Canada Day fireworks...and beyond

Hi everybody. I was all set to blog about our wonderful weekend in Toronto and Peterborough when a little something came up and so I thought I'd blog about it instead. The following is a post that I wrote starting at roughly noon on Canada Day. Enjoy.

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OK, so first of all, Happy Canada Day. This morning, I woke up in the basement to Holly calling from the top of the stairs saying that I needed to get up. First thought: I’ve overslept and she needs a hand with Max. Then she said “something is wrong”. Oh God, what’s wrong with Max now. He’s had this cough over the past week or so – did he throw up or something? Lily just had a vet exam too and she might have done something bad or died or whatever. Then “I’m bleeding”.

Wow. Instant alertness.

Sure enough, Holly had a bit of a leakage issue and we had no idea what was happening. I’m not normally a cool head unless I have the feeling like I need to hold things together…this was one of those times. I paged our midwife who recommended we get an ambulance to transport us to the nearest hospital pronto. So two older gentlemen (not your typical firefighter poster dudes – too bad, some beefcake might have been a good thing) showed up at our door with lights flashing etc. and after a slow and thorough exam, wheeled Holly out the door on a stretcher.

It should be said that by this time, Max had wakened and Holly’s mom and aunt had shown up (thank goodness!!). Auntie BFF hung out with Max in his room while Holly, the paramedics and I made the dash.

We went to the Ottawa General on the advisement of the paramedics, given the facilities and proximity to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. By the time we got inside for an exam, the bleeding had stopped and Holly was a little more at ease. After getting hooked up to a monitor and waiting for a while for the OB on staff to get out of a delivery, we noted that the baby’s heart beat was stable and in the safe zone. Plus, Holly started having regular contractions. Not the doozies that I’m sure will be coming later, but there they were.

I went for a munchie run and came back to find our doula in the hallway. This was interesting because she didn’t know where we were. As it turns out, she was in on the delivery that was holding up the OB. Hilarious. So we were all on hand to hear that the blood wasn’t of real concern – just "bloody show" from a rapid cervical dilation. Baby seemed fine and the placenta was intact so there was no concern about an abruption. The final verdict was that Holly could be transferred to the Montfort (where Max was born) for observation as the baby was technically pre-term at 36w 5d. So yet again, foiled on the home birth. One of these days…

On the way, we grabbed a bite and Holly’s contractions got more severe. Probably from body position but who knows. I dropped her off at the hospital entrance and scurried home (just like last time) to go pack our bag of stuff. Auntie K, Auntie Me and Grandma H had done a whirlwind job of tidying up, setting up the baby’s room and throwing the remaining boxes into a pile in the basement. It was so wonderful of them to take the time to do that – thanks! Max was out with Grandma and Auntie Med at the time (edited to add - we later found out they were noshing at the Newport, one of Max's favourite neighbourhood haunts) so Holly and I still had not had the chance to see him. Oh well, we’ll see him when we get home with Baby!

Anyway, I thought it would be really neat, as time, intensity and husbandly duty permit, to live blog the remainder of the birth. As it stands, Holly, Linda (the midwife) and I are on site, waiting for the contractions to intensify. As far as we know, Holly is at 3 cm, 70% effaced. It’s just before 1 pm and by the end of this post, it should still be Canada Day, but our family should be larger.

12:50 Dr. A just came in for a consultation and everything seems to be fine. IV is hooked up with the antibiotics for the GBS. First IV was a dud as the vein collapsed. Man, Holly gives even the best phlebotomists a run for their money.

12:56 Holly laments that the day is nice and that Max and I could have headed downtown today and that this ruins everything. OK, I added that last part. It is a nice day though. Those contractions sure are getting stronger.

12:58 Holly: “come on body, you know what to do. Open up like a flower!” Gag.

1:22 After a wild goose chase to find the desk where one can activate the phone in a room, I found out that it cost $16 to do so. Yikes. I’m pretty sure it was free last time. Or maybe that was just because cousin K’s call was INCOMING.

1:26 Holly lies down, hoping to get some rest. Also hoping that that IV drains soon so that she can shower.

