little trick for those who don't know their child's sex, a heartbeat over 135 during labor is two for two in announcing a boy is coming (not scientific but nurses use this as well...).
The baby monitor was yet again something Karen did not want but due to our first child having been born "C"-section the doctor insisted that the baby needed to be monitored, funny though cause like Grady this baby wanted no part of it and we kept losing the heartbeat which is a problem as the nurse and doctor use the read out from this to determine how the labour is going and if the mother can stay the course. So when they can't get a steady reading for an half-hour period they use a previous accounted half-hour period, which for Karen was some three hours earlier when contractions were alot weaker. Not a good indicator me thinks as it was very much evident that contractions were very strong and very painful for Karen and occurring now at 9pm at about 2-4 minute intervals. Seeing the pain that Karen was now experiencing, the talk turned to pain relief, gas was brought up but that was vetoed (Debbie and nurse butted heads... no gas), so epidermal was suggested. Karen was more than happy to agree to this which surprised me and gave me a clearer picture of the strength of the labour. So nurse Trenna sent for the cart and anaesthesiologist (I give up on how to spell it, my Dad will probably chastise me and give the real spellin anyways), which we we're told would be by once they had finished with another mother (another crazy day in the maternity ward, much like with Grady's birth alot of babies were sharing this B-day. I think I counted at least 4 newborn cries while in the ward).
Here's where the real fun begins, Dr. Ange comes by for another check and things after an two hour window have not progressed and she actually mouths this to me and I've got every indication that after her break she will insist on another "C"-section, she doesn't say this to Karen which I'm glad but she agrees that the big Horse needle with the "good" stuff might help relax Karen, whose jaw is starting to lock up and I can hear her teeth grinding with each contraction. So I resign myself to the impending surgery and just try to comfort Karen and try to get her to visualize those contractions moving the baby and all that other stuff that's needed for birth to happen. So with Dr. Ange going for a break (later we talked with her and found out she was to work for an 36hour shift that day... wow), and Nurse Trena going on a break as well our world suddenly took a 360 degree turn. Just before Trena left Karen experienced a contraction that was followed by a strong urge to push plus a daemonic grunt, I have to say I was looking for a priest after hearing this from her, but also curious as this had not happened during Grady's. Nurse Trena told Karen not to push and to breath it out, which Karen did, then left us in the care of Nurse Cheryl (I think??). In the next ten minutes Karen had some doozy contractions and was grunting with every one of them, this sent alarm bells running in the nurses head obviously cause she sent for Dr. Ange and really focused in on Karen breathing her HEE-HEE-HAWWWS and NO PUSHING. When Dr. Ange arrived and checked Karen out (only 35minutes from the last time), I saw her face show surprise followed by these words. "Okay Dear, your fully dilated and this baby's ready to come but I need you not to push, just breath, were not ready dear!". So from 5cm to fully dilated in under 45min., Karen was ready to push and no one was ready... Great (I really think it had been decided that this was going to end with a "C"-section). Here's a theory we came up with on this sudden change for the better
(at least I came up with this theory so laugh if you will... I think it merits a scientific study :) ). Karen had been using the birthing ball for a good long time prior to these "grunting" contractions and in this position your straddling the ball while gently bouncing and rocking, perhaps this was acting as a cork and preventing further progress until Karen shifted to a laying down position in her bed and we all know what happens if you shake something then release the cork..... POP!
And POP! it did, After a frantic few minutes of Dr and Nurse scrambling to prepare everything, Debbie holding one of Karen's legs back and me holding the other, while Jordan wormed in underneath the Dr. at the foot of the bed for a front row seat (still unbelievable to see) Karen pushed hard for 10mins (I got to hand it to her, she was scary strong at this point) and gave birth to a baby GIRL.... wait a minute SAY what? Let me explain, as soon as Karen started pushing and the babies head began to crown HIS aunt began to refer to the baby as a girl, (the Dr. even looked at me and asked if we knew and I said no, but Deb was adamant about it being a Girl, I'll have to remember to get Deb to pay for the counselling I'll need if he indeed decides later he's a Girl). This soon to be discovered mistake led everyone to refer to the baby as SHE for the next 20min. despite the obvious protrusion between HIS legs that was not his umbilical cord.
With some confusion concerning his sex from his Aunt, it was indeed determined that SHE was a HE and Karen, Grady and I were now joined by a beautiful baby BOY, one Cole "something, something" Humphries (we are still throwing middle names around but CASH will most likely be his initials).
