Eight days ago Jered, Asher, Rosie & I welcomed a beautiful little addition to our family – Wren Eileen Joy Evangelos. If you follow me on social media, you’ll already know this and have been subject to numerous photos of my latest obsession, my little baby girl! (My apologies – I’m actually honestly holding back – I can’t stop taking pictures of her precious little face).
Jered and I like surprises so we didn’t know we were expecting a little girl, which apparently is quite old fashioned of us! Gender reveal festivities are the new rage and it was super weird but fun finding out what those around me were going to be having and not knowing what I was cooking up there inside my own big belly!
The last two months were quite the whirlwind with a couple musical trips (Texas, Calgary), big events (Women of Distinction Awards, weddings to cater, wedding receptions to be in) and my last few weeks at work. On top of all that I found out at about 36 weeks that baby was breech and began a flurry of baby turning techniques – acupuncture, chiropractor, breech tilts, essential oils, and even an ECV (manual turning – where a doctor actually physically attempts to turn your baby from the outside – ie. TORTURE). All of which failed to get this baby in the right position. With this new element of drama I started to wonder… could the baby be a girl? 🙂
I had a midwife (the fabulous Maureen) for this pregnancy and my original “birth plan” was to have this baby in the beautiful bohemian blissful environment of the Lucina Centre. However since the baby seemed to be staying breech we had to make other arrangements and be transferred into the care of an OBGYN for the birth at the hospital. I wanted to try to have a natural delivery even though the baby was breech, but not all OBGYNs are comfortable with attempting this. SO Maureen and I planned that when I went into labor we would call around to find an OBGYN who would let me try!
The day I went into labor everything fell into place beautifully. We called the Royal Alexandria Hospital and thankfully Dr. Hodges (who attempted to turn the baby) was on call and would let me try. We headed to the hospital at 1pm, and little Wren was born breech at 5:08pm.
My amazing husband Jered, my unofficial doula and sister Brooke and my midwife Maureen (along with Dr. Hodges, a couple residents, the NICU team – quite a crowd really) were an amazing group that helped me bring my stubborn little songbird into the world safely and quickly!
Up until this whole breech experience I always sort of assumed that breech = a cesarean. Of course if things hadn’t gone as well as they did I would have opted for a cesarean to make sure the baby was safe and sound. I’m just so thankful that I was able to have another wonderful birth experience with the best of both the hospital and midwifery worlds!
Thank you to everyone who has sent us well wishes, has come to visit, has brought gifts for Wren and I, and just showered us with so much love! One week in so far and we are doing really well!
Wren Eileen Joy Evangelos
{Little Songbird, Shining Light/Bright One, Joy}
Cheers,
LNG