I had birth start and then stop a couple times before the actual day he was born so my biggest concern was that I wouldn’t know if I was in labor and thankfully my midwife Morgann new what to look for!

Saturday night I was having contractions and woke up a few times, but they weren’t very intense. I went to church Sunday morning and had a few contractions that I had to stop whatever I was doing to focus. At this point I was pretty convinced I was going to go into labor that night.

After church my contractions were on and off but pretty far apart still so we decided to go for a walk and see if that helped the baby’s position. I didn’t even make it to the end of the street. We were on the walk for maybe 14 minutes and I had to stop walking for my contractions. It got bad enough that I turned around and went back home. I texted my midwife Morgann at this point giving her a heads up on what was happening. I got in the bath to see if they were false contractions and I started timing them. They were pretty intense at this point. I had to move position’s frequently. They were about 15-25min apart at this point.

Around 19:40 they had gone from 17min apart to a minute apart and they were lasting about a 1.5min. I texted my midwife and sent her a screenshot of my contractions. Since they were still kind of all over the place in timing she had me do a few positions with my contractions. We put our son down for the night in our bed with plans to wake or transfer him if I was in labor. From then til around 22:20 they were on and off but still intense.

I laid down to see if I could sleep, but the contractions were more intense and no position was comfortable I was doing some low moaning too. At 23:32 I texted my midwife that I was getting in the bathtub because they were too painful to lay down. Once I got in the tub the hot water and the low moaning helped relieve the pressure. I started shaking and my Midwife said she was going to head over.

She got there a little before 00:00 and asked if I wanted to be checked but my contractions were so close she said never mind you’re definitely in labor. My mom woke up and moved my son to her bed. I texted my friend who wanted to be there for the birth and she headed over as well as the other midwife and midwife in training. My midwife from my other sons birth was on her way too.

From 00:00-01:09 I had close contractions sitting up or going on my knees and leaning forward with my husband doing counter pressure on my back to help with the back labor. Then I had about a 7min break where I just laid on my back and floated in the water relaxing. My midwife then asked if I wanted to keep laying there and wait for the contractions to pick up again or if I wanted to try and move positions. I laid there for a couple more minutes and then was going to transition out of the tub, but as soon as I moved onto my knees my water broke and instantly my body started pushing.

I was kind of in shock that it was happening already! Morgann asked if I felt like I needed to push and I said that my body was already pushing so she said I should push with it on the next contraction and and see if I could feel his head. I didn’t think I would be able to but when I felt down there, sure enough his head was right there! On the next contraction I did low sounds and fast exhales to help push his head out. Once his head was out she said on the next contraction to push the rest of him out, only he didn’t come out the next one. So she had me stand up and then she moved him a little because his shoulder was a little stuck. The next contraction he was out and I picked him up as he came out!

It was seriously so fast and honestly the pain was so manageable. The midwives had prepped my bed and so they helped me walk to my bed and I laid down while holding my baby to deliver the placenta. I did have some hemorrhaging that freaked me out a little but my midwife was so calm and reassuring that it was okay. They were able to manage the bleeding at home. Once that calmed down and the placenta was out then we just had time to snuggle him and introduce him to his brother.

After about an hour or so we cut the umbilical cord and they did a full newborn exam. Then I got up and went to the bathroom and showered. They reset my bed and started cleaning up. Once we were all settled in bed and they were all done they went home and we all went to sleep. Mondays are my husband’s day-off so we slept-in as usual and woke up in our own bed - but with our new baby!