Monday, February 23, 2009

Catherine Thérèse Cremasco is here!!

I went in to labour around 12:23 am yesterday morning, but didn't really know it. I thought I had to have a bowel movement and kept getting up to try to go almost every hour until about 5 am. When I went to the bathroom at 5 am and I wiped I had tons of blood show. I freaked out a bit, because despite the fact that I am a nurse I never expected it could be that much. I paged my midwife and immediately called my mom to ask her. She said it sounds like you are going to have a baby soon. My midwife called back and said I was either in labour or would likely be soon and to time anymore "cramps" I had and call when they were 5 mins apart, lasting a minute for an hour. So I started timing at about 6:30 am. From 6:30 to 7:30 am they were about 5 minutes and lasting 1 minute each. So I pages my midwife back, she said that because I was coping so well and planning on staying home as long as possible to just keep doing what I was doing and call when they were getting hard to talk through. She they called me back 30 mins later to ask where I had done my Group B Strep testing because they still didn't have the results. So I told her and she set off to get the results. By about 1 pm, the contractions were getting much closer together and were much more painful, so again I paged my midwife. She called back and said she had 1 more clinic appointment that she would like to do and that she would be there around 2, 2:30 pm, if I thought I could manage until then. I said yes. She came and assessed me at 2:30 pm and I was already 4 cm dilated and in active labour. I was shocked I thought the pains would be much worse at this point. So she stayed and I walked around the block with Jeff a few times. From 5 to 6 pm I tried to get a little rest since I really hadn't slept that previous night, but I gave up because they contractions were way worse laying down. My midwife rechecked me at 6:30 pm and said before she checked me that she would like to see me at about 6 cm, because they want to see you progress at least 0.5 cm per hour. So when she checked me and said "wow", I asked wow good or wow bad. She then said well if you want to give birth in the hospital we need to leave now because you are 9 cm dilated. I was even more shocked because although the contractions were tough to get through, I still didn't find them to be as painful as I have heard them described at this point. The HypnoBirthing was really working. So we left for the hospital after getting stuff together. We arrived and were in our labour room around 7:20 pm. I kept labouring like I had been at home and my midwife rechecked me at 8:20 pm. I was still 9 cm, but my cervical lip was completely gone and the baby had come down a lot more. My membranes were bulging and she suggested that we break my waters and speed things along. The first two contractions after my water broke were horrible. She offered for me to go in the birthing tub or use laughing gas at this point. I chose the tub because I wanted to try to do the whole labour natural. The tub helped greatly and I stayed in for about an hour at the point my midwife suggested we go back to the room to recheck where I was and go from there. I was finally at 10 cm dilated, which I had already suspected because I was feeling tons of pressure and was using the birth breaths I learned in HypnoBirthing while I was in the tub. I pushed for just under an hour trying a few different push positions. Finally I ended up on my side on the bed with my top leg up. The pushing was the hardest part and all I kept saying was I want it out now, is it over yet. Finally my midwife said you have about 5 to 10 mins and the baby will be out. I was so happy to hear that and within the next two contractions, about 3 mins her head was out. My midwife said to stop pushing and pant, but I was having a hard time not pushing. She then realized that the cord was wrapped twice around the babies neck and said push hard now, we need to get her out. One hard push and a little help from my midwife, the baby finally came out. They brought the baby right up to my chest, but had it covered with a blanket to rub it so it would cry more. Finally after a few minutes they took the baby over to the warmer to assess it better and suction out its nose and mouth because it was having a hard time crying. I still didn't know the sex at this point, so I told Jeff to go and look and find out. He said it was a girl, we looked at each other thought of the two girls names we had picked out and decided on Catherine Therese. They brought her back over to me, while still checking her and rubbing her. My midwife said that on my next contractions to try to push down the placenta. She used a little bit on pressure on the cord and it came out with one push. Follow that was a huge gush of liquid, it almost felt like my water had broke again. It wasn't at I was bleeding, so I had to get the IM shot of oxytocin. The placenta was intact, so she didn't think I was bleeding because of that. It appeared as though my uterus wasn't contracting properly. I also had a large rip inside my vagina. So they started massaging my uterus from the outside and the bleeding slowed down, but didn't stop. My midwife said she would have to repair the rip and would freeze me first. Boy did the stitches still hurt. Once she finally got all 12 stitched in the bleeding seemed much better. Things settled I was oozing a bit still but only when I moved around on the bed and while breast feeding, which is normal. She then said that she wanted to keep me over night because I had lost about 500 ml of blood and she want to watch me more closely. I agreed and we made plans for Jeff to go home because there were only semi-private rooms available. My mom and sister came to get Jeff to take him home and I was preparing to go to the ward. My midwife asked if I felt like I needed to use the washroom. I said I would try and she helped me to the washroom. I went slowly, but it didn't feel as bas as I thought it would. I got up to wash my hands and felt like I was going to be sick, I asked her if that was normal. She said its ok as long as I didn't feel like I was going to faint, I said no, turned around and said now I feel faint and fainted right in to her. I woke up on the floor of the bathroom with three midwives around me talking to me asking me how I was and propping my head up with pillows. They check my blood pressure which was still great and helped me up and back in to the bed, they checked the pad I was wearing and there was a plum size clot sitting on it. They then started and IV and gave me more oxytocin in the IV to stop the bleeding. I went over to the floor, fed Catherine again and went to sleep. I got up at around 7:30 am to go pee because by then I had had over a liter of fluid in via my IV and my bladder was full. The bleeding seemed to be much better then and I went back to bed until 8:30 am. I got up to use the washroom again then and had hardly and bleeding. I ate breakfast and fed Catherine again and waited until I could call Jeff (when we left the hospital he said not to call until after 10 am, so he could get a little sleep), so at 10:30 am I finally called and said I should be coming home I was just waiting for my midwife to come back and discharge me. He came at around 11:30 am and my midwife came at around 12. She was very happy with me and the baby and sent us on our way.

