how ada made her way into the world

thanks to everyone for all the comments and congratulations! we really appreciate it. i am sorry that it has taken me longer than i thought to give you all an update, but it is true what they say, two is a lot more work than one, especially the first couple of days when everyone is going through such an adjustment.

so it all started on wednesday morning when i woke around 2:00 with contractions. they were manageable, but i felt for sure that they were the real thing. around 9 am i phoned my mom and told her i thought this might be it and asked if she could come in and get cohen. she arrived around 11 am, but by then the contractions had decided to disappear. i felt foolish, thinking for sure that this was it, but my mom tried to help me not feel discouraged and suggested that her and cohen and i go for a walk, which we did. i was hoping they would start again on the walk but we had no such luck. just in case they came back my mom decided to take cohen back home with her sometime around 3 and i decided to get some sleep and went down for a nap. i woke from the nap with a strong contraction at 6 and had hope again, but another didn't come for a long time and so i decided once and for all to ignore them and went to bed for the night around 10.


i woke up again around 2 am with contractions, only this time instead of feeling hope i was feeling frustrated, i needed sleep! i continued to lie in bed to see if they would get closer together, they didn't. they were coming about every ten minutes which would give me just enough time to dose off and then be awakened by what was beginning to be excruciating contractions. this continued for a couple of hours, sometimes i had to get up and walk around, but they still never got closer together, and i was just waiting for them to stop. at around 10 am i decided to call the on call dr. at he hospital just to make sure there was nothing i needed to be worried about and to ask for some advice on how to get things going. the doctor who was on call was one that i quite like and once i had explained my situation she confirmed that she didn't think i was in active labour and suggested that i clean the house or go for another walk and that i should be prepared that this could go on for a couple of days yet. she also said that if anything changed or i felt uncomfortable that i could just come in and i didn't need to call back. to say i felt deflated would be an understatement. i was so exhausted from all the wondering and even though the contractions weren't close together, they were strong and were taking a lot out of me. once again i went and laid down and tried to wait it out.



it was only an hour later when things took a turn. the contractions didn't get closer together, but they changed somehow, the feeling was different and it made me nervous. i told marko that even if i looked foolish i felt a need to go to the hospital, and so we started to get ready. we both had a shower and grabbed the last few things and then called a cab. in the cab there i had a couple of contractions where it seemed like i wanted to push, but i didn't think this was possible, i mean i was concerned that they were just going to send me right back home, how could i have the urge to push? by this point with all the uncertainty i was beginning to think i was crazy anyway.

we arrived at the hospital around 12:30, got checked in, and waited for a room, the nurse having decided that i could skip the assessment area. we were finally in our room and i was checked by the doctor around 1:20 pm and she said i was 7cm dilated. phew, i thought, they aren't going to send me home, but i still thought i had a long haul, i mean i hadn't had a ton of terrible contractions and isn't this supposed to take hours and hours?? the nurse encouraged me to get in the shower for a bit at this point and so i did. she came in and said that if i felt the urge to push to come and get her. i couldn't have been in there more than 15 minutes when i felt a terrible urge to push and told marko. he went and got her and i started drying off, i was feeling a little panicky, having had the epidural with cohen i had never experienced that strong desire to push and it was a little unsettling, considering i thought i had so much longer to go.


the doctor came in and checked again and i was fully dilated. what!?! so soon? i was told that the next time i felt the urge to push i should go ahead. every contraction after that i felt the urge and it quickly became obvious that soon i would be having a baby. half an hour later our daughter was born into dad's waiting hands (he said she felt like a fish out of water and nearly dropped her!) and put up on my tummy, my water breaking at the very last moment (the dr. said that this meant she would grow up to be a sailor). a girl! she was born at 3:01. thank goodness i decided to listen to myself and come into the hospital.

it was such an amazing birth experience and so much different then what i was expecting. i didn't have that moment where i needed the epidural, or thought i couldn't go on. it was mentioned that because cohen was so big, his birth made it easier for this one and i think that must be true, thank goodness for that.

we are all doing well and so far the adjustment has been easier than i expected, but i will save the cohen update for another day.