Birth Story | Baker Felix

Baker Felix Casavant was born July 24, 2019, at 9:17pm.

These were the details that we wanted to know so badly when pregnant. I could not wait to be on the other side of this pregnancy, with that baby on my chest. However, this baby made us wait, and wait, until 41 weeks, and then he sure made up for all the waiting.

Going into birth for the second time, I thought I had learned three things: 1) it was going to be a very long process; 2) it was going to be exhausting, and; 3) it is so so worth it once that baby is on your chest.

We were told that this baby was going to be big, we just didn’t know that he was going to be our Baker-man. His late ultrasound told us he was in the 98th percentile for weight. With that knowledge, we were hoping he would come a bit early. I am told that I’m not an ideal candidate for an epidural, so the thought of a huge baby was unnerving. At 41 weeks, we tried every old wives’ tale we could think of: pineapple, dates, eggplant parm (which worked with my first by giving my husband Brett and I food poisoning), wine, and the list goes on. With this massive baby getting even bigger with every day that passed, and with my desire for a drug-free birth, we decided that we were comfortable with sweeping membranes as an induction method.

The appointment was around 9:30am on July 24. The doctors informed us that there would likely be cramping to follow, whether the sweep worked or not.  To ensure that this thing worked, I ran stairs at the university as Presley — our toddler — looked at the fish in the bio museum with her dad. I started feeling crampy around noon, so we took another lap around the bio museum. 

After the sweep and stair workout,  we went to the store to get one last thing. Presley’s favourite stuffy is a bunny, so we got a baby bunny that she could give to her new baby. We went home, had some lunch, and Presley went down for her nap. Around 1pm, I took our first born (dog), Briggs, to poop circle (Avalon dog park — just like I had done the day Presley was born). On this hot sunny day, I noticed that the cramps were starting to come at the same four spots along that poop circle. I didn’t want to jinx it by calling this labour, so I called a friend and she reassured me that if I was getting cramps consistently, it was likely contractions. That, plus the fact that I was one week overdue.

By 4pm, I was getting strong contractions approximately every three minutes. We were cleaning the house and putting supper together as a way to distract from the pain. Between contractions I was loving up on my little girl, but during them, I was doing the opposite of loving the cuddles. We had friends pick her up so that I could focus on getting through the contractions. They brought her back by 7pm for bed. She crawled into bed and I read her one last story as a family of three. 

I was feeling pushy, but waited for my doula to arrive around 8pm once Presley was asleep. As soon as she arrived and saw how quiet I was during contractions, she calmly said that we better get to the hospital… fast. I gave my girl one last giant hug and felt all the feels, knowing it would be the last time it was just the three of us — the guilt of stripping my 20-month old of her baby status and the excitement of giving her the greatest gift of a sibling — and then we were off.

The dreaded drive to the hospital. Every bump was taken too fast, but in between he was going too slow because holy these were intense! We parked the car at 8:28pm and made our way to the birth unit. These times are important because, as I said above, this baby came at 9:17pm! I’m not sure if it was because I told the nurses that I was a second time mom so I knew what pushy was, or that they witnessed me pushing for two contractions in the time I was standing there, but they walked me right to the delivery room. They called my doctor and she decided to come in even though she was not on call. She got there at 9:00 pm. I went to work pushing and I exclaimed, “I’m giving birth, but not to a baby!” Turns out the membranes were bulging and needed a good pop. The very next thing I knew, I felt that all familiar and relieving whoosh as his body slid out. With that baby on my chest, my husband yelled, “He’s got a penis!” I didn’t believe that it was all done. I remember saying I don’t deserve this, he’s so perfect, he’s so wonderful, but how can we be on the other side already?

My body shaking, I held him close. This is the moment I’d been waiting for. His weight on my chest and his swollen little eyes looking up at me. He was beautiful. And not the huge baby that they had predicted — he was 8 lbs 14 oz of perfection. They asked to match my hospital bracelet up with his, but it turns out that I didn’t even have a chance to put one on! We stayed until the next morning and right before we went home, our little girl came to meet her baby brother for the very first time. She repeated baby, baby baby, over and over and was overjoyed. We told Presley that his name was Baker, and she immediately called him Baker-man (and still does).

In the end, I didn’t have the long, exhausting birth I was expecting, and that moment of meeting my baby and having him on my chest can only be rivalled by a sister meeting her baby brother. We were finally a family of four. Well five, including Briggs.

This is a special time in our friend group, as so many of our babies are the same age. So while BeezNeez isn’t solely a birth story platform, we have many right now! If you loved Baker’s, check out Rooney Munroe, Sasha Elizabeth, Remy Claire, and Hart Wilde. Hell, why not write your own? DM us on Instagram if you want to create a written memory for your little one.