Ryan's Birth Story

Ryan Victor Gagnon surprised everyone by deciding that he was ready to make his entrance to the world on Saturday, January 23, 2010.

Actually, in hindsight, Mommy was not so surprised. I had been telling everyone I wasn't going to make it to the c-section date of February 16, but no one really believed me! Well, I had been registering minor contractions on those last few NSTs at the hospital. Furthermore, about 2 nights before Ryan's birth, I was up having a late-night snack when I thought I lost a little amniotic fluid, and I had some pretty strong contractions. No more fluid came out after a few hours, and the contractions stopped, so I thought maybe it was just pregnancy incontinence, and forgot all about it until after Ryan was born.

Another funny thing is how anxious I was, after starting my maternity leave on January 18, to get everything ready for the baby right away. Within a week, I had all my shopping done, my hospital bags packed, and all the baby stuff ready to go. Daddy thought I was being a little too eager. Well, considering I put the bassinet together the day before I gave birth, I think I knew on some level that Ryan was coming soon!

So, on Saturday the 23rd, I was lying on the love seat, watching TV with the kids. Rod was at a meeting with a client at work. At about 10:30 AM, I got up to go to the bathroom. Then, I felt the gush. At first I was horrified, thinking it must be incontinence; I mean, I was only 35 weeks, 2 days pregnant! But the fluid kept coming, and then I knew what it was. I had to ask Andrea to go get me a towel, and I was trying to stay calm. I put in a Dora DVD to distract the kids, but Andrea knew something was up, and started asking questions about what was going on. Imagine me at home with the kids, water broken at 35 weeks, trying to stay calm, and quickly explain in terms a four-year-old can understand that the baby was coming, and the wet stuff was not pee, but amniotic fluid! Still, the story goes that Andrea later told everyone that "Mommy peed on the carpet, but it wasn't her fault"!

I told Andrea to watch Kevin, tried to call Rod (no answer), then sent him a text. Next, I called Gram and Papa, who were at a restaurant, about to order breakfast. I told them to take their time because I wanted to shower, anyway, and didn't feel there was any reason to rush to the hospital. By the way, that was an interesting shower. I tried to shave my legs quickly, and ended up slicing and scraping myself in to a mess (the nurses in labour and delivery noticed this later, and thought it was pretty funny, but admitted to doing it themselves when they were in labour). Rod called while I was in the shower, and I hopped out soaking wet to take his call.

Rod was soon home, and Gram and Papa just a bit after, and we were off to the hospital. I think we got there within an hour of my water breaking. We went straight up to OB triage. I think it's funny how they want to make sure your water really has broken. I mean, I asked to go to the bathroom and literally left a trail of fluid behind me, and they still wanted to do the swab test! Needless to say, that was clearly positive.

I can't remember which doctor I saw first. Dr. Leung was on call that day, and said he'd definitely be delivering our baby sometime that afternoon. The anesthesiologist came, and when he found out I'd eaten breakfast, he wanted to put off the c-section till the evening. Otherwise, they might have done it around noon! Then, we also had to get a hold of the endocrinologist who was on-call. (I won't say names, but I think this guy was clueless!)

Anyway, it took about 2 more hours before they got me more comfortable in a labour and delivery room. By this point, I was having regular contractions, but the pain was manageable without drugs. It was a quiet day in the labour-delivery area, so I got lots of attention from the nurses. I was hooked up to the fetal heart-rate and contraction monitor. They told me that my c-section was scheduled for 4 PM.

Well, they came in at about 3:30 and said one of the doctors wasn't available, so my c-section was moved to 5:30 PM. Well, I think Ryan didn't like that. Right at 4PM, when he was expecting to be delivered, his heart rate took a sudden and prolonged dip. In rushed the nurses, keeping an eye on the monitor, trying to figure out what was causing him distress. They soon noticed I had lost a lot of amniotic fluid, and Ryan was moving around a lot, so they guessed he was somehow compressing the umbilical cord. They got me into a different position in the bed, and voila--his heart rate went back up. They called in Dr. Leung, but we had stabilized by the time he got there, so the c-section time was kept at 5:30 PM.

Actually, they came to get me for surgery at about 5:15. I remember lying on the operating table and the anesthesiologist telling me, "Your baby will be here in about 15 minutes." That was at 5:30. He was pretty close--just after Ryan was born, I looked at the clock, and it was 5:51 PM. The best thing was, just a few seconds after Ryan came out, I heard him give a little squeak, so I knew he was okay.

A few minutes after, the nurses actually let Daddy hold him next to me for a minute or two so we could take a peek at him; then they went off to the NICU to check him over. Since he was born at less than 36 weeks, he was automatically sent to the NICU for care.

Daddy came back as they were finishing the surgery to check in on me, and let me know Ryan was doing great. He was 6 lbs., 10 ozs., and was breathing room air. They had heart and oxygen monitors on him just to be safe, and they were keeping him in the NICU for monitoring.

After surgery, I was in recovery for over 3 hours. Unfortunately, I had some big blood clots that needed help coming out, so they had to put me on an oxytocin drip for a while. However, I had my sister Donna, and Daddy, to keep me company in recovery. Soon after I was in recovery, Daddy got to go feed Ryan his first bottle. It was sad for me, because for my first two babies, they got to stay in recovery with me. Ryan had been whisked off to the NICU, so I barely got to see him after he was born. Finally, when I was released from recovery, the nurse wheeled me in, bed and all, to NICU, so I could visit with Ryan for a few minutes. It was about 9 PM when I finally got to hold him!

Over the next few days, Ryan continued to do well. He had a few low blood sugar readings the first day, so he had to have an IV for about 12 hours, but he had no other problems. He was eating well. As I began to feel better and get up, I was allowed to go give him his feeding every three hours. Unfortunately, due to the H1N1 threat, only parents were allowed to visit the NICU babies, so no one else got to see Ryan while he was in the hospital. But we took lots of pictures to show everyone our beautiful boy!

On the Monday, Ryan was doing so well that they were ready to discharge him before they discharged me! They were going to let us take him out of the NICU to stay in my hospital room. In fact, we were in the act of wheeling him out of the NICU when another nurse stopped us, and quickly pulled our nurse aside. My heart sank. Sure enough, our nurse returns to inform us that while she was on her break, Ryan had a heart deceleration, so they had to keep him in the NICU. Of course, I was an emotional wreck--going from super happy to scared and hugely disappointed!

Thankfully, that was the only major deceleration he had. Ryan was able to come home with me on Tuesday afternoon.

But, there is another twist to the story: on the day Ryan came home, Kevin broke out in chicken pox! Poor Kevin! He couldn't come home with us. He had an extended stay at Gram and Papa's, and wasn't past the infectious stage until Friday. He was finally able to come home Friday night. I think it was worse for him than for me--he had a great time at Gram and Papa's, while my post-partum hormones would make me cry every time something reminded me of Kevin being away from home!

So, what do the kids think of Ryan?

Well, Andrea is fascinated. She has a million questions about every aspect of Ryan and his care, and she wants to help with everything. She is very excited about being a big sister this time. Two years has made a huge difference in how she views the big sister role! She's protective in a funny way, too: she always wants to know where Ryan is.

Kevin is curious about Ryan. He likes to peek over the edge of the bassinet and stare at him, but that's about the limit of his involvement with the baby for now. He doesn't seem jealous, but every time he sees me get Ryan a bottle, he says, "I'm thirsty, too!" so I have to get him a drink. ;-)