Atlas

Atlas

4/19- Wednesday. I had been feeling “off” all day and the closest thing it felt like was being on my period. Texted Hanna and she said to get some rest once Abe came home. We all went on a family walk since it was a nice Spring day and then later went out for a run. I had told myself I would end the streak I had (running at least 1 mile every day for 2.5 years) once the baby came. I really wasn’t feeling like running, but I set out anyway. Came back home, said goodnight to R & E and told them they might have a new brother or sister in the morning. We had been saying this the past few nights since I was due April 15 and Baby still hadn’t come yet. Afterwards, I just wanted to go to bed. Told Abe to come up and just be with me. I was able to drift off to sleep. Once he decided to go to bed, around 10:30pm, I turned and was just mentally telling myself to remember to visualize opening up like a flower for the baby to come. As I was thinking this and settling back to fall asleep, I felt water and started to question if I really just peed myself without knowing. I went downstairs to the bathroom and was quite certain with how wet my pants were that my water broke. I changed clothes and went back to bed thinking that it might just be a slow leak like I had with my first. I told Abe to call Hanna just in case. She said to just put on a pad and keep her in the loop. Since I came back to bed, I caught a chill and since I didn’t put a pad on, I decided I would just wait to see if it might happen again. As soon as Abe hung up, it was a much larger gush of water and I called Hanna again to make sure I could shower since I was so cold and to let her know it was for sure my water that broke. I took a long shower to warm up and then called the midwife to let her know what was going on. Her and the other midwives had recently missed a couple other third time moms, so they wanted to be sure to get to mine. Samantha only needed one more birth to move to her next phase of becoming a midwife. As I was talking to her, she asked if I had felt any contractions yet. I said I had not noticed anything, but as we were talking I felt that familiar rush of the rising and falling wave of a contraction and let her know. It was now around 11:15pm. She decided she was going to head toward the office so she would be closer if things picked up and also call Samantha and Heather. She asked me to just keep time on them for a bit to see if it was progressing. I called Hanna and she said she was on her way. I was managing the contractions pretty well, just riding the wave. Abe was under the impression it would be a while and was treating himself to some chips and salsa. By 11:30pm, the contractions were coming every couple minutes and lasting around 35 seconds or more. I let Jenn know they were picking up and they decided to come right then. Samantha showed up first probably around midnight, followed by Jenn, Heather and Hanna arrived around 12:30 am. I was sounding more primal by that point and was irritated by the constant gushing of my water with each contraction, but leaning over the ball with Abe squeezing on my back and hips was seeming to be the best thing at the moment. Jenn and Heather were busily blowing up the birthing pool, Darth was observing and being surprisingly quiet with all of the unexpected visitors in the middle of the night, and R & E were soundly sleeping up in their room. Samantha did a check on me and let me know I was at a 7. She said it was good news, but part of me was bummed it wasn’t a 10 and ready to go. I was not mentally in it for it to be a long labor. I remember being draped over the ball again, while Samantha was checking the temp for the birthing pool and I was telling her I couldn’t do it anymore and how much longer. The pool was too hot, so they were trying to cool it down, but I really wanted to get in. It got to a point that was not scalding, but the midwives let me know that since it was not super full, I needed to keep my bottom low in the water so the baby didn’t suck in water and air. I got into the pool about 1:40am. I was feeling the urge to push, but it felt too soon at the same time. At that point, my body took over and did the pushing for me. I caught a break and then my body did it again. For the third time, I felt like I worked with my body and it was either that one or one more til the baby was completely out. I sat back to look and discovered we had another son. I held him and he just peacefully gazed into my eyes. It was the most precious moment I have ever experienced. He just looked at Abe and I without making a peep. I then remembered that maybe he was supposed to cry and I was worried that something was wrong because he hadn’t. It is hard to put into words how beautiful those first moments of his life were. It was the middle of the night, in our own home, surrounded by some amazingly supportive women, Abe and a precious and perfect little baby boy. He eventually did cry for a moment, but then settled right back down and reacted like a baby piranha when offered to eat for the first time. The placenta took a while to deliver, which was different for me because with my previous two hospital births, my stomach was pushed on and it was out within minutes of having the baby. We sat in the pool for a while, then moved to the couch where I was finally able to be done with the birth. The midwives were so quick with picking everything up. He was finally weighed and I was shocked to find out he was our biggest baby and over 9lbs. Everything was cleaned up and all of our reminders and instructions were done and we were back to sleep by about 4:30am. By the morning, R was the first to wake up and Abe was able to catch him before he came down and let him know the baby had arrived. They were both rooting for a brother and were so excited to find out they were right. Big sister even asked if we got to keep him forever and was happy to know we do. 

T