Zander's Birth Story (Part 2)

If you missed part 1 of the birth story, find it here.

Arnold texted back that he got a hold of her (what a huge relief) and he was now on his way back!! He got back around 4:30 or so, put his swim shorts on and hopped in with me. What a relief!! Soon my midwife asked me to let her know once I felt like I needed to start pushing so she could call the backup midwife. It wasn't long until I told her she should probably call her. 

Around 5:20 or so, I started to push and shortly after that my waters broke. At this point the contractions didn't want to stop, there was barely any breathing room between them. I pushed quite a few more times and then finally my midwife told me that with one more big push his head would be out. Sure enough, with the next push his head was out and with the one following that he was out completely @ 5:44am! She whisked him up and put him straight on my chest.

I remember I couldn't stop smiling and laughing, in almost a giggle like way. I was just so happy that he was here and that it went sooo fast! It amazed me how alert Zander was as well, just looking around and content. From the time I woke up with contractions to the time I was holding him was just over 4 hours! With Brielle from start to finish I was about 36 hours…yikes! After a few minutes Arnold got to cut the cord, which was also really special since he didn't get to do that with Brielle. 

After delivering the placenta, I got cleaned up while Arnold and Zander had some bonding time, and then they weighed and measured him. Our big boy was 9.8 lbs & 22 inches long!! I had totally thought he would be at least a pound less when I was holding him, he was so curled up that he didn't seem that big. 

This whole birth was just so amazing, from the care the midwifes gave right from the beginning, to the time we went home. I just loved having him at the centre with no doctors, no medical equipment and no one but me, Arnold and the 2 midwifes there, it was so peaceful and quiet!! We had a few hours of alone time in our nice, beautiful queen size bed while they made a scrumptious breakfast for us! It didn't take long for Zander to have his first feeding either, he latched on very well! 

Zander and I were both doing so well that we got to leave around 9am. Once we were in the car, Arnold confessed "now don't be mad at me, but I stopped to get a coffee on the way to the centre". I said "I already saw your cup there, good thing you didn't miss the birth because you had to have a coffee!". To his credit though, we both didn't think the birth would be nearly that quick!!

We stopped by to pick Brielle up on the way back home, her babysitter was shocked that we were on our way back home already…with a baby (they had just gotten up and had breakfast)!!

So Arnold's mom was due to arrive around noon, so we decided not to tell her that Zander had arrived, we wanted to surprise her! Arnold's brother and his family was driving her up from Calgary, so it was going to be a surprise for all of them. We had just talked to them the night before when nothing was happening yet, so they didn't suspect anything. I'll never forget the looks on their faces as they walked in and I was sitting on the couch with Zander sitting on my lap. My mother in law said she thought I was babysitting because he was so big!  

*On a side note, on the way to drop Brielle off, Arnold had been praying that she would pick up her phone if he tried to call one more time. She said that it was like in her dream someone was trying to get a hold of her and it woke her up, she looked at her phone and saw about 20 missed calls. Can you say that the power of prayer works and God woke her up? I have no doubt!!

Zander's Birth Story (part 1)

Zander was due on Sept 9th. It was now Sept 14th and he still wasn't here, around 10pm I started timing my Braxton Hicks contractions…only because my sister said she had been timing hers (she was due a few weeks behind me). Zander's grandma was due to arrive the next day, so we were just waiting for him to make his appearance already! Arnold and I were watching TV, and he didn't even realize I was timing them. They were about 5 minutes apart, lasting about 40 seconds…but not painful. After our show, I went to go have a bath, and they went away so I didn't think anything of it. Actually I had been having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions for the past few months and these didn't seem much different. 

40 Weeks!

We went to bed around 11:30 and at about 1:30am I woke up with more contractions. I went downstairs, walked around for a while, it didn't take long to realize that these were the real thing! They were starting to get painful, and they were now about 4-5 minutes apart, lasting around a minute. Around 2:30am, I woke Arnold up and said the 2 dreaded words a husband doesn't want to hear from his pregnant wife in the middle of the night, "It's time!".

He had that look in his eye like 'I just wanna go back to sleep, can you just hold off until morning?'. He only said "are you sure?" Of course I was sure, it's not like I wanted to be up at 2:30 in the morning if I wasn't sure! We got our stuff together and called the midwife. Thankfully she lives very close so she decided it was best to come check me to see if we should head to the birthing centre. She got here just before 3, checked me and I was about 3-4 cms dilated.  She decided it was best we go to the birthing centre right away. We told her we would meet her there, we just had to drop Brielle off on the way. 

She left and we tried to call our friend who had agreed to watch Brielle. No answer. We tried several more times and still no answer. Arnold tried her husband and he was working. Her husband tried several times and didn't get an answer either. Not sure what to do at this point we decided that we would keep trying to call her on the way to her house, hoping she would pick up. If she didn't pick up, hopefully she would answer the door in the middle of the night when she hears someone banging on it and her husband's not home. 

On the way (it's only about a 25 minute drive) my contractions kept increasing so Arnold decided it would be best to drop me off at the birthing centre first and then drop Brielle off and come back. During my contraptions I agreed with him, in between contractions I thought it would be fine if we both just went to drop her off. I'm glad he decided it would  be best to drop me off first. We got to the centre and our midwife wasn't there yet because we had told her we would be a bit longer since we had to drop Brielle off first. We only waited for a few minutes before she arrived but it felt like a few hours! She got there, her and I both went in and Arnold & Brielle were off. 

My midwife offered for me to get into the shower right away which I did while she filled the tub. Contractions were pretty painful and close together by now. I was just anxiously waiting to get into the tub by now and for Arnold to get back. Once again it only took a few minutes for the tub to get full enough for me to get in, but it felt like hours again! It felt nice to get in but I was hoping it would slow things down for a bit, at least till Arnold got back. I mentioned this to my midwife and she said not if this baby's ready to come. She did ask me a few times (as calmly as possible) if he was on his way back yet. I texted him at 4:10 to "come ASAP!" I was really starting to worry that I might have this baby without him….