On January 6th at 8:07am (PST) I gave birth to the most adorable, precious and most amazing baby boy. His name is Matthew Donald M…. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I gave birth to something so awesome & that I am a mother. I cannot imagine life without him.

I might as well get down and dirty talking about his amazing adventure on how he came into this world as I do not want to forget any details. I do have a serious case of mommy brain this past week, and I hear it only gets worse as time goes on and baby gets older. Prepare for a novel, with lots of details….

It all started on January 3rd, which was my estimated due date when I finally began feeling a few braxton hicks contractions. I could feel my stomach contracting gently every now and again, but nothing to get excited about. This to me was an sign that things were progressing and perhaps, with my fingers crossed baby would make its entrance soon enough as I was growing tired of being pregnant and wanted to meet my amazing belly baby bee. Of course things did not get going as I had hoped, and the next day being one day over due I had a midwifes appointment and we just talked about how I was feeling, and we joked about I had not had my “show” yet and of course that made us think that this baby was rather comfortable inside my uterus. I would be too if I was well taken care of like it was. My midwife and I also joked about how I would go home that night, I would have my “show” and contractions would begin, then later on the next morning at 7 maybe 8am (so my midwife would have a good sleep first) my water would break and then a bit later baby would make its appearance. Of course we were talking hypothetically and had a good laugh about it.

Sure enough, later that night (Wednesday) / early Thursday morning guess what I noticed? That is right, my show. Now those braxton hicks I had felt earlier were starting to feel more like mild menstrual cramps and were getting rather annoying and often more intense. I was timing them at approx. 20+ minutes apart at this point, and as the night went on they became increasingly more intense and sparatic with the timing anywhere from 10-20min between them. No real routine. Then as Thursday morning rolls around I am having difficultly sleeping as they would often wake me up, I got tired of trying to sleep & was awake at 4:30am. When Bryan starts getting ready for work (at 6am) he asks me if he should stay home as it is his last day before being off for a month to be there for baby. I told him to go ahead, as I knew his boss was only giving him half day work loads just in case I had to pop and he would be only a phone call away if I needed him. As well as the contractions were so random at times, I needed them to be routine in order to be considered “in labour” My day goes on, and I just spend the whole time pacing around the house, trying to nap, & timing my contractions and they are getting stronger and a little bit closer together. They are now stuck at 10min apart and lasting between 60 seconds to just over a minute, with the odd shorter one thrown in for good measure. Did I mention they are getting worse in intensity? I also kept feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom, but never really could (tmi) …

Once Bryan got home from work around 3, he helped me time my contractions. They were still stuck at 10min apart, and now I am having to count down from 20 very slowly to get through them all. Once it got to be around 6pm I got tired of dealing with the contractions I called my midwife to see if she recommended anything. She did not have any suggestions besides the, go make myself a good dinner and try and rest as my water has not broken yet. At around 9pm, Bryan finally stopped timing every time I had a contraction as I went to bed. He made me an excellent pillow fortress to sleep in as nothing was comfortable as well as at various places around the house were pillows and blankets representing various coping methods. My yoga ball was out to sit on, I had a mat on the ground to be on all fours, pills ontop of the coffee table to rest my head on… If this is only “pre labour” what the hell does full labour feel like? As I am getting hit with some of the worst menstrual cramps I have ever had, and they leave just as fast as they arrive. Counting, and focusing on my breathing is all I can really do during this time.

I managed to sleep until almost 1am in my pillow fortress, while Bryan slept on the couch. I did not want to wake Bryan so I let him continue to sleep until almost 4am when one of my contractions woke him up. At this point he started to time them again for me. Sure enough they are now down to average 5-6 minutes apart. I finally gave in and called my midwife at 4:30 in the morning. She told us it was time to head to the hospital, as I had been awake for so long and the fact that my water has not broken she would meet us at the hospital and I would get something for the pain so I could finally get some rest! Yeah! At the point in time Bryan thinks it is the perfect time to make a pot of coffee. Thanks Bryan *rolls eyes* A few contractions later we are finally out the door and into the truck and finally on our way. We arrive at the hospital around 5:30am and the emergency entrance nurses were awaiting our arrival and directed us to the elevators to the labour and delivery department.

