I’ve always been someone who processes their feelings best by writing them out. I believe it’s such a powerful way to sort through emotions & major life events! Giving birth is single handedly the most transformational experience I’ve been through. In a matter of moments your entire role in life shifts & you finally get to meet this little person that you have been carrying for the last 9+ months. I wanted to share Emmett’s birth story with you all while it was still fresh in my mind & felt like a blog post was the best place to do that so I am not limited by IG stories cutting me off every few slides.
Emmett’s Birth Story
Two weeks ago I gave birth to our son, Emmett King Roscopf. Today, I’m sharing Emmett’s birth story with you all below from start to finish. This post may be on the longer side, as giving birth is rarely a short story, so consider yourself forewarned! Also, obviously with sharing a birth story there is a lot of things that may be TMI for some of you, but I’m here to keep it real & give it to you straight so you’re getting alllll the details.
My Due Date
All along during pregnancy Emmett measured a few days ahead & from the get go I thought his due date should have been a few days earlier than it was. If you’ve never been pregnant, they calculate due date based on your last regular period. However, my last period before I missed one wasn’t regular. We had just started trying to get pregnant & I was five days late, which I never was. My periods would start like clock work in the morning at the same time each month. When I was supposed to start that month, I hadn’t. I was leaving the next day for a West Texas road trip to Marfa & Big Bend & decided that if I still had not started when I got back a few days later, I’d take a test.
I started on the last day of our trip, which was several days late & it was a very ‘off’ compared to my usual periods. After looking into it, this seemed like it may have been a chemical pregnancy in that if I would have taken a pregnancy test it may have shown up positive, but it wasn’t viable for whatever reason & ultimately didn’t take. I’m grateful for the timing of it all, because I know so often people take tests before missing a period or right when they do & then find out later that the pregnancy did not stick. In this case, I feel like what I didn’t know couldn’t hurt me. All of this to say, we got pregnant that next month & they calculated my due date from when my ‘period’ started. Since it really it should have come about 5 days sooner & it was definitely not my usual sort of period, I always thought the date was off & how he measured all along supported this.
My Birth Plan
When asked about my birth plan I always said two things: 1) I wanted an epidural & 2) I really wanted a vaginal delivery. Other than that, I didn’t get too attached to any plans. I had heard of so many people who laid out a detailed plan only to realize that birth is something pretty tricky to perfectly plan out. I wanted our baby & me to be kept safe & I wanted the process to be as comfortable as possible. When asked if I was getting an epidural, I always said yes.
To each their own, but I don’t consider myself a hero & if the end result is the same & I can be a little more comfortable along the way, then I’m all for that. I did joke that if someone dangled the keys to my dream home in front of me & told me it was mine on the condition I gave birth without an epidural, I would rally & do it. I’ve been known to have more willpower than just about anyone when strongly incentivized. However, if at the end of the day my baby was safely in my arms with or without an epidural, I was getting one to make the process a little better. Spoiler alert: no one offered me my dream home free of cost on the condition that I give birth without pain meds!
Induction Scheduled
During our last ultrasound at 36 weeks, Emmett was again measuring a few days ahead of schedule with a very large head. At that appointment, my doctor brought up doing an induction at 39 weeks. I told her I had been manifesting him early anyways & was down to chat more about it at our next appointment. When we met with her at 37 weeks, we went ahead & got an induction on the calendar to start at 39 weeks on Tuesday 07/27/2021. When we went in at 38 weeks we were talking more about the induction process & realized we were confused on how it worked! They had talked about me coming in on 07/27 to have Cervidil placed & we thought we’d go home after. This was definitely not the case & our doctor told us that when we went to check in on the afternoon of 07/27 that we’d stay overnight & baby would likely be born sometime the next day on 07/28. We are so glad we clarified because we would have rolled up to the hospital without all of our bags & without having everything ready to go! We were as clueless as can be on how the process would work!
