Reminiscing (Happy Birthday Toby)

Naturally, I’ve been spending a lot of time the last couple of days recollecting Toby’s birth day, and the days that led up to and proceeded it. I can’t believe it’s been a year! I keep thinking, “one year ago at this time I was......”. It was such a happy time, and a such a great birth that I keep going over and over the details I don’t want to forget. Many I’ve already forgotten, in one short year. I never get tired thinking about or talking about the birth of my babies, so I’m going to take this opportunity, Toby’s first birthday, to write my birth story as I remember it- one year later.

Early labour contractions began in the early morning of November 13th. I remember waking, around 3am with butterflies, and the thought “Am I really going to have my baby on the 13th? My bestest friends brother’s birthday?” It was a bit of a joke we had because Willow was born on this friends other brother’s birthday. I didn’t really think it would happen because I was still 5 days away from the due date.

I don’t remember anything else about the rest of that night. Mid-morning James, Willow and I went outside to clean up the leaves. It was a nice day, crisp and cool but the sun was warm. I was not comfortable enough to help with the leaves, and I couldn’t play with Willow because it caused too much pain, so I headed inside and made a huge pot of minestrone soup. I vividly remember making this soup, it was the ultimate nesting; I was preparing food that would sustain me in the coming days. The rest of the day was a blur, I’m sure I tried to get some sleep, to ‘rest’ like they tell you too. I called my doula at some point to let her know something was happening. Though, I still didn’t want to believe it. I was prepared for another overdue baby so I couldn’t believe it was happening early. For that reason I didn’t call any family or friends, I didn’t really want to get excited and think it was real.

After the house had settled down I called my midwife, around 8pm. I told her I thought it would be tonight. She gave me instructions, one being to get to bed! So I did, but had a hard time falling asleep because of the regular contractions. I finally fell into a light sleep around 10pm, and felt my waters break. I jumped into action, finished packing my hospital bag before calling my midwife, my mom, and my doula, in that order. My midwife told me to get to the hospital right away because I needed antibiotics to treat GBS. We waited for what felt like an hour for my mom to arrive to stay with Willow. We headed to the hospital, only stopping once to pee on the side of the road (thank goodness it was dark!).




We stayed in the hospital for just a couple of hours to get showered, centered. Carolyn wheeled me down to the front of the hospital where James was waiting in the car. We couldn’t wait to get home to introduce Willow to her baby brother. We officially decided on his name on the drive home. Toby. My mom and Willow met us at the front door, and I cried as Willow kept saying “ooooh baby. Ooooooohhhh baby”. She was so sweet and so tender with him right away. I curled up in my bed and tried to get some sleep after a long night. I was high on love and couldn’t sleep, but the rest was nice.


I had been pretty upset that I couldn’t have a homebirth because of a heart condition that I developed late in pregnancy - inappropriate tachycardia – a condition that I was advised would make it impossible for me to have a natural birth. I am so glad that the opposite happened, my heart behaved completely normally during the labour and delivery, and I was able to give birth without drugs and intervention.


Dear Toby,

That’s the story of the day you came into this world. You are the sweetest little dude with the greatest personality, sense of humour and way of being. You’re a mama’s boy but like to play on your own and be curious too. You’re a boy for sure, loving cars, remote controls, electronics. I wish you’d sleep a bit better- that’s my only complaint. We’re all so glad you’re here. Happy 1st birthday Toby.

Lotsa love,
Mama