Most of my labours have been "normal"...in a way. I never had any sort of pre-labor contractions, my water was broken by the doctor, I pushed my kids out...you know, the usual. This one was a tad different from my first 3 experiences. Kathy was right when she said that number 4 is the easiest....and wrong too.



Dr. Onsongo...doctor extraordinaire.

With Rhys, I had contractions for a week prior to actually delivering. I had been locked tight like a vault with each of my others, right up until delivering. With Rhys, I was 2 cm dilated the week before. I was thrilled. That had to mean baby soon right? Wrong! For some unknown reason, this little turkey was so stubborn, he pretty much refused to show his little face.

The "hot" nurse Lane, Kaye was more than happy to sit and chat to for hours.

I had been "leaking" some fluid for about a week and at 5:00 on Sunday morning, I felt more than just a little come out. My water had broken. I was so excited. Today was the day, I thought...incorrectly. We got up, got the kids ready, took them to the branch president's house, and headed to Olds.

Once we got there, we got all set up in a gown, hooked up to monitoring, and got "checked". I was already 4 cm. I was thrilled. With essentially no pain at all, I had gotten almost half way! Unfortunately, that was as far as I got on my own though. I walked and bounced on the ball. I prayed and prayed and still nothing.

My doctor said that she wouldn't leave me more than 24 hours with my water broken. That gave me a small amount of comfort. At least I knew that it would be over in at least 24 hours. She was sure that I would go on my own though, considering that I was already 4 cm and my water had broken. She stripped my membranes -- very hard -- and left me to sit again. Still, nothing happened.

Finally, the next morning, the doctor came in to checked me again, and then put me on the drip. I was not looking forward to the intense contractions. Luckily, nothing like that happened. Contractions were supposed to start in about 45 minutes. Mine took about 3 hours. The best part was, they didn't hurt. I only really had about 10 or so hard contractions that I had to concentrate and breath through. That was the "easier than all the rest part."

Once I got to the pushing stage, I was terrified!! No epidural again, thanks to a lovely nurse who wouldn't check me. I did not feel like going through that again! But, it was a no-go so I just sucked it up and pushed. With the first push, Rhys' head came out. Unfortunately, that was the last contraction that I had. I was in extreme pain, I had no idea what was going on or how successful my one push was, and all of the sudden the doctor was getting the nurses to rip my legs up and open and kept telling me to cough. Not really realizing why, I coughed and coughed and coughed and coughed. I coughed the rest of his body out. That was the "harder" part.

After he was out, they told me that my contractions had stopped causing Rhys' shoulder (which is huge) to get stuck. My doctor had to get me to cough and she pulled. He wasn't breathing when he came out, but perked up after some work done on him.

I had never heard that you could cough your baby out but there it is.

Of course, the girl right next to me had a girl. Go figure.