OVERDUE!

Well seeing as my babies were all overdue isn’t it fitting that this post is over due as well!!
Sigh.. Motivation to blog is much hampered by the loss of a camera to put up pictures. So I thought I’d get to writing my birth story about baby Nahum who is 13 weeks today! June 18th was the actual due date… but as happened with my previous 2 children the day came and went .. still no baby. So in one sense I wasn’t surprised. But after having a c-section my first time around and having a successful VBAC I didn’t want to end up with another c-section if at all possible. I spoke with a doula friend of mine and thought I’d give a few days and try the castor oil route (as I did with John) So dave took the 21st off to see what would happen. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Haha so Dave went back to work. Over the next week I had cramping on and off especially at night which felt like early stages of labor.. but still nothing. On Monday the 25th I went in to see my doctor who said she had already scheduled me to be induced the next day at 8 am!! Wow.. I wasn’t really ready for that.. so I talked with her and asked her to give me more time as the baby was showing no signs of stress. She gave me till the 28th now. Not much more time but at least I felt better to have a few more days to see if baby would come on his own. So with things scheduled in we had a friend from the hall come and get the kids on the Wednesday afternoon. Thanks Margo and Jim!! (Here’s a little side story) Then dave and I went inside and sat in the living room and were chatting for a few minutes when we realized… we had no children ..that was the first time in almost a year that we had had this happen… so I said to dave.. what are we doing sitting here!! Haha So I said why not go out for supper. So we went out to Jungle Jim’s for supper. Was really good. Then we took a drive for fun and then went back to Murph’s a café for Tea and dessert. What a treat! OK back to the original story here.
So we had to be into the hospital for 8 am… after a good wait and some decision making after talking to the doctor and another phone call to my doula friend Julie we decided not to have them break my water as he wanted to do but take the gel option which isn’t recommended for women who’ve had c-sections…(Yes yes always going against the flow here!)So that was given to me at about 12 noon. After that I did start having contractions about 3-4 minutes apart but for any who’ve been in labor before they were still walkable talkable. So not too intense.. The doctor had only given me a sic hour dose so would be back around 6 to see my progress. It was nearing 5 PM and I was beginning to think that I’d have to see the doctor again and he’d have to do something more which I wasn’t at all interested in! So around 5 Dave and I tried a little technique my friend told us off in my last birth. Within about 5 minutes my mucus plug came out and thing started to progress..(started to get ouchy!) So Dave began counting for me.. I would tell him when my contraction was coming and he’d start counting down so I knew how many seconds left till I reached the hardest part of a contraction when it would start to slow up again! What a difference that made! He hadn’t tried that in the last delivery but I’ll say we’d try that again the next time. So anyway, (my room was right outside the nurses station) the nurse heard me laboring away I guess so she came in to check me and said my bag of waters was bulging and she tried to break it during her exam!( wasn’t to pleased about that but whatever eh?) She didn’t succeed but after she left it was only 4 or 5 contractions before my water broke on it’s own. Then things were a little more intense.. 4 or 5 more contractions and I said Dave.. I feel like I gotta push! I told him to get the nurse to check me again.. I was fully dilated with just a little rim left so I was instructed not to push quite yet.. I was still in my hospital room too so they got me in the wheelchair and headed me to the labour and delivery room. (It’s really hard NOT to push when you FEEL like you need too!!) Once there they were waiting for the Doctor.. so once he arrived they said OK now you can push… I remember turning to the nurse beside me and asking… ok how do I push again!! Haha.. I remembered my last birth my doctor said don’t push like that! So I needed a little reminder how to push more effectively.. chin to your chest (why this makes a difference I don’t know but it does!) and of course the old time saying push like you’re having a poop!! Haha.. that’s so funny. Ok so 4 or 5 contractions with 2 or 3 pushes each.. and Nahum had arrived! So from 5 till 6:27 wasn’t too bad a labor time I’d say!! I had a nice big tear which I got a few stitches for but that healed up and all is well! We had picked names only the day before on our "Date" . Matthew Benjamin and Nahum.. (interesting combination now that I look at it in writing) but Dave was holding the baby while I was being stitched up and Nahum just seemed right. And then we were thinking what’s the middle name? I just thought.. hey .. we haven’t named anyone after Dave and he was holding him at the time, so… welcome to the world Nahum David Campsall !