Saturday, August 8th was the date we returned home from the hospital...what a relief! The whole process was amazing. Tiring, but amazing.
We arrived at the Queensway Carleton Hospital at around 9 am on Thursday, August 6th (Kristin's original due date). The progression of labour is oftentimes characterized by how dilated, or effaced, the cervix is. Starting at 0 cm (diameter of the opening), the walls of the cervix gradually become thinner and thinner, ripening 10 cm of dilation. When we arrived at the hospital, Kristin was around 2 cm.
After some walking about (to try to promote effacement), Kristin was soon at 4 cm, the point at which Active Labour is often classified.
After ~13 hours (from noon until 1am), including
1) A room switch from triage to the birthing unit,
2) A couple of hours in a tub with water jets,
3) Enduring contractions to exhaustion,
4) An epidural,
5) Some relatively painless contractions,
6) Some heavy pushing to exhaustion, and finally
baby Bradley was born!!!
What an amazing experience it was! All the noises of the doctor and nurses' instructions, instruments beeping, and Kristin's screams were more than drowned out by the fresh helpless cry of our newborn baby. Even as I type this, it's hard to comprehend that our little bundle of joy was released from inside Kristin's body - but I was there to witness it. The tears almost rendered me unable to announce to Kristin and grandma, "It's a boy!"
The next 40 hours were spent sleeping, feeding, taking pictures, spending time with family and friendly visitors, and just enjoying our little guy.
His data sheet:
• Name: Bradley Hudson Paterson
• Weight: 6 lbs 11 oz
• Length: 50 cm
• Apgar score: must have been off the charts!
About 40 hours after delivery, on Saturday afternoon, Kristin and baby were released from the hospital. What a joy! It's now time to start a new chapter of our lives...the three of us.
What about you? How have you passed time at a hospital?
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