Our second son, Jaxon Joseph, was born at home on December 3rd at 2:35 PM. He weighed 8lbs 12 oz. His due date had been December 7th.
December 2nd was the start of my 22 hour, prodromal labour. I had a check and sweep on Tuesday, December 1st and was 2cm dilated. After my sweep, I went shopping and got a migraine. I haven’t had a migraine in over a year, so that was strange. The next day, I woke up feeling off, but dropped my son off at the day home and went home to relax. I started feeling sick to my stomach, like I was getting the flu. I ended up barfing my guts out most of the day. When I texted the midwife, she figured that since I had a migraine the day before the sickness must be a bug and not early labour signs.
By 3 o’clock, I had texted my hubby to come home early from work, as I was so sick. It was a good thing he did, because by 4 PM I was having regular contractions ranging three to seven minutes apart. I was in early labour, but didn’t know it. The contractions did not go away, but spaced out to every 10 to 20 minutes. To get some rest, the midwife said to take two, extra strength, Tylenol and two Gravel. I was able to sleep for three hours and then, was woken up by painful contractions at 1:30 AM.
I kept on contracting every ten minutes until 6:30 AM. Then, they slowed back down to 10 to 20 minutes apart. My midwife came to do a check and sweep at 10 AM. I was 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Work was being done! I guess this is just how my body labours! I had all sorts of plans for the day, and I figured it would be another day or two until the baby came at this pace.
That all changed within 20 minutes of the sweep. Even before the midwives left, my contractions changed and moved to my entire thighs – which were exactly the same type of contractions as my last son. I was really starting to feel the pain. I was going into active labour after only 20 minutes of having that sweep. I started to not be able to manage the pain well, as my entire legs were shaking uncontrollably every three minutes. They were such intense contractions.
We got the midwives to come back, even though they had only been gone an hour. They checked me and my bags were bulging and I was 5 to 6 cm. I was asking for them to break my water. I knew that would speed up the delivery and I couldn’t handle much more pain, but we decided to wait a bit longer. They told me to labour on the toilet, because that would help the baby to descend. After 20 minutes of that, my waters broke. I was ready to push! I was going to deliver on the toilet, but decided the bed was better. I ran off to the bed, and changed my mind again and jumped off.
I yelled, “I’m delivering here!” I squatted and the ladies got ready, and I pushed my baby out and caught him! He came out after five to six pushes with only a very small tear. They were great to tell me when to slow down and when to push. My hubby was a little freaked out when I jumped off the bed to squat on the floor, but he understood when my 8lb 12oz boy was born. I couldn’t have pushed all that baby out lying down.
The picture below is the only one I have from right when I delivered, as my midwife had my doula run downstairs to grab hot towels from the dryer. I cherish this fuzzy picture as it shows my most fearless moment: catching my baby.
