Francis Elisabeth MacMillan

Finally! Francis Elisabeth MacMillan arrived! I just could not post all these pictures. So if you've been patiently waiting to see some pictures here are pictures, pictures and more pictures of our beautiful 8lb 2oz gorgeous girl. So far she seems like a mellow, content little munchkin who loves to breast feed, poop and sleep. Several months ago I did predict that she would come ten days overdue and that is exactly what she did. 

 I went into the hospital at 8am on the 25th to start the induction process. I got cervidal placed behind my cervix to get the cervix motivated and then was monitored for a couple of hours to make sure things were going as planned and then headed home. Before I left I started to feel some moderate aches in my tummy but nothing too drastic. I figured I was in for some nasty cramping all weekend. Mom came and hung out with Alistair for the day so I didn't have to focus on anything but myself.

 But truthfully I figured that the process would take several days as when I was induced with Alistair it was definitely a process. Anyhow, it didn't take long before I was feeling pretty intense lower abdominal cramping. Basically, it felt like I had a big old nasty charlie horse in my tummy for the whole day and it wasn't giving me any reprieve. I kept busy by watering all my flowers, patio, and lawn over and over and over again.

 

 Plus for some reason my left leg was aching in a nasty way so the only way to get my head off it all was to keep moving and keep my brain focused on something other than what was really going on. It was all very tolerable but I can't say I was enjoying myself in the least. Labour from my perspective SUCKS! Anyhow, finally at 8pm I was to go back into the hospital to get checked and have the doctor decide the next step. So not to my surprise I was only 3cm dilated and if you're not aware you have to get to 10cm before its pushing time! So Dr. Textor gave me the option to have another cervidal or go straight to the IV drip.

 So we opted for another cervidal. With this drug they monitor you and the baby for an hour and keep you for a total of two. THANK GOONESS they did! I told Jason he may has well go home and have a shower and then come back as we live just 2 minutes away and he had been working all day. I took a shot of Morphine and Gravol just before he left. At about 10pm I started getting regular contractions and could remember thinking thank goodness I can finally get a break in between as the cramping was just constant all the time.

 However, things really started to test me by around 1030 pm. Suddenly I started think "how come I'm coping so poorly when I'm likely only 4cm dilated...I'm totally going to have to go for an epidural here sooner than later" Ya labour was starting to not just SUCK but REALLY REALLY SUCK!

Then Dr Textor and the nurse came in and eventually I was able to give them a chance to check me and to everyones surprise I was 9.5cm DILATED! I was so shocked yet relieved I was so far along. Needless to say they rushed me to a delivery room and got me to attempt to hold off as much as possible while they got things set up. It did get a bit intense for a few minutes as her heart rate was not rebounding between contractions but "the team" had things under control and Dr Textor was fabulous in giving me direction to give Francis the best experience we could.

 Within minutes of pushing, out came our little girl totally fiesty at 1105pm. Her three apgar scores were all NINE. Which if you don't know is the best your babe can score and indicates the health of the newborn. When they took her over to the warmer she rolled over and had her bum right up in the air with her knees under her! So due to her fiesty nature and great scores there really isn't any concern with her having an anoxic event.

 I have to say I was pretty darn emotional when she came out. Dr. Textor said after a good checkup that she is "perfect". I'm such a worst case scenario person and have too many friends with kidlets that have cerebral palsy that I really wasn't going to beable to rest easy until this little one entered the world. So yes the emotions flew out with tons of happiness involved.

 So of course things couldn't just go completely normal. But they were all good with Francis and thats all I really cared about. So ya my darn old placenta decided to grow into my uterus again so it didn't just slip out as is should have. So after Dr. Kingston got consulted I was sent off to the OR for a little workup or clean up and a couple of hours later I was back with my little girl and husband.

 Francis was super eager to get on the boob and get her first fill. Another wonderful relief was she didn't need any coaching with that department. Its like she had the extra time and read the manuals in utero and was on like no tomorrow. I guess I lost about 1300 ml of blood and after checking my levels I had a hemoglobin of 109. So nothing too drastic. Due to a possible hemmoraging risk, because of my placenta issue, though they wanted to keep me a little longer than normal so I didn't get discharged home till the morning of May 27th.

 It was pretty bizzare for me to walk out of the hospital with my husband and daugher.Then to literally minutes later walk in my house to find Grandma Hedges and Alistair welcoming us with big smiles was wonderful. What a lovely feeling to experience "normal". It was pretty emotional for me to see my little guy after being in the hospital as he suddenly wasn't my little baby boy anymore. It was like he grew up over the weekend and became the toddler he was likely trying to tell us he has been for the last year. We enjoyed a big steak dinner with along with corn on the cob, garlic toast and a nice green salad which. It was a lovely change from having the tasteless rubbery hospital food. BLAH!

Anyhow, now I'm just recouperating and Grandma Hedges is here 12 hours a day for the next while to help us out while I get my energy level back and get in some sort of routine. So yes life is lovely. We're all loving our new dynamics of a family of four and thank you so much for all the kind words that have already been sent. I'm sure I'll be putting up a lot of posts up in the next while so enjoy!

☼ Cheers Julie ☼