Blaise's birth story {part one}

16 days. 16 days had come and gone since my due date of september 1st.
i wasn't naive enough to hope think {as i had when i was pregnant with jude} that this baby would be coming  before my due date. i knew i would go overdue again.

i had a few days of achy, sore joints but for the most part i felt fine.
i went through a whole bunch of emotions {as you would know if you follow this blog} ranging from anger, to frustration to desperation to finally...acceptance. eventually this baby would come out of me, but i had no idea when and it didn't seem like it would happen any time soon.

at 41 weeks i went to the hospital with jamie to get a 41 week biophysical scan {ultrasound} to make sure everything was okay with the baby.
it turned out everything was fine. the baby was still moving quite a bit and the fluid levels were perfectly normal.

that night i started experiencing some regular contractions. so i timed them.
they were lasting a minute and coming every 5 minutes. exactly when they {you know, the medical professionals} tell you to head to the hospital. but they weren't increasing in intensity or frequency. this went on for over 4 hours. eventually i decided to go to bed and see what happened.

i woke up in the morning. no baby. no more contractions. so thankful i didn't head to the hospital.
we went back into the hospital that morning for my doctor's appointment and talked with the doctor about our next steps. he declined to give me a stretch and sweep {still!} but we went up to labour and delivery as he had detected that the ectopic heart beat was back and wanted to monitor the baby for a longer period of time. while i was there he checked me and found i was 5cm dilated. i was happy that there was some progression but not surprised. i was about 4-5 cm for weeks with jude before he came so i knew that this didn't mean that the birth was imminent.
they monitored the baby's heartbeat and found that while it was on the low side of "normal" {in the 120's}, there was nothing to be concerned about regarding the ectopic heartbeat.
we spoke about induction but didn't schedule anything.
then we went home with the plan to meet with the doctor on friday {this was on tuesday} if i hadn't already gone into labour.

friday arrived. no baby. i texted our doctor and he said to come in in the afternoon to assess.
we spoke and decided on tuesday as the induction date as my brother and his girlfriend would be spending the day with us on monday before they headed off on the rest of their whirlwind tour of uganda and tanzania.
i had random contractions off and on throughout the rest of the week.

sunday came and my brother and his girlfriend were arriving at 10:15pm that night. the airport is about an hour away from us. he would have to leave our house around 9:30pm and probably wouldn't be back until 11:30 or 12pm. it was decision making time. to send jamie or not to send jamie...
would i go into labour?

i decided to send jamie to pick them up. i was having no contractions and no signs labour was coming. so i told him to go.
another uneventful evening. {but i did get lots of crocheting done!}
and no baby.
they arrived shortly before midnight and i got up, said hello and then went back to bed.

the next day i woke up feeling achy but otherwise normal.
we spent the morning opening a few gifts that keven brought from home like legos! and cars! {and more bath and body works hand soap for me...yay!}.

my brother's girlfriend laura with noah & keven playing with legos.

then we all went out for lunch and did a bit of grocery shopping with them before heading back home for a relaxing afternoon together. i tried so hard not to waddle but my joints were feeling especially loose and it was a losing battle. 

that evening i made chili for dinner with a pineapple crumble for dessert. it was all so delicious {and both are apparently labour-inducing so that always helps} but i was now feeling achier than ever.

i was aware that i was experiencing some mild contractions but concentrated on dinner and getting the kids in bed. we reminded the boys {again} of what would happen if mommy & daddy had to go to the hospital in the middle of the night and what they should do if they woke up and we weren't at home {lisa, our other team member who lives in our house, would be sleeping in our room and taking care of them}. 

then the adults hung out in the living room and chatted and laughed together by candle light as power went out around 8pm. i started timing my contractions {just to see} on jamie's iPad and no one really was aware of what i was doing until they saw the timer. they were lasting about the same as last time; 45 seconds - 1 minute long and about 5 minutes apart. except they started getting closer together. and a bit stronger. 4 minutes apart. then 3 minutes apart. 

jamie started asking me to call the doctor. i resisted. i just didn't want to be labouring for hours in a hospital when i could be in the comfort of my own home. but then i agreed to call him when the contractions started coming about 2-3 minutes apart. 

i went to the bathroom and gathered my belongings. then i came out and called the doctor and told him we'd be on our way to the hospital in a few minutes and that my contractions had been regularly coming for {at that point} 2 hours now and were now 2 minutes apart. 

he said he was headed in the opposite way from the hospital but that he'd turn around and meet me there.

we said our goodbyes to keven and laura and wished them well on their gorilla trekking and that we'd see them on thursday with the baby {as either way, i'd be induced the next day if blaise hadn't arrived by then}. we gave our last minute instructions to lisa and nick for watching the boys and then we got in the car and started driving to the hospital.

stay tuned for part two...