Milo's Story - from mommy

It seems strange that I am writing Milo's birth story and he technically shouldn't even be here yet!

At 3am on September 8th I woke up not sure if I had wet the bed or had my water break -neither good situations. I was just shy of 34 weeks pregnant. Errol and I had done absolutely no prep for his arrival - including figuring out who would take Elsa so I spent the next few hours in a panic while Errol wisely snored soundly next to me. By 6am the midwives said they wanted me to come in to the office to confirm that it was amniotic fluid. I weepily got Elsa ready for her first day of nursery school before Errol took her and I headed up to the midwives.

They confirmed my water broke and immediately admitted me to the hospital. Long story short, I was put on bed rest and pumped full of antibiotics and steroids to ward of infection and help mature the little man's lungs. I had a slew of information thrown at me on risk of having the baby too early and risk of infection if I didn't have him early enough. The OB had to tag team my care because the situation was now "high risk" - the OB's wanted to induce as soon as I hit 34 weeks which was something I wanted to avoid. The midwives where less invasive and supportive of my decision to let my body decide when to have the baby. They had to stop by labor a few times in order to make sure the steroids were in me long enough but were supportive in my decision to let the baby come when he was ready. I spent a very long and stressful three days being shuffled between labor and delivery and the maternal/child unit and being super uncomfortable on bed rest.

On September 11th at about 12:30am my contractions went from mildy uncomfortable to very uncomfortable but were only 20-30 mins apart. With my history of rapid labor the nurses and midwives were on high alert for me because the NICU team had to be assembled for the baby at delivery. At about 1am the midwife came to check on me and when she saw me bent over the bed she knew things were going to happen fast. She checked me and I was 6 centimeters dilated. I was quickly moved back into L&D, and labor progressed at breakneck speed from this point on.

Midwife Janine was amazing. It was only Errol, myself, Janine and the nurse in Milo's delivery because I went from 6 centimeters to delivery in just over an hour. It was intense, painful and amazing all at the same time. I was extremely grateful to Janine who was a great advocate that I could have the natural non-medicated birth I was hoping for despite the situation I was in. And thankfully I warned her that although I knew I could do it naturally and that was my intention, I would at some point, in fact, beg her for drugs and intervention. I did, and because I had prepped her she very politely ignored me and coached me to focus on the baby coming. Her and Errol both laughed (to themselves thankfully) when I asked "for a c-section to put me out of my misery". Milo arrived at 2:28am after only about two pushes!

I was very worried about how he would be when he born, if he would have trouble breathing etc., but after one quick second he was screaming and pink! I was able to hold him for a brief minute before they whisked him away to the NICU (thankfully I had been prepared for this so was just thankful I could briefly hold him). He was only in the NICU for four (very long) days and never had any trouble other than regulating his glucose levels and being jaundice.

We couldn't be happier to have him home and healthy.