Timeline

July 21, 2013

05:00 - She starts feeling contractions, and she thinks they’re Braxton Hicks contractions.  They come every 4-5 minutes, and last for a short while.  She takes some gravol and tylenol, and goes back to sleep.

08:45 - My alarm goes off for church - I’m supposed to lead worship.  Wifey says she can’t make church, so I decide to stay at home with her (Sorry Chris!). We let Pastor Tim know that we can’t make it. She’s still feeling a bit uncomfortable, but the pain is bearable.

10:00 - We get up, ish.  Wifey is still sleeping, so I spend some time reading and cleaning.

10:44 - I ask her where the contractions are coming from.  She says they’re coming from the back - a sign of real labour.  I tell her that, but she doesn’t believe me; =)

10:46 - just in case, I start packing all our hospital bags and making sure we have everything. She goes back to nap some more.

11:15 - Race for the Galaxy! She completely dusts me, as usual.  I must be losing my touch.

12:00 - I prepare the midwife’s herbal bath, again, just in case.  It requires boiling, simmering and freezing.

13:10 - We’re both pretty hungry.  The Kitchener Rib and Beer fest is still calling us;. well, calling me.  She initially says that she thinks she can come with me to get some ribs, but later changes her mind.

13:21 - I head out to grab some ribs, and bring them back for us to eat at home.  She stays back and makes some oatmeal.

13:46 - I can’t find good parking due to all the tree branches from the storm.  I post a picture of a smushed Toyota. (poor car).  She agrees, car is rather smushed.

14:21 - Suuuuper long line for ribs.  Vincent recommends Jack the Ribber.  Guessing that I probably won’t have any food to cook if we do end up in the hospital, I get the feast.  Full rack, Full chicken, 1lb Pulled pork, coleslow and refried beans.  Delish!

14:40 - Make it home.  She’s had some oatmeal already, but I dig into the ribs (technically, I already ate some, they smelled so good in the car that I couldn’t resist).  She grabs two ribs and some pulled pork, and a bite of chicken.

15:45 - I decide to make a run to Home Depot and Canadian Tire.  We need a replacement 12V battery for our alarm, but no one carries it.  We’ve looked all over.  Home depot doesn’t have it, only their US store carries it.  I return some lights at Canadian Tire.  They’re cheap, but require triple A batteries.. blegh.

16:15 - I come back, and she’s watching Children of a Lesser God.  Romance.  Drama.  Everything that girls like.

18:02 - We head on over to Sobey’s.  I remember hearing that walking can help cope with contractions, real or fake.  We get some grape tomatoes and delicious cookies.  We tell our favourite cashier Colleen that she’s having contractions right now.  Colleen offers us some advice.

18:45 - We decide to play a board game. Age of Discovery. Takes us awhile to finish because she’s still having contractions through this entire time, between 4 and 8 minutes apart each.  She wins by a hair (again!  sigh.)

20:40 - Dinner time!  Late rib lunch, but we’ve finally gotten hungry.  Boconccini chese with grape tomatoes from the grocery trip, along with some olive oil and pesto.  Mel and Jon and Lillian show up from Toronto!  I was supposed to tell them about the contractions before they left, but I forgot.  Oops.  Mel offers to turn around and go home, but we insist that they stay; perhaps the company will help distract from the contraction pain.

21:20 - We show off the baby room, and they love it.

22:30 - We chat, catch up, Nay nay gets a bath.all around good times.  We watch Halo videos and download Space Seed, the Star Trek episode that Khan is introduced. We definitely miss Mel and Jon, so much!  They pray for us, and we are so grateful that they came to visit us!

23:40 - Wifey heads upstairs to get some sleep, on Mel’s recommendation.  I follow soon after.

23:48 - Minutes after laying down, contractions start getting intense.  We bring down the ball and try out some of the techniques we learned from prenatal classes: Grade 8 dance, back massage, I suggest calling the midwife, but wifey doesn’t want to bother her.

July 22, 2013

00:38 - We’ve been timing the contractions, and they last for 55 seconds and are 3 minutes apart.  Maybe it’s time to call the midwife.  We leave her a message, and hope that she’ll call us back.

00:39 - It’s getting really painful for her.  I start the TENS machine to try to take away some of the pain.  Maybe this is the real thing.

00:40 - Yep, it’s the real thing.  I now have warm amniotic fluid all over my leg

WARNING - descriptions may get graphic beyond this point.

00:48 - The midwife arrives.  The student tries to check for dilation, but she reports back to the midwife: “All I can feel is the baby’s head.”  The midwife tells us that wifey has reached full dilation, and all that remains is to push baby out.  We can go to the hospital as originally planned, but if we do, we need to take an ambulance in case we deliver on the way, or we can try for a home birth.  We opt for the latter.

00:50 - Melodie and Lillian jump into action, and so do (now three of them) the midwives. A resuscitation bed is set up on our drawer.  Syringes of Oxytocin are prepared.  Instruments are readied.  We somehow get a shower curtain under the bedsheet while wifey’s lying on it.

01:03 - Lots of attempts to push.  TENS machine officially out of batteries.

01:45 - We attempt to push on the exercise ball, on the toilet, on the stool, on the stairs, squatting, standing, grade 8 dancing, leaning over, nothing seems to work.

02:45 - She’s been pushing for two hours now, and the midwife’s getting a bit worried that we’re making no progress.  We can either go to the hospital, or stay at home.  We discuss briefly, and over one or two contractions, and then it’s a mad dash to pack everything up for the hospital.  Well, for wifey it’s more of a slow walk down the stairs, but for everyone else it’s a mad dash. I hope I didn’t forget anything.

03:06 - Admitted to the hospital. It was a mad race to get there.  I don’t know what I would’ve done if a police-car had turned on sirens behind me.

TO BE CONTINUED;.  (Cliffhanger!   Drama!  Actually, I think I spoiled the ending already, so maybe not.)