Before work I had to take Lindsay to a doctor’s appointment – we were close enough to her due date that these had become a weekly occurrence. This week, however, we wouldn’t be seeing our regular doctor, Christine Otani, but another doctor in her office , Dr. Nickel. Christine had gone on vacation that morning and we would be seeing Dr. Nickel for this visit and the one next week. The visit was fairly routine, except that Lindsay had her first internal exam in preparation for the birth. The doctor told us that she was a little under 1cm dilated and not effaced at all. She also told us which doctor would deliver the baby should Lindsay go into labour with Dr. Otani on vacation: Dr. Cynthia Mensah. That was really cool, since I went to High School with Cynthia. Lindsay’s due date was still 12 days out so it wasn’t likely that we’d actually be delivered by Cynthia, but it was cool anyway.

Work on Tuesday was nothing special. Things are almost always busy for Brent and I and this day was no different. I was waiting on some new building ratings from Engineering and actually found the time to pull together a grocery list during lunch. It was looking like a productive day and things only got better when I went to Safeway on the way home. I got everything I needed for about a week and a half of eating healthy and not ordering pizza. I even got 10% off since it was Customer Appreciation day. Bonus!

Once I got home I quickly put away the groceries and got to work on making Chili for supper. Lindsay was downstairs sitting on the couch and I told her to come upstairs and talk to me while I cook. She stood up and swore, telling me she had peed herself again. It was 6:30 PM. A quick trip to the bathroom for a new pad and Linds was back in the dining room chatting with me as the ground beef was browning. She got bored with sitting and talking and decided to take the SwifferVac and plug it in. Perhaps this is how she nests. She stood up and said, “Oh no, I did it again!. Once more to the bathroom.

Of course, the idea that her water had broken did enter my mind. No man with a nine-months pregnant wife could help but think it, however briefly. I assumed, however, that she’d know the difference and went back to making supper. A few minutes later Lindsay called to me asking me to come upstairs and get her a new pair of panties. I went to her and asked “Huh?” and she replied, “Please get me a new pair of pregnancy panties, I’m pretty sure my water just broke.”

I replied with a very helpful: “Buh?”

My moment of shock and uselessness past, I went into damage control mode and we quickly gathered everything we thought we needed, left extra food and water for the cats and jumped in the car. We were really expecting to be told that it was a false alarm. After all, we were going to be first time parents – what did we know about water breaking and contractions? Well, Lindsay learned a little more about contractions at 7:15 PM two blocks West of Idylwyld on 22nd Street when her first one hit her. It wasn’t very severe and not really painful but it convinced her that everyone was right – when you feel one you know it. Still, you can be in false labour having contractions so we were still thinking we’d be sent home. I’d guess you could call that denial.

We got to Royal University Hospital around 7:30 PM and I dropped Lindsay off at Emergency and went to park the car. By the time I got back she was ready to go up to Assessment so we grabbed a wheelchair and headed up. We were quickly shown to a room, Lindsay was hooked to a monitor and we began waiting – waiting for the resident on duty to come and do a swab test for amniotic fluid. We didn’t wait overly long but the contractions continued to get more frequent and far more painful.

Dr. Kyle Gorman was the resident who came to administer the swab test on Lindsay and the nurse assigned to Lindsay was an awesome older woman named Judy. For some reason, at RUH, doctors get last names and nurses do not. Strange that. Anyway, by the time the test was administered, Lindsay’s contractions were getting very painful and there was a great deal of fluid that had been released. Everyone was basically of the opinion that the swab test was just a formality to confirm that she was, in fact, in labour so that they could continue to monitor the situation and determine if she needed to be admitted. Dr. Gorman swabbed the fluid and the tip did not turn purple. Negative.

Every now and then, such test swabs can be defective, better to try a second swab and see. A brand new swab. Negative. The doctor, the nurse and I all scratched our heads. Lindsay doubled over as another contraction hit her. Then Judy noticed that the second swab was not orange-tipped. It was just a plain swab with nothing on it. The package said it was the right swab but it most certainly was not. Two defective swabs and a third purple-tipped positive and we knew for sure that her water had broken.

This grand revelation was followed immediately by more waiting. Lindsay’s pain was getting worse by the minute but she was only 2cm dilated and they needed her to be at 3cm before they would move her to Labour and Delivery, admit her and administer an epidural. Of course, the pain was not going to wait until she was admitted so something had to be done. Lindsay was given a fairly heavy dose of Demerol to “take the edge off” the pain. This was approximately 10:00 PM.