As I mentioned above I was manifesting a somewhat early (but perfectly healthy) arrival. However, once we realized that baby boy was quite comfortable & the induction was scheduled, we were content just waiting for that date. We are both planners & I am as Type A as the come, so really we loved having an induction on the calendar. It allowed us to schedule our dogs for boarding & be totally prepared. I had a few contractions a few days before & we were totally clueless on timing them or knowing if it was the real deal that it was sort of stressful! Having an induction scheduled cut out on the unknown for us going through this for the first time to try to know when to leave for the hospital.
The Day Of
Our induction was scheduled for 4:00 PM on Tuesday 07/27. That morning I woke up & did a little workout as usual, showered & got ready, & we went to our last lunch to soak in some time just the two of us. We came back home & finished packing our bags & then called the hospital about an hour before we were set to check in as they had instructed us to do so. They told us that they didn’t have a room ready for us, so to call back in an hour. We did & still, no room. We were a little unsure of how the rest of the night would go, so we decided to order some pizza & just hang at home with the dogs. It made us anxious wondering if we really would be going in that day to start the induction process or not. But, when we called back at 6:00, they had a room ready for us & said we could come check in when we were ready.
We loaded all of our bags & the dogs in the car, dropped them off at boarding, & drove to the hospital. Charles had practiced his hospital drive several times throughout my pregnancy, so I joked that he was missing out on his moment of getting us there as quickly (& safely) as possible in the midst of labor.
Starting the Process
We arrived at the hospital, brought in our bags, & checked in. They showed us to our room & introduced us to our nurse who explained the process to us. I changed into my hospital gown (I brought my own for $20 via Amazon which was so much softer than the hospital one) & we settled into our room. To start the induction process, they placed Cervidil inside me to begin dilating & thinning my cervix. Cervidil is essentially like a tampon they place inside you to kickstart labor. They asked me to stay lying down for two hours after it was placed or if I got up to be really careful & make sure it had not fallen out when using the restroom or anything. During this time they were monitoring baby’s heart rate & looking out for any contractions to begin. The monitors help them know when to take the Cervidil out & how labor is progressing.
We watched some television & I tried my best to relax during this time. We went to sleep, or I tried to, but I never actually slept at all because contractions started for me. I wasn’t even sure they were contractions or if it was just cramps or what. I feel like a lot of women feel this way when going into labor for the first time. I had no idea what to expect! My nurse came back in to check on me every hour or whenever I unplugged my monitors to go to the bathroom– which when you’re that pregnant is often, haha. At 6:00 the next morning she removed the Cervidil & told me that I was 2 cm dilated. I asked if I was having cramping for that & she said no, those were contractions & they had been getting noticeably stronger. It made much more sense why I couldn’t sleep at all!
The Epidural
When my nurse was checking on me, she kept asking when I wanted my epidural. My doctor had said that I could get it as early as I wanted to. As I mentioned I had no idea what to expect when it came to the labor process. I imagined contractions to be so painful that I couldn’t hardly function & would be screaming for an epidural. So, I just sat up breathing through them & using my essential oils to make it from one to the next. My nurse was in there for one & said, it seems like you may want to consider getting the epidural now. At that point, only one person was on the list in front of me. I said that surely it was going to get much worse & I felt like I could wait longer for it based on the pain I was feeling. She said that as others asked for it & got on the list it could be awhile. Charles & I talked it over & I agreed to go ahead & get put on the list for it. By 6:45 in the morning the epidural was in & I was much more comfortable! By the time the anesthesiologist (AKA my new BFF) came in to give me my epidural about 30 minutes after I was put on the list for it, they told me there were now 6 other people on the list, so I would have had quite a bit of waiting to do had I not opted to get it when I did. The pictures below are before & after the epidural. Neither are my most flattering picture (understandably so in the midst of labor), but you can see how much more relaxed I am afterwards.
