Two weeks ago today our lives changed dramatically as our baby girl, Emilia Joy Ouellette, came into our lives on May 7, 2013. All other interests, hobbies and activities radically took second place – far, far from first.

Once I sat down to write a blog article. Two days later I opened my computer screen to a blank title page. I hadn’t gotten very far. There are some things I have in mind to write, but it didn’t seem right to write on anything else without first writing about our little Emmy.

The night before Yeci went into labour we took a walk down by the Detroit River

The experience was amazing. Our due date was May 3, but that came and went without a peep from the womb. The doc. said Yeci had not dilated at all at that point and scheduled an inducement date for May 12. “It’s possible, but unlikely that your baby will come before then” he said.

We wanted the baby to come naturally so we tried various things that people say work including being intimate, going for walks and eating spicy foods. Well, it must have worked because Monday morning around 2:30 am Yeci began to feel contractions. She woke me up at 4 am and we cleaned, showered, picked up my mother-in-law and made haste for the hospital.

To our dismay we were told that she had no more dilated than she was on May 3 and that these types of contractions can sometimes go on for days. They were not braxton hicks, but pre-labour contractions. We were sent home and were resting again in our bed by 8 am.

Then at 11 am my wife felt a “pop” inside her. She made haste to the washroom where, sure enough, it was discovered her water broke. We rushed back to the hospital where, I must say, pools of fluid continued to pour out of her. (Not at all what I expected!)

They hooked Yeci up to an oxytocin drip to get the process of dilation moving along, gave her the epidural, dimmed the lights and encouraged her to rest up for when she’d need to push. By about 3 in the afternoon she had reached 3 centimeters dilation - active labor  The process continued until around 10 pm when she finally reached ten centimeters. But the baby was still high, they told us, and wanted to wait until she dropped more to make the pushing easier.

We waited. And waited. And waited.

This was one of the first pictures taken of Emmy after she was born.

Finally at 2:55 am a nurse came into the room. “It’s time” she said. Getting into position, I supported Yeci’s neck with one hand and fulled back firmly on her leg with the other to help give her traction. She pushed. And pushed. And pushed.

She pushed so hard, so long and so much that I was exhausted just watching her. The nurse had made the comment that of all of the 15 years she was in the O.B., she’s seen few women push as hard as Yecenia. She was amazing.

Two solid hours of pushing before the head of our baby began to crown. The doctor was called and suddenly the little room was packed with about ten people! With one last push the baby came out, received a quick wipe down and was immediately placed on Yeci’s chest. There was so much going on at the moment that I hardly had time to object to the scissors that were placed in my hand. The doctor held out the cord, “here you go daddy, cut right there” he said. I cut it.

As the nurses took the baby off my wife’s chest to do the routine things they do to baby’s straight out of the canal I overheard somebody say, “it’s a girl.” Emotions flooded every ounce of my being. “We have a baby girl, sweetie. We have a baby girl” I kept repeating as my eyes flooded.

Then I said – or tried to say – two words that came out barely above a hoarse whisper: “Emilia”.. “Joy.”

Emilia (Emmy) Joy Ouellette. Two days old! This picture was taken as we were leaving the hospital.