Benjamin's Story..

After reading a fellow Blogger's writings about the birth of her lovely babies, I thought that I would tell the story of Ben's arrival!

I had originally been due September 12th, then September 25th. Being the first child, I had no idea when the big day was going to take place, but for some reason I thought that the baby would be early. My mother-in-law, who we had already planned for her to be in the room with us, was worried that she wasn't going to make it over in time seeing as she had to come from the Island. She had her bags packed in the car for 2 weeks, had the ferry schedules and flight schedules mapped out but she was still concerned so they came over on the 24th (maybe even earlier!).. I had NO signs of going into labour at this point.

So the in-laws came over with their 5th wheel trailer, camped it at the Cariboo RV Park and we waited. Everyday my father-in-law asked me "No baby yet!?". He was getting very antsy and wanting to get home to his regular routine :)

I had my check-ups.. nothing. I was dilated to 1cm, but that didn't really mean anything. Walked (and waddled) around Queens Park here in New Westminster almost every night hoping that it would help. Occasionally I got a pain, but nothing consistent. I would always go to sleep thinking "Is this the night!?". I was very excited, anxious, nervous, scared and emotional. I was happy to be having the baby but sad at the same time because my mother had passed away suddenly when I was just five and a half months pregnant. It was a devastating and horrible time for me. Just goes to show how tough those little babies are when they are inside of us and how our bodies work overtime to makes sure they are safe.

I went to a final doctors appointment on October 3rd and they said I would be going into the hospital the next day to get induced if nothing happened that night. Yay! But then they sent us accross the street right away to Royal Columbian Hospital for some tests.. we had no idea what was going on! We were suppsed to be going to the in-laws trailer for my last dinner before the baby so we had to call and explain what we knew and tell them we would call them when we knew more. Turns out my doctor thought that I might be getting Hyper-Tension (but didn't). We were told to call the hospital in the morning if we hadn't heard from them by 8am.

So the next morning I woke up and voila! I was having minor contractions 8 minutes apart! We were still going to the hospital that morning to get induced if things weren't progressing, but at least we were on our way to having a baby! Woo hoo! Mike drove me to the hospital with his mother, got admitted to the maternity ward part where they check you out. Bed number 1, just like the day before! They checked me over and I was at 2cm now, with minor contractions, and we waited for Dr. Waterman to come and put the gel on my cervix. By about 2:30pm, I had the gel in place, and we were going home for a while to see if things would progress or we were to come back at 7 for a second dosage. It seemed like as soon as we got home (and we were only a 10 minute drive away!) that the contractions started to come. Oh ya, and by this time Mike's brother had come over from Victoria to see if the baby was going to arrive on his days off! I couldn't even sit and visit, I had to go and lay down. The next couple hours went by so fast and the contractions went from 8 mins to 4 mins to 1 min and lasting a full minute. Holy heck. Mike called the hospital and they asked if I could still feel the baby (sort of) and to come back in. So off we went again, and got lucky bed number 1 again!

It was about 5pm and I was in full labour now. I managed to get changed, waddle to the bathroom, and practice breathing without hyperventilating! I did get a shot of demerol, which just made me nauscious, and then Dr. Waterman came again to break my waters. Within 30 seconds the contractions multiplied by a 1000!! They checked me again and I was still only 2cm. But I was getting contractions every minute! They decided they would get a room ready for me, and at about 7:30 I got my own labour and delivery room. I was sucking on the gas so hard at this point that I honestly don't remember much! Mike and his mom were just watching me breath and take in each pain. His mom is an LPN so she was concerned what was going on but nervous because she had never been through a natural birth. It was over an hour and no one came to check on me so Mike decided to go to the nurses station and get someone to come and check on me — I had no monitors hooked up to me or the baby. This is when I remeber that I HAD to start pushing. I couldn't help it. The nurse came and saw me do this and told me not to push. I of course said that I couldn't help it! She said "But you were only 2 cm!!" So she checked me and I was fully dilated +1!! This baby was coming out! Luckily my doctor was on shift that night so he got paged and came by to check things out. I remember running out of gas at one point (after Mike's mom told the nurse she thought it was running low but she didn't believe her!) and worrying about how I was going to get through the next contraction without it! Sure enough I ran out and one came and NO GAS! I quickly told the nurse "Hook it up!"!! At one point I remember looking up, unable to focus on anything because I was so high on gas, and seeing what felt like 20 doctors and nurses in the room!

Once I started pushing, it went pretty fast. The hardest part was getting his head out. Dr. Carkner did such a great job coaching me on when to push and when not to. I luckily only tore just a tiny tiny bit, and he put a little stitch in for good measure, but no episotomies! Yay! I kept asking if the head was out and how much longer, so they suddenly put a mirror up so I could see the progress. That really helped me focus. Mike was there for me to hold on to two fingers, his mother at my head putting cold clothes on my forehead and giving me ice chipts. One nurse kept chanting when I was pushing "That's it! Dynamite to the bum! Push all the dynamite to the bum!"

But all in all I only had to push for an hour and Benjamin Andrew Merriman was born at 11:34pm on Tuesday night, 10 days overdue! He was 21inches long and was very healthy. We were all so emotional when it was over and done with. I unfortunately was hemoraging pretty badly afterwards and was in pain trying to get the bleeding under control. Everything was a-ok within an hour, we went upstairs to our own private room, a nurse gave him a bit of a bath, I was able to nurse him a bit with help from the nurses and we got some sleep. It was a wonderful experience. We went home that Friday, due to being on medication and IV (from the blood loss) and to make sure he was nursing properly. I felt so great right away, no pains or anything, but still had to take it easy. Mike was wonderful.. he was able to stay with me the whole time at the hospital, changing diapers, walking him around the floor, helping me out. I am blessed with a fabulous husband.


This picture is the sunrise on the morning of Ben's birth from our hospital room.


It was so awesome coming home with him. Mike's parents were waiting there, and Mike went to get the dogs from my Dad's house (they just love Ben to bits!). An awesome experience.