At 21:28 on June 23rd 2010, my wife and I’s lives were changed forever. Our first child, Nicolas Larry Jacques Gareau, was born, weighing in at 5 lbs 7 ounces and measuring 18.5 inches. The birth did not at all happen as we thought it would, but the end result was more than worth all the worry. Here’s how it all happened.
On the week of the 14th, at her daily OBGYN appointment, Erin’s doctor was a little worried about the lack of growth in her belly area. He sent her for a second ultrasound in as many weeks to get a better idea of the baby’s size. At the last ultrasound, the baby was in the bottom 10th percentile for acceptable weight (done by measuring various bones and organs), weighing in at 4 lbs 5 ounces.
Two weeks later, on Monday June 21st we went for another ultrasound, at which point they measured him at only 4 lbs 7 ounces. This put the baby in the lower 3 percentile. The ultrasound office tried to get in touch with our OBGYN to see what he wanted us to do. Unable to reach him, they suggested that we go to our hospital to the maternity triage and see what they suggested. Upon arriving, they hooked up my wife to a heartbeat and contraction monitor. After a couple of hours we finally saw a doctor who broke the news to us. We were to come back tomorrow or Wednesday so that they could induce my wife. They suspected that the umbilical cord wasn’t passing enough nutrients and that the baby would have better chances of growing outside of the womb. This took us completely by surprise. Erin wasn’t due for another 3 weeks and we still had some things to do to get ready. Upon our return home that evening, we spent our time packing bags and trying to get ready for our hospital stay.
Early Tuesday morning the hospital called to ask us if we were ready to have a baby and to head on in. We rushed to finish off the packing we had left to do, made a quick stop for a tasty McDonald’s breakfast, ran a couple of quick errands and headed to the Montfort. We got there around 11 and by 11:30 or so we were escorted to the room where we’d be staying for the next 4 days. By mid afternoon they induced Erin for the first time. Her contractions didn’t start until 12 hours later, and they were light and far between. Around 8:30am Tuesday morning they induced her again, but that didn’t bring about any changes. It wasn’t until 6pm when they manually broke her water that everything would start happening.
To be continued…
