Anna’s home birth-y hospital birth

It was Thursday morning at around 6am when I felt my first twinge. Grady was getting ready for work and I was still warm and cozy in bed, staying the pregnant version of comfortable. I was 39+2, so figured this was just some prodromal labour. As a first time Mum I had already come to terms with the fact that I would likely go to 40 weeks and beyond. Around lunch time I texted Grady, “Just a heads up, I’m feeling a bit odd today. Not bad, but odd. Don’t know if that means anything or just more ‘getting ready’” Looking back at my texts, apparently, I had a dream the night before that I lost my mucous plug – premonition! As the day went on, I continued having some cramps/contractions regularly, but not consistently. So, we messaged the group chat asking to use a TENS machine overnight to help with sleeping. Michelle walked it over on her dog walk that evening, suggested I have some protein for energy, and wished us luck.

Now, let’s step back a bit here. Grady and I met Michelle at the dog park when our dogs were puppies in 2021. Their birthdays are only a few days apart and got on really well, so Ginny and Ziggy did a lot of playing in their puppy days. Inevitably, during these chats we started talking about birth (as you do with Michelle). I told Michelle that while I was not planning to get pregnant just yet, I wanted a home birth when the time came! When I eventually did get pregnant, I waited 3 days before contacting midwives (don’t wait that long! Contact them immediately!) and wasn’t able to get into either of the Midwifery practices in Langley. Luckily, I was accepted by a practice in Abbotsford, but they wouldn’t do a home birth in Langley. Admittedly, that was a blow. I grieved my home birth plan for a long time and so didn’t reach out to Wildflower for quite awhile. I finally got the nerve to message on insta, and was like “I can’t have a homebirth, but would still like to hire you. By the way, I’m Ginny the dog’s Mum.” Luckily, they still had space and that was that. With Michelle and Steph’s support we came up with the plan to labour at home as long as I could and have as home birth-y a hospital birth as possible.

Back to labour! Overnight Grady went from “I’ll work from home tomorrow” to “I’m not working tomorrow.” He was also in contact with my parents who live on the island; they initially were going to come over after work, but Grady told them that they should come over sooner rather than later. On Friday I had contractions all day, slowly getting stronger, but still staying mostly 6-10 minutes apart. I was able to rest a bit when my Mum arrived and Grady made sure that I kept drinking and trying to keep food down. I was pretty nauseous and didn’t want to eat much, but Jello stayed down! There was a lot of walking around the house and watching The Great British Bakeoff. I was so ready for this baby, and how cool to labour on International Women’s Day?! 

Around 9:30pm, the contractions slowed down a bit so we took that as a sign to rest. Around 2am, I just couldn’t handle being in bed anymore so we decided to try the bath. It was honestly the best thing. It provided relief in a way I didn’t expect. At this point, Grady is lying on a towel on the bathroom floor and I’m in the bath dozing between contractions. When people said that you can sleep between contractions, I thought that there was no way, but you really can! Your body is just figuring it out. Every time a contraction would hit, I would squeeze Grady’s hand and think “The contraction is shorter than the time without the contraction” (I really need to come up with a snappier way of saying that..) I stayed in the bath for several hours, periodically draining some of the water and adding new hot water. All the while, the Lord of the Rings soundtrack was playing in the background (Grady was in charge of music, but the siege of Helm’s Deep is a pretty good labour soundtrack!) Michelle checked in with us around 5am and made a plan to come over later that morning either to check or to stay, time would tell!

At some point, I started to get some contractions that felt different; they were a bit shuddery and pushy. All of a sudden, I didn’t want to be in the bath anymore. Grady helped me out and I wanted to sit on the toilet, it just felt the best. We tried moving to a yoga ball, but that was terrible, so back to the toilet I went. It was probably around 7:30am when Michelle called Grady to check in. I was rocking away on the toilet and I remember Michelle asking whether I was rocking back and forth or side to side. When Grady said I was rocking back and forth, Michelle said that was “juicy,” haha. The toilet is dilation station for a reason!

Around this time, my Mum joined us in the bathroom and then Michelle arrived around 8:30am and sent Grady to have a nap. He really needed a rest after (not) sleeping on the bathroom floor and so he could safely drive to the hospital. She also kept in touch with my midwife to let her know how things were progressing. Honestly, this time is pretty fuzzy for me. I just know that I was rocking away on the toilet with my Mum and Michelle supporting me until just after 10am when those new contractions started coming a bit more. Michelle clocked them and asked if I was starting to feel a little pushy. I said yes and she said “it’s time to go to the hospital!” She had said that this would be the worst car ride of my life, so my expectations were really low for this drive. It was bad, but not terrible, so I guess it was good to have such low expectations. 

We arrived at the hospital around 11am. Michelle had driven ahead so she could meet us with a wheelchair at the front doors. Getting into the wheelchair was super uncomfortable, but once in Michelle fast walked me to the labour and delivery floor. It was so nice to have someone who knew where they were going. Stacey, our midwife, was already at triage waiting for us. I was helped on to a bed and Stacey asked if I consented to a cervical check. I said yes and she said I was basically 10cm, fully effaced with bulging waters. This was my one and only check! I had really wanted a room with a bath, but there weren’t any available, so Michelle started decorating the shower while Grady and I prepared to labour there. I’m sitting on the toilet (again, haha) when there was an audible pop and a sploosh. My waters had broken (exploded!) I immediately felt baby drop and tremendous pressure. The shower was forgotten. I was most comfortable labouring standing up at this point. Stacey said that was absolutely not a problem, but that if we wanted Grady to help deliver baby that I needed to get on the bed. I made that choice, and was helped on to the bed. I got on my knees with my torso supported by the tilted bed.

I’m sitting on the toilet (again, haha) when there was an audible pop and a sploosh. My waters had broken (exploded!) I immediately felt baby drop and tremendous pressure. The shower was forgotten. I was most comfortable labouring standing up at this point. Stacey said that was absolutely not a problem, but that if we wanted Grady to help deliver baby that I needed to get on the bed. I made that choice, and was helped on to the bed. I got on my knees with my torso supported by the tilted bed.

The next hour is completely a blur. I remember random moments and sensations. I remember my Mum being with me, but nothing of what she said. I remember squeezing my arms against the top of the bed so hard during contractions. I remember being annoyed at the nurse for checking baby’s heartrate so much (it was always steady). I remember Michelle taking a picture to show me baby’s head starting to come out.  And then, the head was really coming. I do remember this part. I was pushing so hard, and I kept thinking that “that push must have been it” - I just wanted to be done! I remember when baby’s head was born, because it felt like a cork popping. Such relief! Another contraction and push, and baby was out! Right into Grady’s waiting hands. It was 1:07pm.

Then it’s cuddle time while we wait for the placenta. After the umbilical cord has turned white and stopped pulsing, I cut it. I had chosen to wait for the placenta to come on its own, without the Pitocin shot. It took its sweet time, but with a little traction from me the placenta came out almost an hour later while I was sitting on the toilet (again, haha). Apparently, they were readying the Pitocin for me while I was in the bathroom and it came just in time! 

I told Stacey that we would like to go home as soon as possible, that night if we could. She said that since everything had gone so well (she told Grady it was “textbook”) and that we had support at home, we just needed to wait 6 hours. So, I got cleaned up while my son(!) had his newborn checks. We ordered some Thai food (best thing I’d tasted in 9 months, lol) and just basked in our new baby. At 8pm we were able to go home to spend our first night as a family in our own home. The best home birth-y hospital birth I could have imagined!

So incredibly glad to have been supported by Michelle and Steph through the process, for me and for Grady. Birth: what a wild, magical, exhausting experience!