9 months later...

So my son is nine months old now, and I guess I should finally get around to sharing my birth story. When I was 40w4d I went to see my midwife for a checkup and was 1cm dilated. She suggested using evening primrose oil capsules to help ready my cervix, so we picked some up on our way home. I started inserting them as directed and then just past midnight the next day (40w6d) I lost my mucous plug and my water broke. It was 12:42 am when my water broke but at first I wasn't sure, so I didn't page my midwife until 4AM. We talked and she said it was most likely my water and asked if I was having contractions and I said yes. She told me provincial regulations s require her to transfer me to a hospital for risk of infection if I didn't progress within 24 hours of my water breaking but since I was having regular contractions things would be fine and to call her when they're 5 minutes apart lasting 1 minute for an hour (I had planned a home birth). So I spent the day walking as much as I could around our block, stopping at every contraction, walking up and down our stairs in our house and then also trying to rest a bit. My midwife checked in on me several times and at 6 pm I was in the phone crying that my contractions weren't getting close enough. She said to relax and not everyone got to that 511. At 8 pm she messaged me saying to call her at 11pm as she was going to nap but the pain was becoming so unmanageable I asked her to com right away. She showed up checked me (didn't say anything about my progress) she tried to coach me through the contractions and had me sit on a birthing stool she had brought to try and help the baby move down. I kept labouring with her for a few more hours until I said to her, "I fee like I'm working for nothing" it was around 11:30pm so almost 24 hours since my water broke. She checked me again and asked if I wanted to continue at home or go to the hospital for an epidural and some rest (I had been labouring for 23 hours but hadn't slept when the labour started so was exhausted). I pushed her to tell me how far along I was. She said if I stayed everything looked good and I'd have my baby that morning, that she was satisfying I would progress enough and not have to be transferred. I pushed again to know my progress and she said I was 1cm still, I had felt deep down that nothing was happening but she confirmed it. My

Contractions were getting stronger and longer but for some reason I just knew nothing was really changing. So I decided to go to the hospital to rest. They gave me an epidural (which was awesome) and some synto (sp?) to help get things moving. I was able to sleep and the next time they checked me I was 5 cm and everything looked "very promising" as I would hear over and over lol. Every 2 hours they'd come check and I'd still be at 5. They tried manipulating my legs into certain positions to help my baby descend more, but it wasn't happening. The doctors believed that I could dilate and that there was room for him but it wasn't happening. Thankfully through all this my baby's heart stayed strong and we didn't have to worry about that. After about 16 hours since the epidural the doctor noticed my catheter bag was empty, she asked the nurse when she had changed it last and the nurse said she hadn't. The doctor thought maybe my catheter wasn't done right so they check it and it seemed fine. They knew this wasn't good because they had been giving me fluid through an IV I should have passed urine over the last 16 hours. So they brought a little ultrasound machine in and took a look, my bladder was empty, but my kidneys were full. They didn't know why exactly but my kidneys weren't emotying, so now nephrology (the kidney doctors) are in my room. They're drawing blood every hour and see that creatine is leaking into my blood because my kidneys aren't working, and the best part is I'm still only 5cm dilated!!! The head ob becomes implicated and believes I'll have the baby soon so everything will be ok. Anyways this drags on for a few hours and around 1am (more than 48 hours after my water broke) the doctor assigned to my case says, if I really want we can keep trying, but basically we're 48 hours in, I'm not dilated past 5cm, baby isn't descending, my water has been broken and there's infection risk increasing as time goes on, and my kidneys aren't working. For now we're all safe but we don't know how long that will continue, and we decide that the most reasonable thing to do is have a c section, and at 1:49 am on November 29, at 41w1d my son Arlo Emiliano is born. The c section went well but my experience in the post natal ward was horrendous, so I won't detail it here. This is a photo of him eating eggs this morning lol.