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Week by Week

CHRISTOPHER JAMES HODSOLL

Well, after nine long months of waiting, we did it!

Pregnancy was pretty good for me -- the only problems were a bit of morning sickness and a total aversion to hamburger meat in the beginning, gestational diabetes (which was controlled strictly by diet), and really big swollen feet in the last month and a half.

Here's my story!

Sunday January 28, my husband David made Chili for dinner. It was delicious. About 3:00 a.m. I awoke with really bad pains in my lower abdomen -- and I had to keep going to the bathroom. I blamed this on the Chili! At around 4:00 a.m. my husband got up with me (after me getting in and out of the bed for the past hour so many times, it was impossible to remember how many).

We went downstairs to our rec-room and I sat on the couch with the heating pad on my lower back. Finally around 4:30/5:00 or so the pain started to occur throughout my entire uterus -- so I realized I was finally in labour! The contractions kept progressing and around 8:00 a.m. they were five to six minutes apart and lasting for about a minute or so. We called the hospital, and they said -- you sound still pretty far off, so wait a while. Just after that I placed a call to my doctors office. She returned the call at 8:30 and we described the situation to her -- she said "Go upstairs, get a shower and get to the hospital".

Well, by the time I was finally ready, showered and changed, it was around 10:00 and we were in the midst of a full-blown winter storm. We got to the hospital around 10:20 a.m. and went to admissions, then they wheeled me up to Labour and Delivery. They put me into the assessment room, and had me lie down and strapped me into the monitors. Well, needless to say, the only way I could deal with my contractions was to sit up. After 10 minutes of monitoring, I was so uncomfortable, I said to the nurse I have to sit up, I can't stand the pain! She said, OK, I guess I'll have to check you, but I don't think you're ready yet! Well she checked, and she said I was at 8 cm and my water was bulging.

They quickly walked me down the hall to the Labour and Delivery room. I got in there at about 11:00 a.m. My husband had called my mother who was to come into the delivery room with us as an "assistant" coach. Due to the fact that my brother and I are adopted, she had never been through this in her life, so I thought it would be pretty special to her.

When our nurse Judy listened to the baby's heartbeat, she quickly turned to us and said "I think it's a boy". Well time went by pretty quickly and suddenly it was 1:00 and time to start pushing. Once this started, I felt like I was in a dream-world. It was hard to believe that it was really happening. I was pushing, and pushing, and pushing, for what seemed like a relatively short period of time, when the doctor said that they were having trouble getting the baby's head past my pelvic bones. They changed my position, and made me go even more spread-eagle in the delivery bed. The doctor then decided that they had to do an episiotomy and that they were going to use vacuum extraction to help get the baby out. Boy did I ever do some major pushing when I heard what they were going to do! They worked on the vacuum a few times, and a couple of times it came off, but finally, the baby's head was out and I had to stop pushing right away, because the cord was around his neck. Boy was that ever hard, but when they said I could go again, it felt like a whoosh and out popped the baby, and I heard the doctor say it was a boy, and I could hardly believe it!

He was born at 2:35 p.m. CHRISTOPHER JAMES HODSOLL -- our Baby Boy!

They assessed him, and said that he had a rash on his face, so they would have to take him to Observation for four hours or so. Around 4:00 I was taken from L&D to my room, and as I was wheeled by the nurses station, they all said what a great job I had done! The nurse who was pushing me said that they never say that unless you did a really great job. I got to my room, and my husband and I sat there together until my dinner came, and once I was finished, they brought Christopher in to us!

WOW!!!!

Our hospital here has a policy that you go home in 24 hours after delivery. So at 4:00 Tuesday, we were home and meeting my husband's parents. Christopher is their 13th grandchild, and believe it or not, the first one to carry on the family name!

Two days after we arrived home from the hospital, I was sitting with Christopher, and I noticed that the whites of his eyes were a bit yellow, so I called the doctors office, and we had to bring him in. We had to go for a blood test that the doctor had rushed through, to check the levels for jaundice. If they were too high, he would have to go back to the hospital. The feeling of having to take him back there left me in tears -- I guess this is part of the post-partum blues, as well as all the worries of parenthood. The doctor phoned us at around 8:00 that evening and told us his levels were high, but not high enough to go in to the hospital. Our prayers were answered. We had to go back again the next day to have his blood tested again, and again, his levels were not high enough to warrant hospitalization.

My doctor said that she is so angry at the hospitals for sending new mothers and babies home from the hospital so quickly. She said that jaundice usually shows up on day three, and if they kept us in a bit longer, this whole ordeal could have been avoided.

This past Saturday our local paper, the Toronto Star, had an article stating that hospitals are sending mothers home too early, and this often causes unneeded hospital/doctors visits for newborns.

Anyway, motherhood is wonderful, worries and all! Christopher is finally getting the hang of breastfeeding with me. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I am self-employed, I don't get an extended maternity leave, so my husband is taking the parental leave. I plan to continue to breastfeed by pumping off milk when I'm at work. Hopefully Christopher will be happy going from breast to bottle and vice-versa. I have a friend who was successful at this, so hopefully we'll be lucky too!

Well, sorry about babbling on, take care all!

WOW, I still can't believe it, I'M A MOTHER!!!! Kathryn Hodsoll
Born January 29, 1996 at 2:35 p.m.
Peel Memorial Hospital
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Weight 8 lb. 9 oz.