Deliverance?

8:00 pm (AST) March 7
I have a bit of time on my hands at the moment because Megan decided she wanted an epidural at 5 cm and is now resting for the final stage. Since we have pretty much been up for 37 hours at this point and in the hospital for 22 of those, she needs a bit of rest so that she doesn’t tire out at the point where she has to push. Anyway, it has been a long adventure…
Megan’s water broke Thursday night at 9:00 while I was talking to our landlord (who, as of today is our former landlord, but that’s a story for another time) and it was a bit of a dog and pony show as we tried to collect enough fluid for the hospital to confirm. Although she was not having any contractions, the fact that her water broke a full two weeks before we expected sent a jolt of terror through both of us, but we reacted in completely different ways. Megan decided to call the neighbor to see if she could check on the cats while we were gone, whereas I ran around figuring out what we needed to bring to the hospital that we hadn’t already packed before deciding that it was imperative that I shower and brush my teeth. Can’t be too clean when you are going to the hospital!
We called a cab and sat silently on the way to the hospital, so the driver wasn’t freaked out that we would have a baby in his backseat, as if he couldn’t pick up on our visceral fear. We got here and checked in to have them look at the contents of a snack size baggie of clear liquid. In most cases they would confirm that your water broke and send you home to wait out the start of labor, but Megan had tested positive for high levels of a common bacterium that is present in a lot of women and has no ill effects, but has a minor risk of making the baby sick if it is exposed to it. Therefore, once the membrane was ruptured they weren’t going to let us get away. Instead, Megan was put on antibiotics and oxytosin, in order to speed up the labor. Well, that’s when all hell broke lose at the baby ward.
The IWK is Atlantic Canada’s only children’s hospital and a great place to give birth. They have 14 birthing rooms and a whole bunch more rooms for new parents to stay in post-birth. When we showed up at 10:00 they were probably half full with women in various stages of giving birth. We settled in and got the oxytosin going, which takes about 4 hours to really get the contractions kicking. We walked the halls a bit toting the coat rack of plastic bags attached to Megan and noticed that every time we made a lap, there seemed to be another pregnant woman at the check in. By the time we had been there for a bit, and had 3 hours of the oxytosin, every room in the place was full and there were six very pregnant women in the waiting area. At the IWK, every woman is assigned a private nurse who monitors you through your labor (or until her shift is up and you get the next nurse). With 20 crazy-eyed women all looking to burst, we turned out to be low on the totem pole because Megan’s labor could be slowed, simply by turning off the oxytosin. So, at 5:00 am, with Megan having contractions about every two minutes, we got the axe. Our nurse was assigned to some lady that was screaming down the hall enough to make us want to vomit and they were not willing to continue the oxytosin without a dedicated nurse. Its not like we lost our room, but we did lose the chemicals that were driving Megan’s labor. Over the next couple of hours her contractions faded while at least a dozen different people came in to let us know that we would have a nurse “soon” and apologize for setting us back in the process. Well, the 7:00 shift change didn’t alleviate the backlog, nor did the extra staff that came on at noon. As the sounds of women screaming faded into the tiny cries of newborns, the rooms around us started to empty. Unfortunately, much like a delayed airplane whose arrival is pushed back 15 minutes at a time for 3 hours on the monitor, the constant hope of getting started again meant that we really didn’t sleep during the morning and it wasn’t until 2:00 that we finally were assigned a nurse and she got us going again. Those 7 hours between bouts of oxytosin took some time to make up, and we were back at square one, 16 hours (and about 16 other babies) after arriving at the hospital. Though disheartening, no one was stopping us this time!
Over the next 6 hours as contractions picked up and we tried various places and positions to lessen them, we went through our final nurse change right around the time that Megan decided that the chemically-forced contractions were getting to be too much for her exhausted state and asked for an epidural. After nearly proposing to the anesthesiologist after he got everything set, she was able to relax enough to be comfortable. And that’s where things stand now. We have now reached the final countdown and are letting the contractions move the baby down into position. Not sure if that will happen before we see another midnight in this room or if she will be a March 8th baby, but we expect that we are in the final climb of this rollercoaster and the decent should be coming shortly. Luckily, we will be able to catch up o all this lost sleep once the baby is born… Right?
-Chris