The Willies: Mason's Story

39 weeks and 5 days. Don made me take this picture. When your maternity clothes are too small, it is time to stop being photographed.

My entire pregnancy I had one goal (well, that's not true, but it was one of the biggest goals): to make it to 38 weeks aka the last day of school. And if I didn't make it to 38 weeks, I wanted the baby to come soon enough so that my class could meet this baby who had been growing basically the entire school year. They sure were troopers to deal with a pregnant teacher the whole year. The last day of school came and went.

It was an emotional, yet exciting day. Last day of teaching. Forever? Who knows. At least for now. I cried in the assembly that they said goodbye to me and three other teachers. But, I also packed my car up with the remains of my classroom as fast as I could after school got out. I was out of the building 20 minutes after school ended. (I had spent the previous weeks packing away and filling our guest bedroom to the brim with teaching stuff). Funny how mixed the emotions were. I had made it. Now the baby could come...like, that night. Turns out our babe had plans of his own.

Two weeks went by...my due date came and went. Two days past my due date came and I sat in my doctor's office where I nearly cried telling my lovely doctor I had had zero contractions. Zero. And I was 40.2 weeks pregnant and HUGE. I had been scheduled to be induced at 41 weeks. It was, at least, an end. I was still hopeful I would start labor naturally so I could proceed forward with my natural birth plan. Yes, it's true. Natural. More on that later.

The weekend came: 5 days overdue. Zero contractions. Every inch of our house and garage had been cleaned, rearranged and organized. Don and I decided to take advantage of our for sure-even though every weekend for the last 5 weeks we had been saying it could be the last-child-less weekend. We headed to the Farmer's Market downtown. There was of course no parking spot close enough for the pregnant woman to waddle, so off to Red Iguana we went instead. Where we I ate myself sick. It was lovely. Mmm...

That night we went to bed around midnight. I got up for my hourly bathroom break and went back to bed when suddenly I felt a huge gush. For the last 9 months I had been wondering if I would know when my water broke. Oh how silly of me, how could you not know? I woke Don up who started running around like a crazy person repacking my hospital bag that, up until about 3 hours before, had been neatly packed and waiting for 4 weeks. Earlier that day I had decided to unpack my bag-who knows why-with plans to repack the next day.

The drive to the hospital was very surreal. I was about to give birth. Birth. Oh my. As we arrived at the hospital, we saw 3 other pregnant women waddling into the hospital. Thank you, full moon. By 3:00 am we were all checked in. My water had broken and I was dilated to a 4. I still had had zero contractions.

At the hospital waiting to be checked in

This is the part of the story where it all starts to get a little blurry. The first anesthesiologist had a difficult time putting my epidural in. He put it in 4 different times. It finally took effect on my right side, but not the left. The shift changed and in came the next anesthesiologist who took the epidural out and tried again 3 times. I have now received 7 epidurals. Fun. This time it finally took effect on both sides. The day went on and I was slowly progressing. 2 pm rolled around-12 hours into labor-and I was only at 5 cm. Around 5 pm I was at 7 or 8 cm when my epidural started to become less effective. I was now feeling everything on my right side. The next anesthesiologist came in re-dosed and then later tried to redo the epidural twice. I had now received 10 epidurals and was sure feeling alot. At 10 pm (20 hours into labor) it was finally time to start pushing. I pushed for 3 hours but now at 23 hours into labor and feeling everything, I was beyond exhausted. Even with all the pushing, Mason had not dropped at all. It was time for a new plan: a c-section.

I was disappointed that my natural birth plan had taken a complete 180, but I was so ready for our little guy to arrive. They took me into the OR to prep me. About 20 minutes later Don was able to come in. It was so surreal laying on the table with the sheet in front of me. I couldn't believe that after 24 hours of labor in just a few minutes we would be meeting our son. Everything you've heard about c-sections is true, there's alot of pressure that can sometimes almost be painful. Within a few minutes, our sweet little baby was here. The doctor brought him over for a quick glance (way too short) and then took him over to the team of pediatricians that was waiting to check on him. I couldn't believe he was finally here! Don went over with Mason for what seemed like another 24 hours. Finally Don brought Mason over and we just stared at him while they finished sewing everything up.

Yes I was 1 week later, yes I was in labor for 24 hours and had to have my epidural redone 10 times and yes I would do it all again this minute for our little Mason.