The bleeding is still very minimal and even though I have passed another plum sized, I feel really good. They finally got the results of my Group B Strep test and I was positive. I showed no signs of infection and the baby has also been fine. They usually test their blood cell counts at 4 and 12 hours post delivery with Group B Strep unknown patients or patients who have not been able to have the antibiotics in 4 hours before delivery. We were almost at 20 hours post when she found out. So we are just watching her really closely. She's been fine, not temperature, increased breathing or irritability, so for now we aren't going to do anything other than watch and wait. If she shows any signs or symptoms of infection I have to get her to the hospital ASAP, but I'm not too worried being a pediatric nurse.

She sleeps like a champ and I often have to wake her to feed. She looks just like Jeff and has a full head of brown curly hair. We are still working on her latch, but feeds well once on properly.

Here are a few pictures of Catherine:

With my Mommy



With my Daddy



With my Grammy



With my Aunt



With my Nono and Nona



With my Zia



With my Zio



With my God Mother



~Katie~

Sunday, February 22, 2009

I went in to labour around 12:23 am yesterday morning, but didn't really know it. I thought I had to have a bowel movement and kept getting up to try to go almost every hour until about 5 am. When I went to the bathroom at 5 am and I wiped I had tons of blood show. I freaked out a bit, because despite the fact that I am a nurse I never expected it could be that much. I paged my midwife and immediately called my mom to ask her. She said it sounds like you are going to have a baby soon. My midwife called back and said I was either in labour or would likely be soon and to time anymore "cramps" I had and call when they were 5 mins apart, lasting a minute for an hour. So I started timing at about 6:30 am. From 6:30 to 7:30 am they were about 5 minutes and lasting 1 minute each. So I pages my midwife back, she said that because I was coping so well and planning on staying home as long as possible to just keep doing what I was doing and call when they were getting hard to talk through. She they called me back 30 mins later to ask where I had done my Group B Strep testing because they still didn't have the results. So I told her and she set off to get the results. By about 1 pm, the contractions were getting much closer together and were much more painful, so again I paged my midwife. She called back and said she had 1 more clinic appointment that she would like to do and that she would be there around 2, 2:30 pm, if I thought I coould manage until then. I said yes. She came and assessed me at 2:30 pm and I was already 4 cm dilated and in active labour. I was shocked I thought the pains would be much worse at this point. So she stayed and I walked around the block with Jeff a few times. From 5 to 6 pm I tried to get a little rest since I really hadn't slept that previous night, but I gave up because they contractions were way worse laying down. My midwife rechecked me at 6:30 pm and said before she checked me that she would like to see me at about 6 cm, because they want to see you progress at least 0.5 cm per hour. So when she checked me and said "wow", I asked wow good or wow bad. She then said well if you want to give birth in the hospital we need to leave now because you are 9 cm dilated. I was even more shocked because although the contractions were tough to get through, I still didn't find them to be as painful as I have heard them described at this point. The HypnoBirthing was really working. So we left for the hospital after getting stuff together. We arrived and were in our labour room around 7:20 pm. I kept labouring like I had been at home and my midwife rechecked me at 8:20 pm. I was still 9 cm, but my cervical lip was completely gone and the baby had come down a lot more. My membranes were bulging and she suggested that we break my waters and speed things along. The first two contractions after my water broke were horrible. She offered for me to go in the birthing tub or use laughing gas at this point. I chose the tub because I wanted to try to do the whole labour natural. The tub helped greatly and I stayed in for about an hour at the