Emerson's birth story

On Wednesday, 19 of September, our daughter, Emerson Rose MacBride was born at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital in London at 7:58 a.m. My labor was under five hours and a complete blur, although there are a few fun memories I will always look back on.

For more on how we got there, this is Emerson’s story…

I wish I could say the days/hours leading up to Emmy’s birth were exciting and full of contractions, but to be honest, it was pretty much business as usual. I wasn’t getting Braxton Hicks and none of the other “early labor” signs were there either. I was just – large.

Interestingly though, I did get my last acupuncture treatment about 12 hours before my water broke – so perhaps there is something to that! For about two weeks leading up to her birth I had been receiving acupuncture treatments in support of a healthy, and stress-free labor.

Obligatory: If this is something you’re interested in, please consult your doctor first.

So, the day before her birth I told my acupuncturist it was time for full steam ahead. I was ready to nudge this baby along (something only to be done at 40 weeks as I was just two days shy of her due date). We did some new treatments in support of this and I was sent on my way.

Following my acupuncture, my mom and I came home and had dinner – again nothing out of the ordinary. I drank my raspberry leaf tea as I had been doing for days and went to bed.

What happened next is when the blur of this entire experience started. At 3:02 a.m., while I was fast asleep, my water broke out of nowhere, and basically flooded the bed (TMI - sorry folks). I know this is rare, and everyone says “it only happens like that in the movies”, so this was my movie moment.

I cleaned up, came out of the bathroom, and told Mr. Dave what was happening. At this point, I wasn’t having contractions per say, just some general aches and decided to call the hospital and let them know.

Side note: At one of our baby classes, we were told that if our water broke (and it was clear, and we weren’t Strep B Positive) we should wait it out at home until the contractions were much more intense. I am SO glad I did not wait at home…

To my surprise, the midwife told me to come in for monitoring.

Another side note: Now that my water had broken, I remember telling Dave that we would be meeting her in the next 24 hours. HA! Little did I know how quickly we would be meeting her…

I figured it would be easier to break down what happened next by time frame. This is when all the fun really started…

3:45 a.m: Dave and I are in an Uber, on our way to the hospital. At this point, stuff was starting to happen. Some pretty noticeable contractions were beginning, and I kept thinking to myself:

“wow, these are stronger and faster than I thought they would be!”

But nothing that couldn’t be managed.

4: 15 am: We arrive at the hospital and I am strapped to a bed doing some very audible breathing exercises while they checked on Emmy’s heart rate. Now, thinking to myself:

“THIS IS NOT HOW I THOUGHT LABOR GOES.”

6 am: I am currently climbing the walls of the Chelsea Westminster Hospital. I thought I would be able to walk around (now that I was off the bed) but the pain was too intense to walk, and I found that I was kneeling over with each contraction. I had also started vomiting profusely, adding another level of fun to this whole experience.

At this point, I still hadn’t been checked to see how far along I was (because naturally you don’t progress this quickly with your first baby, right? WRONG). I asked to be checked out as my contractions were pretty much every 30 seconds lasting for a minute. And to my excitement, I was 8 cm dilated and could get in the bath.

In my birth plan I had grand visions of a water birth (mainly because the idea of an epidural scared me, and baths are nice?) but by this point, I was ready for some relief.

6:30 am: My visions of birthing in a pool were becoming less and less likely. I took a few puffs on the gas and air machine, which did nothing. I then decided it was time to throw in the towel. My fear of the epidural was no longer greater than this dang pain. Plus, I was too far along for my back up plan which was to get a shot of pethidine – another form of medicine, that they don’t administer after 8 cm.

So, there I was, out of options and calling for that big ol’ needle in my spine.

7 am: I am now wallowing in the sweet, sweet relief that is the epidural. And thankfully, am no longer doing this (that scene was literally me and the anesthesiologist while he was trying to set up the epidural. Luckily, he was able to dodge it).

7:05 am: Just in time for the epi to kick in, I was now 10 cm dilated and ready to start pushing.

Fun story: After I got the feel-good-juice, and just before pushing, my doctor came in to the room and we had a nice chat about the royal family. His son was a choir boy at Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s wedding and snuck video on his phone of George Clooney and Amal dancing. Cheeky!

7:58 am: After nearly an hour of pushing, Emerson Rose entered the world kicking and screaming.

Such a surreal moment hearing my doctor say “On the next contraction, your baby will be here”.  Even more surreal looking back and seeing how fast it all happened. I’m still trying to process my labor experience, to be honest.

Tomorrow, Emerson is six weeks old. Can someone explain how quickly time has passed? I look at her every single day and STILL cannot believe that she is mine…

I’ve also never googled the word “poop” so much in my entire life (or ever?). Oh, the joys of motherhood! Let the good times keep on coming.