1:34 Holly starting to drift off (good news) but has to get blood pressure checked first. Wow – diastolic down to 60. It had been on the rise over the past couple of weeks so that’s a good sign. I was joking earlier that Holly’s feet seemed to be bellwethers of the due date. Holly complained about the early onset this time around, but our mistake was that we were measuring from the start of the pregnancy, not the end. Oops. I was also joking that the last big thing she ever gets to accomplish prior to delivering is see her Grandpa F in Peterborough. Last time, it was a road trip 5 days beforehand. This time, 3 days prior. Ominous. Holly notes that she was dancing at a wedding in Toronto four days ago.

1:52 I think we are going to activate that phone. Holly would like to talk to some people locally. Linda just went for a bite so maybe Holly can get some rest while we’re out.

2:26 OK, so we have a phone now. Holly seems pretty chipper and is handling the contractions pretty well so I guess we’re in a holding pattern for a while. Oh yay – we get to listen to the heartbeat again!

3:00 Discussing names. We have a very short list, but we haven’t really debated them in a while, so that’s fun for killing time. Holly’s going to have a walk around the room now to mix things up. Contractions aren’t changing but Holly’s handling them better. What a star.

3:42 Walking is not really doing anything for the labour. In fact, contractions seem to be tailing off. But we have done a bit of a crossword and settled on names. Still no idea if it is a boy or a girl, but we’re excited to meet him or her.

4:20 Holly just got off the phone with her mom. Question “So what’s happening?” Answer “We’re chillin’” Comment “WHAT?”. Holly is actually bored. Live blogging is supposed to be to bring you the real poop, right up to the minute. Not talking about blueberry muffin runs to Timmy Ho’s or how much of the Rachel Ray magazine our midwife got through. Every birth is different, I guess. I think I was just so amped up after this morning’s theatrics that I expected this whole thing to be wrapped up by dinner time.

5:08 Just got up from a 30 minute nap. Man, was I out. Round 2 of Holly’s antibiotics just went on the IV stand and it looks like we’re about to get an exam. Cervix is still 2-3 cm and we’re not sure if the head is any lower. Debating Oxytocin to get the show on the road.

5:42 Are you kidding me? After texting with the backup midwife, the recommendation is now for Holly to go home and see how things progress. Apparently, if there hadn’t been the bloody episode this morning, then the general diagnosis would have been to send Holly home anyway, given that the labour wasn’t really in any sort of exciting stage. But the show caused everyone to believe that things were progressing faster than they actually were. Holly has also been prescribed a narcotic to help her get some sleep tonight. So the midwife’s verdict is that her gut tells her that labour is still imminent, that this is the early part of labour, but that it’s anyone’s guess as to whether it happens 5 minutes after we get home, or in a couple of days. Not what I thought I’d be writing at this point when I started this post…

5:51 The dinner tray just arrived and you better believe we’re going to annihilate it before we leave☺


Holly, getting carted away by the paramedics

Monitoring the baby

No Canada Day baby for us!
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So that was quite a bit of excitement. We got home that night in a total daze. Well, Holly more than me (those narcotics were wicked! Side story: the midwife injected Holly in the butt because, allegedly, that's where it would hurt the least. Apparently, injections elsewhere must result in death because that butt shot hurt!!!) but we had to ramp ourselves down from the idea that we were about to have a baby. Max had had a wonderful day with his grandma and great aunties, who fed him, entertained him and even mowed our lawn! They're the best. After Grandma and Auntie M stayed for dinner, they left Max and I to read some books to ourselves before turning out the lights.

I took the day off Thursday, partly to recuperate from the emotional roller coaster and partly to keep an eye on Holly. But, in the end, nothing at all happened yesterday. We rented some movies and generally got ready to wait for an indefinite amount of time for bambino 2 to arrive.

Flash forward to this morning. At 2:30 am, Holly got up with some contractions. Truth be told, she went to bed a little early last night because she felt a little weird and had a premonition. After about an hour of pacing around with intensifying contractions, Holly paged our secondary midwife (our primary midwife was away for the weekend) and she was told to pour herself a bath to rest and slow things down a bit. Bath or no bath, things kept progressing and at 5:00, Holly paged the midwife again. Now, for reasons that shall soon become evident, I was unable to live blog this morning, but I would like to creatively reimagine it as follows:

5:00 Holly tells midwife that hospital sounds like a good idea. Midwife suggests that she meet us there in 45 minutes; Holly counters with "an hour".

