Halloween is for tricks, treats, pumpkins and sweets and for our family – a baby boy! Like our first pregnancy, we decided to keep the gender a surprise. It was fun playing the 50/50 guessing game and it was a wonderful reveal when baby was born and we found out we had a perfect little boy to complete our family. Aside from being overjoyed to welcome Zayd into our family we finally were the million dollar family we had always dreamed of and we truly felt blessed!
I was due on October 24th, but I was a week late. I was scheduled to go in for a NST (non-stress test) for the baby, and and ultrasound to determine the health of the placenta, the fluid levels and the overall health of the baby. I was overdue with my daughter – so being overdue with my second didn’t surprise me…although when I was into my third trimester I was almost positive that this baby was going to come early – clearly wrong. I loved being pregnant and for any of you who have been pregnant more than once can relate that the pregnancy just goes by that much faster. In having said that, by the time I hit 38 weeks I was pretty much ready for this pumpkin to make its debut. The doctor informed me that if all the tests were okay we would hold out a couple of days before proceeding with any forms of induction. In my case that would be over the weekend and come Monday morning (November 3rd) we were going to get induced, hope for dilation and ready or not and the baby was going to be born. The doctor informed me that they prefer not to keep the baby inside much longer than 10 days as a number of factors can begin to affect the baby and mother. In a nutshell they like to intervene to ensure they avoid potential problems that could arise.
The non stress test went fine, everything checked out perfectly and the baby was not under any distress. Then I was led to another area of the hospital to have an ultrasound conducted. The ultrasound concluded that the baby was in good health, heart beat was great and the placenta looked healthy. What didn’t look that great were the amniotic fluid levels. According to the ultrasound the fluid levels were a bit low, but was confirmed that they weren’t threatening, but were borderline low and that it would be up to the doctors discretion to decide what she wanted to do with my situation. The doctor on call did not feel the need to wait it out over the weekend but rather at 2:00 p.m. I was going to be induced. Wait, what? Induced? I thought I was ready for this baby but was I REALLY ready?!
Naturally like any procedure with a doctor, 2:00 p.m. happened nearly an hour later and was informed that once the induction took place that I wouldn’t be able to leave the hospital and that I would officially be checking into the hospital. The hubby and I were caught off guard…what do you mean we couldn’t go home? We were hardly prepared for all of this. I was induced with my daughter at 7 days but was able to go home once it took place. In fact, I was induced three times with my daughter and all three times were unsuccessful and after each time it was administered I was still able to go home, so what was different this time? I had to ask, and was basically told that being induced with subsequent children they found things tend to work faster and that they do not want anyone to be in a situation that they are having to deliver babies on their way to the hospital. We couldn’t help but be a bit jovial and laughed it off and said ‘ok no problem’. We thought we were going to be there for a while and nothing was going to happen given our last experience with induction. After three inductions with my daughter and no change, nothing made us think that one induction with this baby was going to be any different. Boy were we wrong.
Once the doctor proceeded with induction it was only about an hour later that I started feeling slight contractions – by this time it was nearly 5:30 p.m, by 6:30 the contractions had worsened. I told the nurses that these contractions were getting quite strong and was told to sit tight and that I needed to wait for them to be 2 minutes a part before they would consider sending me upstairs to the birthing suite. The nurses were not taking the progression of these contractions serious enough and at this point I wasn’t sure how much longer I could deal with the contractions. They continued to get so strong and I was just told that they weren’t close enough, but when we had timed them they were 2 minutes apart but then they wanted me to be sure they were consistent and in the meantime they would call someone down to transport us to the birthing suite. The whole time I was thinking, how much longer is this going to take, I was in a lot of pain, and like my first baby I wanted to do it without any pain intervention, but I honestly wasn’t sure how much longer I could withstand the contractions. By 7:45 p.m. I told them that the contractions were getting SO painful and felt like they just weren’t giving me a break – I needed something to take the edge off. They finally got someone to take me up, got the nurses ready and called the doctor to come to the hospital that this baby was coming in only a matter of time. They started me on the laughing gas and by this time the contractions were literally 30 seconds a part and I was 4 cm dilated. Any labouring mother who has been given the laughing gas can agree that it is the most irritating device to use during a contraction. Trying to breathe through a pipe while having a contraction is like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. It just is too difficult to do it at the same time. Trying to focus on breathing through this pipe and dealing with your painful your contraction is just not something I miss. I feel like its a device they use to keep you focused on breathing so you can get through your contraction rather than negate pain. Well by 8:15 I felt the need to push, the nurse assured me that I couldn’t be fully dilated and that it wasn’t time yet…I told her I NEEDED to push and that I couldn’t hold off. I was finally checked again and to their disbelief it was confirmed that I was fully dilated but I was still told to hold off pushing until the doctor arrived. How many mama’s who have gone through natural labour can be like ‘oh I can’t push right now, okay’?! I am sorry but when you NEED to push, NOTHING you do can hold you back. Thank goodness the doctor arrived when she did which luckily happened to be minutes later. 8:20 p.m. I was able to start actively pushing and at 8:31 our baby boy was born. Greeted by Halloween fireworks/firecrackers it was the best way to end all Hallows’ Eve.
Things had progressed so much faster than we had ever imagined. What started as a routine screening, to an induction we were sure would lead to nothing to an eventful evening that blessed us with a precious pumpkin to call our own. Despite not being able to take our big sister Ziya trick-or-treating she got a special treat in her bag this year…a baby brother who she loves and adores already.
