My rainbow is here

rlajambe · October 2013

Okay, she came at the beginning of the month....I've been busy with baby.

For those who don't know me, I'm rlajambe or RLA for short. I've been an active member of the AL community since the loss of my daughter Isabelle in May 2012.

So, with no further ado, here's my Abegail's birth story:

Short version: After 5 hours of labour, Abegail Rosanna was born on October 1, 2013 at 6 lbs. 11 oz.

Long version:

I had slept in that morning and awoke to take my morning pee around 10 am. When I had finished, I got up and heard a popping sound and immediately sat back down. There was a small gush of fluid and I immediately knew: I had broken my water!

I was leaking and I knew that not all the fluid had come out. I called my husband who had already gone to work and told him to meet me at the hospital. Then I changed my clothes, called a cab and grabbed the hospital bag and went in. My contractions had not started at this point.

My husband was only working a few blocks from the hospital, so he was already there once I got there. We went to obstetrics triage and they assigned me to a bed. They said they’d check me to make sure that my water had, in fact, broken. There were a few emergency patients there and they were seen first.

By the time they got back to me, my contractions were in full swing. They tried to check my membranes, but as they put in the speculum, the rest of the amniotic fluid came gushing out. If my water was broken before, it was now! The nurse also confired that I was 5 cm dilated. Shortly after that, I was given a private labour room.

Once in the private labour roon, I got some IV drugs to take the edge off of the contractions. After that, my labour progressed very fast going from 5 cm to 8 cm in 2 hours and half an hour later I was fully dilated.

They called my OB to deliver the baby and he arrived quickly. (He was just one floor down in fetal assessment.) After pushing one about an hour, I was unable to make any more progress and my drugs had worn off so I was in a considerable amount of pain. When my baby’s heart rate dropped twice during contractions, my doctor made the call and decided that I needed some help getting this baby out.

He used what they call a “lift kit” to pull her out. It just looked like a big suction cup to me. Two contractions later, she was out and was soon crying. Abegail Rosanna was born at 3:13 PM on October 1, 2013.

She was born completely healthy with scores of 9 and 9 (out of 10). I suffered some 2^nd degree tears and a small 3^rd degree tear during the delivery and required some stitches.

After 3 days in the hospital due to some breastfeeding latch problems, we were allowed to go home and she’s been a little whirlwind ever since.