Welman WhoWhatHowWhenWhere Blog: Birth Story

So there we were, one week past my due date and off to the hospital we headed for me to be induced! I was induced at 9pm Wednesday night (to efface the cervix so that my water could be broken, and to start my contractions) and was told that they would need to re-induce again at 6am on Thursday morning as it doesn't normally take for 1st time moms and that Jodi would be born on Thursday afternoon some time. Needless to say, I didn't want to have to wait another whole day and also didn't particularly like the idea that they would have to break my water for me, I obviously would prefer for it to happen on it's own and the process to start sooner rather than later... so I prayed about it, I asked God to let my contractions start after a bit of rest and for my water to break on its own. I was given two sleeping tablets and at around 11pm I dozed off and JP went home for the night. I woke up at 3:30am with bad cramps and started timing the contractions which were 4 minutes apart. By 5:45 I called the nurse in and told her that my contractions were now 3 minutes apart and lasting a minute or more each and that the pain was so bad I couldn't record the contractions anymore. The nurse gave me some pethadine for the pain... which didn't really feel like it helped the pain, it just made me feel drowsy and in pain! Then my water broke while the nurse was there in the room, on it's own!! Praise the Lord!! The nurse was quite surprised by how fast my contractions were coming and by how quickly I was dilating as they were expecting the Gynae to have to come in and induce me again at 6am. I called JP just after 6am ..between contractions.. and told him to get to the hospital! =)

Top: Baby's healthy heart rate

Bottom: My contractions

On the monitor my contractions were up to 112....as you can see in the pic, the graph printout only goes to 100 so it just flatlines at 100 cos that's as high as it can go, my contractions were literally off the charts!! hahaha

JP was at the hospital by 6:20 and by then the contractions were SEE-REE-Yussssss! Wow, I was looking forward to my epidural!! At 7am I was wheel-chaired through to the delivery room and put on a drip so that I could have the epidural, but by 7:20 there was no sign of my Gynae or the Anesthetist to administer the epidural! At this point JP said that he was feeling sick to his stomach watching me in so much pain and not able to do anything about it and he said that he almost fainted! He kept harassing the nurses asking when I was going to get the epidural...he was told that the anesthetist was stuck in traffic and was coming from Spotts (now Spotts is considered far away in Cayman Islands terms, it's only about 15 minutes from the hospital when there is no traffic... but with traffic, it could take about 30 minutes)... my Gynae still hadn't arrived either and I had started having contractions that were now moving the baby down the birth canal! At this point I hadn't been screaming or crying or anything like you see in the movies, just really deep controlled and heavy breathing to get me through the contractions... but when i started feeling Jodi moving down the birth canal during contractions (what the what?!?! I thought the only way she would start moving out would be by me pushing!? who knew!?) I didn't let the midwife know and was trying to fight the sensation to push and I remember saying out loud, "No Lord!! Not yet, not yet!!". This happened about 3 or 4 times and I was trying to keep Jodi from moving any further ... The midwife was amazing and keeping me as calm and relaxed as possible while being surprised by how quickly everything was moving along! My wonderful Gynae finally arrived and he quickly changed into his scrubs and by 7:30 he was at my side telling me that our little girl was ready and would be here in minutes... I had one last attempt at asking for the epidural and he said that it wasn't going to happen, but that it would be over before I knew it and told me to start pushing!! I was so relieved that Dr. Richter was finally there and I knew it would be over soon and resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be doing this a-la-naturaaal! After my first push, the midwife asked JP if he wanted to watch as Jodi's head had crowned (note -- JP had told me on a few occasions that he would staying up at my side of the camp and there would be no watching of the birth let alone cutting of the umbilical cord), to my surprise and without hesitation JP went to where the action was and I remember on my second push, Jodi's little head was out and all I heard was JP saying "oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!" =) after two more pushes our little girl was out! it was all over in about 20 minutes!! JP even cut the umbilical cord!! Jodi was born at 7:50am on Thursday the 2nd of September 2010!! Once her vitals were checked, she was immediately wrapped up and put into daddy's arms and then JP went with the midwife to get her cleaned up, weighed and measured, then she was in my arms!!! Wow, what an amazing experience!! We are super grateful that she is so perfect and healthy and strong!

Weight - 3.8kgs (8.5lbs); Height - 54cm (21.3 inches)