Everest's Birth Story

Everest James Seegwun Wesley, was born, two days past his due date, on May 4th at around 11:30 am in the morning.

Photo by: Athena Marie Photography

---

Everest was expected around Sunday, May 2, 2021. I was sure Everest was going to be early but as it turned out he was a bit late.

On May the 3rd, I was resting at home on the couch and I felt some contractions. I had been feeling some off and on for the past few days. I assumed they were the Braxton and hicks contractions. I had also been having those for weeks. However, on this afternoon, they felt more intense and I felt an unbelievable amount of pressure in my belly. At my check-in appointment, earlier that day, the doctor had performed a stretch and sweep to naturally induce labour. I had a stretch and sweep at an appointment a couple weeks prior, which did not induce labour, so I was not optimistic. Well, this time it worked. Very effectively.

I went to the washroom thinking I ate something that didn't agree with me and...pop! My waters broke with a big gush, like a water balloon exploding all over the bathroom. It was everywhere. The first thing, I noticed was the water was not clear. That was not a good sign. It was slightly brown, which usually means there is some meconium (baby's first poops) in the amniotic fluid. I got frantic and worried. I let Brent know my water broke and he came over to assess the situation. He then began helping me clean up and started prepping to go to the hospital, by grabbing our overnight bags, the snack bag I had prepared for us and all of the puppy gear my parents would need to look after our four month old husky cross, Sanakiisi.

I called the maternity ward at the local hospital right away and they told me to come in as soon as I could, for monitoring. We rushed over. It took us about four minutes. Needless to say, we live very close to the hospital. I was still able to walk and did my best fast paced, hurried, waddle to the maternity wing. With me panting away and trailing behind Brent, we reached the maternity ward but needed a pass to get through the doors. A nearby hospital staff member came over to assist us. He waved his pass, and as the doors began opening up, slowly, so slowly, more of my waters came gushing out all over my new, white sneakers and the hospital hallway floor. In hindsight, I probably should have worn old beat up sneakers.

A nurse greeted us on the other side of the doors and smiled at me. She then looked down and said, "I see your water broke,".

I nervously laughed and replied, " Yep and all over the floor. Sorry about that."

She laughed and assured me she had seen it all, which made me feel much less embarrassed about the mess I left behind. They escorted us into the maternity ward and to a labouring room. I changed out of my wet clothes into a hospital gown and got situated on a bed with a lot of padding. There was so much fluid. It just kept coming. I was so shocked how much was in there.

For the next hour or so I was hooked up to machines that monitored baby's heart rate. This was done to make sure baby was okay and that the meconium that was present in the amniotic fluids wasn't putting him in any kind of distress. Once it was determined that baby was doing well and labour was, in fact, progressing, they said we could go home, if we wanted to, because we lived so close. We could have dinner, get anything else we needed. We decided to head home for a bit to get a bit more prepped. They told us to be back by 7 pm. So off we went, back home. I wore the flip flops I had packed, for wearing around the hospital, home. It was early May in Northern Ontario. It was rainy, windy and cold outside. So, word to the wise, pack extra shoes, just in case.

Once we got home Brent went to work grabbing some of the additional stuff we might need packed up. More clothes for baby, more clothes for himself and me. I had some toast for dinner. I didn't feel like eating much. I tried to lie down, get comfortable and rest but the contractions came on pretty fast and furious. The pressure was unreal and I could barely stand. I doubled over the kitchen island as Brent ate his toast and I tried to breath through the pain. This was not my ideal birthing scenario. I had visions of staying at home during early labour as long as I possibly could. I wanted to have a bath, bounce on my stability ball, while listening to zen meditation music and breathing calmly in my comfort space. Once I was experiencing the pain of early labour, I did not last long. I told Brent, "We need to go back! I need the meds.".

We headed back to the hospital in less than the hour we had planned to be gone and much less time than I thought I would be able to stick it out.

The trip back was a bit more harried. I could barely sit and my contractions were strong and not far apart. We arrived at the hospital and this time I could barely stand. Brent ran into the hospital to grab a wheel chair. I waited at the car for what felt like an hour. It was probably five minutes. He came back, running, grabbed all our gear, again, help me sit down and wheel me through the hospital, in a hurry. Like a movie cliche, we arrived back at maternity anxious, stressed and huffing and puffing.

They got us situated in the same labour room we were in prior. The nurses helped me get comfortable back in bed and hooked me up to all the monitors, again.