We got settled in with the nurses there where I was taken into an observation room and Bryan headed back down to pay for parking and to check me into the hospital and to finalize some paper work. The parking ticket receipt says it was bought just before 6am. During the time that Bryan was off dealing with that stuff I was getting my vitals taken, and then my midwife showed up and checked how far along I was. To everyone’s surprise I was 9 cm dilated (almost 10cm), and my water was still attached but ready to go at any moment. This baby was ready to be born almost asap! I was then whisked away into my own private labour & delivery room where Bryan finally joined us again. I had the choice of my midwife breaking my water, or I could try and do it on my own. I opted to do it on my own. I was also told the reason why I have had the feeling of having to use the toilet, it was simply because of my water and the pressure it was causing on my insides. I spent the next part of the hour either on the toilet, or standing and doing squats while being held up by Bryan every time a contraction would come in hopes that it would finally break, or hugging the daylights out of Bryan. After a while my Midwife and nurse advised me not to sit on the toilet anymore, as they refuse to deliver babies there. lol. I did not take notice of the time that my water broke, but when it did the relief of pressure I felt was amazing. Though the next contractions came fast and furious. I almost had what would be considered a panic attack as OMG the pain was the worst I had ever felt. I asked if there was drugs available, as I did not know if I could continue (the past 24+ hours of being awake is finally hitting me) My midwife & nurse both laughed and told me it was to late for any of that, as well as reminded me just how far I have come on my own. Bryan got me back focused with my breathing & counting down from 20 and my midwife then tells me to lie down on the bed & to try pushing as it will help with the pain.

I get positioned on my side and on the next contraction I started pushing. I was managing to get three or four good pushes in with every contraction and baby was making its progression down and out. All during this time I am feeling good, I have a second wind and energy to spare! There is no way I am giving in anytime soon. I kept thinking I should feel something happening down there but I just feel more pressure. All during this time Bryan is holding my hand (well I’m squeezing his hand) I have the nurse holding my leg up, and my midwife is describing what is happening with my body and to keep pushing like I’m pushing. She thinks I’m a champion pusher. After a little while I was then instructed to move onto more of my back as baby was not liking me being on my side anymore. At this point the nurse who was there is now off shift, and she says good bye and congratulations. A new nurse with really cold hands shows up next, as well as the ability to hold my leg in various different ways (strong hold, weak hold) than the previous nurse. This annoyed me, but gave me something else to focus on while I pushed. After a short while pushing on my back, I was told that we were just a few small pushes away from baby being here. I’m sorry I only do big pushes, but I managed to do a few small ones and sure enough out popped the most beautiful baby I had ever seen, who then promptly took a big poop as he exited out. I only got three stitches and it would have been zero if I had listened when my midwife asked for “small” pushes, as well as I got what can only be described as “rug burn” due to the fact I have a baby with a full head of hair!

After Matthew was born, he was placed on my chest and since we had been keeping his gender to be a surprised I had to ask “what is it?” as it was Bryan’s job to look and figure it out. My midwife lifted his leg and Bryan said with so much emotion “It’s a boy!” We had extended cord clamping, and waited for it to stop pulsing before clamping and cutting the cord. Bryan did a great job cutting the cord. He was then placed on my breast where he pretty much unguided from the nurse, who was having her way with my breasts and nipples did he latch on successfully. We where then left to be with our little one for a few hours. It was great. He didn’t even have a diaper on until a few hours after his birth. Bryan and I then tried to nap after making the obligatory phone calls & texts to family and friends. We did not have our first visitors until after 3:30 in the afternoon. We sure did have a lot of visitors that afternoon and into the evening. I think there was 11 different people came and met little baby Matthew.

We stayed over night, and our discharge papers were signed at 2am as my midwife was back in the hospital delivering another baby and decided to get a head start on our discharge papers. It was interesting to say the least, as the women next door was a screamer. I kept thinking, she should be “grunting” as I was instructed to do as it saves your voice & throat. We slept on and off in shifts with new baby Matthew and we finally left the hospital the next morning at almost 10:30am (would have been earlier but we had to wait for some community health nurses to come and do an assessment on Matthew before we left)

Below is a picture I took of Matthew when he was about 15min old. It was his first picture.