point my midwife suggested we go back to the room to recheck where I was and go from there. I was finally at 10 cm dilated, which I had already suspected because I was feeling tons of pressure and was using the birth breaths I learned in HypnoBirthing while I was in the tub. I pushed for just under an hour trying a few different push positions. Finally I ended up on my side on the bed with my top leg up. The pushing was the hardest part and all I kept saying was I want it out now, is it over yet. Finally my midwife said you have about 5 to 10 mins and the baby will be out. I was so happy to hear that and within the next two contractions, about 3 mins her head was out. My midwife said to stop pushing and pant, but I was having a hard time not pushing. She then realized that the cord was wrapped twice around the babies neck and said push hard now, we need to get her out. One hard push and a little help from my midwife, the baby finally came out. They brought the baby right up to my chest, but had it covered with a blanket to rub it so it would cry more. Finally after a few minutes they took the baby over to the warmer to assess it better and suction out its nose and mouth because it was having a hard time crying. I still didn't know the sex at this point, so I told Jeff to go and look and find out. He said it was a girl, we looked at each other thought of the two girls names we had picked out and decided on Catherine Therese. They brought her back over to me, while still checking her and rubbing her. My midwife said that on my next contractions to try to push down the placenta. She used a little bit on pressure on the cord and it came out with one push. Follow that was a huge gush of liquid, it almost felt like my water had broke again. It wasn't at I was bleeding, so I had to get the IM shot of oxytocin. The placenta was intact, so she didn't think I was bleeding because of that. It appeared as though my uterus wasn't contracting properly. I also had a large rip inside my vagina. So they started massaging my uterus from the outside and the bleeding slowed down, but didn't stop. My midwife said she would have to repair the rip and would freeze me first. Boy did the stitches still hurt. Once she finally got all 12 stitched in the bleeding seemed much better. Things settled I was oozing a bit still but only when I moved around on the bed and while breast feeding, which is normal. She then said that she wanted to keep me over night because I had lost about 500 ml of blood and she want to watch me more closely. I agreed and we made plans for Jeff to go home because there were only semi-private rooms available. My mom and sister came to get Jeff to take him home and I was preparing to go to the ward. My widwife asked if I felt like I needed to use the washroom. I said I would try and she helped me to the washroom. I went slowly, but it didn't feel as bas as I thought it would. I got up to wash my hands and felt like I was going to be sick, I asked her if that was normal. She said its ok as long as I didn't feel like I was going to faint, I said no, turned around and said now I feel faint and fainted right in to her. I woke up on the floor of the bathroom with three midwives around me talking to me asking me how I was and proping my head up with pillows. They check my blood pressure which was still great and helped me up and back in to the bed, they checked the pad I was wearing and there was a plum size clot sitting on it. They then started and IV and gave me more oxytocin in the IV to stop the bleeding. I went over to the floor, fed Catherine again and went to sleep. I got up at around 7:30 am to go pee because by then I had had over a litre of fluid in via my IV and my bladder was full. The bleeding seemed to be much better then and I went back to bed until 8:30 am. I got up to use the washroom again then and had hardly and bleeding. I ate breakfast and fed Catherine again and waited until I could call Jeff (when we left the hospital he said not to call until after 10 am, so he could get a little sleep), so at 10:30 am I finally called and said I should be coming home I was just waiting for my midwife to come back and discharge me. He came at around 11:30 am and my midwife came at around 12. She was very happy with me and the baby and sent us on our way.