During my pregnancy I had asked my doctors at the check-in appointments about pain management. I had wanted to take medications. I had nothing to prove in that regard. I was no hero and I didn't want to go medication free. I knew labour would be painful and I wanted something to help with that pain. So, I asked questions such as,

"How long could I wait to get the meds?"

"What meds will be used?"

It had never occurred to me to ask, "how soon can I get the pain meds?'

Which was the question I asked once they had me situated. The nurses laughed when I asked and responded with, "right away,". So, we began the pain management right away and the pain was much more manageable from that point on. From there it was the waiting game of "how many centimetres dilated are you?".

Brent and I, did our best to create a zen space for me to labour through. We dimmed the lights, put on some yoga and meditation music, lined up some werther's originals hard candies for me to suck on and keep my blood sugar levels up, snacked and kept our families updated on the progress. At a certain point, the pain meds had stalled labour, so I was given some oxytocin to keep things progressing.

As the night wore on, Brent and I, did our best to get some sleep, as well. It was rough but we did what we could. Brent put together two of the labour room chairs so he could lie down for a bit, which was ten kinds of uncomfortable for his 6'5" frame. But he managed to get a z's here and there. I breathed through my contractions, while repeating my birthing affirmations, in my head, as they came and went.

"This is a safe pain."

"Every contraction gets me closer to baby"

"My body knows what it's doing, my only job is to trust.

I tried to get some sleep, when I could. Periodically, nurses came in to do check-ins and administer more pain meds, doctors came in to visit and assess. I had a few bouts of vomiting, which is a pretty common side effect of labour, that I was not aware of until I was experiencing it first hand.

Eventually at around 3 am I was ready for the epidural. On went the lights and I was propped up in a sitting position on the bed. I was groggy and in a medication induced, meditative fog. Brent positioned himself in front of me holding my arms and hands for support and the anesthesiologist came in and introduced himself. I'm not gonna lie, the idea of the spinal tap really freaked me out, but I rationalized it as a momentary pain for relief from more serious pain down the line. So, I was mentally prepared to get it done.

The first try at the spinal tap, the poke, was not so bad. It was less painful than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the right spot and it took another couple tries to get it where it needed to be for full effectiveness. After the second try the anesthesiologist asked me how I was and I responded that I felt okay.

He responded, "I think you're just meditating your way through the pain and the epidural is not working at all. We need to try again."

We tried a third time and the spinal tap finally sunk in the right place and the medications went through the line and started to work their magic.

At the time of the epidural, I didn't sweat it too much that it took three tries, mostly because I was tired and heavily medicated. I still don't sweat it too much, though, months later. My experiences with the epidural was not a wholly bad one. It wasn't super painful to get done and it is understandable that every body is so different and the spot for a spinal tap is so minute. It is not a straight forward procedure, especially, at 3 am in the morning. Throughout my labour and during my C-section the anesthesiologist took great care to of me. He was worried that I may get epidural headaches, from the multiple taps, so he was sure to check up on my often in recovery, but I didn't have any side effects of the epidural. I did get headaches bit not from that. Anyways, I digress, I felt, that he and all the staff were trustworthy, competent and amazing at their jobs. So even when things went a bit off the rails, I knew I was in good hands. The staff checked up on us a lot, communicated effectively with us through each stage of labour, informed us well about our options, let us know any risks with our choices, next steps we would be taking and any complications that could occur and they always asked how we felt about everything afterwards. They took amazing care of us.

Early morning on May 4th, after a night of labouring, at around 10 am, I was dilated to 10 cm and gearing up mentally for pushing out baby. I knew it would be the hard part. I had heard horror story after horror story of the pushing stage so mentally I was gearing up for hours of sweating through it, extreme pain and possible tearing. I was as ready as I would ever be for the onslaught to come. The nurse came in and checked we were good to proceed. She felt around for baby's head and found that he was, as they say, "sunny side up". His face was facing...well, up. Which, can make labour quite painful as the back of the baby's skull would be scraping across the mother's pubic bone upon entry into the world. So, if the baby was pushed out that way it could hurt quite a lot or he could get stuck. Regardless, The docs and nurses wanted him facing the other way around. So, the doctor came in, checked it out and attempted to turn Everest around using her hands. However, when she touched Everest's head in the birthing canal he got stuck and then went into distress. His heart rate shot up. They stopped everything and attempted to bring his heart rate back down by having me just relax and lie back for bit. It was a pretty intense twenty minutes, if it was that long. His heart rate did eventually go down but it dropped way too low. Once the doctor looked at the numbers, she made the call to do an emergency c-section to get baby out. It was a quick decision and once it was made, everyone started prepping.

