I woke up the morning of February 8th at 39+6 weeks. I'd been contracting on and off all through the night, but nothing too close together or consistent.
For the past week or so, I'd been having cramping and mild contractions on and off, and two episodes of prodromal labour. At my midwife appointment at 39+3, I was offered a membrane sweep, which I gladly agreed to, but I couldn't tolerate it and she was only able to do about half of it. I went home feeling a bit dejected and cramping. As the next few days went by, I started cramping more and more but didn't let myself get too excited. After all, my first didn't decide to arrive until 40+5 after 3 sweeps and a castor oil and lemon verbena "induction".
The cramps started turning into contractions throughout the night of February 7th, and when I woke up on the 8th they were definitely contractions. I went to do my morning business and when I wiped I had bloody show. Sweet! I told Cy that we were "probably going to meet our baby today" and then hopped into the shower. I took a hot shower to take the edge off of the contractions and get clean. In hindsight, this was not such a great idea.
My MIL had flown in the previous week to help us with Edgar (my first son), and I'm so glad she did because Edgar was fighting a fever and cough that ended up being croup. I came downstairs to cuddle with Edgar between timing contractions, but soon it became evident that they are about 7-10 minutes apart. Because Edgar's birth was also quick, I had been instructed to call when the contractions were at that point. So, I pried my son off of me and went upstairs. I told Cy to prep our room and called my midwife at 9:40 am. She offered to come over and check me, and she was over in about 30 minutes.
When she arrived, she checked my dilation...
I was already 7 cm and fully effaced!
We were all shocked. I think I was most of all, as I had been coping just as well add I did with Edgar's birth, breathing through contractions and not even vocalizing. Again, I didn't want or need anyone touching me or talking/making noise during contractions. I did, however, finally use that playlist that I had made for my labour with Edgar and listened to some calm music.
Because we didn't know exactly when I hit 5 cm, my official labour start time is when I first called my midwife. Not long after, the student midwife arrived. Over the next 2 hours, my contractions became closer and closer together until they were 2 minutes apart. At that point, my midwife called the secondary midwife to start making her way over. She arrived not long after. My membranes had still not ruptured, but my body was progressing nicely. My midwife offered to rupture my membranes, but cautioned me that the labour would likely become very intense soon after. I declined.
During this time, Cy was filling the birth pool. The hot water ended up running out thanks to my aforementioned shower, so he was going up and down the stairs bringing in boiled water to warm it up. My contractions were starting to come with more pressure, and I switched from sitting on my bed to standing and rocking back and forth. Finally, the pool was warm enough for me to get in. It was such relief to be in the water, but my contractions were getting more and more intense. My midwife checked my dilation and I was almost fully dilated; enough so that I could go ahead and push if my body was urging me to do so. There was only that little lip of cervix left, just like with Edgar's birth.
I labored a little while longer, while Cy was boiling one last pot of water to bring up. Suddenly, I felt immense pressure and my membranes broke. Instantly, baby was well down the birth canal. I told the midwives to get Cy immediately, and the secondary midwife rushed down to call him upstairs. He stated to rush up, but then remembered the towels and receiving blankets we had put in the dryer to warm up for baby and rushed back to grab them.
My body began to push involuntarily and within one push baby's head was out. Cy rushed in with the towels the moment that baby was crowning and my midwife was telling me to stop pushing. It was so hard to fight my body from pushing, but I managed to hold on long enough for her to check and make sure that the cord wasn't around baby's neck. We waited for the next contraction and my body again involuntarily pushed... and our baby was born!
We didn't find out the sex of our baby before, and I had wanted Cy to say what it was, but because he had rushed in he wasn't at a good angle to see. Instead, he told me to take a look...
Another boy!
Arthur Lewis Lee was born at 1:07pm weighing 9 lbs 7 oz and 22 inches long after only 3 hours and 42 minutes of labour and two pushes!
He felt so small compared to Edgar (who was 10 lbs 11oz), but he still weighed in at what is considered to be a macrosomic weight (larger than most babies in common language). Because he came so quickly, I did have a small tear, barely even second degree, and my midwife stitched it up moreso for cosmetic reasons than absolute necessity. Breastfeeding is going OK so far. My milk came in around day 4, and I fought with an oversupply as well as Arthur's tongue tie that was clipped at 9 days old. Other than that, things are going relatively well. We're enjoying our two boys for now and are settling in nicely.
