BabyG4's Birth Story: Part 2

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The next morning I woke up around 4am. I couldn’t sleep because my contractions were waking me up. I started to time them, they were coming every 10-15 minutes. Nothing crazy but clearly things were happening!

Around 6:30AM they started coming every 2-5 minutes, it was around this time that I called the midwife on call. My contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes but I could still walk through them and talk through them. It was a little confusing for me. How could they be so close together but so manageable? After we talked we decided that I would touch base with her in about an hour.

Shortly after talking to her my contractions slowed down and were coming every 5-7 minutes. They were still pretty mild. At some point I decided it was time to wake up B and my Aunt. I knew I wasn’t ready to go to the birth center yet but I also knew that I needed everyone to start getting ready. Mason and Kyla were already up at this point and I had eaten breakfast with them. The skies looked like they were going to open up at any minute so I knew we had to start preparing to leave for the birth center.

Around 9:45am I texted my midwife because my contractions were getting strong even though they had spaced out to every 8-9 minutes, I also started to get nauseous and I was starting to get nervous. I didn’t want to make the same mistake I made with Kyla and get to the birth center pushing!

I knew that I wanted to get to the birth center before the snow started and shared that with the midwife. She suggested 11:30 which I agreed too. After talking to B’s mom who said it was already snowing about 25 miles south of my house I checked in with a friend who lived there and she said it was coming down fast. I let my midwife know that I thought 11 would be a better time to come than 11:30. Based on my friend’s location it would already be snowing pretty hard here at 11:30.

At around 10:40 I texted my midwife to let her know I wanted to wait until 11:30. Then I nursed my sweet Kyla knowing that it would be the last time she nursed without another baby on me. It was a surreal feeling.

By the time 11 rolled around I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes and the skies had officially opened up. They were what I would call mild to moderate and I let my Aunt and B know that if we could do it I’d like to wait a little longer. I didn’t want to lose momentum. After seeing where my contractions were and the weather outside B and my Aunt started their cars and we prepared to head to the birth center. We got in the car around 11:20.

The drive to the birth center usually takes about 10 minutes but the snow doubled our trip. It was coming down fast and sticking.

On the way over I realized that my contractions spaced out. It totally freaked me out especially with how much it was snowing. Once we got there the contractions came back but they were still spaced out. After a bit I decided to get in the water. I was still having contractions but they were manageable. Almost too manageable so I decided to get out and lay down. That was around 12:45.

The contractions were strong while I was laying down. B was coming in and out to check on me which was nice. At the time it seemed like I wasn’t in the bed for long but according to my midwife’s notes it was about an hour so around 1:45pm I decided to get out of bed and headed out to where everyone was. I had some water and pistachio nuts. As I was finishing the pistachios nuts I got a huge contraction. I remember not knowing what to do with the shells in my hand but knowing that I needed to do something because the contractions were just too strong! When I got a little break my Aunt offered me some ham, I ate it but felt nauseous. It was then that I decided to go back into the birthing room. My midwife followed me, my contractions were strong and I was feeling a lot of pressure so I asked her to check me.

It was 2:30pm when she did and I was 8cm with a bulging bag. It was as if my brain just needed to hear that I was so close. I texted my birth photographer to let her know I was close, luckily she was already on her way to me. I was getting ready to get in the tub when I felt a trickle down my leg. I was fairly certain my water had broken and sure enough it had. It wasn’t a big gush like with Kyla though.

A couple of minutes later I was in the tub but I wouldn’t let myself sink down until the photographer came. I knew that it wouldn’t be much longer once I did. Luckily it didn’t take her long at all. It was around then that I started to experience transition.