by Laura, USA
On June 3rd, 2010 I went to The Midwife Center for my 40 week visit, the day before my due date. I mentioned to the midwife, who caught my first, that I wanted to be checked just to see where things stood. I was 2 cm. She mentioned that she could do a membrane sweep if I was interested. This was something that I never really considered, but after thinking about it realized that my husband had 2 nights off in a row from work. If we were going to have a baby, might as well have it when he wasn't working!
My appointment was about 1:00 in the afternoon. We did some other running in the afternoon and made it home around 4:00. I started having some contractions around 7:00 or so. I wasn't sure if this was it, because in the previous weeks I had had several bouts of Braxton-Hicks which lasted about an hour. My husband, Josh, called his mom, who was going to come down from 3 1/2 hours away to stay with our 17 month old daughter. I was hesitant to tell her that I was in labor, because I didn't want her to waste the trip.
My contractions were very mild, about 5 mins apart and lasting about 30 seconds. I ate, drank water, walked around, rested, did everything to see if things would slow down or stop. Being that my mother-in-law was far away, I told her at about 8:30 that I'm pretty sure this was labor and she should get on the road asap, even though I wasn't entirely convinced yet. Josh ran out to do some errands for the DJ's that were working for him that night. Thankfully our daughter was in bed, so I grabbed my little notepad and started keeping track of contractions. I called my doula, April, just to inform her that we'd probably be having a baby. She just said to keep her posted.
As I was having my contractions, I was reading one of my birth books just for reassurance. I was also jotting down little notes for things that I wanted to remember. The last thing I wrote was “It takes a long time to get to 5 cm”. Josh was home by this point, and he was surprised to see how many contractions I had had. They had definitely gotten longer and more intense, but I was still comfortable.
The baby was very active. I was laying on the couch and had stopped writing and reading. The baby was kicking a lot when I suddenly felt a pop. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom and my water had broken. I made a call to April and the Midwife on call to let them now. April was here in about 5 minutes and the Midwife called back around the same time. Even though my water had broken, I was still relatively comfortable. Josh made a call to one of his friends so he could come sit with my daughter since his mom was still no where near arriving.
I finished packing my bag, because I had procrastinated and not done it earlier. We were home for about 30 minutes after my water broke before we got out the door. The contractions were getting much more intense. We pulled into the Midwife Center around midnight. There was someone else there in active labor and I later found out that it was somebody that I had taken yoga classes with. The midwife checked me and I was 3 cm dilated. I got right into the tub after being checked. April got in the tub with me because I could not get comfortable. My tailbone broke with the delivery of my daughter, so I tried to stay hands and knees as much as possible.
The contractions were getting very intense and every 15 minutes I was 2 more cm dilated. I was draped over April and Josh was supplying me with ice and cool wash clothes. They ended up calling in another nurse and midwife because of the other mom in labor. Because of how fast I was progressing, they realized that we would be giving birth very close to one another. The midwife that arrived was the one that caught Olivia and I was very excited that she would also be the one to catch this baby.
I was in the tub about an hour when they told me it was time to get out. I had very strong urges to push. Kathy, the extra midwife, was in the door for about 5 minutes before I started actively pushing. Talk about good timing!At 1:12 AM, I delivered Miles Walter, weighing 8 lbs 8 1/2 oz and 21 inches long.
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