the birth of our son

Malachi Terence Brown
6lbs 12oz
19 inches
September 1st, 2007 @ 5:25 am

Our son was born on September 1st after almost becoming an August baby. It was a long, arduous induction, and this will likely be a long, arduous entry, but here are some of the details.

On Tuesday the 28th at my appt. with my OB, they decided that given my pregnancy induced hypertension that they should induce me on the 30th. I was happy because this meant we would most likely be home for the long weekend before Thyra started school on the 4th. It also put us in panic mode because we hadn't quite finished our renovations on our house, including baby's nursery, and we had so much to do. We worked like crazy for the next two days, and finally fell into bed at 1 am on Thursday morning (Weds night) totally exhausted. We had to be at the hospital at 7, but I could not sleep and kept checking the clock every few minutes, so finally got up at 5 am to start getting ready.

At the hospital they determined that I was 1cm dilated, but pretty thick. They started me on the Prostin gel, and said to go home and come back in 6 hrs or earlier on certain conditions. We went home, had a nap and tidied up, and made it back to the hospital by 3pm. By this time I was feeling a little crampy, but nothing major at all.

Back at the hospital they checked me and I hadn't progressed at all, so they gave me another dose and sent us home again with the same instructions as before. I tried to nap a bit, and this time was definetly feeling pretty strong cramps. I decided when we returned to the hospital at midnight to bring a hot water bottle with me because I was starting to need a little relief from pain.

Again at the hospital they determined that I had not progressed at all, which was pretty defeating and they decided to insert a cervadil tab which would mean I could go home for 12hrs. as opposed to only 6. By the time we were able to leave the hospital the cramping was getting pretty intense. They offered me morphine, but I declined as I had had it with Thyra, and found it never helped. The nurse advised me I could shower and take tylenol.

By the time we got home I was in agony. It was like I was having one long contraction with short intense contractions on top. The pain never subsided for even a moment. I spent hours in the shower on all fours with the stream hitting my back, which was the only thing that even mildly helped. We did have some tylenol 3 in the house (from Gav's surgery earlier in August), so I took 2 at one point, which allowed me to sleep for about 45 mins, and then I took the last 2 four hrs later, which did the same. I let Gav sleep thru all of this knowing there was nothing he could do, and figuring he might as well get some rest. I was completely tired and in between showers, wandered around the house crying, because although I was trying to breathe and let the contractions do their job, I had a feeling I wasn't getting anywhere. I kept hoping my water would break or something so that I could go back to the hospital earlier than noon. No such luck.

By the time we got back to the hospital just before noon I was pretty frustrated. They put me back in a triage bed, and I was having to fight tears the entire time. My wonderful nurse could tell I'd had enough. The worst part was having to lie in bed to be monitored because it offered me no relief and I was dreading it again. This time, the on call OB decided I should be admitted, as again I was no further ahead, and only 1 cm dilated still. The contractions were still coming fast and furious with no break, so they gave me some morphine which did help a tiny bit.

Once I got admitted into our room things got amazingly better. The nurse had gotten me a room with a tub, and although I had been told previously I couldn't bathe, she said that she had no problem with it. I spent the next 4 hours in there quite happily. The contractions were so much more manageable, and the nurses were great, coming in and listening to baby without making me get out. Finally though they wanted me back on the monitor, and so had me get out for awhile, and then told me I shouldn't have probably been told I could have a bath and wouldn't be allowed to going forward.

Around 7pm the oncall OB came in, and said I had progressed to 2 cms, but he did not want to break my water yet. He wanted to let the Cervadil work a full 24 hrs, and said he would break my water around midnight if nothing happened. Well of course nothing happened. I was able to get back in the shower for a bit which was still so nice. The contractions started wearing off, and I even slept for about an hour and then the new OB and resident came in and decided it was time to get me going. They broke my water around 12:30am on Saturday morning and started me on oxytocin as well as hooked me up to an internal monitor. My nurse wanted to know what I wanted for pain relief, and I decided to go for the epidural as I knew I would be confined to the bed and no longer able to shower. The contractions started immediately coming on strong once they broke my water, and by the time the oxytocin was going I was in sheer agony again. The only thing better about this round of contractions is that there was an actual peak to them, and a break in between which was nice, but they were still about 1 1/2 mins apart. Within an hour or two I was barely coping, but I knew the epidural was coming soon. I did try one hit of the gas, and I hated it more than anything. It made me feel so out of control which was the worst, scariest feeling in the world. The epidural took awhile to work, but it finally did, and things were getting better for me, but worse for baby. His heart rate was dropping dramatically with terrible recovery. They tried me on every angle/side you could think of in case baby was lying on his cord, but nothing worked. Gavan was joking that they couldn't possibly find another place to have a tube coming out of me, as I had an IV, the external contraction monitor, the internal monitor, a catheter and the epidural tube in my back. Well he was wrong. They decided to put a different contraction monitor inside my uterus, as they weren't getting good readings from the external one. Once they did that, they also decided to do an amniotic infusion which is when they put fluid back into your uterus. They did this hoping that if baby was on his cord it would help him float off of it, and improve his heartrate. At that time I was almost 7 cms, which was a relief to know I was actually progressing, as I was starting to get the impression that if things didn't happen soon and improve for baby, that we would be looking at a csection. Because of how far along I was, they turned off the oxytocin and baby started improving right away. We had about a 1/2 hr. of good steady heartrate, and then I was 9.5 cms. The nurse started getting the room ready for delivery, and soon the dr's were back in as well as the NICU team. The resident was totally stunned that I had progressed so quickly... she kept saying, "honestly you guys, I didn't think we were going to get this far". Baby was face up, so my cervix wasn't completely dilating and I had a cervical lip so the OB turned him and the lip disappeared and I was a full 10 cms. It was time to push!

Because I was so frozen from the epidural,the nurse guided me thru the pushing by letting me know when I was having a contraction. They warned me they wanted him out fast, and would probably use the vacuum, but they just had time to get it on his head, and I had already done the work. It only took a few pushes and less than 10 minutes and he was out. I felt the incredible pressure when he crowned, but that was it! I barely tore, and felt amazing. Instant joy and relief,after such a worrying night, that my son was born... that first cry was the sweetest sound in the world. They whisked him away so the NICU team could check him out and in the meantime DH and I got to see the placenta which I had wanted to, and the resident who was cleaning me up and I were discussing baby shopping (she liked my diaper bag!). Gavan was laughing that only a woman could be discussing shopping at a time like that. Baby scored a 9/10 on his Apgar and they quickly gave him to me. I was instantly smitten with my little man. He had a full head of hair (which the OB had previously said he didn't have), and a perfectly shaped head despite the vacuum. Gavan was totally overcome with joy too, and kept giggling at every cute noise and cry and facial expression Malachi made. We had asked for delayed interventions, so they waited for an hour before taking his weight, applying eye ointment etc. which gave us plenty of time to snuggle. It took 44 hours, but it was honestly worth every moment.

A big thank you to the wonderful staff at the Peter Lougheed hospital, Nurse Jackie, Dr.'s Hilary and Ekwalanga and everyone else that took such good care of us.