I'm going to end the story here and let Karen fill in the next 24hours since she will probably be able to remember this part as a Watermelon wasn't trying to get out of her during this period.
I'll have another Blog up in the coming days to update how our new family fared at home one week after Cole's birth.
I left off with us settling into the dreaded room No.8, with Karen now having contractions almost like clockwork at 5 minutes and their strength getting stronger. No more chit-chat when they started now it was all about the breathing and visualization. side note:Visualization was important to us during Grady's birth, and Karen got some really good advice on meditation and visualization from a psychologist at her work for this birth so we keyed in on these to try to get past the hard moments (anytime you see me leaning into Karen's ear during the labor videos I was probably giving her a cue for visualization or asking if I could go for a smoke). For this birth Karen's trips to Wikenish Beach in Tofino would be the main focus and waves specifically due to their similarities to labour. I really think this helped and recommend it to anybody who's going to have a baby... go see a shrink (there's a joke in there somewhere I'm sure).
So with the ipod hooked up to radio ready to play 1.6 days worth of music, we set about getting this baby moving in the right direction. To make this happen the books all say that a good relationship and bond with your nurse is vital. So when Trish our first nurse told Karen that she needed an IV (which happened to be no.4 on Karens "Do Not" list) and Karen balked at this idea, I cringed in horror as the next words out of nurse Trish's mouth were "if you don't get an IV your baby might die"; Oh God I thought we got Dr. House as our nurse. I was a little stunned by this and I'm sure Karen was too and thankfully Trish left the room right after this to go confer with Dr. Ange to see if we could hold off on the IV. (Which in the end they did, only giving Karen a IV lock).
Great... lets go thru the checklist- Room 8, IV and death Nurse this is not a good start.
Well things turned for the better shortly after. It turns out Trish was a good nurse in the end and we all connected really well for the next four hours (if you are ever in Richmond on N0.12 road by the airport and there's a women in a nurses uniform watching 747s come in over her head that's Trish...).
From Grady's birth experience we all learned that during labor Karen once in a position is not likely to change that position so for this birth I was to insist that she keep moving and changing positions (see Birthing Handbook for John- section 129, paragraph 10). A lot easier said than done but with the help of the nurses we moved her around. One such position involved the "birthing ball" (just one of those exercises balls that were all the rage in fitness 5 years ago, much like yoga and boot camps are now...) which funny enough in the end may have had an effect on the dramatic end to this adventure but more on that later. Anyways Karen quite enjoyed this position and so spent the next 3 hours shifting between this and standing at the end of the bed slouched over during contractions to sitting in the labor chair until 7:30pm which was shift change for the nurses, so bye-bye nurse Trish, and hello nurse Trena.
So how to introduce yourself to a new nurse you ask? Well Karen found it perfectly acceptable to projectile vomit green bile all over her and herself as well as Dr. Ange. Hello Nurse, welcome to room 8. After this nice greeting it was deemed Karen better start getting more fluids in her or the dreaded IV would come into play. The doctors examination at 7:30 revealed that Karen's water needed to be broken (see Do Not list... again), Dr. Ange reassured Karen that this would help things progress as she was still at 4cm (although the baby had shifted lower and was fully engaged). I want to say at this point I was having a strong Deja Vu experience, everything was almost exactly the same as Grady's labour and I feared that the "C"-word would soon be brought up. (it was eerie how similar everything went during this labour to Grady's, makes me wonder if what happened during this labor in it's late stages would've happened for Grady's??).
So with renued vigor I really pressed Karen to focus on getting her fluids, trying new positions as often as possible and keep visualizing what was supposed to be happening in her body to give birth to this baby.Thankfully about this time Debbie and her son Jordan arrived, this was good time as I was wearing down (read: Had not had a smoke in awhile) and Debbie is a very assertive person (i don't think our nurse really appreciated how assertive).
I was able to convince Karen at this time that she needed the IV to maintain hydration so she would not burn out, so connected to an IV pole and hardwired into a baby monitor we continued on. Another side note to would be father's the monitor is an interesting connection for us to the actual labour. But it should not be used as a "early warning" device for announcing coming contractions, I learned this during Grady's birth and had to bite my tongue during this labor not to state what obviously is very obvious to the mother. Also here's a little trick for those who don't know their child's sex, a heartbeat over 135 during labor is two for two in announcing a boy is coming (not scientific but nurses use this as well...).
