I had only one thing on my To Do list for Friday....Give Birth. And I'm happy to announce that I was able to check that one off. The day finally arrived, and so did Little Dude. Happy Birthday Jacob Alexander! Baby Jake was born at 6:26 p.m. and he weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz.
For those of you interested in labour details, it began Thursday evening. Maria will be happy to know that I was emailing her about work stuff (lucky Maria) around 4 p.m. and thought "Hmmm I think my water might have broken. Interesting." By 5 p.m. we were getting ready to go out for dinner (to Gina's!!!) and I definetly thought that I didn't know...nice for ambiguity. So off to the hospital we go. Sure enough, yes it had broken. But since I had absolutely no contractions whatsoever, I was sent home for the wait and see with instructions to return Friday morning at 7 a.m. I was relieved to know that I was on track for Friday's agenda. Naturally Neil and I went to Gina's for dinner, with the hope spicy Mexican food would kick-start contractions. Later we enjoyed some movie watching....I highly recommend Will Farrell's "Stranger Than Fiction".
Friday morning rolls around and still no contractions, which means only one thing....time to be induced. Off to the hospital and the process begins at 8 a.m. Our nurse Kat was wonderful. In the new maternity ward at the hospital, you are assigned one nurse who for their entire 12 hour shift remains constantly with you.
Our friend Vanessa was also there to help with the whole birthingprocess; we were truly blessed to have her help! So the waiting began...waiting for contractions to begin. And they began slowly; there were popsicles to eat, the hallway to walk, lots of anticipatory conversations. And all along nurse Kat kept saying, "You still have a sense of humour. This is not a good sign. It's better when you become grumpy, it means that labour has truly started."
Well I lost my sense of humour about 1 p.m., and I can tell you that while contractions might not have necessarily been the most painful sensations that I have had, the induced contractions come on suddenly and have very little (30 second?) intervals in between which leaves you exhausted and exasperated. I did spend about 3 hours in the warm tub, which was wonderful. My final stages of labour (i.e. the pushing part) started around 5 p.m. Induced labours are often fast. And furious. And furious. But no pain medication taken, so it couldn't have been that bad, eh? Well it was. All my helpers were fantastic. Baby Jake arrived after 5 and half hours of labour before my agenda deadline of 8 p.m. Way to go Little Dude! After he emerged I immediately regained my sense of humour with "Thank God! That was the best feeling in the world. Can I sleep now? I'll just be over here."
'The Best Baby Ever!!' was born 7 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. The three of us stayed in the hospital for two nights, and came home on Sunday. January 25th is Robbie Burns day, so Jake will have some fantastic birthday times at the pub when he gets old enough. Happy Birth Day Jake! We love you.
