An Introduction – Lincoln’s Birth Story

In an upcoming episode of The Mom Files I chat with Laurence Roy, physiotherapist and owner of Arnprior Pelvic and Pediatric Physiotherapy. It is filled with so much great info and I highly recommend listening.

This week I went for my first visit to her clinic (and in the need to be fully transparent, this visit was gifted – but I was very happy with the results and will be continuing treatment at my own expense), but before we get to ahead of ourselves I thought I would go a little over my pregnancy with Lincoln and his birth story to explain how I got where I am today.

Summer was 2 and a half when I became pregnant with Lincoln. I was expecting (maybe even a little scared) of having a similar pregnancy as I had the first time. Thankfully morning sickness was manageable and for the first number of months things were fairly uneventful.

Part way through my second trimester I started experiencing a great deal of discomfort in my left hip and pain that went down my leg, making it difficult to walk. I spoke with my doctor, who continued to brush off the discomfort as muscle memory from my first pregnancy and my body just preparing itself.  I continued to bring up the discomfort and made multiple trips to the labour and delivery unit to be checked over.

At about 37 weeks I was put on leave, since I had reached a point of not being able to stand with full weight without tears. I would just hobble around.

Lincoln was not into punctuality and wouldn’t be delivered until 41 weeks and 1 day. I had went to the hospital on the afternoon of April 22nd to begin induction. I had Cervidil inserted and was instructed to come back the next morning at 7am unless things happened before then.

My husband and I went to a friends house (imagine a time when you could do that!) because they lived close to the hospital. We had dinner and were there for hours playing board games and nothing was happening with baby so we decided to go home and get some sleep.

It was 3:30AM April 23rd when I woke up needing to use the bathroom. I felt a bad cramp (think need to use the bathroom cramps) but nothing happened. I called the hospital because I thought maybe the Cervidil they inserted earlier had fell out, they told me it didn’t sound like labour had started and to get more rest they would see me later.

At 4:15AM I was telling my husband to download the contractions app in between screams that were less then a minute apart.

We made it down the stairs (it felt like climbing down from the CN Tower – why did my house not have an elevator!!) and drove to the hospital.
(Note: When Summer was born I had a Taylor Swift playlist for the hospital and she is a Swiftie! For Linky I had made a Brett Young playlist so he would have a smooth country boy vibe to him) When we started the car the radio began playing Brett Young’s Mercy, looking back I think that was God giving me the little bit of my own plan in a world that was all his.

We got to the hospital front entrance and I was put in a wheel chair at 5:06AM. I remember looking at the clock knowing Summer would be peacefully asleep at her grandparents. I remember very clearly telling the lovely women at front that as soon as I got my epidural I would be fine. I remember hearing her call ahead to labour and delivery telling them she didn’t think there would be time, I looked ready to go. I remember thinking she was a greeter and didn’t know what she was talking about.

When I got to labour and delivery I asked to go to the washroom to  change into my gown, they let me. Then I was making concerning sounds and the nurse escorted me to the bed where where checked to see how dilated I was, Lincoln was crowing. I was quickly taken from triage quickly to a delivery room.

There were 2 nurses, one just picked me up and set me on a new bed. I could hear them trying to call a doctor, but he was about to go into a c-section and they were not sure if he would make it.

My own doctor had been called at her home at 5:13AM.

The doctor came, I was told I needed to push, I was not getting an epidural because my baby boy was coming and at 5:24AM he was delivered.

In the weeks and months following, my hip pain did not magically go away. At 8 weeks after delivery I requested my doctor refer me to a pelvic floor physio and began treatment from June 2018-January 2019. I would discover I had a fracture and some pulled tendons in my hip area (this is probably related to a speedy delivery but also clearly was indicated strain during my pregnancy).

You may recall, our family moved in  February 2019 so at that time I stopped my physio and received my first of 2 cortisone shots with a sports medicine doctor.

This takes us to today – February 2021. Now that you have been caught up on the epilogue in my next post I will let you know about how my first visit was at Arnprior Pelvic and Pediatric Physiotherapy and keep you up to date on the heeling.

If you have any questions you want me to discuss with Laurence drop them in the comments, and be sure to keep listen to her podcast episode in a few weeks.