Emmett’s Birth Story

T and I welcomed our baby boy on November 15, 2019. At 2:55am, weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces, Emmett Leo made his appearance. A complete whirlwind, everything happened rather quickly. Actually, almost exactly 3 hours after I hit “schedule” on this last post, we were en route to the hospital. A bit serendipitous if you ask me.

Prior to labor, I didn’t have any specific plans to write out Emmett’s birth story. I figured I would let it happen & decide after. Like I mentioned above, labor was a complete whirlwind and I find myself wanting to document it. During the first few postpartum weeks, I could barely reflect on the hospital days without getting overly emotional. Everything happened so fast that we barely had time to think or process. Hormones or not, this was the absolute craziest experience of our lives. Take all my preconceived notions about the whole process & throw them away. There’s simply nothing that can prepare you for the before, during or after.

The story

We found out Emmett was breech on November 13th and we would need to schedule a c-section. It was one of those instances where I should have seen the signs. We sat in the waiting room an extra 15 minutes, which rarely happens at our clinic. Then, my blood pressure was high, which actually never happens. We were also seeing a doctor we hadn’t seen before & with his (thankfully) amazing intuition, he double checked E’s position with an unscheduled ultrasound. 15 minutes later, I was in tears trying to decide on a date for surgery.

C-sections have become rather routine and I realize they are trivial to some. But to me, in that moment, this was a huge deal. Labor sounds intimidating no matter what the plan is, and I worked really hard to build courage to get through it. I had mentally prepared. I made my playlist, packed my bags, purchased post-labor supplies. All good to go. I had basically ruled out the idea of a c-section & I wasn’t prepared to navigate a whole other element to the process. And to a person who has never even broken a bone, surgery sounded terrifying. Not to mention worrying about Emmett’s safety through it all and T worrying about mine.

By the time I got home from work the following day, my emotions were under control. I switched my mindset and realized everything could be a lot worse. We scheduled our c-section for the 21st, trying to avoid the possibility of going into early labor. At 7:30pm on November 14th, I had my first contraction.

I definitely didn’t see the signs.

The day was completely normal. I felt great. Some of my late pregnancy symptoms even less severe than previous days. I can’t remember what we had for dinner, but I cooked & went about my evening per usual because I thought… no way, we have until the 21st!

Did I know they were contractions? Obviously not. Maybe it was a bit of denial. Regardless, the pain was bad enough to call the nurse at 9pm. Now having a breech baby, we were being extra cautious. The nurse said it sounded like Braxton Hicks (fakes) & to go to bed. Call back if something changed. We pulled the covers up around 11pm. My water broke at 12:15am. Thankfully, T over-prepares when I do not. Ignoring my “it’s fine” comments, he packed everything by the front door before we fell asleep. Within 5 minutes, I had managed to get dressed, leave Cooper some treats & get in the car.

Running a few red lights on the way, we checked into the hospital by 12:45am and at 2:55am, we heard Emmett cry for the first time.

What no one ever tells you (or at least me)

Labor progressed really quickly for me. When the contractions started, they were immediately 7 minutes apart. The nurse had us hold off for a few reasons. The length of time between was irregular, I could talk through them and the pain was centralized & didn’t include upper abdomen or back aches. All signs pointing to a “false alarm”. By the time I was in the surgery prep room, they were less than 2 minutes apart and I was completely dilated. I went through most of labor with very little medicine before finally being wheeled to the OR. If you count the clock, that’s only 7 hours from my first contraction to delivery. About 2 1/2 hours after my water broke.

I think in the back of my head, I knew things could happen that fast. But everyone fills your head with the opposite – the 24 hour labor stories, the “first baby never comes early”, your water won’t break like the movies type stuff. So I’m here to tell you… nothing with delivery is predictable. The signs might not even be there until you’re speeding down 2nd Ave hoping this is the real deal because, man, that pain is intense. And your water can definitely break like the movies.

Almost two months later

I look back and am actually very thankful for how it all went down. Emmett was nice to his mama all through pregnancy and he obviously knew a surprise arrival would be better than a scheduled one. My anxiety would have been much higher walking into the hospital on the 21st & getting prepped for surgery. I don’t do needles or really anything medical, but the labor pains camouflaged all that for me. I was just thankful to be in great hands with the wonderful team of nurses and doctors we had. We really lucked out.

Overall, our labor experience was pretty great. Intense & fast, but we’re all healthy which we are beyond thankful for. Emmett has been the biggest blessing & we’re soaking up these newborn days at home.

It feels really good to be writing again. I’ll be back again soon.

xoxo. B