A Thing For 5's

25 days. This is the longest I have ever gone without writing a blog post. But as I sit here with my rainbow baby sleeping on my chest, I think it's fair to say that I have been busy taking in every moment of this precious miracle lately.

It is with great joy that I announce the safe arrival of our second daughter Aubrey Elizabeth. She was born on February 15th (2015) at 5:50am. I was even told that the temperature that day was -25 in Hamilton. I'm not one for over reading into things, but I like to think that this little lady was honouring her big sister who was born on the 5th. She was 7lbs 9oz and 20 inches long! She was only 37 weeks + 5 days gestation, and I have a feeling if she had come at 40 weeks, she would have been 9 or 10lbs!

I called the hospital at 6:30am on February 14th, just as my OB had instructed me to do. Unfortunately the nurse had bad news, and said that there was no room for me to come in as they had many women labouring that night and into the morning and were full. She told me to try to get some sleep, and that the charge nurse would call when they were ready for me. I told Derek to go back to bed and very discouraged, tried to get some more sleep, and eventually got back up at 9am and tried to keep busy by doing the four dishes that were sitting in our sink, and watching a couple episodes of FRIENDS.

My dad called around 10am to see if we wanted to kill some time by going out for breakfast with them. I LOVE going to the Pancake House in Hamilton which is right by the hospital, so we decided to pack all of our things, including the car seat which I ended up being brave enough to put in the car, despite my fear that we would yet again be leaving without a baby inside of it. We arrived at the restaurant, ordered some drinks and at 11:10am received a call from the nurse telling us to come in. "Right now?!" I said with excitement. "Yes, right now" she laughed. We hugged my parents and excitedly made our way next door to the hospital. This is the moment it started to set in for me. I began to feel nervous.

We arrived at the hospital the nurse brought us to our room. She went over what would happen for the induction, and how the monitoring worked. She ensured us that when she wasn't present in the room, she or another nurse would always be watching the monitor from the desk. She made me promise not to obsess over the monitor, and said she would cover it if it helped me. I promised not to obsess, secretly knowing that would be impossible.

Around 11:45am, the nurse started the IV fluids and got the IV in on the first try. When I was having Brooklyn, I had to get them to cover the IV with a fabric sleeve because needles freak me out so much. This time, it still freaked me out but I've gotten so used to being poked and prodded this past year that it didn't seem to bother me as much. At 12:05pm, the oxytocin was started and we began waiting for contractions to start. And around 12:35pm they began. They weren't overly painful at first, but just enough to notice.

At 1:30pm, the nurse came in and started looking at the monitors. We noticed that Aubrey's heart rate had been elevated for some time (around 180bpm - her norm was between 150 and 160), but knew that they were monitoring it closely at the front desk. At 2pm, they decided to stop the induction as they didn't want her to go into distress. The nurse and midwife came in and started talking about the possibility of a C-Section. Before we had Brooklyn, I would have been devastated at even just the thought of a C-Section. But this time was different. I told them I didn't care how she got here, as long as she got here alive. They agreed, and went back out to talk to my OB about next steps. I was getting a little frustrated as it seemed like no one was really doing anything and I didn't want to end up with an emergency Section. At this point I started worrying about worst case scenarios. Knowing that Brooklyn went into distress made me think about her a lot. I desperately wanted the outcome of this labour to be different.

The OB came in around 3pm, and as soon as she entered the room, Aubrey's heart rate had gone back to her norm. She decided to break my water at 3:30pm to see if there was any meconium which would indicate if the baby was in distress. Brooklyn was born with meconium on her, so I desperately hoped this would not be the case. The OB said the risk of C-Section was still too high at this point, and now that Aubrey's heart rate had gone back to normal, there was no reason yet. She did promise me that if it were to become elevated again, she would end up not waiting anymore, and just get her out via C-Section. She also checked my cervix at this point and I was only 2-3cm. I was 2cm on the Thursday before when she checked me in her clinic, so this was a bit discouraging.

They restarted the Oxytocin drugs to see if Aubrey's heart rate would tolerate it now. From that point on, her heart rate was completely normal! We were so thankful, but now even more obsessed with watching the monitors.

By 6pm, the contraction were regular and painful. I started to remember what labour felt like, and felt silly for thinking the contractions I was having at 12:30pm were strong. Between 7 and 9pm, the contractions were increasingly stronger and were coming really quickly - one on top of the other. We had loved our day nurse and were disappointed that I hadn't delivered on her shift. However, we were so excited to find out that our night nurse was the nurse who helped me deliver Brooklyn. We loved her, and were so happy she may have the opportunity to be present for a delivery with a different outcome for us.

