Thursday March the 12th I went to my midwives for my 38 week check up. I asked them to check my cervix and I was very soft and dilated to a 2. My midwife said I was going to have a great and speedy labor. I was so excited to give birth again. My first daughter was born with a midwife in a hospital and it was the greatest moment of my life and I couldn’t wait to experience it again at home.

I went to bed that night around 11pm and at 12:54am I woke with a start. I turned to my husband and told him my water was going to break and he just mumbled something. I stood up thinking it might be false labor and began to walk. Just a few steps and my water burst. It was so familiar, this is exactly the way my first labor went.

I knew it was show time and was so excited. I told my husband that in fact my water broke (and I think he was pretty excited too). I sat on the toilet letting the rest of my water leak out while he began preparing our home for the delivery. We pulled out our already blown up kiddie pool into the living room and hooked it up to the faucet. We did a few dishes and picked up. We prepared our bed and I laid on my left side to rest.

During contractions I would wiggle my feet or rub my legs up and down the bed as a way to work through the contractions. Sometimes my husband would place his warm hand on my back and it was like having a nice heating pad there. We were timing the contractions and everything was progressing well; they were increasing in regularity and intensity. We decided it was time to call the midwives since they lived over 30 minutes away.

At 2:25am my midwives arrived and checked me. I was dilated to a 5 so we began filling the tub. The baby still had to rotate a little but I knew it would happen at some point. We were elated things were going so well. I wasn’t coping well with laying down anymore so my husband and I walked and swayed during contractions. All around my home I posted birth mantras like “baby down” or “healthy pain” and my husband would repeat them to me during my contractions or I would read and reread them during rest time.

When I wasn’t contracting I would always rest and talk and laugh with the midwives and occasionally drink water. I loved being surrounded by supportive people and drew on their energy and love.  As my contractions continued to pick up I would rub my thighs or get on all fours and rock. My husband reminded me to moan as a way of letting adrenalin and discomfort out. So I started repeating “aaaaahhhh.”

Soon the tub was full and I climbed right in, the water felt great even though it was hard to find a comfortable position. Then he offered my ball which was no more than a small squishy toddler ball. I pumped it with my hand and banged it against the pool for relief and it helped a lot.

Just after getting into the tub I threw up a couple times and knew I was in transition. My midwives noticed I was beginning to look more focused and in the “zone”.  So they told me it was time to bear down and I couldn’t believe it was true, everything had gone so quickly! So they checked me and I was fully dilated.

At about 3:35 I moved to the bed to get into a better pushing position sitting up with my legs up. It was then I began to doubt my decision to go natural. I began repeating, “I’m not crazy” out loud to myself which made everyone chuckle. (My first daughter was delivered naturally but I tore really bad and didn’t want to experience that again so I was worried). If I tore like that again my midwives would have to transfer me because it requires special stitches. My midwives assured me that they would put hot compresses on and do perineal massage with olive oil and that I wouldn’t tear.

Unfortunately, after just a couple minutes my contractions were gone. They just stopped completely and so I pushed with all my might without any help from my uterus. It was challenging and upsetting. Luckily the baby was pretty low and in perfect position. My midwives were concerned about the baby’s heart rate. It was dropping very low and not rebounding so they put oxygen on me and were really motivating me (maybe a little yelling happened) to get the baby out and it was just what I needed. At this point there was no resting, it was push after push after push to get the baby out. Red in the face I wholeheartedly pushed the head out and they let me rest for just a moment and they I pushed out the shoulders. A perfect baby was placed right onto my chest. We checked the gender and we had another girl!

I was immediately in a dreamy conversation with her and my husband. Soon after I pushed out the placenta and asked if I tore. My midwife replied, “not at all”. I couldn’t have been happier. Margaret was born Friday the 13th at 4:00am. Big sister slept through the whole thing and woke up to a new baby sister!

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Brittany