It all started last Tuesday night/Wed morning (midnightish). The husband and I were finishing up a couple episodes of Breaking Bad on the couch when I suddenly thought I had pee'd myself. How embarassing! I got up and went to the bathroom and changed and about 2 minutes later it happened again...how did I pee myself again?! I went to tell Chase about it and then he noticed water trickling down my leg. It wasn't pee! My water had broke. WHAT? Its too early...this can't be happening.
Since Molly came so quick, 3 1/2 hours, our midwives told us we needed to call them right away once labor started. My water had to be broken with M so I figured that since my water already broke this would be fast and furious again! However, I hadn't felt anything to make me think I would go into labor and had not had any contractions yet. We went ahead and called the midwife around 12:30 to let her know what was happening. She told me to try and rest and call her back once I started feeling any sort of contractions etc. I went back to bed and within 20 minutes started feeling crampy so I called our midwife back. Since I had labored so quickly last time she decided to head our way.
A quick pick after calling the midwife and realizing we were going to have a baby today!
Once the midwife arrived around 2am I had experienced a few very mild contractions but nothing that was strong or lasted very long. My midwife checked me and I was only 4cm dialted and about 50% effaced so I had a ways to go. Apparently this time around would be a little different.
Chase and I decided to go back to bed and attempt to get some rest for the day ahead. Our secondary midwife had shown up as well and they also found spots in the house to sleep for a little bit. After a couple hours of sleep I decided it was time to get things moving. One way to bring on labor is nipple stimulation (sorry, but this is a birth story!). Once we started doing that I almost immediately began feeling more real contractions that had a pattern to them. Yes! I was ready for things to progress. I also needed them to since my water had broken...the last thing I wanted to do was end up having to go to the hospital.
At this point it was nearing 7:30am and Molly was waking up for the day. We had also called my parents and they were about to arrive as well. We told Molly that it was baby day and she was very excited! But she had also already told us she didn't want to be here when Mommy made those loud noises (having the baby) so my parents took her to breakfast and out until the baby made its arrival.
Molly loved the birth pool and wanted to go swimming!
Over the next couple of hours I continued to have contractions but they still weren't building on each other and they weren't lasting long enough. My midwife rubbed sage on my stomach and I also started taking a blend called "start up" to try and get things to progress. Finally Chase decided to try acupuncture and see if that would fire things up. At about 10am Chase put needles in some key points on my leg and almost immediately I started having strong contractions. I left the needles in for about 20 minutes, at that point I couldn't sit still anymore since the contractions were getting so strong! Yay! Progress.
My midwives had left for a bit to get some breakfast and pick up castor oil in case we needed it. Chase called them and let them know that the contractions were getting real and it was picking up. They got back to the house about 10:30am and started to prep things for active labor. We filled up the birth pool, set up my bed and I prepared myself mentally for this baby to come. We were so excited to meet our baby and find out the gender!
Once the pool was filled up I got in and it felt SO good. The warm water was exactly what I needed and it helped me relax and really go with the contractions allowing the baby to keep moving down. I changed positions in the tub to prevent the baby from stalling and things just kept progressing. The contractions were getting really intense and I tried my best to focus on good breaths and helpful noises and moans.
Working through the contractions in the tub
The midwives continued to monitor the baby and all was well so we just kept going with the flow. She checked me and I was about 8cm dialated and 90% effaced. I was getting there! Within the next 20 minutes I started to feel the urge to push. I let my midwife know and she told me to go with it. I went through a couple rounds of contractions of pushing and I could feel the baby moving down. I knew it was close! My midwife checked again and the head was right there. We were going to meet our baby soon.
Chase got in position to catch the baby and with the next contractions I focused and pushed and felt the head coming. Chase told me to keep going that the baby was right there. The head came out and then with the next push the shoulders and Chase pulled our little babe out.
"WE HAVE A BABY GIRL!" Chase announced that we had a healthy baby girl and I looked down to see our precious girl floating under the water. What an amazing moment! (water birth babies are left under water until they start to move and then they are brought up). Within a minute or so they brought our new little girl and placed her on my chest. She was so cheesy with vernix and so tiny!
Our little girl is here!
We left the cord attached for about 10 minutes until it stopped pulsing and then Chase got to cut the cord. I held her in the tub for a bit and then Chase took her while I delivered the placenta. The midwives then got me up and moved me back to our bed. Man it was nice to go lay in my own bed!
I was riding the high of the birth and just admiring our new baby girl. What an amazing day so far!
Part 2 of the birth story coming soon...
