samantha's birth story
The due date for Samantha's arrival was March 21st and Susan's last day of work was to be March 16th. So you can imagine the surprise when around 4:30 am on March 2, Susan's water broke. Rubby immediately paged Catherine, our midwife. When we told her that there were no contractions yet she advised us to get some sleep and she'd call us later in the morning. 
Needless to say we didn't get much sleep. Instead we got up and while Susan made frequent trips to the bathroom, Rubby started baking Samantha's birthday cake... an apple cake since we didn't have the ingredients at home for the icecream cake that we had planned for. We called work to let them know we wouldn't be in today and our parents to let them know what was going on. We also got busy installing the infant car seat which we would need to get the baby home from the hospital.
When Catherine and her student Nathalie arrived at the house later that morning, Susan still wasn't feeling much in the way of contractions so we discussed our options. Because the water had broken, there would be a limited amount of time we could wait before inducing but at this time we still had three options: go to the hospital to get induced, try home remedies for inducing, or wait and see if things would progress on their own. Although happy to wait for the time being, we decided that we might feel differently later that evening if things hadn't progressed so on Catherine's advice we decided to try the home remedy of castor oil. Catherine left us with instructions on dosage and when to call her again.
And Susan called the Montfort hospital to let them know we wouldn't be coming by for our scheduled tour of the hospital today, but that we'd probably be by a little later to actually give birth.
Inducement by castor oil works on the premise that very active bowels can get the contractions started. So before getting my bowels "active" we decided to make a run into town to run some quick errands... 
a trip to the pharmacy to get some supplies and a quick visit to Rubby's friend Cristina to get some baby clothes and supplies that she no longer needed.
At around 2pm Susan started with round 1 of the castor oil. Rubby used a mixer to combine the castor oil with some juice which Susan then downed "fear factor style" (plug your nose and drink through a straw without stopping til you're done). The castor oil soon started working and doses 2 and 3 were administered within the next 2 hours during which time period Susan spent a lot of time in the bathroom.
The castor oil worked and Susan started feeling contractions but they were still spaced about 10 minutes apart and at times up to 20 minutes would pass without any contractions. Susan's parents came by to pick up Oreo the cat who will be staying with them for a while. Upon the midwife's suggestion we had dinner and then tried to get some rest with Rubby taking a very short nap on the couch and Susan in bed timing her strengthening contractions.
From 8pm to 9pm we watched Lost and the contractions were pretty much only during commercials - obviously tadpole was a fan of the show! Not so much for American Idol though cause suddenly the contractions started coming really quickly and Rubby decided to page the midwife again. Susan threw up all her dinner (can't remember which contestant was singing at the time). When Catherine called back Susan was unable to talk through her contractions and as Catherine heard Susan in the background, she instructed Rubby to meet her at the hospital instead of her coming to our house first.
So Rubby gathered all the stuff into the car and Susan made her way to the car clutching Superfoot bunny for support. (fyi, Superfoot bunny was chosen for his years of experience getting Susan through monthly cramps). During the car ride to the hospital the contractions starting coming every 2 minutes or so and Susan discovered the utility of those handles above the door... great for pulling on when you're in pain! 
Susan only opened her eyes three times along the way to the hospital (just to make sure Rubby was going the right way) and Rubby tried to distract Susan with idle chit chat and jokes which at this stage were still funny.
10:30 pm: At the montfort hospital Rubby pulled into emergency, put a quarter in the parking meter and wheeled Susan to the maternity ward where Catherine and Nathalie were already waiting. While Rubby went to park the car in another area (free parking at this time of night!) and fill out paperwork, Susan waited anxiously for his return on the hospital bed while Catherine and Nathalie checked baby and mommy's vitals and filled the jaccuzzi tub with water. Because Susan had tested positive on a strep test, we decided to get antibiotics by I.V. to reduce the risk of infection to the baby. This requires 2 doses at 4 hours apart so Catherine went to set this up with the obstetrician.
When Rubby got back, Susan got into the tub where she didn't last very long before the urge to push started. Catherine called off the antibiotics I.V. (there wouldn't be enough time) and called for a nurse to be on stand-by in case the second midwife didn't arrive in time. She checked the dilation and decided it was time to move Susan back to the bed. While Susan kneeled on the bed holding on to the fully inclined back of the bed and clenching Rubby's hand, the pushing was in full swing. The memories at this point are fleeting moments - the arrival of Josee (the second midwife), the obstetrician poking in his head to say hello and good luck, 2 minor moments of cursing (although not at Rubby!), Rubby's words of encouragement, almost biting Rubby's hand and then deciding that the bed mattress was probably better suited for that, asking Rubby and the midwife to please stop everything, wishing there was just a little more time between contractions and pushing to get used to the new position of the baby's head, and each time thinking surely THIS must be as bad as it gets.
Finally Catherine let Susan know that within the next couple of pushes she would be instructed to hold a push, do several panting breaths and then continue pushing past the contraction. One contraction, another one, and the instruction didn't come. However suddenly there was a whooosh, and there was the baby! No head, then one shoulder, then another shoulder... it was 2 minutes past midnight and Samantha Eydís Neville decided she wanted to make her grand entrance into the world.
Within minutes Susan was lying on the bed relaxed with Samantha on her chest and both parents proudly beaming over the baby. Once the umbilical cord stopped pulsating Rubby got to cut the cord. Then while Susan was still holding the baby, they delivered the placenta and started to stitch up Susan from the tearing. Although Catherine froze the area before stitching it up, this part was almost as bad as the delivery itself and Susan was biting down hard to keep still as Samantha lay in her arms. Finally the stitches were done and while the midwives cleaned up and filled out all the paperwork, Susan and Rubby were able to bond with the baby.
Nathalie and Catherine also gave us a "tour" of the placenta. They showed us the little pouch that had been Samantha's home for the past 9 months and the umbilical cord attached to it. With the cord being the trunk and the veins being the branches, this is called the "tree of life". Apparently in Susan's case the umbilical cord was a little lower than general. Catherine also pointed out the parts that were "dead" which again is normal and is actually a sign that the baby was born full term... so although she came an unexpected 3 weeks early, she was definitely ready to come out!
Once the paperwork was done, it was time to check Samantha... she scored a perfect 9/9 on her agpar test, weighed a healthy 7 lbs 1.9 ounces, was 51 cm long and had Catherine commenting on how she had the cutest chubby little cheeks ever... no sign that this baby was early! They recorded all the information with careful attention paid to the spelling of Samantha's name. Rubby had made sure that they didn't forget the i-acute in Eydís and so Nathalie carefully asked about the spelling of Samantha. Rubby assured her it was the regular spelling... with a silent Q. 
As Nathalie looked a little consternated over where exactly the silent Q should go in "Samantha", the other midwives and Rubby explained it was a joke. I guess it had been a long night?!
With Samantha and Mommy both healthy and well, we got the choice of staying overnight in the hospital ward or taking our baby home. Either way Catherine would be visiting us in the morning.
So Rubby got the car warmed up while Catherine and Nathalie accompanied Susan and Samantha out of the hospital. By 4:30am we were back at our house!
l. to r.: Nathalie, Susan and Samantha, Catherine and Josee.
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