5:10 We page the doula. Contractions are actually getting pretty rough. I mean, it was laughing gas time (6-6.5 hours in) last time before I was seeing this kind of grimacing.

5:15 We call Grandma. Conversation "Hello?" "It's time" "Yeah? What time is it?" "Quarter after 5" "And what day are we here? You'll just have to remind me" "Friday" "OK. I'll be right there". Thanks so much for being so flexible!

5:30 Doula calls us back. Is Holly having any pressure by her bum? I don't really know what this means, but I assume it's code for "go time". I ask Holly: No. (Side story: the doula was actually asking to see if Holly was very close to delivery and was calling from the freeway exit by our place...if yes, she was ready to come to our house and do the deed on-site. Problem was, she didn't have our new address and would have gotten off at Kirkwood. Phew.)

5:35 We get in ye olde Maxmobile (thanks Auntie M!!) and hit the road.

5:41 130 km/h - a little fast for the Queensway, but there's no traffic and frankly, if I get stopped there's no way I'm getting a ticket.

5:43 Reminding Holly how close we're getting to the hospital to offset the contraction intensity.

5:44:30 Vomiting! Awesome. At least Holly brought a produce bag. Am getting a little concerned now because vomiting was the last thing Holly did before pushing with Max.

5:46 St. Laurent off-ramp. Red light. I'm about to take this to a whole nother level. "Should I burn it?" "Yes". Left on a red. Sweet. Again, no traffic = awesome.

5:47 Highlight: Holly just had a contraction while vomiting so I'm one-hand driving while helping her hold the puke bag. Things are getting interesting.

5:47:30 There goes another red light

5:48 OK, respecting this one. There's a camera at the light and I don't want Auntie M to have to deal with any red tape getting out of this one.

5:49 Red light

5:49:40 Red light

5:50 "IT'S COMING!" Oh sh...

5:51 Right on Montreal

5:53Re dli gh

5:53:30 lfte onre d

5:54 Squeallll. Pulled up to the hospital main entrance loop and doula was there. She got Holly a wheelchair and, with the help of some hospital staff, wrestled it through the doors. Holly: "I can't get out of the truck". Doula: "yes you will". Awesome.

5:55 I speed off to park the car. Ticket machine is broken so parking attendant is manually scribbling times on tickets. As if. I dumped the vehicle in the first spot I saw, grabbed the hospital bag and ran.

5:58:30 The elevator door isn't closing. AS IF!

5:59:20 I get into the ward and I guess everyone knows who I am - I have 5 pairs of arms pointing me toward Holly's room.

5:59:35 Look! It's a baby's head! (I casually remark as I skirt the foot of the bed.

5:59:45 I grab Holly's hand and tell her she's doing awesome.

6:00 On push #3 (!!!), out comes our new baby. Check that time frame again. Crazy. How close were we to having a car baby? Two red lights? One no-push from Mom? I'm veeeeery relieved that things went down the way they had.

As an aside, Holly's 4 minutes or so without me went as follows: some guy came out of nowhere, once inside the hospital, and said "I'll take her. Here, hold these muffins!" Holly: "I can't hold these muffins ". Dude knew which elevator to take and which way to go so Holly got to the room in good time. Then, as with the truck, when told to get out of the chair, Holly mustered up an "I can't" but withered in the face of the medical expertise in the room. Furthermore, the doctor who delivered Max (our midwife arrived at about 6:00:40) had recently finished his residency and today was his first shift as a doctor.

Anyway, our little bundle of joy and his mom are in wonderful health. Leo Evan Stardom was 6 lbs., 15 oz. (same birth weight as his mum) when he was born at 6:00 a.m. sharp (same time as his Auntie L) and he has been snoozing all morning since popping out. He had two good feeds at the hospital and we are waiting for him to rouse himself for a third round at home. Then I suppose I'll be changing that diaper sometime later on. In the meantime, we're all at home, resting. Here are some pictures, etc. to appease the masses.


Holly, Leo and our doula about 20 minutes after birth

Our midwife, doing Leo's head-to-toe exam.

Picture one of Leo at home - that mark is a scratch he gave himself.

Picture two of Leo on our bed.