*** birth stories do contain some medical content
that some might find makes them uncomfortable.
if that's you, please skip this post! ***
This might be the fastest I've posted a birth story in my history of motherhood. Oli's was closer to his first birthday if I recall! But I know I'm likely to forget the details as I'm a complete scatterbrain these days, so I figured I'd post it while it's still fresh.
The title of this post is Chloé's birth story, but it might as well be called THE BEST BIRTH EVER. Guys, it was incredible. It was everything I'd hoped for and dreamed of - actually everything I'd hoped for and dreamed of for all my deliveries, but this was the first time it all went according to plan!
This third pregnancy was a bit of a roller coaster from day one. You can read about that more here. To finish things off in the curve ball category, Chloé came a full week after her older siblings arrived. Though she wasn't late (she was actually born 10 hours before her estimated due date!) she felt SO late since I was expecting, along with my OBGYN, to deliver my third at the same time as my first two or sooner. To quote my OBGYN, I was a "sitting duck for a home delivery if I wasn't careful!" since I had painful Braxton Hicks contractions and was quite dilated for weeks before delivering. Plus it was my third yada yada yada. She also called Lily and Oli being early and was correct, so obviously I was expecting a 38 weeker. Not so!
So after the older kid's delivery dates had come and gone I definitely had that urgency of "she could come any minute!" which made for a long 7 days before I delivered Chloé. The hardest part was not knowing my body or what was going on. I've heard women say that when you're in labour "YOU'LL KNOW" and all I can say it, you might not. After three labours + deliveries I can honestly say I never really knew, had lots of false alarms, and the real thing was everything like the false alarms except in the end a baby came out :)
With Oli I went to the hospital once on a false alarm, and with Lily I never had one. With Chloé there were technically three false alarms, two that left me very disappointed (the first was at only 32 weeks and I was worried that I was in labour, certainly not hoping to be since the baby would be so early). The latter two were at 37 and 38 weeks, a full one and two weeks before I delivered. Both were at very inconvenient times (middle of the night!) and both times I had Braxton Hicks contractions that were truly painful and was already dilated. Some say you'll know the difference between BH and the real thing because BH aren't painful. Not true, folks!
Aside from the disappointment of not getting to meet my long awaited child, each false alarm cost us around $30 because I had to take a cab in the middle of the night. We reasoned that Brad should stay with our kids until I knew I was in labour for sure. With Oli that's what we did - I went to the hospital, they did some tests, discovered I was in labour, then he came running. The middle of the night isn't ideal for calling up your emergency babysitters only to send them home in an hour, but paying for cabs is annoying!
So on the morning of Thursday, September 19th, when I insisted Brad come along and drive me, it was a break from our normal plans. It was the potential-first-false alarm that he accompanied me to, and it's a good thing he did! I didn't insist he come because I know it was the real deal either. I was just tired of us paying for transportation and going through all the tests + dealing with disappointment alone. Thankfully he was already planning on taking the morning off since he was set to work all evening, and our neighbour and friend Kember was free to come over and watch Lily (Oli was at school).
We were both tired of getting our hopes up so as we walked to the car neither of us felt like it would be the day we met our third child and second daughter. We both had a sense of frustration as we were driving to the hospital - at the prospect of more wasted time and emotions. Looking back our hearts were so guarded that it robbed some of our joy but as any parent will tell you, waiting on a baby to come, especially towards the end is so hard, and false alarms can be crushing (as we'd already experienced twice in recent weeks).
My contractions were so painful at times that it was uncomfortable to sit but they were only slightly more painful than on the night of my second false alarm, so I tried not to pay too much attention. Brad dropped me at the door of St. Marys and found parking, and Iwalked waddled upstairs to see if today was really the day...
that some might find makes them uncomfortable.
if that's you, please skip this post! ***
This might be the fastest I've posted a birth story in my history of motherhood. Oli's was closer to his first birthday if I recall! But I know I'm likely to forget the details as I'm a complete scatterbrain these days, so I figured I'd post it while it's still fresh.
The title of this post is Chloé's birth story, but it might as well be called THE BEST BIRTH EVER. Guys, it was incredible. It was everything I'd hoped for and dreamed of - actually everything I'd hoped for and dreamed of for all my deliveries, but this was the first time it all went according to plan!
This third pregnancy was a bit of a roller coaster from day one. You can read about that more here. To finish things off in the curve ball category, Chloé came a full week after her older siblings arrived. Though she wasn't late (she was actually born 10 hours before her estimated due date!) she felt SO late since I was expecting, along with my OBGYN, to deliver my third at the same time as my first two or sooner. To quote my OBGYN, I was a "sitting duck for a home delivery if I wasn't careful!" since I had painful Braxton Hicks contractions and was quite dilated for weeks before delivering. Plus it was my third yada yada yada. She also called Lily and Oli being early and was correct, so obviously I was expecting a 38 weeker. Not so!
So after the older kid's delivery dates had come and gone I definitely had that urgency of "she could come any minute!" which made for a long 7 days before I delivered Chloé. The hardest part was not knowing my body or what was going on. I've heard women say that when you're in labour "YOU'LL KNOW" and all I can say it, you might not. After three labours + deliveries I can honestly say I never really knew, had lots of false alarms, and the real thing was everything like the false alarms except in the end a baby came out :)
With Oli I went to the hospital once on a false alarm, and with Lily I never had one. With Chloé there were technically three false alarms, two that left me very disappointed (the first was at only 32 weeks and I was worried that I was in labour, certainly not hoping to be since the baby would be so early). The latter two were at 37 and 38 weeks, a full one and two weeks before I delivered. Both were at very inconvenient times (middle of the night!) and both times I had Braxton Hicks contractions that were truly painful and was already dilated. Some say you'll know the difference between BH and the real thing because BH aren't painful. Not true, folks!
Aside from the disappointment of not getting to meet my long awaited child, each false alarm cost us around $30 because I had to take a cab in the middle of the night. We reasoned that Brad should stay with our kids until I knew I was in labour for sure. With Oli that's what we did - I went to the hospital, they did some tests, discovered I was in labour, then he came running. The middle of the night isn't ideal for calling up your emergency babysitters only to send them home in an hour, but paying for cabs is annoying!
So on the morning of Thursday, September 19th, when I insisted Brad come along and drive me, it was a break from our normal plans. It was the potential-first-false alarm that he accompanied me to, and it's a good thing he did! I didn't insist he come because I know it was the real deal either. I was just tired of us paying for transportation and going through all the tests + dealing with disappointment alone. Thankfully he was already planning on taking the morning off since he was set to work all evening, and our neighbour and friend Kember was free to come over and watch Lily (Oli was at school).
We were both tired of getting our hopes up so as we walked to the car neither of us felt like it would be the day we met our third child and second daughter. We both had a sense of frustration as we were driving to the hospital - at the prospect of more wasted time and emotions. Looking back our hearts were so guarded that it robbed some of our joy but as any parent will tell you, waiting on a baby to come, especially towards the end is so hard, and false alarms can be crushing (as we'd already experienced twice in recent weeks).
My contractions were so painful at times that it was uncomfortable to sit but they were only slightly more painful than on the night of my second false alarm, so I tried not to pay too much attention. Brad dropped me at the door of St. Marys and found parking, and I
Did you ever finish this post!? I was getting all emo over here thinking about your sweet family and reading birth stories haha. Miss you!
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