Kodak's birth story | a planned c-section to meet their son
I’ve known this beautiful soul for a long time now. We first met as complete strangers on a roadtrip we were going on together to Nashville. It was one of the most eye-opening and beautiful experiences I’ve had, plus it was the start of our friendship, one I really have a special place in my heart for. When Genevieve asked me to document the birth of their sweet boy, I was more than honoured. Birth photography is this special offering I can give families, as being able to document one of the most important days of their lives; the day they bring their child into the world, well how amazing is that?!
And with that, I turn over the post to Genevieve who’s beautifully shared her experience of motherhood and the day she and her husband, Kyle, met their son, Kodak. All my love, xo.
“For the past 15 months, I’ve struggled with actually sitting down to write my birth story. I’ve convinced myself that I don’t have anything worth sharing because my birth story seems so different from most or not as exciting. But the more I’ve sat on my thoughts the more I’ve thought maybe there is someone out there in a similar situation and perhaps they might benefit from my story.
My story requires some back story about myself pre pregnancy so bear with me. Since my very first period, I have always struggled with horrible periods. My doctor decided that putting me on the pill quite young was the best solution which of course was just putting a band-aid on my situation which I believe made things worse. I was also always carrying this huge fear that I would never be able to have babies because of all the complications I had with my periods. I then found out in 2018 after taking myself off the pill a few years earlier that I had a large (softball sized) fibroid (benign tumor) that was causing me a lot of pain and extremely heavy periods. I was told I wouldn’t be able to have a baby (for when we did want to start trying) with the large fibroid present. I also was told that after the surgery to remove the fibroid I would have to have a cesarean to deliver a baby someday. I was devastated after this appointment as I had always dreamed of delivering a baby naturally but I knew if God were to bless me with a baby that bringing that baby into the world safely was most important. The other part that absolutely terrified me was the thought of having to go through two surgeries. I’m not a huge fan of hospitals or needles and prior to this, I had never had any surgeries. I knew I needed to push past all my fears though to get closer to my dream of becoming a Mama someday.
Unfortunately, the gynecologist who had discovered the fibroid wasn’t able to do a non-invasive surgery on me to remove the fibroid. So she referred me to two other gynecologists who might be able to do it. I never heard back from either of those referrals. Fate would have it though that I ended up in emerge due to a burst cyst in February 2018 where the on call emerge gynecologist heard my whole story and then referred me to my current gynecologist who was willing to the surgery right away. We were shocked and so thankful to have found her.
In November 2018 I had a laparoscopic myomectory surgery done to remove the fibroid. Shortly after Kyle (husband) and I got married in May 2019 and we were very blessed with getting pregnant right away.
I was fortunate enough to keep the same gynecologist throughout my pregnancy and she promised she’d be there for the delivery day as well. At my first appointment when I was 3 months pregnant, the receptionist told us we could choose a date in the date range that our dr wanted us to deliver at...we had to deliver earlier than our estimated due date to avoid going into early labour naturally. We chose January 16th because it was also Kyle’s grandfathers birthday which is so special.
It was definitely interesting to know the exact date that our baby would be arriving from so early on. Strangely enough, I felt even more nervous knowing the exact delivery date for so long. On the day of we had to be at the hospital 2 hours before surgery which was 6am in the morning. They were running a bit behind when we first arrived so they asked us to go to the waiting room. Thankfully I had my girlfriend Scarlet there to document our delivery so she helped to keep my nerves at bay while Kyle paced around in excitement.
Two hours passed and they finally came to get us for prep which they said they were going to rush to stay on time. Which made me mega nervous because here I was thinking things would get pushed back. Thankfully I was able to boogie to the washroom mega quick for a breather before getting all hooked up. The anesthesiologist came in to chat to us, I told him I had a bad reaction to anesthesia the last surgery I had and I’m very prone to nausea. We then asked him if it would be okay if Scarlet could be in the room to document the delivery which he thankfully said yes to, we knew all along it would be up to him. Leading up to our delivery date our gynecologist had a lot going on on January 16th and for a couple of weeks, there was some back and forth as to whether we might have to change the date. A couple days before she promised us that she would make it work somehow and wouldn’t miss it. And she did keep her promise but definitely kept us on our toes right up until the last minute. She had told her best friend who is also a gynecologist that she may have to do the delivery if she couldn’t make it but she showed up right on time and told me “see I told you I wouldn’t miss it” when she arrived in the surgery room. Before heading into the surgery room we had a quick face time call with our besties The Harper’s where they prayed with us for the safe delivery of our baby.
The anesthesiologist allowed Kyle to come into the room while I was getting my epidural which they don’t usually allow but I think he realized how nervous I was. For some reason the pen the anesthesiologist used to mark where he would be injecting me made me jump so high even though I was begging myself in my head not to move and to stay calm. He got the epidural in the first time no problem and I don’t remember it being overly painful. This was surprisingly the only part that Kyle felt faint for, he usually passes out at any sight of blood. But he was able to watch the whole surgery no problem. He found watching a YouTube video of the surgery helpful for him. Personally, I would never do that because I’m so squeamish and would rather not know everything. We had our own playlist of worship songs playing in the room which was so nice to have. I had Kyle sitting on my left and Scarlet on my right and the anesthesiologist monitoring behind me. I didn’t feel much other than some tugging at times and I tried my best to focus on Kyle and breathing. I could hear my doctor and the nurses chatting about normal day-to-day stuff which I didn’t mind, I feel like it helped to put my mind at ease. I’m not sure how long it was from when they made the incision to delivering Kodak into the world but it didn’t feel long before they told us we could hold the curtain down to see him. I couldn’t believe my chubby beautiful baby boy was inside of me just mere seconds before that. They placed Kodak on my chest right away which was so beautiful but he felt really heavy on my chest and I knew something didn’t feel right and I expressed my discomfort. They then took Kodak to the side of the room to get weighed and Kyle cut the umbilical cord. I was starting to feel very nauseous and my anesthesiologist was shocked I was feeling nauseous as he had been pumping anti-nausea meds into me the whole time since I had given him a heads up about that. I also started feeling a terrible pain in my right shoulder like never before which he didn’t seem surprised about and told me he knew why my shoulder was hurting but he wouldn’t tell me why yet. I ended up throwing up on the table and thankfully had Scarlet there to hold the puke bucket for me and comfort me. After they had stitched me back up I was told that because they had taken my uterus out (not sure if they would do this normally but my doctor wanted to check that there were no signs of endo, cysts or fibroids) that it is somehow connected to my shoulder which was causing that pain.
Then they finally brought my beautiful baby boy over to me and placed him on my chest. That first kiss was everything for me, the fear, nerves, and nausea just disappeared in that moment. I couldn’t believe I was finally holding my perfect baby boy in my arms. Kodak’s nurse then told me that Dad (Kyle) had told her that Mom got her choice of middle name (we had been back and forth on it) which was Bloom. Even though this wasn’t how I imagined bringing my baby into the world I wouldn’t change a thing now. It was truly the best day of my life.” - Genevieve
