The day that Theodore entered the world.

I will never forget the day that I went into labour with Kaia.

If you head back to one of my first blog posts you can read all about that whirlwind of an experience. It did not go even remotely how I had visualized it in my head. Long story short, because I know you’d rather do anything else but go through my archives: Kaia came out two weeks early, as fast as the speed of light, I didn’t have time for any drugs, I was eating a wonderful BBQ meal at 9:30PM and by 12:54AM she was in my arms crying that first little newborn cry.

And so, of course, without having any other experience to go off of, I predicted much of the same thing for Theodore.

He however, had a different plan.

SO here we go.

Thursday March 23rd, I went in for my 38 week check-up. My doctor checked to see how dilated I was.

“You're a good 2CM and your water is about to burst. Make an appointment for next week but I know you won't need it, you'll have had your baby by then.”

My doctor was a sassy woman and I liked that about her. When she said my water was about to burst, she literally made a face of water bursting and thoroughly enjoyed doing it. She's my kinda gal.

My water never broke with Kaia. I'm not 100% sure on the statistic but I know that it's only a small number of women that actually have their water break in a dramatic kind of fashion, if even at all. So here I was the next day hanging out with Kaia at home while Matt had gone into the city for a full day of meetings. I had been texting my girlfriend Courtney about how I wish my water would break. I believe my exact words were “Only like 10% of women actually have their water break on their own! It might add to the drama though, I kind of hope it does HAHA, just for the dramatic effect I guess.” two seconds later “Something just gushed out. I have to go check it out. I can't BELIEVE My water broke talking to you, that's the funniest thing that ever happened. Okay, gotta get ready, love ya.”

Of course this would happen to me. I write about it, stand up, and voila, water. Everywhere.

My mom kept telling me that I would have Theodore when my body was ready. She kept saying to her friends “Sheridan will have this baby when she's ready to have this baby.” She wasn't wrong. That day I had officially finished the guest room and as weird and confusing as that is, that was the last thing on my to-do list to get done before his arrival.

As usual, we're getting off course here. And so, I text Matt and tell him that my water broke and that it might be a good idea for him to come back home. I message my brother's girlfriend Nicole as she was put on duty for the big day and she packed her bags and got ready to come hang with Kaia. I called the hospital because honestly I wasn't sure what to do in this situation. Was I supposed to go in and get checked out? I knew that you couldn't last long with your water being broken before heading in but I wasn't sure what the exact time frame was.

The nurse told us to come in, get checked out and to go from there. This was the first time in a long time that I had to leave Kaia. Usually when I do leave her it's with Matt, and seeing as I have never met a child that is more of daddy's girl than her, I am usually not even remotely worried about it. Should I mention that I had typed up a word document for Nicole to have when she came over outlining Kaia and her routine? No probably not, let's forget I ever said it.

One cool thing about your water breaking is that you have some time. You have some time to sit and realize what's actually happening. You have some time to take a moment and understand that soon your life will be turned upside down. You have some time to hold your little girl and cry for a solid five minutes as you realize these are the last moments you'll share with her being an only child. You have some time to make sure you packed everything properly in your hospital bag and most importantly, you have some time to acknowledge the fact that

YOU'RE HAVING A BABY!

Off we went to the hospital without any signs of labour. It was kind of annoying? I didn't like the fact that I was leaving Kaia when I didn't even feel like it was necessary. I had been having contractions all day but nothing stable enough for me to feel like I needed to rush into the hospital. When we arrived we were able to get checked right away. I guess my contractions all day had led me to be 4CM dilated. If my water didn't break I would never have gone to the hospital. Like I've said before, the best advice I ever received was to wait until you couldn't speak through your contractions.

Anyways, the nurse told me that they were packed that night, and that they wouldn't be able to induce me. BLAH. All this driving for nothing. I could either shack up in a room or I could go home and get some rest. I REALLY wanted to go home. I wanted to go and kiss Kaia's face 9 million more times, but I knew it wasn't necessarily the right thing to do. Her and Nicole were settling into a groove and I didn't want to compromise that. So instead, Matt and I went back to my brother's place in Dartmouth and settled in for a nights rest.

Can I just say that as a first time parent, most would have gone into the hospital and when being told they weren't going to be able to do anything for a while would have probably freaked the F*** out. Not me, I couldn't wait to go and get a good night's sleep without Kaia. I was in all my glory, like BUH-BUY hospital, see ya tomorrow bitches. So off we went, and let me tell you, I had the most spectacular nights rest. Sure, contractions woke me up every now and then, but I was so exhausted that I basically just slept through them.

