Sadie’s Birth Story

In honour of Sadie’s 4th birthday, I felt compelled to write out her birth story. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do, and thought this was the perfect day.

Sadie Ann Chamberlain was born on October 1, 2017 at 5:05pm (one day before her due date).

Sadie’s birth started with my water breaking at about 4am on October 1. I got up to go pee, and it felt like I couldn’t stop peeing. Such a strange feeling!

I woke up my husband, Jay (to his delight), and we called the midwife. Our midwife came to the house, and measured my blood pressure (which had been creeping up at the end of my pregnancy) and advised that we head to the hospital to run some tests.

Side note: I was supposed to participate in the CIBC Run for the Cure that morning with my dad and sister (something we do every year in memory of my mom). I called my sister right away and said “I think I’ll skip it this year and have a baby instead.”

We stopped at Tim Hortons on the way to the hospital to grab some food, knowing it could be a long day! I got a sandwich thinking something filling would be smart, but could only eat maybe 3 bites of it as the excitement completely took away my appetite. 

We got to the hospital and got set up with the fetal heart monitor, and my midwife did a test to confirm that it was in fact my water that had broken.

We did some laps around the hospital to see if contractions would start. They slowly came on at the hospital that morning, but very minor and very far apart.

My midwife gave me two options: stay at the hospital to labour, or head home to labour. We decided to head home.

We went for a walk around the block when we got home and on that walk my contractions started kicking in more strongly. I remember this because my friend Brittany called while we were on our walk to ask how I was feeling (knowing my due date was the next day). And I said “well, I’m in labour at this very moment!”

We got back from that walk and put on a movie and I tried to relax on the couch with Jay. I quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. My contractions kept increasing in intensity and got increasingly closer together. 

I must have paced our main floor 100 times, stopping with each contraction to bend over and breathe. I paired that with going outside and breathing in the crisp October air which seemed to help a bit.

I was using an app on my phone to track my contractions. What I noticed is that I would have one large, very painful contraction, followed by one short, very tolerable contraction. With knowing very little about what is “normal” (and didn’t think to ask), I wasn’t including the small contractions in my app tracker. 

I was getting to a point where the contractions were quite unbearable. Jay called the midwife to update her. She asked how far apart the contractions were and I said about 7 minutes (which was according to the large contractions). She said continue to labour a little longer as that wasn’t close enough together yet.

I laboured maybe an hour more until around 3pm. Jay called the midwife and said my contractions weren’t much closer together but I was in so much pain, I couldn’t talk (which she said was another indication that it was time to go to the hospital).

We drove to the hospital (a 5-minute drive away) and it was a blur. Every bump was excruciating. I just wanted to get there.

We got to the hospital and went right up to the delivery floor. I had already checked in that morning, but still had to answer a few questions with the receptionist. I remember her being so calm and I was struggling to answer her through gritted teeth. She stopped and looked at me and asked, “are you having contractions?”, and I said “ugh, yeah just a little”.

I got into the delivery room and my midwife checked my dilation. I was already 7cm dilated. She asked about my contractions and I told her about the big/ small contractions. She told me the small contractions counted and that they were actually 3-4 minutes apart. Good thing we left when we did!

I tried walking around for a bit in the room but felt like I needed to lie down.

I remember feeling ill-prepared for how painful the contractions were. And at one point I think I only had 30 seconds between contractions. I remember the midwife asking if I wanted to change positions but I felt like I couldn’t move from my back, so I stayed there.

I think it was only about 45 minutes of being at the hospital before feeling the urge to push.

I remember that feeling so clearly. It felt like an out of body experience where I had to just let my body do what it needed to do.

I had two midwives with me and I remember one midwife who stayed at my head being so helpful. As I began pushing, I became quite afraid of the pain. I kept yelling out “I can’t, I can’t!” This midwife was so calm and peaceful the entire time. She helped keep me grounded and reminded me how strong I was and that I could do it. 

Side note: I went into Sadie’s delivery wanting to try for an unmedicated labour. I remember wanting to ask for an epidural at one point as I was labouring, but my midwife told me as soon as I arrived that there wouldn’t be time for one because I was already so dilated. Knowing it was off the table was reassuring in a strange sense knowing that unmedicated was my only option. I felt very confident I could do it. 

At one point as I was pushing, I could feel Sadie’s head starting to crown. The pain was unbelievable. But I felt a sense of reassurance that the end was near. I could feel her head pushing out, but then in between contractions I could feel her pull back in. My midwife gave me the cue to try my best to relax between contractions instead of squeezing and recoiling. That was the exact cue I needed! A couple more hard pushes and she was out. I pushed for a total of 45-minutes.

The immense, immediate relief I felt after delivery was something I will never forget. I bawled and bawled. Later on Jay told me he thought I was crying from the pain. And I reassured him the tears were pure relief and elation. I felt so incredibly proud of myself.

Those first few minutes post-delivery were incredible. I’m crying right now typing this out because it’s the most joy I’ve ever felt in my life. I’m so grateful to have had a wonderful birth experience. Extremely painful yes, but so incredibly fulfilling.

Thank you Sadie girl for making me a mama. It is my life’s greatest joy. Happy 4th birthday sweet girl.