Annabelle's birth story

My OB decided to send me for an induction 5 days past my due date. I had always said I wanted to wait as long as possible to avoid being induced. I struggled with this decision and felt a little guilty for going ahead with the induction. At the end of the day, I was just getting anxious to meet my baby but was nervous that an induction would result in a c-section.

We went in on Sunday morning and they started with the gel. The first round was at 9:30 or so and we just walked around trying to get things moving. I had some slight cramping but nothing intense. The doc checked me at 12:30pm; there hadn’t been a lot of progress so she decided to do another round of gel. Back to walking. Brent and I must have walked for hours that morning/afternoon. We also ate a few times and watched the Blue Jay’s game in the birthing room while I bounced on the exercise ball.

One of the nurses said that likely the doctor would check me again around 4/4:30pm and if I hadn’t progressed they might do another round of gel and wait until the following day to see how things go. This would mean staying overnight in the hospital and hoping labour would start during the night. Brent and I were both a little disappointed upon hearing this. We started to gear up to wait until the next day for things to really get moving.

The doctor came in at 4:30pm to check my progress. I was shocked when she said “we’re breaking your water” and before I knew it was sitting in a puddle. I had geared up to wait and all of the sudden it was like “this is happening”. She said she’d let that sit and get pitocin started in an hour or so. The contractions started shortly after the water being broken and then the pitocin got started.

I originally wanted to try birth without the epidural but had heard horror storied about pitocin and decided that I didn’t need to be a hero. Thankfully, the anesthesiologist was great, the epidural was stressful but not nearly as bad as I envisioned. I was only frozen in the stomach and was still able to walk to the bathroom (quite a surprise to me).

Brent and I chatted with the nurses and watched some movies on TV while we waited for things to get moving.

We were told that we likely wouldn’t be meeting out baby until around 6-8am the following morning. We were prepared for a long night.

The nurses we had were wonderful. Very friendly, so funny, and just made the experience that much better.

My contractions were hard for the nurses to track so they didn’t think they were long enough or strong enough to be making progress. They checked me at 7:30pm and I was only 3cm. Again, we were prepared for a long night. I was checked again around 10 or so... still 3cm. They continued to up the pitocin and hoped I’d progress. The nurse checked me again at 10:45pm and was pleased that I was now 4-5cm. Yay progress! About half an hour later I told the nurse I’m feeling the contractions, it was excruciating (thank you epidural) but that I was aware of them. She decided to check me again at 11:15pm and said that I had progressed to 7cm! WHOA! Things got really real at this point and it was enough to wake Brent up off of his cot! We might not be waiting too long for this baby after all.

Another 30min later I told the nurse “this might be in my head, but I’m starting to feel a little like pushing”. It wasn’t an overwhelming feeling yet, but I was definitely feeling something was going on. She checked me at close to midnight and shockingly said “you’re fully dilated”. Woohoo!

All day the nurses told me that pushing time could be anywhere from 1-3 hours given that it was my first baby and I had an epidural. I flat out said “I will not be pushing for anywhere near 3 hours”. They kind of laughed but I was dead set on proving them wrong!

At midnight the nurse asked if I could wait 20-30 min to push, I said I’d try. At 12:15am I told her I couldn’t wait anymore. Brent called my mom and dad and told them to head to the hospital because I would be starting to push soon, it might still be a while but it was coming.

With just Brent, the nurse and I in the room I did a practice push. Brent holding one leg, the nurse the other, I pushed with all my might. Both the nurse and Brent’s eyes grew wide and the nurse said “you’re a good pusher” and Brent said “I saw it! I saw hair”. The nurse called for the doctor. I started pushing for real and 16 min later our baby was born. The lights were dim, the room was calm, just two nurses, the doctor and Brent and I in the room. Brent held one leg and was right in there the whole time.

When the baby came out the nurse said “they don’t know” and everyone looked away and the doctor said “what is it dad?” and Brent looked and announced “it’s a GIRL”. Our beautiful daughter was placed on my chest and I said “it’s a girl?! WHAT?!”. Haha I was so happy and surprised. Brent cut the cord and the nurses wiped her while she was one me. Instantly her eyes were wide open, staring at me, fingers in her mouth. I have never been so happy.

Brent and I just stared at her. Our beautiful little girl, our Annabelle.

The doc stitched me up (which I felt, OUCH!) and Annabelle nursed just 30min after being born. She stayed on my chest for good hour. The grandparents came for a quick visit while she was still on  my chest, they were in awe just like us. Then I handed her over to Brent so I could shower. My heart was so full seeing him with her. My family.

Annabelle was born at 12:31am, she was 7lb 4oz and 20 inches long.

Annabelle was snuggly right from the start and loved to be cuddled by her mom and dad. We went home on Tuesday for the fun to really begin!