On Monday January 21 was my first day of maternity leave. I was excited to get some things done around the house before little one arrived. I wasnt due till January 29th, and being a first time mom I thought I'd have till at least my due date. I felt extra tired and had lots of diarrhea, but I did get a few things done. I went to my prenatal yoga class in the evening and came back to find my husband had finished the nursery. I was tired so we called it an early night.

At 3 am I woke up and felt a little gush. I assumed I had lost bladder control and had just peed my pants so I went back to bed. At 530am I noticed some pinkish mucus so I called the hospital and they said I should come in and get checked out.

We quickly put some last minute baby things in our bags and we headed to the hospital. We got to the maternity floor and they hooked me up to monitors. To my disbelief they told me that I'm having some contractions they're just irregular and weak. A nurse tried to check if my water has broken, she thinks it has not but she's not confident. They want me to stay on the monitor because they're concerned with the baby's heart rate when I'm having contractions. Because the nurse isn't sure a doctor comes in to check me, and there's a definite gush of fluid. There is no doubt that my membranes have ruptured, I'm only 2cm and high. I'm able to go home for 2 hours (till 1 pm). (We live just around the corner).

When we went home I started to actually feel my contractions but they weren't bad. I tried to do a few things around the house but didn't accomplish much. My husband really quickly cleaned up the whole house and installed the car seat base. We repacked the baby bag.

Back at the hospital they put me back in the assessment room because they didn't have any open rooms. After being on the monitors for a while they said that we could walk around as I was hoping to progress on my own so I could avoid pitocin. At 3 I went back to the maternity floor and my nurse told me the doctor wanted to start pitocin. I was upset because I've heard that pitocin makes contractions come on quickly and it's hard to deal with them. I cried a little but that was okay. They had a room for me at this point so we moved our stuff into the room.

The nurse asked me if I wanted to Labour in my own clothes as long as possible which sounded great to me. I went to the washroom one last time without help and then she started my IV. Because I was on Pitocin I had to stay on the monitors. When I had a contraction I wanted to move to reduce the pain but every time I moved the monitor would stop hearing the heartbeat of the baby. It made it very difficult to cope because I was limited in the positions I could try. I didn't want anybody to touch me. It felt like I was just be able to cope and they would turn up the pitocin. I started to feel really nauseous and puke with every contraction or anytime they had to move me to get a better heart rate or monitor my contractions.

I was quickly running out of energy so I asked for drugs. The morphine and gravel mixture that I got made me feel very drunk and let me sleep for a little. Two hours later I was checked and I was around four or five. The gravol had completely worn off and I just felt drunk, but was still puking with every contraction or movement.

I was also shaking violently and unable to stop myself. They told me it was normal and because of the adrenaline my body was producing. They got me heated blankets which felt great but didnt really help.

At 7pm shift change donna the nurse asked me how I was doing pain wise and warned me that if I decided to get an epidural it wouldn't be instant and I might have to wait a little. I'm not sure how long I labored and the details are fuzzy. My husband tells me I was saying one word at a time. Bucket for the puke and ok whenever a contraction was over. He tells me he and the nurse alternated emptying puke buckets and wiping my face.

Eventually I decided I wanted the epidural. I was worried I wouldn't have the energy to push or cope if I was puking and shaking so much. I already felt stuck / trapped in bed so I figured why not. I managed to tell hubby "epidural". He told the nurse I wanted one and she ran out of the room to get it set up.

When she came back she took me off the monitors (yay!) Which meant I could move around a little bit. She put a lock in my iv and hubby helped me go to the washroom and get out of my clothes and dressed in the gown. The nurse restarted my iv. Contractions, vomiting and shaking were so bad I couldn't support myself standing. I leaned on hubby, who I think was talking to me I don't remember.

The anesthesiologist came in with a consent form for me to sign she explained things to me but I could barely focus on what she was saying I still felt a little drunk from the morphine. I signed the consent form and they had me sit on the edge of the bed and hold on to hubby. I remember that they were talking to me the entire time but I couldn't really focus on what they were saying. I remember having some very intense contractions and I knew that they were doing things to my back but I didn't notice them over the contractions. Hubby just kept telling me to stay very still so I tried my best to stay as still as possible. It must have worked because the epidural took and very soon I was numb.

The nurse got me settled into bed around 10:30 and told us to get some sleep if we could. I was still shaking but noticeably less so they brought me warm blankets and I went to sleep.

It was around midnight when the nurse came to check me, she had to help me move my legs for an exam. She said oh there's a head there and there's hair. She let me feel the baby's head I was shocked. Things start moving very quickly at this point. Another nurse comes into the room and they were moving the bed around getting ready for delivery.

Hubby woke up to the commotion in the room. They had to put my legs in stirrups for me because I was so numb, I had jello legs. I couldn't feel when I was having a contraction. They took the monitors off and a nurse felt with her hand when I was having a contraction to tell me when to push. We did a practice push and the nurses quickly said stop pushing until the doctor could get there. One nurse stood half on at the foot of the bed and half at by my leg until the doctor arrived.

The doctor ran into the room and rushed to get gloves and a gown on. I did three pushes and baby was born. I had to be coached how to push each time. They were surprised how quickly she came out. Hubby held my head and neck up and was very encouraging. It really felt like I was pooping but everyone says I didn't. They quickly plopped baby on my belly and it was the most overwhelming feeling. Hubby was also overwhelmed and the nurse had to help tell us she was a girl! I still felt like in shock that she was here and this is real.

I vaguely remember somebody massaging my stomach but I was so distracted by the new baby. She made hardly any noise when she was born. They had to suction her and were rubbing her flicking her patting her bum trying to get her to cry. Eventually she did cry but she was very laid-back. They did it all of this on my belly. Hubby was able to cut the cord.

I'm not sure what the Doctor said to me but I told him I was preoccupied, which made everyone laugh. My placenta shot out and missed the bucket and ended up on the floor. The doctor got some on his shoes then tracked it out of the room as the nurse shouted at him.

We did skin-to-skin for a while I didn't want anybody to take her away. She wasn't interested in breastfeeding because she was so sleepy. She was healthy and I didn't need any stitches.

Aurora Linda-Marie was born at 12:40 Wednesday January 23, (only 20 minutes after the nurse woke me up). She was 7lbs and 19inches long.

First family picture:

And two months later: