At my 40 week appointment, I was only dilated to a 1. So, I had my midwife strip my membranes. That helped get some contractions going throughout the week. They ranged from mild to intense, and regular to irregular. The intense ones were irregular, and the mild ones were more rhythmic. They often came in the evenings and would die off during the night.
I was determined to not go into the hospital too early this time and try to do most of the labor at home. I really wanted my water to break on its own. With my other kids, I got impatient at the hospital and had them break my water. Which is effective at getting the baby here, but it also makes for a very intense transition and delivery.
At 8 days overdue, I was getting tired of contractions. I was honestly considering doing an epidural because my body was already hurting and I wasn't even in active labor yet. So that night we left kids with grandparents and decided to try going into the hospital.
P1 and P2 at Grandma's house
41 weeks + 1 day
We went into the hospital at about 8:30 pm. I had been having contractions every 10 minutes since 5:30. But of course, as soon as we entered the hospital, the contractions basically disappeared. They checked me and I was dilated to 3 cm. Since I was 9 days overdue, they were willing to keep me and induce me if I wanted. While it was tempting to get the baby here, I finally decided to only have my midwife strip my membranes and then we went home at about 11 pm. My contractions started to pick up again, and by 1 am they were every 2 minutes and fairly intense. We headed back to the hospital and arrived around 1:45 am.
They checked me and I was dilated to a 6! I was so happy and surprised to hear that. I am usually disappointed whenever they check.
PE was great at pushing on my knees during contractions to provide counter pressure. I also asked for a hot pad for my back since I get a lot of back labor. I'm really glad that I did that and wish I had done it with my last two! It helped a lot!
I honestly still wasn't sure if I wanted to go natural or not. But I felt fairly calm and in control during the contractions at the hospital, so I began to feel more confident in going natural.
At 3:15 am, my water broke all by itself! I was so convinced that it would never break on its own that I was sure that I had just peed a little bit. But my nurse checked, and turns out that my water had broken. That was a very pleasant surprise! With my last two, I always had my water broken which brings on very intense labor for me.
My babies usually come within 30 minutes of breaking my water. I was hopeful that baby would come soon, but not sure since my water broke on its own. Contractions got harder, but I still felt in control. I honestly believe they were not as hard as when I have had my midwife break my water.
I started feeling more pressure at 3:50 am and told the nurse who went to wake up my midwife. They checked me and I was dilated to 7, which was disappointing. My hands and legs started to tingle and fall asleep. My hands were clenched and I couldn't move them. Both were signs to me (based on P2's birth) that baby was almost here.
Pressure increased immediately and baby was ready to come out. No one in the room was ready for that. I really tried hard to hold back knowing that I was only a 7, but that baby just slipped out all on its own. I don't think I ever even pushed. P3 entered the world at 4:05 am. Amazingly enough, I didn't tear at all, hooray!
We got to see for ourselves that we had a baby boy! He was 7 lbs exactly and 21.5 inches long. He came out crying and was healthy and well. He had much more of a cone head than my other two babies.
It took me a bit to recover from the intensity of labor. I slowly regained control of my hands and legs. I got to hold P3 immediately, and the first thing he did was pee on me. I didn't notice at all, but the nurses did. I just kept saying "hi" to him over and over until I recovered a bit from the shock of birth. P3 was doing really well, so I just got to hold him for awhile. He even did great with nursing. I was so glad to finally have him here!
Because P3 was 9 days overdue, his skin was peeling off a lot (especially on his hands and feet). It was so bad, that when they tried to do his footprints, the whole bottom layer of skin on his feet came off! So they had to do each foot twice to get a good footprint.
At about 5:45 am I was exhausted and ready to sleep. But I wanted to get cleaned up a little and moved into the other room. My nurse came in and told me that the shift change was about to happen, and she would bring in the new nurse and introduce her. So we waited, and waited, and waited some more. I was so tired, and just wanted to sleep! Finally, at 6:30, I called the nurse station and asked for someone to come help me! So we finally got the nurses to come in. By the time we got situated in the recovery room, it was close to breakfast time so we decided to wait for breakfast before falling asleep. We called our other 2 kids and let them know that the baby was finally here! We told them that they had to come see for themselves if they had a baby brother or sister. So grandma helped them get ready really fast, and they came over to meet P3. Because of all the delays and visits, I ended up getting my second wind and couldn't fall asleep until late afternoon. And so began the sleep deprivation!
P2 did not know what to think at the hospital. I'm sure that it was overwhelming to see mom in the hospital. She wouldn't talk to anyone except PE, and she didn't want to hold or touch the baby.
P1, on the other hand, was super excited to meet his little brother. He held him, and liked to poke him.
We are now a family of 5!
I stayed in the hospital for 2.5 days, and just relaxed and enjoyed my alone time with P3. And I took advantage of the nursery at night. My recovery was great, and pain was very minimal. It was a wonderful birth experience, and was everything I hoped it would be.
We finally decided on a name right before we went home as is our tradition. I felt like his name fit him immediately, whereas P1 and P2 had to grow into their names. We discovered right away that P3 hates his carseat because he screamed all the way home!
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