Baby Rory Is Here!

On July 2, 2025, we welcomed Rory Mather Haskell into our family! Teddy and Kit are loving their baby brother, and we are enjoying life as a family of five. We are so excited that baby Rory is here!

As I write this, Rory is a little over six weeks old! It’s amazing how quickly the newborn phase goes. In one sense, I feel like he’s been here forever, and I also can’t believe it’s already been six weeks since he was born.

Rory’s birth was my easiest and most uneventful labor and delivery yet. This was a huge answer to prayer! I had an unexpected C-section with Teddy in 2020, and a successful but very fast (like almost didn’t make it to the hospital, fast) VBAC delivery with Kit in 2022. While everything ended up being okay in the end, both Teddy and Kit’s births left quite a traumatic impression on me. So much so that I was hesitant even to get pregnant again. I wanted another baby, but didn’t want to have to go through a scary labor again.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I showed up to the hospital at 8cm dilated on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. Aaron and I joked on the way to the hospital about how strange it felt to be driving there at a normal speed. With Kit’s birth, Aaron was racing down the highway in the rain on Halloween night while I was in the backseat, actively in labor.

But with Rory’s labor, I was at peace. So much so that I was in a bit of denial that I was even in labor. I had timed my contractions on an app, and three separate times it told me to leave for the hospital. But, for some reason, I just didn’t think it was time to go. With Kit’s birth, I knew it was time. I was in so much pain and couldn’t do anything to find relief. When my contractions started with Rory’s labor, they weren’t consistent and didn’t hurt as badly as I thought they should. I thought for sure that things would ramp up, and I would know when it was go time.

Because of my fast birth with Kit, my doctor told me to come to the hospital as soon as I had any kind of pattern to my contractions, even if they were only mild. Around 12pm, I started noticing more of a pattern with the contractions, but they weren’t super painful. I was busy “nesting” and doing last-minute things in Rory’s nursery and Teddy and Kit’s new room. Frankly, I was in a bad mood. I was so sick of being pregnant and was just ready to be done.

I texted Aaron to let him know that my contractions started to form somewhat of a pattern, but I gaslit myself and told him that I didn’t think it was labor. He came home from work and decided to take the kids to my mom’s house just in case. But I was pretty convinced this was not labor and that I would be pregnant for a few more days, if not weeks.

When Aaron came back from dropping the kids off, I was vacuuming and trying to get the house clean. Why? I really have no idea! Something in me just had to have the house clean! Aaron had to practically drag me out of the house and into the car to go.

When we arrived at the hospital, I was the only woman on the labor and delivery floor. I was having contractions but was able to breathe through them. They were starting to hurt more, but I felt like I could handle them. I was just waiting for things to really turn up and starting to get scared that I wouldn’t be able to handle the pain when things got worse.

With Kit’s birth, I had no time for an epidural because of how fast everything was. Going into Rory’s birth, I did want to try and have another unmedicated birth, but I wasn’t opposed to the idea of having an epidural if things got really painful.

When the midwife came in to check me to see how far along I had progressed, I was really thinking she would say that I was still 3cm dilated and that I would need to go home and wait. It was to my great surprise that she said that I was already 8cm dilated! My jaw dropped. Could this be possible?

She asked if I wanted an epidural, and I was a little hesitant and said that I was just afraid I couldn’t handle the transition part of labor, aka the most painful part. She literally laughed and said, “Honey, you’re transitioning right now!” She then encouraged me not to get one and said I was doing a great job handling everything and that I should keep doing what I was doing.

This gave me the confidence boost I needed to just keep going. I was breathing through the contractions and using a birth comb to squeeze every time I had a contraction. My hand was bruised from all the squeezing I was doing, but I really do think it made a difference in managing my pain.

About two hours after arriving at the hospital, I was 10cm dilated, and the midwife said I could push whenever I was ready. The urge to push came on so quickly with Kit but I felt no urge to push with Rory. After a couple of minutes of trying to push, the midwife suggested breaking my waters and said that would really get things moving.

I knew that we really didn’t need to break my water. Things were progressing really well so far. But because I was the only woman in labor on the floor, every nurse was in my room, waiting for something to happen or looking for something to do. I kinda felt like I was wasting their time by not having the urge to push yet. Totally silly thinking, I know!

So I decided to let her break my water and get things going. And oh, did they get going! Then the pain really set in. I went from breathing to literally screaming. Anddd couldn’t stop. Thankfully, I only had to push for about 10 minutes, and Rory was here!

This was such a long and hard pregnancy for me. And the fact that he was finally here made my heart burst. The most surreal feeling.

After 48 hours in the hospital, we were ready to go home. Actually, I was ready to go as soon as we had him. I really don’t like hospitals and I missed Teddy and Kit so much!