The bleeding is still very minimal and even though I have passed another plum sized, I feel really good. They finally got the results of my Group B Strep test and I was positive. I showed no signs of infection and the baby has also been fine. They usually test their blood cell counts at 4 and 12 hours post delivery with Group B Strep unknown patients or patients who have not been able to have the antibiotics in 4 hours before delivery. We were almost at 20 hours post when she found out. So we are just watching her really closely. She's been fine, not temperature, increased breathing or irritability, so for now we aren't going to do anything other than watch and wait. If she shows any signs or symptoms of infection I have to get her to the hospital ASAP, but I'm not too worried being a pediatric nurse.

She sleeps like a champ and I often have to wake her to feed. She looks just like Jeff and has a full head of brown curly hair. We are still working on her latch, but feeds well once on properly.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Catherine Therese Cremasco is Here!!

Well most of you know from my previous post that I went in to labour around 12:23 am yesterday morning, but didn't really know it. I thought I had to have a bowel movement and kept getting up to try to go almost every hour until about 5 am. When I went to the bathroom at 5 am and I wiped I had tons of blood show. I freaked out a bit, because despite the fact that I am a nurse I never expected it could be that much. I paged my midwife and immediately called my mom to ask her. She said it sounds like you are going to have a baby soon. My midwife called back and said I was either in labour or would likely be soon and to time anymore "cramps" I had and call when they were 5 mins apart, lasting a minute for an hour. So I started timing at about 6:30 am. From 6:30 to 7:30 am they were about 5 minutes and lasting 1 minute each. So I pages my midwife back, she said that because I was coping so well and planning on staying home as long as possible to just keep doing what I was doing and call when they were getting hard to talk through. She they called me back 30 mins later to ask where I had done my Group B Strep testing because they still didn't have the results. So I told her and she set off to get the results. By about 1 pm, the contractions were getting much closer together and were much more painful, so again I paged my midwife. She called back and said she had 1 more clinic appointment that she would like to do and that she would be there around 2, 2:30 pm, if I thought I coould manage until then. I said yes. She came and assessed me at 2:30 pm and I was already 4 cm dilated and in active labour. I was shocked I thought the pains would be much worse at this point. So she stayed and I walked around the block with Jeff a few times. From 5 to 6 pm I tried to get a little rest since I really hadn't slept that previous night, but I gave up because they contractions were way worse laying down. My midwife rechecked me at 6:30 pm and said before she checked me that she would like to see me at about 6 cm, because they want to see you progress at least 0.5 cm per hour. So when she checked me and said "wow", I asked wow good or wow bad. She then said well if you want to give birth in the hospital we need to leave now because you are 9 cm dilated. I was even more shocked because although the contractions were tough to get through, I still didn't find them to be as painful as I have heard them described at this point. The HypnoBirthing was really working. So we left for the hospital after getting stuff together. We arrived and were in our labour room around 7:20 pm. I kept labouring like I had been at home and my midwife rechecked me at 8:20 pm. I was still 9 cm, but my cervical lip was completely gone and the baby had come down a lot more. My membranes were bulging and she suggested that we break my waters and speed things along. The first two contractions after my water broke were horrible. She offered for me to go in the birthing tub or use laughing gas at this point. I chose the tub because I wanted to try to do the whole labour natural. The tub helped greatly and I stayed in for about an hour at the point my midwife suggested we go back to the room to recheck where I was and go from there. I was finally at 10 cm dilated, which I had already suspected because I was feeling tons of pressure and was using the birth breaths I learned in HypnoBirthing while I was in the tub. I pushed for just under an hour trying a few different push positions. Finally I ended up on my side on the bed with my top leg up. The pushing was the hardest part and all I kept saying was I want it out now, is it over yet. Finally my midwife said you have about 5 to 10 