Brent and I were pretty nervous and scared for me but mostly for baby. I reminded him and myself that many women I know have been through c-sections under similar circumstances, and they and their little ones are okay today. Everyone I know that has been through an emergency c-section is healthy and strong today. But anxieties remained high between us and we did our best to support each other through. The staff handed Brent some scrubs and took all the monitors for baby off my belly. Brent called both of our moms and kept them updated while we waited to be wheeled off. They were a supportive presence to both of us from afar.

Once we were both ready, they wheeled me through the hospital, to the basement via an elevator and into a long corridor. Brent was accompanied by some other docs to wait in another room, before he was allowed into the surgery room. So I was on my own until he came back in. I stayed in the corridor with an OR nurse and filed out paper work while the surgery room was prepped.

Once I was through with all the legalities they wheeled me into the surgery room. The room was cold and sterile, stainless steel was everywhere. I felt vulnerable and exposed. I was naked from the arm pits down. There were nurses and doctors, talking about me and baby, painting my body with red paint, asking me questions, strapping me down, hooking me up to drugs in IV bags, positioning blue paper at my neck. I couldn't see or feel my lower half. I felt nauseous, I told the anesthesiologist and he administered some gravol, then I felt warm all over. My mouth became extremely dry, so much so that I could barely swallow, and I became ridiculously thirsty. It was distracting and, for a bit, all I could really focus on. Brent entered the room and got settled on a stool nearby. He stroked my hair and was a calm reassuring presence. The docs let us know they were ready to go in and get baby. We both took a bog breath. Then, I felt various pulling sensations down below, like dull nudges. I heard the doctors yelling from behind the blue curtain, "He's here. He's a big one. Good thing you didn't push him out,". Brent stood, everyone in the room got excited. The anesthesiologist told Brent to get pictures. The lead doc said, "Awww! He's super cute." Later she told us that when they went int o get Everest he was looking up at the stars, face up. Our little star walker.

When, I heard him cry for the first time, and a feeling washed over me like a warm wave. They brought Everest, over to my side of the blue curtain and held him up for me so I could see him. He wasn't cleaned off yet. He was all purple and red, squished up and crying. He was the sweetest, cutest, most precious little thing, I had ever laid eyes on. Brent jokes, that I fell in love instantly and forgot all about him. Which is only half true, I did not forget all about him, but I did feel so much love for Everest instantly, that I could barely contain it. I called out to him and said 'hi' to my little baby boy.

They cleaned him up and did all the necessary things they do once babies are born and then brought him back over to me for skin to skin contact. They put him on my chest. I felt relief, awe and as I've mentioned before, this over whelming sense of purpose and the need to protect this little, tiny vulnerable and precious child. But, the reality was I was still strapped down to the surgery bed and hooked up to all the pain meds and being sewn back up down below so my lower half was being pulled and poked. It was difficult to hold him and focus on him. I asked if Brent could do the skin to skin contact with Everest because I didn't feel I could properly bond with him at that moment. They immediately got Brent ready and he held Everest, while I was unhooked, unstrapped, vacuumed up, sewn up and then prepped for recovery. I closed my eyes and breathed through it all.

Once in recovery, they brought Everest back to me and I could really get a good look at him. We had a proper cuddle session and attempted latching. I asked for water, as soon as I was able to speak, because I was still incredibly thirsty and my mouth was still so dry. The nurse held the water glass for me and I drank from a straw while I attempted to breast feed and held Everest close. It was my first experience multi-tasking with baby. I was letting him go for anything in the world.

They wheeled us back to the maternity ward after a while and set us up in a smaller room with a bed, where we stayed for the next three days while, I recovered and Everest adjusted to life on the outside.

And that was how my cute, adorable little baby boy was born. My little Everest Jame Seegwun Wesley, all chubby cheeked, with tiny hands and feet.

He was just shy of 10 lbs. and 21 inches long born around 11:30 am through emergency c-section.

The next few days and weeks of recovery were difficult, they produced a whole new set of challenges and trials. But that's for another post. So, to be continued...