Here is what happened - as I remember it:
Saturday (Feb 19th) I woke up with labor contractions. All day I was thinking I may be in labor, so my husband kept the kids occupied in our playroom, doing artwork, riding bicycles (our playroom is our finished basement and its winter in NY so we cleaned the bikes and brought them in;-p) The contractions were about 5 minutes apart, but I could stand them, so I just tried to rest. I ended up calling my midwife in the afternoon to let her know what was going on. She told me to do so, because my 2nd child's birth was 3 1/2 hrs start to finish. When I called she told me to call back if there were any changes so I rested the day and was awakened Sunday morning at 5:30 with painful contractions. By 10am I called my Mom to get my 2 1/2 and 5 yr old. At this point I am almost in tears, trying to be strong in front my my little ones. My son (5) asked, "Mom are you in labor?". I was embarrassed that I was in pain.
I called my Midwife at 10:30ish am and I told her my contractions went from 5 minutes to 2 minutes. She was already at the birthing center for another birth so she told me to come right in. We got to the BC and I could barely walk. I get situated, she checks me and I was at about 2 cm 75% effaced. (this was the same amount as my other 2 births - so ironic!) After getting the meds for being GBS + I walked around and rested, etc, and THEN MY CONTRACTIONS SLOWED DOWN.. I was SHOCKED! My midwives kept telling my that 3rd children were tricky, etc. I couldn't believe this. I was in TEARS. I was the only pregnant person in the birthing center, I heard babies crying. I lost it. Rewind to me having strong painful contractions since 18 weeks. My midwife offered to have me go home for awhile if that would make me more comfortable, but we were expected to have a snowstorm that night (and we did) plus I told her honestly I wouldn't know when to come back. Plus we live 20 minutes away. So we stayed.
So after losing it, I found my midwife and cried. I didn't care who saw me, I WAS OVER being pregnant, I wanted to see this little boy I have been carrying and I WANTED my other kids. I just wanted it to be over. With that being said, my midwife checked me and I was at 2.5cm and 90% effaced and asked if I wanted my water broken. I said YES - I know some people will disagree with this. That's fine, but both other child came within a few hours of my water breaking. So she broke my water and not one contraction for 10 minutes! THEN - they came every 2 minutes. Within an hour they were filling the birthing tub, and I was literally holding onto the walls because the pain was just too much. I felt like I wanted to crawl out of my skin.
I got into the tub and within minutes I told her that I felt the baby moving down and I started shaking, the nurse was alone and she called for my midwife (screaming down the hall). 2 other nurses ran in and my midwife came in. EVERY SINGLE PERSON I am sure heard me screaming, I was not that calm, collected and centered Mom that I wanted to be. I was out of control! From the time my water broke until the time Hayden was born was 2 1/2 hours. So my body went from almost 3 cm to 10 in about 2 hours and I pushed maybe for 20 minutes. Hayden was born with the cord around his neck and with his arm around his head! My midwife, told me this while I was screaming, HELP ME! My husband was holding my hand the whole time and this was the 1st birth it was just him and I and it was really nice to just have it be the 2 of us. I think if my Mom would have seen me like this she would have freaked!
So at 8:56pm Hayden Michael joined our family, and I said "I did it!" My body was in a state of shock, I couldn't move, I was just so happy to have him with us. We sat in the tub together and I was and still am in awe of him!
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