mins and the baby will be out. I was so happy to hear that and within the next two contractions, about 3 mins her head was out. My midwife said to stop pushing and pant, but I was having a hard time not pushing. She then realized that the cord was wrapped twice around the babies neck and said push hard now, we need to get her out. One hard push and a little help from my midwife, the baby finally came out. They brought the baby right up to my chest, but had it covered with a blanket to rub it so it would cry more. Finally after a few minutes they took the baby over to the warmer to assess it better and suction out its nose and mouth because it was having a hard time crying. I still didn't know the sex at this point, so I told Jeff to go and look and find out. He said it was a girl, we looked at each other thought of the two girls names we had picked out and decided on Catherine Therese. They brought her back over to me, while still checking her and rubbing her. My midwife said that on my next contractions to try to push down the placenta. She used a little bit on pressure on the cord and it came out with one push. Follow that was a huge gush of liquid, it almost felt like my water had broke again. It wasn't at I was bleeding, so I had to get the IM shot of oxytocin. The placenta was intact, so she didn't think I was bleeding because of that. It appeared as though my uterus wasn't contracting properly. I also had a large rip inside my vagina. So they started massaging my uterus from the outside and the bleeding slowed down, but didn't stop. My midwife said she would have to repair the rip and would freeze me first. Boy did the stitches still hurt. Once she finally got all 12 stitched in the bleeding seemed much better. Things settled I was oozing a bit still but only when I moved around on the bed and while breast feeding, which is normal. She then said that she wanted to keep me over night because I had lost about 500 ml of blood and she want to watch me more closely. I agreed and we made plans for Jeff to go home because there were only semi-private rooms available. My mom and sister came to get Jeff to take him home and I was preparing to go to the ward. My midwife asked if I felt like I needed to use the washroom. I said I would try and she helped me to the washroom. I went slowly, but it didn't feel as bad as I thought it would. I got up to wash my hands and felt like I was going to be sick, I asked her if that was normal. She said its ok as long as I didn't feel like I was going to faint, I said no, turned around and said now I feel faint and fainted right in to her. I woke up on the floor of the bathroom with three midwives around me talking to me asking me how I was and propping my head up with pillows. They check my blood pressure which was still great and helped me up and back in to the bed, they checked the pad I was wearing and there was a plum size clot sitting on it. They then started and IV and gave me more oxytocin in the IV to stop the bleeding. I went over to the floor, fed Catherine again and went to sleep. I got up at around 7:30 am to go pee because by then I had had over a liter of fluid in via my IV and my bladder was full. The bleeding seemed to be much better then and I went back to bed until 8:30 am. I got up to use the washroom again then and had hardly and bleeding. I ate breakfast and fed Catherine again and waited until I could call Jeff (when we left the hospital he said not to call until after 10 am, so he could get a little sleep), so at 10:30 am I finally called and said I should be coming home I was just waiting for my midwife to come back and discharge me. He came at around 11:30 am and my midwife came at around 12. She was very happy with me and the baby and sent us on our way.

The bleeding is still very minimal and even though I have passed another plum sized, I feel really good. They finally got the results of my Group B Strep test and I was positive. I showed no signs of infection and the baby has also been fine. They usually test their blood cell counts at 4 and 12 hours post delivery with Group B Strep unknown patients or patients who have not been able to have the antibiotics in 4 hours before delivery. We were almost at 20 hours post when she found out. So we are just watching her really closely. She's been fine, not temperature, increased breathing or irritability, so for now we aren't going to do anything other than watch and wait. If she shows any signs or symptoms of infection I have to get her to the hospital ASAP, but I'm not too worried being a pediatric nurse.

She sleeps like a champ and I often have to wake her to feed. She looks just like Jeff and has a full head of brown curly hair. We are still working on her latch, but feeds well once on properly.