The baby monitor was yet again something Karen did not want but due to our first child having been born "C"-section the doctor insisted that the baby needed to be monitored, funny though cause like Grady this baby wanted no part of it and we kept losing the heartbeat which is a problem as the nurse and doctor use the read out from this to determine how the labour is going and if the mother can stay the course. So when they can't get a steady reading for an half-hour period they use a previous accounted half-hour period, which for Karen was some three hours earlier when contractions were alot weaker. Not a good indicator me thinks as it was very much evident that contractions were very strong and very painful for Karen and occurring now at 9pm at about 2-4 minute intervals. Seeing the pain that Karen was now experiencing, the talk turned to pain relief, gas was brought up but that was vetoed (Debbie and nurse butted heads... no gas), so epidermal was suggested. Karen was more than happy to agree to this which surprised me and gave me a clearer picture of the strength of the labour. So nurse Trenna sent for the cart and anaesthesiologist (I give up on how to spell it, my Dad will probably chastise me and give the real spellin anyways), which we we're told would be by once they had finished with another mother (another crazy day in the maternity ward, much like with Grady's birth alot of babies were sharing this B-day. I think I counted at least 4 newborn cries while in the ward).
Here's where the real fun begins, Dr. Ange comes by for another check and things after an two hour window have not progressed and she actually mouths this to me and I've got every indication that after her break she will insist on another "C"-section, she doesn't say this to Karen which I'm glad but she agrees that the big Horse needle with the "good" stuff might help relax Karen, whose jaw is starting to lock up and I can hear her teeth grinding with each contraction. So I resign myself to the impending surgery and just try to comfort Karen and try to get her to visualize those contractions moving the baby and all that other stuff that's needed for birth to happen. So with Dr. Ange going for a break (later we talked with her and found out she was to work for an 36hour shift that day... wow), and Nurse Trena going on a break as well our world suddenly took a 360 degree turn. Just before Trena left Karen experienced a contraction that was followed by a strong urge to push plus a daemonic grunt, I have to say I was looking for a priest after hearing this from her, but also curious as this had not happened during Grady's. Nurse Trena told Karen not to push and to breath it out, which Karen did, then left us in the care of Nurse Cheryl (I think??). In the next ten minutes Karen had some doozy contractions and was grunting with every one of them, this sent alarm bells running in the nurses head obviously cause she sent for Dr. Ange and really focused in on Karen breathing her HEE-HEE-HAWWWS and NO PUSHING. When Dr. Ange arrived and checked Karen out (only 35minutes from the last time), I saw her face show surprise followed by these words. "Okay Dear, your fully dilated and this baby's ready to come but I need you not to push, just breath, were not ready dear!". So from 5cm to fully dilated in under 45min., Karen was ready to push and no one was ready... Great (I really think it had been decided that this was going to end with a "C"-section). Here's a theory we came up with on this sudden change for the better
(at least I came up with this theory so laugh if you will... I think it merits a scientific study :) ). Karen had been using the birthing ball for a good long time prior to these "grunting" contractions and in this position your straddling the ball while gently bouncing and rocking, perhaps this was acting as a cork and preventing further progress until Karen shifted to a laying down position in her bed and we all know what happens if you shake something then release the cork..... POP!And POP! it did, After a frantic few minutes of Dr and Nurse scrambling to prepare everything, Debbie holding one of Karen's legs back and me holding the other, while Jordan wormed in underneath the Dr. at the foot of the bed for a front row seat (still unbelievable to see) Karen pushed hard for 10mins (I got to hand it to her, she was scary strong at this point) and gave birth to a baby GIRL.... wait a minute SAY what? Let me explain, as soon as Karen started pushing and the babies head began to crown HIS aunt began to refer to the baby as a girl, (the Dr. even looked at me and asked if we knew and I said no, but Deb was adamant about it being a Girl, I'll have to remember to get Deb to pay for the counselling I'll need if he indeed decides later he's a Girl). This soon to be discovered mistake led everyone to refer to the baby as SHE for the next 20min. despite the obvious protrusion between HIS legs that was not his umbilical cord.
With some confusion concerning his sex from his Aunt, it was indeed determined that SHE was a HE and Karen, Grady and I were now joined by a beautiful baby BOY, one Cole "something, something" Humphries (we are still throwing middle names around but CASH will most likely be his initials).
I'm going to end the story here and let Karen fill in the next 24hours since she will probably be able to remember this part as a Watermelon wasn't trying to get out of her during this period.
I'll have another Blog up in the coming days to update how our new family fared at home one week after Cole's birth.
Cheers John
