Rylee's Birth Story

Our little girl, Rylee Peyton, was born on November 10th, 2011, at our local hospital. She weighed 7 lbs and was 19.75 inches long. She was born in the water at 2:55 am to two parents who were very excited to meet her...FINALLY!

I began having contractions 8 days past our due date, Wednesday Nov 9th, late at night around midnight or 1am. Looking back now I can barely remember it, so clearly what I was feeling wasn't anything compared to the actual birth. The contractions were more like flexing my abs, but without my control, virtually painless.

By morning this strange ab-flex was still happening, but still fairly irregular. So we called our midwife, Maggie, to let her know what was happening. It's crazy how you go through 9-10 months of a pregnancy, you hear the heartbeat, you see it in the ultrasound, you feel it kick and turn, but it wasn't until this very moment in time our baby was becoming a reality.

We informed our parents, families and close friends that it was baby time, sharing with them our excitement and nervousness. Sevio's close friend Vassa came over as well as his step-sister Jade. For the majority of the day we played cards and just puttered around. As the contractions grew closer together they got more uncomfortable, everyone knew one was coming as I would stop what I was doing, close my eyes, rock on my exercise ball, and focus on counting in my head till it was over.

As the day went on my Dad invited us to come over for dinner, which at the time sounded like no big deal, my contractions were 10-12 minutes apart and bearable, this was around 5pm. As we sat down to eat around 6pm it felt like I would take three bites and then have to get up and walk through the contraction...eating turned into a hopeless endeavor. Sevio was heeing and hawing with his mom whether she should be getting on the ferry so that she could be here for baby's arrival, the midwife told us to not get our hopes up as first babies can be long labors. By 8pm we were back on the phone with her telling her it might be in her best interest to catch the last ferry from Victoria to our little island, Salt Spring. My contractions at this point were ranging between 6-8 minutes apart and getting more painful, we were in communication with Maggie and she said she would send her intern, Summer, to come check on me. Sevio left to go pick up his mom while I stayed behind wishing he had never left, thankfully my mom was there and her good friend Barb (who happens to be a great masseuse!). I couldn't bear to sit through a contraction, I had to lean on door frames, or the banister, and eventually all I could to get through the contractions was be on all fours with my head on the floor...kind of animalistic, I know, but don't knock it till you try it!

After what felt like hours Sevio arrived with his mom in tow, meanwhile Summer still hadn't arrived, I was growing more and more impatient and just wanted to go to the hospital as my contractions were now 4 minutes apart, and I might add painfully annoying! Summer arrived shortly after Sevio, she was calm and relaxed and just observed a few contractions, took my blood pressure, and checked the baby's heart rate. She then called Maggie and together they decided that it would probably be best for us to go home and try to rest as it could be awhile yet, and Summer would come and stay with us just in case. This was around midnight that we agreed, along the way we dropped Sevio's mom off (which happened to be literally right next to the hospital...I wanted to jump out the car and make a run for it!). We weren't home longer than 20 minutes and I had the urge to push but knew I shouldn't cause in my head there was hours if not a day left to go, and I honestly thought if this is just the beginning then at the end I think I'm going to die! The only place I could restrain myself from pushing was sitting on the toilet with my feet up and pushing against the wall, it was there that I went pee and discovered some spotting, I freaked out a little because your trained that when you see blood something is not right, right!?

So Summer decided to examine me and didn't think I was very dilated but just in case we would go to the hospital and Maggie would meet us there to do another examination. Word of wisdom, avoid car rides as much as possible when you are in the final stages of labor...UNCOMFORTABLE! We as well as my mom and sister arrived at the hospital just after 1am, now Thursday November 10th. We were immediately directed into the birthing room, Maggie arrived just after us and quickly proceeded to do another examination and much to everyone's surprise I was 9 1/2 cm dilated! They filled the birthing tub, and I felt immediate relief sitting in the warm weightless water. It wasn't long though that nothing was going to make me comfortable, I would move into a position and literally have to inch my way into another one. Maggie and the nurses disappeared for awhile, and I was apparently had lost some coherency because I thought they had all left me to fend for myself, meanwhile Summer was sitting right there in the room with us. I was in the terrible transition phase when I want to push but it's not quite time, Maggie instructed me to push if I had to but to hold off if I could, so when a contraction hit I would push for about half of it until I gained control and could breath through it. This I believe was the worst of it all, I swore once (for those who don't know me, that is totally out of character for me...I'm a golly-gee, gosh darn-it kind of girl :P), I even yelled full on and it wasn't some girly squeal, it was a deep yell coming straight from my core.

Maggie gave the the go ahead that it was time to push so I got into a position where I was sideways in the tub with my feet up against the side of it which helped for bearing down and pushing. In between each contraction was the best grace period, I remember it feeling so good to not feel anything and to just nod off. My waters finally broke and it was the weirdest feeling being in water while it happened, because you can't feel the water come out but I felt the releasing pop and the water around me got a little bit warmer. When pushing time came me and Sevio would lock eyes (when I had mine open) and fight together through it. In between each contraction was the best grace period, I remember it feeling so good to not feel anything at all and just nod off. Near the final pushes I kept thinking that it was the last push, that surely the baby came out, but sure enough my battle was not over. Summer asked if I wanted a mirror to see the babies head but I was so in the zone that I couldn't even imagine turning my head to look in the mirror. As the babies head crowned, it was the most excruciating feeling I have ever felt, I thought I was ripping in half, my whole body lifted up and went completely rigid. It was then I seriously wanted it out and somebody had to do something about it, but nobody could and time had to take its course unfortunately. About 2 more pushes and our baby came into this world and placed in my arms, everything about "it" was beautiful and cute. Both me and Sevio were ecstatic to find out what it was and our little peanut made us fight for it as it had its legs tightly crossed, blocking the view of its you know what. After a few tries, and a double take, I pronounced to the room, "It's a girl!" I was so excited as was Sevio, our beautiful baby girl, Rylee Peyton.