As Lindsay repeatedly and at times profanely stated over the course of the next two hours, Demerol does not, in fact, take any edge off of the pain. It only makes you feel and act drunk. It did a great job of letting Lindsay rest between contractions but it did almost nothing for the pain she felt during them. It also made her a little sensitive to some things like my breath. I had to lean in close to get her to focus on breathing through the pain, as she would try to bury her head in her arms. First she told me that my breath made her nauseous – fine, it had been a while since I had managed to get near a toothbrush. So I took some gum from her purse and that was better for about five minutes until it was the smell of my gum that made her want to puke. And then I really needed to “shhUUUSH” when I tried to tell her to breathe through the pain. So it only really helped her rest between contractions. Of course they were coming as close as a minute apart so the Demerol really did nothing at all.

At midnight they checked her again and she was between 2 and 3 centimeters dilated. Nurse Judy, bless her soul said to Dr. Gorman, “Let’s call that three and get the poor girl an epidural.” Thankfully, Kyle agreed completely and after a bit of trouble we got Lindsay over to her room in Labour and Delivery.

Luckily we weren’t in Labour and Delivery for very long before the Anesthesiologist came to administer Lindsay’s epidural. That was the good news. The bad news was that Lindsay was going to have to remain absolutely still while the doctor was inserting and setting up the epidural. Considering the huge amount of pain the Demerol was completely failing to take any edge whatsoever off of, this was going to be no small feat. Lindsay was, in a word, amazing. She had a very severe contraction right in the middle of the procedure and did not move an inch. She squeezed my hands, breathed deeply and did not move. I have never seen anyone bear that kind of pain that well. Not on TV, not in movies and certainly not in real life.

By 1:00 AM, Wednesday morning, following an increase in the amount of medication flowing through her epidural, Lindsay was finally at ease. I took the opportunity to go down to the car and get our bags and make a few phone calls. There was no point in people coming to the hospital at that time but we wanted them to know where we were and what was going on. Most of the rest of the night passed smoothly. Lindsay was able to get a couple of hours of sleep and the doctor and nurse kept a close watch on her. I could have slept too, but I wanted to stay awake and keep an eye on Lindsay. They also had a fetal heart monitor running so I could keep an eye on that too. There had been nothing I could do to help during the Demerol phase and I knew there was going to be little for me to do in what was coming but I wanted to do something and all I could come up with was to stay awake “just in case”.

At 6:00 AM things had progressed enough for Dr. Mensah to be called in. She took a look at Lindsay, conferred with Kyle and Judy and everyone started getting ready. At 6:20 AM things really began to happen. The NICU team came into the delivery room and got their stuff ready – there was some meconium in the amniotic fluid and if that gets into the baby’s lungs it can make them really sick, so they had to be there to make sure that everything was cleaned up quickly after the birth. And then it began.

Lindsay was able to push through two contractions before things got complicated. I knew something was up because I could see the fetal heart monitor and the look on the faces of the doctors. Doctor Cynthia Mensah did an amazing job in getting our baby born. There was no hesitation, no discussion – she just called for the vacuum and it was setup quickly. Never did she give Lindsay any indication that there was anything wrong and so Lindsay was able to keep focused on doing what the doctor told her to do. One more push and the baby was pushed/pulled out. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice. Dr. Mensah acted quickly and everything happened smoothly.

Kaelyn Sydney Read was born at 6:50 AM on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 8 and a half ounces. Both baby and mommy were happy and healthy. We stayed two nights at RUH and the nursing staff on the maternity ward was amazing (with the exception of one cow of a nurse wearing an old-school nurse’s cap…she was terrible and had zero bedside manner). Here are some pictures…

Lindsay and I went to another ultrasound appointment today. We were hoping to find out the sex of the baby but the little critter was being shy and kept its thighs pressed firmly together. We were lucky enough to see it yawning and drinking amniotic fluid. It is so strange to be looking at a whole little person growing inside of my wife. So amazing! I have added a Baby album to the photo gallery and the pictures from the ultrasound today are in there.

Framing is progressing nicely at the new house. It is looking like they might finish off the second floor by the end of the week. Not sure if they’ll have the roof on, but it is possible. I am really hoping that they get things done quickly and get the roof shingled. We are aiming for a possession date at the end of August and we were told it will be ready four months from when the shingles are done. Four months from the end of April is the end of August. We have our fingers crossed! More pics are in the gallery now too.

All the worrying was for naught, thankfully. The baby is still there (on the opposite side of the belly to what Lindsay thought) and it has two little arms and two little legs and a head and a spine and a wee little heart pumping away. I even got to see it twitch its legs up to its chest. It’s too soon to tell if it is a boy or a girl, but I wouldn’t be telling you what it is anyway. They gave us an actual picture of the baby – its kinda like an xray – I have heard that some people only get copies. Without further delay, here it is: Boba Fetus (sorry for the color and such, but have you ever tried to scan one of these things on a scanner that doesn’t have a setting for scanning negatives?)