Oops…A Fast and Unplanned Unassisted Birth of 2nd Child

The birth of my daughter started at 11 am on a Monday morning. I was laying in bed as my 18 month old son played on the floor next to me. When I got out of bed I noticed that my water had broken. In my excitement I had asked my husband to hurry home. With my last child I had went straight into deep labor in less then 15 minutes. I didn’t want to be in labor alone with my child.

I began cleaning my home frantically in preparation for our midwife and the babies arrival. We had high hopes of having a successful water birth. My oldest had arrived at 38 weeks and the post man had actually delivered the liner of the tub as I was giving birth. Oops.

As the hours passed it became clear that I was not going to be having my baby anytime soon. I decided to go for a walk which helped only bring mild surges. As the evening wore on we put our son to bed and my husband fell asleep on the couch. I went to lay down in the back room to rest and wait for my baby. Finally at 2:30 am just as I was falling asleep… Youch!!! My first true surge was on its way. I practiced Hypnobirthing for this birth. A natural pain relief method to help along gentle birth.

I woke my husband to let him know that baby was on her way and decided to go sit on the toilet. I told him that he could go back to sleep and that I would spend some time alone. I texted my midwife and told her that the surges had began, but for her to get some more rest. My son’s labor took 10.5 hours so I assumed I had plenty time. My text hadn’t even finish being sent when I went in to true “labor”. I never even had a chance to see my midwife’s reply.

I told Johnny that he needed to stay up. I couldn’t move and wanted to go to the bedroom. I was unable to make it to the bed so I laid on the floor and held my pillow in the fetal position. Because of my silence Johnny assumed I just needed to rest. As my surges became stronger and stronger, I went deep inside myself. I could not open my eyes or even speak. With each surge I imagined my core becoming a red hot ball of energy. I would breathe out deeply and slowly. In my minds eye I would watch this ball of energy dissipate into nothing. The surges kept coming. Back to back to back, I would visualize this energy and continue to relax my core and breathe the energy out of my body.

I was finally able to find a moment to tell my husband to call my family and midwife and that it was time. My husband, who had only experienced the very vocal and painful birth of our first child, did not believe that I was ready to have our baby. He had assumed that I had been resting all of this time. He called my Mother and Grandmother to our house but did not call the midwife. By the time my family had a arrived I was focused deep inside once again and had no interest in the outside world.

I was unaware of my surroundings as my husband hooked the water hose to the washing machine faucet. As he began to fill the birth tub the hose lost connection and flooded our entire hallway. My poor husband was so busy stopping the flooding and mopping up the mess that he essentially missed the entire birth process.

My mother and grandmother joined me in the room. Both sat quietly on the bed not knowing what to expect. I could feel my daughter low in my pelvis and knew that is was time for her to arrive. I began to breathe down my baby which then turned into pushing. By now I was able to tell my husband that the midwife really needed to be on her way. He gave her a call and she hopped into the car. I could feel my baby wanting to come out and had asked my mother to hold my leg in the air. I knew that I would not be able to get her out in this position, but was unable to move or ask to be moved. My wonderful husband could see what was happening so he managed to roll me onto all fours and went back to mopping the mess.

All hopes of a water birth are gone at this point. Not even 30 seconds after Johnny rolled me over I could feel my baby. I gathered all the energy I had inside of me to yell my husband’s name. I yelled. “JOHNNY! BABY!!!” He ran into the room as fast as he could and caught his beautiful daughter, Lillian Grey, just as she came out and almost landed on the floor!!!! What a awesome experience!

He unwrapped the cord that had been wrapped around her neck, gave her a few pats on the back and we were able to hear our daughters voice for the first time. He passed her back to me through my legs and I sat on the floor and held her to my chest. When our midwives arrived, they cut the cord and we moved to the bed where we cuddled our baby for the first time. Lillian was born at 4:45 am after a very short 2 hour birth. Our son Zane woke up at 7:30 to meet his new sister. His eyes lit up like Christmas as he realized the baby in his Mommy’s belly was now here and that he was a big brother. He kissed her on the head and pointed at her and said her name.

The End. My accidently unassisted homebirth. Zane will be 2 1/2 on Christmas day and my little LilyBug is 10 months old and about to take her first step.