As soon as I found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted a home birth this round, I was done with the hospitals and things they try to force upon you. I was determined to make it to at least term to make this possible. At 29 weeks I went on bed rest and stayed there till 36 weeks. Contractions happened all the time and we had one scare where I went to the hospital. Everything checked out though and I got to continue on with my pregnancy!
37 weeks came and went and I had made it the longest I had ever been pregnant. I was shocked and excited I had made it that far. The days went on, contractions were happening just nothing that stuck or got me super excited.
The day finally came where I started having stronger more consistent contractions that I had to stop everything and focus through. I called my midwives she checked me and I was shocked to hear I was only 2 cm dilated and 90% effaced. This is nothing like my other pregnancies where I was at least 4cm by this point. I sent them home frustrated and took a sleeping pill, in hopes to get some sleep.
When I woke up the next morning I was having contractions still but nothing timetable, so we decided to make a trip to Costco. While pushing my 80lb cart around the store I had a few contractions where I had to stop and sway my hips and moan; haha got a few good looks for that. But by the time we got home they were pretty consistent again, about 11:30. I timed them for an hour and called my midwife. She came and checked me again and to my frustration and shock I was had gone back down to 1cm and 80% effaced. She got to my house at about 2:30. She left at 3 and I was very frustrated with my body, I didn't know what it was doing. I had my husband take the kids and leave so I could relax and try to stop the contractions if they weren't doing anything. At about 4 I got in the tub thinking it would help slow them down and it only made things that much stronger. I got out at about 4:20 and by 4:25 I had had 4 really strong contractions. I called my husband at 4:30 and told him to drop the kids off and get his butt home. Called my midwife back and she turned around and came back. I started filling up my pool because I just wanted water and relief. I got in the pool and immediately felt I needed to push, but was hesitant because I was just 1cm 2 hours ago. I was scared and didn't trust my body I had no idea what it was doing. I had another urge to push put my hand down and felt his head, he was crowning. I yelled to my husband who was filling pots of water, he ran in jumped in the tub, just in time to help deliver. His head and body flopped out with one push and his bags of water broke right when his head came out. He had the cord around his neck, but it slipped off super easy. He started breathing right away, and cried for about 30 seconds before he calmed down and just looked up at me with those perfect blue eyes.
It was perfect!!! My midwife walked in about 2 min after the birth. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I held him, and nursed him right away, something that I didn't get to do with my other kids. It was amazing. I didn't even tear. He is 8lbs even 21 inches long.
