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| Ronan's first picture - immediately after birth |
Ronan was born on the 14th of July, 9 days late and the day before my scheduled induction. I am so thankful I went into labor naturally because being induced was the last thing I wanted. I started having mild contractions about 2 days before he was delivered, but they didn't last long and there was no pattern to them. On the 13th I was pretty sure we would be heading to the hospital that day. I was having strong contractions all throughout the night and that morning, and they were about 6 minutes apart for quite a while. Once the afternoon rolled around however they slowed down. We decided to take a drive and ended up stopping for lunch. The contractions were still strong but again, the pattern dissipated and by the evening I would only have a contraction every 15 minutes or so. I however didn't get much sleep that night and we ended up heading to the hospital around 6am on the morning of the 14th. We arrived at around 7am and had to enter through the Emergency Room because the front doors of the hospital are locked until 8. Because of that, we had to wind our way through a maze of dark hospital hallways until we eventually found our way to the maternity ward. They took me in and hooked me up to a monitor for about 30 minutes to check my contractions and his heartbeat. When she examined me I was 100% effaced but only 2cm dilated.
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| Ronan and Daddy's first photo |
At this particular hospital, they won't admit you to a delivery room until you are 3cm, so while they got a bed ready for me in the maternity ward (basically a large room with 8 beds separated by curtains) the midwife told me to walk around for an hour and then come back and see if the bed was ready. I was in quite a lot of pain and was also throwing up and walking was not on my agenda, so we headed back out to the car and sat in the parking lot for about 45 minutes until I was in too much pain and wanted to go back into the hospital. Luckily by this time a bed was ready for me but unfortunately it was during the doctor's morning rounds so Steve wasn't allowed to stay with me as there were other women in the room who had to be examined and they won't let husbands stay. This was my biggest fear throughout my entire pregnancy. I didn't want to be in labor alone, in a room with 7 other women, but that's just how it ended up. After about 15 minutes though I texted Steve to come back up and that I didn't care if they tried to kick him out, I was in too much pain to be by myself. I'm glad I told him to come back upstairs because if I hadn't, he probably would have missed the birth. Within 10 minutes of him being back in the ward my water broke, and that's when the pain really hit. When the midwife examined me again she said "Oh! Ok, well the head is RIGHT there, so you're fully dilated!" I remember asking if it was too late for an epidural even though I knew it was and she said "Yes sweetie, your baby is coming now" as she ran out of the room in search for help. The next thing I knew I was being wheeled out of the ward, where they discreetly must have cleared of the other women, and was rushed down what felt like extremely long hallways to the delivery room. I honestly thought he was going to be born in the hallway, and I remember the sweet midwife saying "You're baby must really want to meet you!" By the time we got into the room, he was born within 5 minutes after just 3 pushes at 11:36am. I honestly don't even remember if the doctor made it in time or if he was delivered by one of the midwives, I just remember focusing on squeezing Steve's t-shirt with one hand and holding his hand with the other. The doctor said that I was a record for him with delivering so quickly as a first time mom! After he was born they put him straight on my chest and he immediately just looked straight into my eyes. I was able to hold him for as long as I wanted before they weighed him and did the other standard tests. Ronan Edward was 7lbs 11oz and 21.5 inches long.
I have to say I'm quite impressed with myself that I delivered naturally (not that I had a choice with how quickly he arrived!). It was in my birth plan that I wanted to try a non-medicated birth but I wasn't opposed to an epidural if I thought I needed it. I'm thankful I didn't have time to get any medication. Not only do I now know what I am capable of doing (and I'm pretty sure I can do anything now!), but Ronan was SO alert after birth and I think that has a lot to do with not having drugs in his system. But no matter how anyone gives birth, naturally, medicated, c-section... we're all amazingly strong women! Nobody gets an award for giving birth a certain way. I'm just really proud of myself knowing I got through it!
Overall I think I had a wonderful birth. I was so stressed about it because the care I had received up until then was not great, especially when dealing with a couple doctors who I'm pretty sure thought they were God's greatest gift to Earth. But even though I don't really like the outdated rules that the hospital still holds, every single midwife was so sweet and absolutely amazing. They made the entire experience so great. And honestly, I now have the most beautiful baby boy and I would go through everything again <3
