The Birth of Logan Emerson- by Kandice Moore

This blog post is special, because this woman is special to my heart. We met at BabyMoon Inn birth center when we were both big and pregnant. Her husband, Matt, is in the military and was deployed two weeks before her due date. For weeks prior to his deployment, everyone we knew had been praying for this baby to come early so his daddy could be there. But little Logan had different plans. This is Kandice’s story.

So as I sit here in my living room with Logan taking a nap, I’ve decided to write my birth story. I think this is like the beginning of most birth stories, where mine did not go as planned; not medically speaking but one of the most important people wasn’t there.

Wednesday evening/ Thursday morning at 12am 41 ½ weeks pregnant I had my first contraction. Nothing horrendously painful, but it was a weird feeling. Hmm, I thought to myself, this might be happening. I continued to feel them for about an hour and decided to go to sleep. I woke up around 3am and was still feeling them, so I decided to go to my gym at the apartment complex and walk on the treadmill. Nothing really changed, still not so painful contractions. So at around 7:30am I sent a text to Dianne (my birth doula) and told her I was having normal contractions. I also called my mother, because who wants to go through labor alone? My mother came over and we just hung out.

At 5 pm Thursday, I went to the Birthing Center to get checked and I was only 3cm. Ugh, I said to myself, this is going to be fun. My mother and I went back home and that night I got a call from my husband, Matt. I got to tell him his son was on the way. You see, my husband is in the Military, he left 2 weeks before my due date. I cried the entire time I talked to him- I was happy our son was on the way but sad I was experiencing this amazing thing without the most important person in my life. After that phone call I was kinda in the dumps, and realized if I was going to make it through this without him I had to pretty much block him from my mind. I went to sleep and woke up to these really intense contractions, but they were still only 4-6 minutes apart. I went through the night sleeping between contractions.

The next morning I got a call from Connie, the midwife on-call, and she wanted to come over and check where I was. At 10am Friday she checked and I was still only 3cm! GRRR, I was like, really? It had been over 24 hours of contractions. She told me I needed to go to the hospital to get stress tests done and make sure Logan was doing ok with the contractions. At the hospital it was not so fun- uncomfortable bed, beeping machines, having to stay put, worrying Logan might not be ok with the contractions. My mother was not a huge fan of me having Logan at the Birth Center and was severely trying to sway me to stay at the hospital and have him there. After a few hours of monitoring, they told me I could leave- we were both fine and I was 4-5cm at 2pm. We drove back home, I was not a fan of all the driving by this time.
At around 6:30 pm I decided to call the midwife on-call and it happened to be Wendi; I told her I was done, I didn’t want to be in pain anymore and if I hadn’t progressed anymore I was going to the hospital and getting induced. (I figured out later this was my transition). I got to the Birthing Center and Wendi met me at the door, we went in, I got onto the bed and she checks me and says “oh, ok”. I’m laying there like “WHAT, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?” She tells me I’m 8-9cm apart. I was so relieved at this point; I told myself “ok, I can do this I can finish this out.”  Wendi then asked me if I wanted her to break my water, I decided to wait and let it continue on its own.

Slowly people started trickling in, Dianne, Amey, Micah, I can’t for the life of me remember right now but a practicing midwife who was at Babymoon came, then my good friend Micki who is a labor and delivery nurse. I got in the tub to take a short break. I decided to get out after awhile and walk around. After a few hours I had Wendi break my water- I just wanted to be done. Logan didn’t like that at all; I had to lie down because his heartbeat went a little haywire. They finally let me up, I continued to walk around then decided to see what all the hype was for the never ending hot water shower was, AMAZING, haha. After a few minutes I bared down and pushed with a contraction. I didn’t even realize I had done it until I was already mid-contraction. I looked at Amey and asked if that was ok. She laughed and said “yes lets go to the tub”.

I got in the tub and started pushing. After a few pushes Wendi told me to feel my sons head, I reached down felt his nose and FREAKED, and told them I needed a minute, I don’t know why, but I did. Wendi had me switch positions. I don’t know if it was actual shoulder dysplasia or a tub position issue, but Wendi literally dove into the tub and twisted him out and unwrapped the cord from his neck (my biggest birth fear). All I remember hearing was Wendi saying “ he’s going to need help girls” over and over. I was so worried.

She put him onto my chest and he didn’t make any noise, so Dianne told me to talk to him as they put the oxygen over his mouth. After what seemed like forever, he screamed, and loud. I was so happy, I had brought our son into this world, and it was one of the happiest moments of my life. But immense sadness followed right after. Our son was here, he was ok, but his dad wasn’t- my husband wasn’t here to share this amazing experience. It straight up sucked.

 It was 46 hours from 1st contraction to holding my son, without Matt by my side. They told me to hold on to Logan and they literally lifted me out of the tub and onto the bed. Logan was fine, breathing fast, but ok. He latched on just fine. And then the phone call to Red Cross. Time to let daddy know his beautiful son was here.  

Talking to the Red Cross liaison was well …interesting after just giving birth. But it was done, message relayed. “Specialist Moore’s wife Kandice Moore requests notification due to birth of Specialist Moore’s child. Verified by RN Clark. On behalf of Wendi with BabyMoon birthing center. States Baby boy Moore was born 9 November. Time 2228 hrs(10:28pm) 8lbs 10 ½oz Length 21 ½ inches. Mother and baby are doing fine. Specialist Moore is unaware and requested to contact wife upon receipt of this message”. That’s how Matt found out he was a daddy.

Everyone started trickling out to go home. They made me pizza, and it was the best pizza I had ever had! Haha. On Saturday, Matt took his phone to call me, although he didn’t get his official phone call until Sunday.

This is my story. I love it because it brought me my family. There’s always something someone wants to change about their story, but it makes us who we are and God never gives us anything we can’t handle.

                        This is Daddy meeting Logan for the first time when he was 6 weeks old.

I heard a quote today that I think describes this experience well:

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have”-Anonymous