The nurses were switching shifts & the one who was with me all night was leaving & said she was so sad she was going to miss out on our baby being born. She was so sweet & stayed longer while I got my epidural & then the nurses switched out. My next nurse was equally as wonderful & was in there right after I got my epidural to start my Petocin, which helps start or in my case, intensify contractions to progress labor.
Quick Progression
When initially telling us about the process, we were told it was very likely that our baby wouldn’t be born until the next night (meaning the evening of 07/28). The nurses explained first time deliveries were often slower & to just hang in there. Well, this was not totally the case for me.
When my nurse came back around 8:30 in the morning to check on me, she surprisingly said that I had gone from 2cm to 10 cm & I was fully dilated. It was a good thing I got my epidural when I did because if I would have waited there would have been so many people in front of me & I would have been fully dilated so I would have missed my shot! Literally.
Time to Push
After seeing that I was fully dilated & having the Petocin doing it’s job, my nurse said I was going to start pushing. I started pushing for about two hours from 9:00-11:00. I used a peanut ball & was on different positions on my side initially. They called my doctor & she had to deliver another baby at another hospital about fifteen minutes North of where we were. Because of this, they told my nurse to have me labor down or essentially slow down the process a bit so she could make it back. This means I got a little break from pushing, but I was still very actively in labor. I laid on my back & at this point could not move my right leg at all so Charles was helping me any time I needed to move it or hold it up.
My doctor arrived around 12:15 & I was fully effaced, so she said it was go time. She jokingly called me an ‘overachiever’ for how quickly I had progressed. Charles gave me an extra push on my epidural & I was instructed to keep pushing. They had me pushing in threes when contractions came on. I could feel him & had such an urge to push, so I said I wanted to keep pushing & then he came on that next push!
Emmett King
Emmett King Roscopf was born on Wednesday 07/28/2021 at 12:52 PM. He weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces & was 20 inches long. He was named after Charles’s great grandfather & his great-great grandfather, Emmett Roscopf. His middle name, King, was Charles’s great-grandmother’s maiden name. He was born on Charles’s grandmother’s birthday & on a Wednesday around lunch just like Charles was.
My Birth Experience
First, I have to note how amazing Charles was amazing throughout the entire process! He held a fan for me as I needed it, made sure my diffuser was full of different essential oils I needed at different times, held my leg up when I lost all feeling in it, & so much more. He witnessed all sorts of things like me throwing up at some point during labor (I honestly can’t remember when this happened) & then again after. I’m so thankful for his support throughout the entire process! The second he held Emmett he was already the best Dad. I shared a video saved to my ‘Emmett’ highlight on Instagram stories that is the sweetest thing ever of him holding him & crying + smiling at the sound of him crying. He said he felt instantly bonded with him & I will forever me thankful that I have that moment on video. It melts my heart!
My birth experience was honestly great. I thought the entire experience was incredible & I am so grateful to have experienced it & have a healthy baby boy here now. I walked away from labor feeling like I ‘crushed it’ (the words my doctor used). I felt like all the meditation, yoga, & pelvic floor workouts & consistently moving throughout pregnancy helped me so much during labor. It went as well as I could have hoped for & I loved the induction process, although I really have nothing else to compare it to.
I did have a second degree tear, which my doctor said is the most common during labor. They stitched me right up after & thanks to the epidural I felt nothing in the moment. I also don’t even remember delivering the placenta which I had heard from some before wasn’t a pleasant experience. I think I was doing skin to skin with him during this time so honestly nothing else in the world mattered!
I am sure I am leaving out some things related to Emmett’s birth story, so if you have any questions feel free to leave them below or message me! I shared on Instagram stories that he had a scare the evening after he was born & ended up spending some time in the NICU, which I feel like could be an entire post sharing that story on its own. I will also share more about the postpartum in a separate post soon, too.
If you are currently pregnant check out my posts on my first trimester, second trimester, & third trimester essentials & things that helped me through each. I also wrote a post on books I read during pregnancy, my hospital bag packing list, our nursery reveal, & our baby registry. XO
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