Labour

On my due date, April 30, 2009, I woke up with contractions at around 7am. They were 10 minutes apart but I had episodes of Braxton Hicks contractions for the past 2 weeks so I spent most of the day wondering if it was truly the real thing or not! I busied myself tidying up the already clean house, cleaning the already clean bathroom, etc. Had I known what was in store for me, I would've slept the entire day away while I was still relatively pain free!

The contractions gradually started getting closer and I kept Shawn updated throughout the day. He kept asking if it was time for him to come home but I told him we still had lots of time. He ended up coming home at around 3:30pm at which point the contractions were about 7 minutes apart. Around this time I let Mom know as well and they started preparing for a trip to Calgary. At this point the pain was still manageable and I was using the deep breathing techniques to get through them. By 9:30pm, the contractions were finally 3-5 minutes apart consistently and getting much stronger. This was the point we were told to head to the hospital so we got our things together and drove down.

When we got to the triage department at the labour ward, all beds were full so we waited in the waiting room for awhile. When I was checked at 10:30pm, we were shocked to find out that I was only 1cm dilated! The doctor sent us to go walking for 2 hours and then to report back to get checked. At this point, Mom and Bill arrived at the hospital so we visited with them in the 24 hour cafeteria and they watched our things while we walked through the deserted hospital. There is not much to look at or places to go at midnight at a hospital! The contractions now were much more intense and I could no longer talk through them. The pain was getting worse. At 1:30am, the nurse did a second check of my cervix to find that I was 1-2cm dilated. I was so frustrated at this point...18 hours of labour already and no real progress. The doctor suggested a shot of morphine before we got sent home so that I could get some rest because I was going to need it. I had really wanted a drug free labour but the pain was so bad and I was so exhausted already that I knew I needed my rest. So we said yes to the morphine and then collected Mom and Bill and went home.

The morphine did little for me. I was dizzy and disoriented from it as I never take even tylenol for headaches. It really messed me up and I kept doing some weird clicking thing with my tongue that would wake both Shawn and I up. I ended up sleeping in between contractions so got to bed around 3:30am, woke up for every single contraction (about 5 minutes apart) and finally gave up and got up at 8am, definitely no more rested! We visited with Mom and Bill for a bit and then went walking around the neighborhood in hopes of speeding things along. By 11am, contractions were around 4 minutes apart and quite bad so we went back to the hospital to get checked. I was checked and still only 3-4cm dilated. The doctor suggested rimming my cervix, at which point she could consider me 4cm dilated and I could be admitted. We agreed. We were then sent to get our admitting papers submitted, go for lunch and a walk and report back in 2 hours.

We grabbed our snacks we had packed and went to sit on a bench in the sun as it was a beautiful day. The contractions got so bad at this point that I was the weirdo crying in pain as I was sitting outside. This poor man sitting next to us was so concerned I was going to have the baby right then and there. He kept trying to make conversation but I wasn't having it! We eventually moved to the car to listen to music and for a change in position. Eventually they were just too bad and we had to go back in before the 2 hours were up. I couldn't handle the pain anymore and needed something. Sometime this morning, Chelsey arrived from Yellowknife.

At 1:30pm, I was checked again in triage and was dilated to 5cm. I became the moaning labouring woman that is so famously portrayed on TV! We got admitted to our birthing room and Shawn and I went straight in the shower which actually did help the pain somewhat. We stayed in there for close to 2 hours until the pain was not manageable in there any longer. Once I was out, I tried one puff of laughing gas but didn't like the constricting feeling around my face. At 4:30pm, I was hooked up to an IV and given Fentanyl which is injected when a contraction is coming on. I don't know if it actually works for anyone but for all I know, it was saline solution. I was begging for an epidural at this point but of course the anesthesiologist was in a C-section. By the time he came, it was 6:30pm and I was 36 hours into labour.

It took him 4 tries to get it in because of a lower back tattoo that I have. I had to stay still through the contractions for him to get it in. At this point, I really regretted waiting so long to get it because it was so painful. Once the epidural started to kick in, life was good! I can't believe how well it works and the relief I felt. I met my nurse, who I hadn't even seen at this point after hours of her helping me! We rested, chatted and waited for things to progress. By 8:30pm, my water still hadn't broken so the doctor broke it for me to get me closer to the 10cm needed to push. Finally by 11pm, I was 10cm. Our 2nd nurse was just ending her shift (we ended up having 3 since we were there so long!) and said to try one push so she could see. She said I was a champion pusher and the baby would be born in an hour! I was so excited! But of course, that didn't happen. After 3 hours of pushing, no progress was being made and I was completely exhausted. The obstetrics department was called in and they recommended the forceps or else it was looking like a c-section.

As soon as we okayed the forceps, the room was alive with activity. The dim lights changed to bright operating lights, the room filled with extra nurses, the anesthesiologist, the obstetrician, the delivering doctor. After much hideous, disgusting, mind numbing pain with the aid of forceps, beautiful Samara Faye Tompkins was born at 2:25am on May 2, 2009. She was immediately placed on my chest and was crying on her way out. She had a beautiful head of dark hair which has already started to lighten. Our lives will never be the same and we feel complete now that she is with us!