This was my first baby so I had no idea what to expect and what certain symptoms would mean. I had been having cramping and lost my mucus plug about a week before I gave birth so I knew that labor was probably coming in the next couple weeks. When I went in for my weekly appointment on Thursday, Dorinda said he was already +2 (most women have to go through hard labor to get babies that low) and she wouldn’t be surprised if he came early (I was only 36 weeks at this point)! I just had to stay pregnant until Friday at midnight (Saturday was my 37 week mark).
I made it to Saturday and wasn’t having much symptoms until Sunday night. I couldn’t sleep at all! The cramping was a lot worse all night (I knew it wasn’t active labor though) and then the cramping subsided Monday day. Same thing happened Monday night (no sleep again!). Then Tuesday morning at about 6 or 7am I thought my water broke. It wasn’t a lot of liquid but it definitely wasn’t discharge so I called Sarah who was the midwife on call. She told me to time my contractions and call back when they came every 3-4 minutes and lasted a minute. When I timed them they were kind of irregular but were coming anywhere from 2-5 minutes apart and only lasting about 30 seconds. So about an hour after my water broke I was told to come in.
My parent’s and I got all of our stuff together and headed off to the birth center and by this point my contractions were getting more intense. We got to the birth center about an hour later and when Sarah checked my cervix, I was already dilated 5-6cm! I couldn’t believe it! When we noticed my contractions coming closer and closer together we started the tub, which I knew would feel amazing for the pain!
Since my husband is deployed to Afghanistan, we contacted his higher up’s and was able to get him on skype! At this point I was in a lot of pain and the contractions were VERY intense and frequent. I had no awareness of time and was just focusing on getting through each contraction. I was in labor pretty much all day and didn’t feel the urge to push until about 5pm. I felt like I wasn’t making any progress when pushing and was getting so frustrated! I kept checking to see how far down he was and though I could feel his head, he didn’t seem to be getting passed a certain point. I felt like I was ready to give up!
It took about an hour and a half of pushing and FINALLY at 6:27pm, he came out in one push!! It felt AMAZING. I reached down and caught him myself and brought him to my chest. Everyone missed it because of how fast he came out! Couldn’t believe it.
His name is Jacob Andrew and after about an hour or so of cuddling and skyping with daddy, we got his stats and measured at 6lbs 10oz, 19 inches long 🙂