The life of Shawna

It all began December 1st, baby Dubeau was a day late and we were anxiously awaiting his arrival. I had planned to have a sleepover with my mom, complete with a morning of sleeping in and breakfast out. That afternoon when she arrived at my place, Eric was in the driveway undercoating my car and my mom announced “I’m here for a sleepover and we’re sleeping in tomorrow, so the baby better not decide to come tomorrow.”

December 2nd

Sure enough- at 430 am, I awoke to a wet bed- my water had broken. I quickly woke up Eric and he went downstairs to wake up my mom. She thought he was waking her to tell her he was going to work and that she could go upstairs with me. After Eric got a quick shower, we headed into the hospital, contractions started and we arrived around 530 am.

Once we were registered, I was assessed by a nurse and admitted due to having high blood pressure- thank god! We waited in the assessment room for what seemed like forever and the contractions continued to get stronger and closer together. I asked for morphine as I didn’t know how must stronger they would get and after phoning my mom she came to the hospital to be with me as well.

Finally, I was brought up to the labour and delivery room where the contractions continued and I was hooked up to the monitor. My Nurse, Callie, asked me to rate my pain on a scale of 1-10 and I said 4/10. She then proceeded to check my progress and said you are fully dilated, get ready to push soon. I was shocked and relieved– and amazed with myself as I did not need an epidural.

After, 1 hour and 45 minutes of pushing at 2:38 pm baby Joesph came into the world and quickly. The next few minutes would be the longest and scariest minutes of our lives as Joseph was unresponsive and code blue was called to our room. Quickly, the NICU team or “superheros” as we referred to them came and began working on him. He had ingested mucus. He wasn’t crying, his arms were limp, and his heart rate was dropping. After, 2 suction tubes, things started to turn around. I delivered the placenta and was given some stitches for a second degree tear and then, I was finally able to meet my little boy.

After receiving a sponge bath, I was pushed up to a recovery room. I felt like a queen as all the receptionists waved and congratulated me on the birth of our son.

Room 251 became our home for the next 2.5 days. The hospital stay was a bit of a blur- being tired and sore from childbirth and also first time parents. There was a constant flow of doctors and nurses coming to check on us and doing vital checks-monitoring my blood pressure as well as giving me an iron fusion and iv fluids due to blood loss during delivery. We also meet with a lacation nurse, Dawn, whom was truly amazing and skilled at what she does.

On December 4th, after bloodwork was ran and checked, we were okayed to go home. We were so excited to go home and tackle parenthood in our own space!

Special thanks and shout out to the staff at the IWK! You are all truly amazing at what you do.