Here is my last bump shot at 37 week, 5 days - about 2 hours before Catherine Therese was born:




Here are some photo's of Catherine Therese:


With Mommy



With Daddy



With Grammy



With Aunt Samantha



~Katie~

Friday, February 13, 2009

Yikes!!!

So yesterday Jeff and I set up the crib brought the change table in to the room. Jeff also finally drilled the whole for the peg to go in for out cradle. Once we had that all done I started to organize the room and move furniture where it belongs. The border is going to have to wait to be put up as you are not suppose to put border on freshly painted walls as it will peel. So we have to wait a month, but I'm ok with that I just want to get the room ready for the baby to come. So the babies bag is packed. All the baby laundry is washed and almost put away. I have most of my stuff put together to take to the hospital, but not all of it. I was feeling pretty good going to bed last night. I had lost what I thought was my mucous plug and the room was starting to come together.

At about midnight I woke up with "cramps" I thought I just needed to go number 2. I tried and couldn't so I went back to bed. I did the same dance back and forth with the "cramps" almost every hour until 5 am. I went at 5 am and when I wiped there was tons of blood. I freaked out big time because I didn't know why there was so much blood. I paged my midwife and then called my mom to ask her. She said it sounded like I was in labour. My midwife called me back and I told her what was happening and about the blood. She said that it was my bloody show and that I could be in labour now or I just be having warm up labour. So I have been timing my contractions since about 6:20 am, its now 7:10 am and they have pretty much been 1 minute long and 5 mins apart. So we will see if this is the real thing. I know I said I was ready, but I wanted to get the last few things today and finish setting up the room!!

~Katie~

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Almost all ready for the baby to come!!

Well we finally had our hospital registration appointment and hospital tour last night. Jeff was bored and a lot of it didn't apply to what we will be doing because we have a midwife, but I am glad it's done and other with. The chair rail is now all up and the primer coat has been put on. So all I have to do is put the top coat on the chair rail, do a few touch ups on the baseboards where the chalk board paint leaked under the tape, put the baseboard up and set the room up. I will post pictures as soon as it's done.

Hopefully later today or tomorrow I will be picking up our change table and Friday or Saturday my mom and I will be going to purchase the rest of the stuff we still need before the baby comes.

Today I hope to finish all of the babies laundry and the thank you cards for the shower.

Eeeks time is going by so quickly only 18 more days until my due date!!

~Katie~

Monday, February 9, 2009

37 Weeks = Full Term

Ya, I made it the baby is now full term and is more than welcome to vacate its current premises anytime (hopefully sooner rather than later).

My shower yesterday was great. I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while. Our youth group kids did a great job setting up and running the shower with Joanne's help, I was really impressed. Now I just have to wash and organize everything. Easier said than done since the nursery is still not finished. It's all painted and the chair rail is a little more than half way done, but no border yet. Jeff said he would try to finish it tonight but I don't think that is going to happen because he called from work as is very tired today. Hopefully he gets a second wind and does get it finished. Once he does that then I can do the border and then I can organize and unpack the room!!

Here is my 37 week bump picture.




~Katie~

Monday, February 2, 2009

Maternity Shots

We have our maternity shots back already!!! I love how they turned out.



































~Katie~

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Exhaustion is truly not fun!!

Well even though I had a great time yesterday going to the GTA GTG, having our maternity photos done and visiting with our friends. I am totally wiped today and am spending the day on the couch.

On Friday morning I check my urine because it had tested positive at my midwife appointment and I had a large amount of glucose in my urine. So my midwife wants me to repeat my 3 hour glucose test on Monday. So yet again I get to spend 3 hours at the lab and drink the horrible orange stuff on an empty stomach. I'm so excited... NOT!!

The only up to tomorrow is that we are likely getting the crib from Jeffs aunt and uncle, which will be exciting and I can't wait for that. Maybe it will make the morning more bearable and pass faster.

Here is my week 36 bump picture, you can totally tell that I have dropped in this picture because I have a lot my room between my belly and my chest.




~Katie~