The next morning we woke up, had beautiful, uninterrupted showers and tried to decide what to do next. I still wasn't having steady contractions and I wasn't supposed to head back into the hospital until that afternoon if there were no changes. Again, I thought about going home to see my little mama one last time but I made the decision not to. It would have been selfish, and unfair and I didn't want to compromise all of the fun she was having without me, which trust me, she was, that little stinker.

Matthew and I rarely get a moment together just the two of us unless it's planned way in advance. And even when it is, I always feel rushed to come home. Maybe that's the mother in me, maybe it's me feeling like I'm holding people up from their day, who knows. But for ONCE, I didn't feel that way. I had an entire morning to do whatever the hell I wanted before I gave birth. I mean come on, you can't really feel guilty when you're about to give birth right?

So we went out for breakfast.

And the world's biggest breakfast was exactly what I had. Our server thought I was ridiculous. I told her I was heading back into the hospital in a few hours to have a baby and she wasn't too sure what to do with me. After breakfast we went for a drive. It was a beautiful day and rather than heading into the hospital to sit in a room without any windows I told Matt I wanted to drive around and look at all the old homes. Somehow we managed to have the most amount of fun. Just the two of us, relaxing, enjoying some serious quality time before our little family would become an official family of four. I'll never forget that morning.

To finish off the little bit of time we had left, we hit up the Superstore and clearly bought all the snacks. Last time I was in the hospital the soggy toast and fruit cups didn't quite satisfy my needs. If you know me, you know food is my life, besides my children, and Matt. It goes, KAIA AND THEO (Don't tell Matt) MATT AND ALL THE FOOD. That's my set up. And so, we bought the entire store and headed off to the hospital.

Now we're hanging in the room I'm going to give birth in waiting for our nurse to come and check me. Amber, who yes, I now have on Instagram and we are best friends, enters the room to be as awesome as possible. She checks me, I've made it to 5CM and she says that we are going to wait just a bit longer before they start to induce me to see if maybe it will come naturally.

LORD DID IT EVER COME NATURALLY. About an hour later contractions are not messing around. I avoided an epidural with Kaia and I remember how badass I felt after delivering. I mean besides the obvious of shoving a human out of my vagina, in general, I felt pretty good. I wanted the same feeling with Theodore. I did however want all the laughing gas I could get. Matt will not stop going on about how he saw me go from relatively normal to a complete and total basket case. The things I was telling Amber, WOOEEE, let's just say – what happens in the hospital room stays in the hospital room.

I dilated from 5CM to 9.5CM in a few hours. Theodore's little noggin was positioned off to the side and that was why the whole process didn't happen like the speed of lightning. Once she came and messed around with some of the membranes (how disgusting is that word? HAHA) she was all “OK, time to have a baby now.” And I was all “Excuse me lady, I'm high on laughing gas over here, leave me alone.”

Needless to say, I started pushing.

I pushed him out in 7 minutes flat, which by the way, felt like 700 minutes.

My doctor made me grab him and pull him out myself. She kept telling me to reach down and I was thinking to myself “Stop distracting me from this horrible pushing business, I just want to get the darn human out of me.” But of course, he was already out, I felt his slippery little bum in my hands and brought him right up onto my chest, gooey-ness and all. He was perfect.

I think back on Kaia's birth and how rushed it was, how there were so many people in the delivery room because no one knew what to do with me. The doctor barely even made it in on time, the nurse technically delivered Kaia. I remember the intern trying to walk away with her when she came out because she didn't know skin to skin was a thing. I remember my dad walking in while they were inspecting my vagina, MY MY, that's what family is for right? Those awkward moments. Kaia's birth was just as ridiculous as she is and that's why I love it, it is the perfect story for me to tell her when she's older.

Theodore's birth was so very different and just as perfect. I'll never forget having Matt in the room, my nurse and the doctor and that's it. I remember the silence when I would push and the calmness all around me. That's not including me screaming bloody murder that Matt claims one could hear all the way from Dartmouth. I'll always remember how Theo gave me a day to spend with Kaia, and another day to spend with Matt. He didn't want me to rush this experience, he wanted me to soak it all in, and for that I'll thank him over and over until he's old enough to never want to hear his birth story again.

      xx,

  Sheridan