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Born friday, april 22 @ 11:52am at home – 3rd vbac
Elliot came at 40w5d, my earliest baby yet. Funny story: I expected to have a baby no sooner than monday the 25th (41w1d). My plan was to clean my house top to bottom over the weekend. Needless to say, that did not happen.
Earlier in the week I noticed a few things that could possibly point towards getting ready to warm up to have a baby. I chalked it up to being 40+weeks, and just getting anxious. I jokingly told my midwife that hey – maybe she will be “early” (by my own birthing standards). I’m not one of those people to think every ache/pain is in fact labor. I kept contact with my doula & photographer. My last labor was very fast and we didn’t want anyone to miss.
With my son, 2 days prior to having him (41w1d) I went on a one mile walk while listening to my birth music. I felt like it really put my mind in a place where my body felt ready to have a baby. So, when I was 40w3d this time, I did it again. I listened to the same music & walked the same mile. I guess it worked 😉
The next day came & went. The walk made my legs sore. I debated doing it again, but decided not to. Thursday, the day prior to birth, we decided to eat out for dinner. It’s a little tradition to do one last “family dinner” before baby arrives. We went out to Chuy’s. My plan afterwards was to go diaper bag shopping after dropping my family off at home.
When we arrived home, I had this undeniable feeling of wanting to clean. I wanted to clean my kitchen right that exact second. Diaper bag shopping could wait, after all, I had at least 3-5 days left.
I got the kids to bed, and fiddled around online. Earlier in the night, I had some “weird” braxton hicks. They had kinda come/go and I just chalked it all up to end of pregnancy weird pains. They were nothing that could be timed – or remotely anything close to a real contraction. I sent a text to my doula/photog as a, “hey, this is weird, just an update on me – could be this weekend”. I also texted my midwife asking about the possible contractions and if it was related to just how the baby was positioned. (They were coming up the front then radiating in the back – nothing wrapping around). – funny, I am reading through texts that I sent. It’s so easy to see that I had been warming up all day for the big event to happen the next day 🙂
I knew I should probably go to bed as if something DID happen, I really needed rest. Except, I couldn’t really sleep. I started timing contractions by 1am when things seemed to be consistent. I sent a screen shot to my doula & midwife knowing they were sleeping – but if they woke up, they would have an update on my status.
By 7am, I knew we needed to start to take action. Contractions were 5-10 min apart consistently all night. I really didn’t want my birth team to miss the birth. I really needed people there to support me mentally & physically. -funny side note again, right before I had let the birth team know to come I was in the bath. I told my husband the night before to expect to not go to work the next day. I was clearly in labor at this point.. he comes in and asks if he is going to work. This would leave me with 3 kids to watch, plus take my oldest to school, LOL. in labor. uh, yeah. no, you aren’t going to work. **he did run to his store to write his schedule for the following week & take the kids with him while I labored.
By 8am-9am everyone was arriving for the birth. I stopped timing contractions once everyone was on the way.
We talked about how I was feeling & whether or not I wanted to have my cervix checked. I didn’t have one during the end of pregnancy and was concerned that I’d only be at 3cm or so. I didn’t want to be disappointed. But, the previous 8 hours weren’t for nothing. I was a 6. 😮 Nice surprise to say the least.
I had the tub already inflated a week prior. I had set out the hose in preparation the night before. My husband had filled the tub the last birth we had at home, so I just anticipated that would be the case again. We were using a different faucet this time, and a different room to birth in. Little did I know the stress this would cause – and a rather silly series of events!
I labored on a birth ball in my room. My doula started to get the tub filled. The hose wouldn’t connect to the faucet, and the shower head wouldn’t come off! I called my husband to get him home asap from his store as we needed his help. This ended up with him having to go to Lowe’s for tools to hopefully help. Nope. So, my poor doula decides to stand there and hold the hose on the faucet to fill the tub. Which, seemed like a good idea at the time, LOL. Until water goes spraying all over the bathroom. Not going to work.
I make the suggestion of using the faucet in our backyard & running the house through the bedroom window that we are birthing in. In the process of opening the window, the blinds fall out of the window. LOL. I forgot they were strategically placed and balanced in the window. Change of plans again! My birth team finds every pot and bucket they can and start filling the tub slowly that way. I assume water was boiled in the process. Slow & steady wins the race, right? The thought of birthing out of water was not one that I wanted to consider. So, I was totally okay with it taking some time.
In the process of all this, we called in my chiropractor to come adjust me for the birth. She arrived right around 10:45. Which also happened to be right around the time that transition begin to hit. I was super nauseated. I’d never been so nauseated in labor before. We discussed a plan of action on how I was going to be adjusted. It didn’t sound like anything I wanted to do in labor 😉 Instead I asked when I could get in the birth tub. I ended up in there at 11am.
The next 52 minutes are a blur. My birth team was all present, and all worked together to keep me sane & help me work through my contractions as best as possible. I’m not even sure who was where in the room because I kept my eyes closed and face buried the entire time in the side of the tub, ha.
In my mind, I had hours to go. I had good breaks between contractions which really helped me keep sane through the contractions. In my mind, I told myself that each contraction was bringing me closer to being done. That the pain would end. and that the pain would not worsen.
The pressure started to get intense, so I thought for sure my water was bulging. My midwife suggested that I check myself to see. I couldn’t feel anything. But within minutes (I think..), what felt like a tiny balloon inside me popping, my water broke.
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