Baby Blake

After many requests to hear Blake's birth story - here it is. Hopefully I haven't shared too much info ...

I really didn't know what to expect from this delivery. With Zach I delivered naturally, with midwives in the hospital. I knew that this experience would be quite different as it was my second and I was delivering with an Obstetrician. Although this time I definitely wasn't opposed to an epidural, I wanted to just see how things progressed on their own first. I'm not going to lie though - I was definitely more terrified this time around! I think it's worse when you know what's coming. They say you forget, but the memories came back with a vengeance with the first contraction!

I was booked to be induced the day after he was born as he was 9 days overdue. I tried everything in the book to get labour going, so when I felt my first contraction on Friday evening (2 days before my induction appt) I felt both utter excitement and pure terror. The contractions were coming quite regularly, every 7-10 minutes, and finally at 3am I got up and showered and got the last few things ready to go. I thought I'd be having this baby by noon for sure! Much to my dismay, the contractions became quite sporadic around 6am and I spent the day with contractions coming every 10 min - 30 min. Talk about frustrating! Mark's mom came to get Zach in the afternoon just in case, and shortly after 3 pm the contractions came in full force.

It was just after 6pm that I told Mark that we should head to the hospital as I was sure I was over 4cm. I made sure I had everything and was ready at the door when I called out to Mark that I was ready to go. When I didn't hear a response I went looking for him and found him in the basement shredding paper ... of all things (he'll never live that down)!! He didn't think that when I said I was ready to go I literally meant - NOW! He was also hesitant to go too soon, knowing how frustrated I would've been if they sent us back home. With a slightly unimpressed wife we headed out the door and were on our way. When we arrived to the hospital at 7pm the nurse checked me to be at 6cm. Woohoo! The pain wasn't all for nothing! Within a few minutes the Dr. came in and she said I was already at 7cm.

At that point they asked me if I wanted the epidural. I struggled with the decision because if the labour kept progressing as fast as it was I figured I could do it without any meds. I was so scared of having the same thing happen as Zach and get stuck at 9 1/2 cm for 3 hrs. I was having pretty painful back labour again and had one brutal contraction that helped me make my decision - bring on the epidural!! The anaesthesiologist was right outside the room and what took him 5 min to start the epidural seemed like an eternity ... but what a miraculous feeling!

Mark just laughed and said, 'I told you so!', since he though I should've had an epidural with Zach. He said that one of us was getting an epidural this delivery - if not me, then him! I guess I wasn't the only one traumatized by our first labour experience. Ha!

I ended up being VERY grateful for the pain relief as I was stuck at 7cm for almost 5 hrs. Blake was face up and not budging. They kept having me roll back and forth to see if that would help, but Blake's heart rate kept dropping quite low. Around 10pm I started feeling an intense urge to push with each contraction, even with the epidural. I was still only 7cm but it became excruciatingly painful and finally I had to have my epidural topped up. This time I was so numb I couldn't move at all. The painful urge to push still didn't go away but it did take the edge off. It was just after midnight when the nurse checked me again and I was still at 7cm, but regardless of what we did we couldn't get a good reading on his heart rate. Quite a few nurses were running in and the Dr. came shortly. She went to place an internal lead in Blake's scalp to monitor his heart rate when she realized that I was actually now 10cm! What a relief!! After a few pushes our newest little man was born at 12:34am on July 24!

He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20" long. After being checked over I got to hold him for the first time. This was such a special moment for me and I am so grateful to have been blessed with a beautiful, healthy baby boy.

Daddy getting to meet his new son for the first time.

They let me stay for 1 1/2 hours in the labour and delivery suite to rest before taking me to the postpartum unit. I stayed in a 4-bed room, so Mark had to head home shortly after we arrived. As one could guess, I didn't get much sleep that night, but I enjoyed many cuddles with my new little man. I literally just sat and stared at him for hours.

We had a hard time trying to decide on a name for our baby. A week before he was born we still had a list of 13 possible names, so I made Mark sit down with me and make a short list. We still had a few names on the list when he was born, but within a couple minutes of meeting him we were pretty sure we knew which name fit best. It's so much pressure to name your child so soon after meeting him!! Dr. Ballerman asked what we decided and we told her the two names we were debating. She took a long look at our son and stated firmly - 'He definitely looks like a Blake' and the medical student and nurses also agreed. And so it was decided ...

BLAKE DARRELL CORIE

It was so special to find out a couple days later that my Grandma Bennett, who passed away when I was 8 years old, had always loved the name Blake and had always really wanted a grandchild with that name.

Finally headin' home after a whopping 12 hours in the hospital.

With the timing of my discharge from hospital and Zach's nap, it worked out better to just have Mark's parents bring him to our house to meet his new little brother. It was so precious to watch Zach's reaction to seeing his new little brother for the first time. He was so intrigued by Blake's little squeaks and noises. He has no idea that his world has been changed forever more!

Our first photo as a family of four. This is still so surreal to me!

Blake meeting his Grandpa Darrell Corie who he was named after.

Blake is still unsure of what to think about his big brother. His eyes get so wide whenever Zach is near. It might have something to do with the fact that Zach always talks super loud to Blake and loves to give him constant smothering cuddles.

Meeting his Great Grandma & Grandpa Aylwin

I love my smiley boys :)

We had some professional photos taken shortly after Blake's arrival by Curtis Round. Here's a random sampling:

I am even more outnumbered in our family now, but I couldn't be happier! Mark and I have been so blessed and we love our boys so much. Mark has had this week off and has a couple more to spend with us at home. I know it is still too early to tell, but the transition to two kids has been going fairly smoothly so far. We'll see how it goes after Mark returns to work.

He has been so absolutely amazing this week and takes Zach out a couple times everyday just to give Blake and I a chance to rest. Mark is such a great daddy and I love to see how excited Zach is to be able to spend more time with dad. I love my little family so much!!