Mavricks Birth Story

I love reading birth stories because every always has such a unique experience and I'm excited to share Mavricks birth with you. He was by far my easiest birth and also was very calm. He was born at 3:20am and it was pretty dark in the room as it was night time and something about nighttime vibes are so much more calm. We had the best nurses at Jimmy Pattison Children's Hospital so shout out to them as well as Dr Shanna Olson who delivered my baby and basically let me decide how everything was going to go.

With Mavrick being breech for a lot of my pregnancy, I was getting a lot more ultrasounds than normal and at the last one at the hospital where he flipped to not be breech, they told me that he was going to be a big baby and they guess he was already at 9 lbs with another week to go until my due date. So when I met with my doctor, she suggested I get induced shortly after my due date.

So two days after my due date, I was supposed to go in but ended up getting a call that they were not able to take me but that the following day(mothers day) they would admit me. We spent that Sunday with the kids just enjoying those last minutes as a family of four and then headed into the city just before 5pm It's a really strange feeling checking into the hospital when you feel completely fine and it's almost like booking into a hotel.

We got our room and waited for the doctor. They checked me and I was about 1cm dilated and still not near going into labor. After speaking with the doctor we decided on trying the Foley balloon as the way to induce. Basically it's a catheter that they insert and then fill with saline. So that went in at about 8pm. Then we chilled and watched the rest of the oilers game in the hospital and waited. After about an hour there was some cramping and after an hour and a half the balloon fell out which meant that I was then around 3-4cm. So after discussing with my doctor, I decided that before they put me on the drug to further induce the labor, I wanted to get an epidural. Luckily the attending was able to come and give it to me right away. Honestly no greater feeling and it took right away. I would rather get the epidural every time over a cervix check. Anyone else?

After they checked to make sure my epidural was working they started me on the iv drugs to further induce labor. I wasn't feeling a thing but was super tired so Keith and I both had really good naps for a couple hours. I only really woke up once my water broke so I let the nurse know and sure enough. But I was able to get back to sleep for a bit after that. I woke up to some cramping and let the nurse know I was feeling queasy so they are gave me some medication for that which helped right away. Again was able to get a bit more sleep then woke up and they left me know that they thought I wasn't progressing because I had a full bladder. Also the baby was coming out the wrong way and was facing up instead of down. They wanted me to do some maneuvers to try to get him to slip. So off to the bathroom I went and as soon as I did that's when the pain escalated and changed. They wanted to do another cervix check but the contractions were on top of one another and the urge to push was coming in strong so they called the doctor in. After three pushes at 3:20am, Mavrick entered the world. There is nothing like when you are done and have your baby on you for the first time. It's such a magical moment seeing the little life you made in your body on the outside. When he came out; my doctor said right away " this is not a 9lb baby" and sure enough he was the most overdue but the smallest of all three of my kiddos coming in at 8lbs 6oz.

Mavrick ended up swallowing some fluid on his way and because he came so fast, it didn't squeeze out of him the way it does generally with a slower labor so he had to be suctioned a couple of times after birth to get all of that as well as suctioned the next day. With that all taken care of we were able to leave the next evening on the day Mavrick was born and start our lives as a family of 5!

Here is his first photo!