Alexander Peter Knecht arrived on Tuesday July 6, 2010 at 12:10AM at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, Ontario Canada.  He was 8 pounds 7 ounces and 21 inches long.

I started having contractions Sunday evening around 10PM.  It was a very restless night. My contractions were never closer than 7 minutes apart.  Monday morning, the contractions ceased at times and when they came they were at irregular intervals.  I went for an ultrasound that morning (everything was fine).  I was called by the hospital mid-afternoon and told to go to my doctor's appointment at 3:15PM and then to head to triage at the hospital... today was the day... I was going to be induced.

By 4PM, I was admitted and my water broken.  This apparently wasn't speeding up the process fast enough so I was given a Pitocin drip to speed things up.  Sometime later, I was in agony.  I asked for and got an epidural.  Best decision ever!  I was calm, pain was reduced, and I was 100% effaced.  It was go time... except, now the baby was in the posterior position.  Essentially, the baby was looking up and this meant the biggest part of the head would crown first -- more pain. They decided to give the baby time to change positions.  This is where things get hazy....  I was given an epidural "top-up" which I later found out was the narcotic fentanyl.  The baby never did change positions.  I pushed for 27 minutes which I've been told was an amazingly fast labour and I give credit to the drugs because I tore and got an episiotomy and never knew what hit me until Neil filled me in later. 

Alex had arrived.  Neil and I were parents. 

Create your own free digital ecard