Let me take this chance to head back to one of the most incredible days of my life: Wednesday November 9, 2011.
Both Sean and I are teachers, and had been pretty lucky to be working at the same school. Yes, it can definitely be a lot to work together all day and still live together happily at night, but we are used to it after two years in Qatar, and to be honest, didnt end up seeing each other overly often at work anyway- plus, he's a pretty cool guy, so it makes it pretty easy. Anyway, I had been off officially on maternity leave since the Friday before. I originally was going to work up until the Friday after my due date (November 10, 2011)- good thing I didn't decide to do that!
I woke up at about 6:30am and was pretty sure something was happening. Definitely had lost the mucous plug. So after Sean woke up, I assured him that he should go to work as it could still be a few days until anything happened. I decided then to go and make myself comfy on the couch and watch some Breakfast Television as my stomach was feeling a bit off and a tad crampy. Shortly after, I realized that I was definitely leaking!
A quick call to our midwife Emily, and she advised to definitely call Sean and get him to come home from work (he teaches about 30 minutes away), and then make our way to the hospital. She would meet us there.
A call to Sean at the school to say "game-on" and I quickly started gathering the bags I had packed, and the things I hadn't but would obviously need like make-up and head bands :) After he made it back, we topped up the cats with a bunch of food (who knows how long we would be!) and began to venture into the city. It was about 9:30 or so now, so traffic was still pretty busy on the highway.
By the time we got checked in and set up in labour and delivery, it was 10:50 (one of the last times that I remember). Sean went to Tim Hortons to grab me a muffin, and I began to focus a little more on the fact that contractions were getting pretty strong and way closer together! Things began moving very quickly, and Emily assured us that this was going to happen today and most likely by late afternoon. Sean updated both sets of parents, who were very excited to hear.
Well things began to move even quicker and at this point, Emily made the call to Barb, our other midwife, to come to the hospital asap. She even went out to notify a nurse that I may begin to push soon (they require two people to be present at the birth- so this was in case Barb didn't make it in time). Luckily, she did! As soon as Barb came, it was as if I had the clear green light to "go", and the rest flew by. Isla was born at 1:32pm with a completely natural delivery.
Did I plan to go with a "natural" birth? Yes, I definitely did- although not having been through this before, I was quite open to an epidural if the pain ever became too much. The contractions were definitely painful, and I remember saying to Sean at one point "this hurts", but it actually didn't even cross my mind during the entire birth to ask for any pain medication. Once the contractions kicked in, I just seemed to go with it and my body knew what to do. Now, I was pretty lucky in that I was only in the delivery room for about 2 and a half hours, and had absolutely no tearing (Isla had a small head thank goodness!), but I am so incredibly happy that it worked out this way.
I can honestly say that the entire experience, from working with our fantastic midwives to giving birth to Isla, was absolutely amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat and am actually very excited to do so. We had contemplated home birth when we were living only minutes from the hospital, but after moving out of town where the closest hospital was 40 minutes away, decided against it. Knowing what I do now about how smoothly the birth went (and how quickly....next time we better be on the ball about getting to the hospital asap), I will reconsider a home birth for our next.
So here she is:
Both Sean and I are teachers, and had been pretty lucky to be working at the same school. Yes, it can definitely be a lot to work together all day and still live together happily at night, but we are used to it after two years in Qatar, and to be honest, didnt end up seeing each other overly often at work anyway- plus, he's a pretty cool guy, so it makes it pretty easy. Anyway, I had been off officially on maternity leave since the Friday before. I originally was going to work up until the Friday after my due date (November 10, 2011)- good thing I didn't decide to do that!
I woke up at about 6:30am and was pretty sure something was happening. Definitely had lost the mucous plug. So after Sean woke up, I assured him that he should go to work as it could still be a few days until anything happened. I decided then to go and make myself comfy on the couch and watch some Breakfast Television as my stomach was feeling a bit off and a tad crampy. Shortly after, I realized that I was definitely leaking!
A quick call to our midwife Emily, and she advised to definitely call Sean and get him to come home from work (he teaches about 30 minutes away), and then make our way to the hospital. She would meet us there.
A call to Sean at the school to say "game-on" and I quickly started gathering the bags I had packed, and the things I hadn't but would obviously need like make-up and head bands :) After he made it back, we topped up the cats with a bunch of food (who knows how long we would be!) and began to venture into the city. It was about 9:30 or so now, so traffic was still pretty busy on the highway.
By the time we got checked in and set up in labour and delivery, it was 10:50 (one of the last times that I remember). Sean went to Tim Hortons to grab me a muffin, and I began to focus a little more on the fact that contractions were getting pretty strong and way closer together! Things began moving very quickly, and Emily assured us that this was going to happen today and most likely by late afternoon. Sean updated both sets of parents, who were very excited to hear.
Well things began to move even quicker and at this point, Emily made the call to Barb, our other midwife, to come to the hospital asap. She even went out to notify a nurse that I may begin to push soon (they require two people to be present at the birth- so this was in case Barb didn't make it in time). Luckily, she did! As soon as Barb came, it was as if I had the clear green light to "go", and the rest flew by. Isla was born at 1:32pm with a completely natural delivery.
Did I plan to go with a "natural" birth? Yes, I definitely did- although not having been through this before, I was quite open to an epidural if the pain ever became too much. The contractions were definitely painful, and I remember saying to Sean at one point "this hurts", but it actually didn't even cross my mind during the entire birth to ask for any pain medication. Once the contractions kicked in, I just seemed to go with it and my body knew what to do. Now, I was pretty lucky in that I was only in the delivery room for about 2 and a half hours, and had absolutely no tearing (Isla had a small head thank goodness!), but I am so incredibly happy that it worked out this way.
I can honestly say that the entire experience, from working with our fantastic midwives to giving birth to Isla, was absolutely amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat and am actually very excited to do so. We had contemplated home birth when we were living only minutes from the hospital, but after moving out of town where the closest hospital was 40 minutes away, decided against it. Knowing what I do now about how smoothly the birth went (and how quickly....next time we better be on the ball about getting to the hospital asap), I will reconsider a home birth for our next.
So here she is:
Isla Elizabeth Mazurkiewicz
Born Wednesday November 9, 2011 at 1:32pm
6lbs, 13 ounces
SO BEAUTIFUL
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