At 9pm the nurse told me that the anesthesiologist was going in the OR around 9:30pm and wouldn't be able to give me the epidural until an hour after that. At this point I knew I wanted the epidural, but I wanted to see if I could wait a bit. The contractions were so painful but part of me was hoping I would begin dilating really fast and wouldn't end up needing it. When the nurse checked and I was only 5cm, I knew this wouldn't be the case and asked her for the epidural.

Derek and I tried to get some rest from 10-11:30pm, and the OB came in to check me again at 11:30pm. I was only 6cm, but my cervix was fully thinned which was good news. Still, I knew this baby would no longer be a Valentine's Day baby. She was stubborn like her Mama, and wanted to come into the world on her own day - not one she had to share. We tried to sleep again from 12-2am and I was checked again at 2. I was still only dilated 6cm, but the baby's head had moved lower into the birth canal. Again, we tried our best to sleep. I was pretty exhausted at this point. One of the side effects of the epidural is feeling overwhelmingly itchy. I completely forgot that I had this when I got my epidural with Brooklyn, but was quickly reminded when the same symptoms started. When I say itchy, I don't just mean a small itch, I mean an overwhelming itch that just wouldn't go away. This made it hard to rest.

At 5am, the nurse came in and said the contractions on the monitor started to look like they do when people are fully dilated. She checked my cervix, and I was completely discouraged to find out that I was only 7cm. I had only dilated 1cm between 11:30pm and 5am. At this point I didn't think I would be delivering this baby on our night nurse's shift either. She checked my vitals, replaced my bag of IV fluids, and as soon as she left, I started feeling an overwhelming amount of pressure. I pressed my call button, and texted our moms who were in the waiting room fast asleep. I started to feel a bit panicky, but still thought I would have lots of time as she had just checked me and I was only 7cm. At this point, I sent Derek out to get our moms because I honestly thought they were going to miss the birth.

When the nurse came in, she checked me and was surprised to see that I had dilated all the way to 10cm in the time she left the room, and Aubrey's head was extremely low in the birth canal. She called the midwife who had gone home, and paged the OB to come in. Usually the nurses make you push for a little bit before calling the OB in, but the nurse remembered how quickly I delivered Brooklyn, and knew that this baby was coming fast. Before I knew it, our moms rushed in, the OB rushed in, and the nurse had me pushing. I was feeling so much pressure - way more than I had felt with Brooklyn. I later found out that this is because Aubrey was pushing herself down. I never had this feeling with Brooklyn because I was pushing her out on my own without any help from her. With Brooklyn I felt a bit more relaxed too. This time, I didn't feel very nice. I felt agitated, and remember things like telling my Mum to stop talking as she was trying to encourage me to push, and telling Derek to push my leg back harder. Earlier in the day, Derek had told the nurse he didn't want to watch the baby coming out, and wasn't even sure he would cut the cord. But at this point, he didn't have a choice because he was acting as a stirrup for me. He later told me that it "wasn't as bad" as he thought it would be, and was actually kind of neat to watch.

The OB told me that with one more push Aubrey's head would be out, and the "ring of fire" sensation that I remember was much more intense this time around. The nurse encouraged me to push through the burning and pressure instead of stopping, and that soon our baby would be born. I listened to her, and felt so relieved as Aubrey's head was delivered. The OB said that I needed one more little push to get out her shoulders, and just like that, our sweet Aubrey was brought into the world at 5:50am after 20 minutes of pushing. She sure did take her time in labour, but once she decided she was coming, she came fast. I must say - she was well worth the wait!

Normally they would put her right up on my chest, but her cord ended up being quite short, and wasn't long enough for this to happen. As they suctioned her, she was on the end of the bed, which was a scary few seconds for me as I couldn't even see her. The midwife (who ended up making it at the very last second) told me to look down and see my baby. They placed her on my tummy and delayed her cord clamping by a minute. She didn't scream like I had expected, but made lots of cute little squeaking noises. I cried as I held our living baby in my arms - something I wasn't sure I would ever do. And Derek even ended up cutting her cord!

There are so many more details about this day I want to include, and more updates about the last 10 days I want to write about, but my sweet baby now needs to eat and I will gladly and so thankfully go feed her. Something that I consider a privilege, not a burden. Thank you for your love, prayers and encouragement that have gotten us to this point. Our hearts are overwhelmed with love for this precious gift, but still missing another.