Honestly every time I think about her birth I chuckle. I’m pretty sure I haven’t fully processed her birth yet. It was such a whirlwind and nothing I expected.
Monday night was Halloween. I was big and pregnant and honestly over it. My irrational brain had decided I’d just be pregnant for ever. It really never crossed my mind I’d go that far past my due date again or that I wouldn’t have an October baby. But it being Halloween we went to my in-laws to trick or treat like we have almost every year. The kids had a blast. Our costumes were a hit. We got home just before 10pm and shuffled everyone to bed. Zoe needed some mama snuggles so we laid in my bed and talked some before I finally sent her off to bed. I fell asleep pretty fast.
12:16am, barely Tuesday morning, I woke up to an intense contraction. My practice contractions had been more intense this pregnancy but this contraction was next level for sure. Nine minutes later a second one came. After it passed I rolled onto my other side in hopes they’d feel more manageable. Three contractions later I had to get out of bed. I was in no way ready to say I was in labor but I could not manage them laying in bed any longer. Oh how delusional I was.
By this point it was almost 1am. I woke up Jesse and asked him to turn on the Christmas lights we have hanging on the mantle in the living room and I headed to the living room to sit on the birth ball. Jesse went back to bed. A few contractions passed and I moved to kneeling while leaning on a chair, a few more and I went back to the ball, a few more and I went back to bed to kneel on a soft surface. All the while not letting it sink in that this was labor. Just after 2am I finally woke up Jesse and asked him to set up the birth tub. I headed to the bathroom and on my way back to the living room got hit with a wave of nausea and shakiness. I knew I had to make the call to the birth team. No one wants to wake people up at 2am unless they have to. So I called Sarah (the midwife), Susan and the birth photographer. Sadly the birth photographer didn’t answer. I definitely haven’t processed that I will have no photos from this birth. Thankfully we got some great ones in the time just after.
Susan was the first one through the door with Melinda (the student midwife) right behind her. At that point I’d stopped timing contractions. Melinda wanted to hear baby’s heartbeat right away but contractions were coming so close together that before she could get a good reading another contraction would come. I finally managed to stand through a contraction so Melinda could check the baby's heartbeat. Sarah showed up pretty soon after the other two. At this point labor was intense. I’d likely already entered transition. Jesse had been working on the tub but had been unable to get the temp to where it needed to be and each contraction came rolling too quickly to adjust. Each contraction I lowered myself down to my hands and knees. Eventually I stopped bothering trying to get back up between them. And with how fast everything progressed the living room floor is where I was.
Everyone was quietly settling in and setting up as they gently supported and encouraged me. Susan asked that I tell her what she could do for me. After a couple of contractions I asked her to squeeze my hips so she did as she sat on the couch beside where I was on the floor. Jesse gave up trying to set up the tub. He knew by my behavior that delivery would be soon. I don’t think they’d been there more than 30 minutes when I realized I was feeling the urge to push and announced I thought I was pushing. The feeling of the room changed almost instantly. Jesse went to wake up the girls and came right back to me so I could use him for support. He knelt down in front of me and I held on to his forearms as I leaned forward still on my knees. Melinda asked to remove my shorts which of course I consented. I expressed how I wished I could get in the tub but was soon overcome by the intensity to push and had to let those thoughts go. The tub wasn’t going to happen. My first couple of pushes were wonky. I hadn’t found my rhythm for working with the contractions. Sarah thinks I was feeling the pressure from my waters still being in tact and that it was confusing me. After a few pushes my water ruptured and I found my rhythm. It took only a handful of pushes before the head was delivered. I got a short pause and used my last contraction to delivery the body, still on my hands and knees in the living room floor. Melinda gently passed the baby through my legs to Jesse all bundled up in a towel. I asked the girls if they had seen what the baby was. They hadn’t. I pulled back the towel Melinda had wrapped her in just enough to announce they all had a new sister. Poor sweet Margaret slept through the whole thing even while laying on the couch.
Finally things had settled enough that I could readjust and sit leaning back. The placenta came quickly. That’s when I asked what her time of birth was, 3:33am, and did the mental math and realized I’d only been in labor for 3 hours and 17 minutes. Which Sarah told me actually broke down into 3 hours and 9 minutes of labor and 8 minutes of pushing. I jokingly asked why did that feel like longer than 8 minutes of pushing. We all chuckled. Sarah had already led the girls and Jesse with the baby to the bedroom while Melinda and Susan helped me get up and join them. Then I got to snuggle back in my own bed and hold my new precious babe. The three biggest sisters joined in and all got to hold her for the first time. Zoe took my phone to take pictures. It was such a precious time. We found our new sweet girl was a chunk at 9lbs2oz but a little short at 20in. She's still a short little chunk.
While I was not prepared to give birth outside of the tub, I had hoped to give birth in the soft light of the Christmas lights. I knew there was a good chance my labor would be quicker, I was not prepared for how in denial I would be. With Margaret I was sure it was labor from the first contraction. Not sure why I put off making the call for two hours this time. I'm sad Margaret slept through it. She didn't wake up until around 7am and was a little confused. I'm so very sad the birth photographer didn't make it. Had I not been in denial I was in labor I would have had one of the older girls take my phone and take pictures. But she's here and healthy and we are so in love. Our sweet Lydia Kay.
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