The Many Delights in the Life of Desirée: The Birth Story

So, I'm finally taking the time to write down Emmett's birth story. It's a lot harder to blog when every nap time is cherished recuperation. :)

The date is Dec. 11, 2013. I was so ready to be done being pregnant. I was 39 weeks and completely done. But pretty sure I was going to be pregnant for another two weeks. My doctor had stripped my membranes that morning and given me the unfortunate news that I hasn't dilated anymore in the last week. No way was this baby coming. Off to Costco we go.

While there, I started having some pretty good contractions but after two days of false labour, I didn't think much of it. I didn't even start timing contractions. By the end of our trip, my mom was telling me that she thought I should send Oakley home with her that night. Nope. I was not going to have this baby yet. I should've listened to the woman who gave birth eight times.
By 5 o'clock, arrangements had been made for Kaleena and Justin to come watch Oakley. My contractions were coming around five minutes apart and getting longer. Matt still had to do his managerial snow removal before we could head off so it ended up being around 7:30 when we finally got off.

At the hospital, they took me to the triage room to assess if I was actually in labour. This is the worst part of the visit and I'm sure many of you moons can relate. If you're not in active labour, they send you home. So discouraging. So, my nurse straps me up to all the fancy cords and leaves me for twenty minutes. When I get checked, she says I'm 4 cm dilated (a whole one more than I was that afternoon!) But she wanted to see me at a five before she'd keep me.

"Go walk around for 45 minutes," she said. So that's what we did. Mostly it was just circles around the public elevators and service elevators in the Grey Nuns over and over again. Close to the end, our nurse, Jen, found us and told us she was going to help in the OR soon so we could get checked now or keep walking and get checked after she was done. I had no desire to make any decisions at this point so Jen kindly recommended we keep walking as that would give my body more time to get to a 5 and then I wouldn't have to be sent home.

By the end of that 45 minutes of walking, my contractions were agonizing. I told Matt I was not going home and that someone needed to get me an epidural - pronto. When we returned to labour and delivery, Jen was still in OR but another nurse said she'd check me in ten minutes if Jen still want out. More walking. The other nurse finally checked me and said I was a 4.5- stretchy 5. Because I was adamant that I was not going home, she decided a stretchy 5 was good enough and I was finally admitted at 10:30 pm. My request for an epidural was given and we just waited.

Meanwhile, my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. I was shocked by how much they hurt. I was induced with Oakley and had been told induction made contractions way worse than natural contractions but these ones were WAY worse than with Oakley. And this isn't just me forgetting what it felt like. Matt can attest to the fact that they were affecting me a lot more this time around. So much pain. I cried every contraction and became"that" labouring woman. You know, the one that held at her nurse and purposefully hurts her husband? The story with the nurse: during one of my contractions, I was freaking out about coping through and keen said I was doing so well to which I retorted, "I don't feel like I'm doing well!" I instantly felt bad about yelling at her but I bet she's had worse. Now hurting Matt happened right around the time I got the epidural. He was positioned in front of me to help me stay relaxed and flipped over and I had a contraction. Matt was so conveniently there that I grabbed on to his waist and pinched as hard add I could. I actually said to him, "I'm sorry, but I'm not really." Oh yeesh. Finally I had my epidural and I felt like I could survive the rest of the night.

The resident doctor came after the epidural kicked in and ruptured my membranes at 11:30. I went from a 5 before to a 7 after my water broke. Awesome! Time went on and similarly to the epidural with Oakley, the epidural started to slowly wear off on one side. Because of how excruciating the contractions had been, as soon as I felt the teensiest bit of pain, I asked for a top up. That may not have been the wisest choice as I think I could have been ready to push a lot sooner if I could have felt something. Regardless, sometime after one o'clock, I started feeling the urge to push. It was gradual so I let Jen know after I was sure it was time. She checked me and I was fully dilated. Show time. As many of you are aware, Grey Nuns is a "training" hospital so they have lots of students there. There was a 2nd year med student, the resident doctor, my doctor and my nurse in the room. When everyone was in position, I started to push. Two contractions, six pushes and about a minute later at 1:40 am, I was holding my precious baby boy. I was thrilled to have him on the outside. He was perfect! He was given directly to me for skin-to-skin cuddles while the damage was assessed. I am very happy to say that I had NO tearing! Let me tell you, that is joyous.

Our little one was given the name Emmett Owen Kastendieck. For those wondering, no, Emmett was not taken from Twilight, we just liked the name. Owen was Emmett's Grandpa Woodruff's name and I was happy to have him share his name with my son. Emmett weighed in at 6 lb 14 oz and was 19.9 inches long. Perfect. He came out with a full head of dark hair and darker skin than his brother (he did not get that from me). After cuddles and nursing, kisses and smiles, we left the delivery room around 3:00. This sweet baby slept and slept and slept. I tried to feed him a few times but he wasn't fully awake and ready to eat until after noon. The rest was lovely. It was so thrilling to see Oakley that morning and introduce him to his little brother. The tender kisses he gave just melted my heart. He loves his brother. After a few more visits from family, we checked out of the hospital shortly after 7:00 pm, almost exactly 24 hours after we arrived. That was fast.

Emmett is such a sweet content little boy. He rocks at nursing and has the cutest little pucker. Because of the loving abuse of his big brother, Emmett will be one tough kid. He has beautiful blue eyes and has a more calm disposition. We have been truly blessed and are thrilled to watch this sweet spirit grow up.