On the Monday before The Girl was born, I took Waimak (the dog) in for his annual veterinary visit and the timeline of the next few days went as follows:
11am Monday: The vet accidentally stabs me with Waimak’s rabies vaccine.
12pm Monday: My doctor confirms that, no, there is nothing dangerous to moms/babies in canine rabies vaccines.
1pm Monday: Are those contractions??
8pm Monday: I tell Steve that my contractions are about 6 minutes apart. Steve says ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ And goes to bed. (He didn’t believe I was in labour!)
8pm-1am: I laboured at home, unsuccessfully trying to rest, and mostly pacing throughout the house.
1am Tuesday: I wake up Steve so that he can pack the car – it’s showtime!
2am Tuesday: After getting to the hospital, we are brought to the examination area where the nurse almost immediately tells us that it's likely that we'll be sent home since I was probably only a couple cm dilated. When the doctor came in to check my cervix she actually said something to the effect of "Hmm - that's odd" and double & triple-checked things before confirming that I was almost 6cm. (Apparently, I wasn't behaving rude/loud enough for a first-time mom at 6cm!)
2-4:50am Tuesday: I laboured for a couple more hours and coped mostly with walking/bouncing (So much for breathing/massage techniques; Steve tried to touch me twice and I said "don't" in no uncertain terms on both occasions. =) I also used nitrous oxide, but I don't think it really did anything apart from make me feel like I had something to do.
4:50am Tuesday: I started pushing and startled the nurse/Steve after a couple pushes when my water explosively broke halfway across the room. I don't really remember it, but I'm told that it was quite impressive.
6am Tuesday: Frances Claire is born! She is 8lbs, 22”, and howling beautifully upon arrival. The umbilical cord was nicked a little bit and sent blood shooting across the room before it was quickly clamped. I also had "mild hemmoraging" immediately after delivery, and had a fair bit of bleeding from the 3rd-degree tears. After delivery, I got fairly shocky and couldn't walk on my own at all, but I wasn't bad enough to need oxygen/IV's or anything fun like that.
6-7am Tuesday: Bonding time. We delayed weighing/measuring/VitK/eyedrops for the first hour so the girl could hang out on/with me. It was a good hour.
7am Tuesday: Nat is looking more and more like a vampire. (Nothing like burst blood vessels in one’s eyes and face to get ready for a day of photos!)
Tuesday/Wednesday: They kept us overnight just to make sure that I was doing ok - the nurses/doctors were fantastic and I was thoroughly impressed with the food and the fact that they gave me wonderful/glorious COFFEE with my breakfast.
Wednesday am: After waiting for what seemed like forever, we are released from the hospital and head home, narrowly escaping a traffic ticket for pulling a u-turn next to the hospital! (The RCMP officer was very understanding!)
By the time we got home, Frances was doing great and I was doing well apart from the sore bottom, bruising/swelling in my face and bright red eyes. As soon as I got home, I took a nap, nursed my daughter and frightened some neighbourhood children.
(This photo is actually about three weeks postpartum. I was far too horrific for photos for the first while.)
