Tale of the Labour Sock, and my Boy's Scary Moment

You may remember that I did the math for and cast on and ribbed a sock to work on while in the early stages of labour and while in hospital. While I am pleased I did not end up casting on the second sock (can you imagine? I think I would have been begging for death had it gone on that long!!), I was still startled by how much got done.
To be fair, I did start working on it Saturday (the 14th) when Mom took me over Early Assessment, so I got a good start on the leg while there.
Tuesday morning, Phil, the sock and I headed up to the Obstetrics Day Unit for the gel application. Since this procedure meant a lot of waiting while hooked up to machines, I got quite a bit of knitting done there


Then I knit while in my room upstairs, I knit while waiting to be assessed and then I knit some more while we walked around trying to get the baby to come down and things to start progressing:



I am working the heel flap in that shot, as we walked from one end of the hospital to the other. I'm so glad I bought the bag...saved Phil from having to follow me around carrying the yarn.

I knit before finally falling asleep Tuesday night in our independant stay room. I knit while we sat in Labour and Delivery waiting on the dr to give the go ahead on the pitocin induction. I knit even after they put an IV in my hand, I knit through the contractions. I made it through turning the heel, picking up the stitches and starting the decreases. It was then that the contractions got too bad for the knitting to be a good enough distraction. But up until that point I found that concentrating on each stitch took my mind off the pain. And it was not too long after I found it too hard to knit that I took advantage of the epidural services offered by the talented Anesthesiologist.

Down side to this method of distraction? IV in left hand. I overworked my wrist and have not been able to knit more than a row since having the baby. The back of my hand is still bruised.



In my post announcing his birth I made reference to some scary moments. His heartrate kept dipping quite low whenever I had a contraction, and the head just was not coming down. The drs realized I actually had more amniotic fluid than what is typical, and they worried about the cord prolapsing should my water break on it's own, so they opted to break it in a controlled fashion. I wish we had taken a before and after photo, you could see a dramatic change in the size of my belly. Still I was not dialating as quickly as they wanted to see, and his heartrate was still taking those dips. The dr sat with me and explained that A) I needed to be prepared for the Neo-Natal team to come rushing in once the baby was born and B) I was on the clock and if I did not progress soon while these dips were happening, they would have to start looking into a c-section. This was the point which I took the epi and went to sleep. After an hour's nap, they examined me and discovered that I was dialating away, the baby's heartrate stopped dipping so scarily, and a new dr came on shift and all talk of c-section stopped, although they did remind me of the possibility of needing the Neo-Natal team in.

Finally, it came time to push, and really push not the "let's see if we can get this going by pushing anyway" crap that just wore me out earlier. And while it was hard work, the final push was not the 2hour plus ordeal that it was with Grace.

With the final push that brought him into the world, it was discovered that the cord was around his neck twice. And that last push tightened it enough to essentially choking him. He arrested, they had to revive him. Those 30 seconds stretched for hours. Then I heard him howl. They held him up for me to see (although, I could not really see him since I did not have my glasses on. My first view of my son was a pinky blob in the dr's arms) and I cried with relief and joy.

Later, Mom told me that the baby was the scariest shade of purple she had ever seen. I am so happy that I do not have that memory of his birth, the staff did not let me see him until he was ok. I am grateful to them for that, the what-ifs in my head are scary enough without visuals.

Gabriel was about 36 hours old when we finally decided on his name (I thought all along I was carrying a "Nora"). I'm glad we waited and tried a few out before deciding. Gabriel suits him, and it feels right, whereas the other names we batted about just did not, they felt more like names we picked because he needed to be called something.

We were in hospital a few extra days because he was jaundiced and needed phototherapy. Friday night Phil came in with the kids to visit, and Grace was not feeling so hot. We debated whether or not she should even be in the hospital visiting...when she vomited. At my nurse's feet. Whoops. My mom was taking the kids overnight and all day Saturday because Phil had to do a clinical rotation Saturday from 7am to 7pm, so he was staying overnight with me. So my poor mother, had to deal with Grace being sick overnight and some of Saturday, although Grace did not get really sick until overnight Saturday and Sunday when she was home with us. Phil did not do his night shift rotation Sunday night, which was really good because he took Grace over to the IWK to be checked (she was ok, just a bit dehydrated) and Cam decided to join in the fun by vomiting around midnight. Thankfully it did not hit Cam as hard as it hit Grace, and he is ok and back at school today.

Now that Grace is on the mend she has been demanding that she hold the baby, and all she wants to do is sit quietly on the couch snuggling him. I was worried she would be jealous, but she's doing great. Cam has been carrying photos of him and Gabriel to school to show off, and has asked me to bring the baby down so everyone can see him.

Grace really loves her little brother:


ETA: And I nearly forgot...we had special visitors to the hospital on Thursday:



(It speaks again of the insanity surrounding this wee family...I was really excited to see them)