My due date (from conception) was August 27th, from my LMP it was the 22nd. On Tuesday the 25th I took my usual yoga class and my awesome teacher worked me hard. She was definitely trying to help my baby come out, she knew I was ready. After that class I felt achy and sore in my back and low belly, and I had a little bloody show too! Then we went swimming at my girlfriends house, the pool was really nice but I definitely felt like something was going on. Jeff and I went walking on the beach that night with some friends but only a few contractions came of it so we went about our night as usual and went to bed.
Wednesday morning at 4:50am I woke up having a contraction, which was not at all abnormal at this point, I had contractions during the night for about a week to this point. I got up to pee, laid back down and had two more contractions, 10 minutes apart. At this point I was excited and wanted to see if the pattern was going to stick around. I got out of bed, leaving Parker and Jeff asleep and timed my contractions for an hour. Around 6 I called my mom to tell her to get on the road, she wanted to be at my birth and had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of her. The contractions were bouncing around from every eight minutes to every two minutes, until at 6:30 they were every two minutes consistently. That's when I woke up Jeff, "I think I am in labor babe!" He got up and we tried to figure out if this was the real thing, I was in denial for some reason. I have seen several contraction patterns phase away as the sun comes up, so I guess I was waiting to see if that was going to happen to me. It didn't.
I texted Tiffany, my wonderful midwife, around 8am, she said she'd come whenever I needed her. She had just delivered three babies between Sunday and Monday so I wanted to save her energy, especially if this was just going to go away. I had my awesome midwife friend Mary come around 8:00, she checked my dilation and I was 3cm, which I had been the week before too! That was discouraging news, but the contractions continued on and Mary was awesome at reassuring me that she felt this was the real thing. About an hour later I was 4cm, and the contractions picked up. I got in the birth tub my sweet husband set up to try to stay comfortable. I threw up a few minutes later, that's one of the beautiful techniques I use to cope with pain. And that is when we all knew it was show time. I told Jeff to call Tiffany, didn't need her missing the action!
Contractions from then on were increasingly intense and every two minutes. I felt my baby's head getting lower with a few of them. And a crazy part of this whole experience was that in between contractions I was totally present and normal. I was chatting and smiling and then with each contraction I would go into the zone, and then I was back! Around 10:20 I was feeling some pressure and asked Tiff to check me, I was 8cm. That was such good news!! After hearing I hadn't hardly dilated from 5am-9am and now I was an 8! Almost done! But my mom had not arrived yet, and I really wanted her to be there this time. With each contraction I thought of her and told my body to wait till she made it. She was only 15 minutes away, I knew I could wait. I squeezed Jeff's hand with each contraction after that to try to focus and wait.
She came rushing in and I cried for joy that she was there and also because I knew now I could be done. I moved in the tub from floating on my back to squatting against the side facing Tiff and Jeff. I told Tiffany I was going to push and break my water and that "this is going to suck". I just knew that the ultimate intensity was about to come after my water broke. Tiff said "You're going to break your water? Ok!?" With the next few contractions I pushed, my water broke, clear and perfect, and with the next I pushed, and pushed and pushed and my sweet baby's head was born. It definitely didn't feel sweet in the moment and I definitely was not silent as this occurred. The intensity and pain that overtakes your body as your baby comes out is like no other, a couple "ow"s and yelps are definitely warranted. The rest of her body was born seconds later and Tiffany brought her up onto my belly. (The video of the birth clearly shows she came out posterior, so did little Parker, I guess that's just how they fit best in me!) Oh and I can't forget to mention that Tiffany came swimming in the birth tub to catch my baby. I was pulling away as I pushed her out and Tiff got pretty wet!
I was immediately overwhelmed with the intensity of such a quick birth that I cried out a few times as I held this amazing baby for the first time. The next item of business though was to determine whether we had a girl or boy. As I started laboring in the tub I told Jeff my final bet was that our baby was going to be a boy. So when we all looked down at this new baby in my arms and moved the umbilical cord to the side, Jeff announced we had a girl and I literally shouted for joy! What a sweet surprise that was!
Every thing after that was cake, relatively so. The placenta came out minutes later and then the after pains took over. Ibuprofen became my friend every 4 hours. No tear, thank goodness.
Little Sadie Elizabeth had joined our family and she was perfect. Seven pounds and four ounces. She nursed so well and hardly made a peep. She looks so much like her big brother Parker. We can't wait to see who she grows up to be. Parker came to meet her minutes after she was born, it was very sweet to see the look on his face as he touched her and heard me say she was his sister. He is definitely getting used to her being here, slowly but surely.
Birth is shock to my system. I make intense amounts of colostrum and milk in the first few days, Sadie weighed seven pounds fifteen ounces a week after she was born. My little chunk. I think my body needs extra time to catch up with having such a quick birth and making so much milk because I got mastitis yesterday (so not fun). So now I am laid up in bed trying to recover. I have wonderful helpers and friends taking care of me though.
I am so grateful how everything turned out and for everyone that was at my birth. It was perfect.
