I was 39 weeks, 1 day.
I woke up Friday morning at 2:00am with a mild contraction. I laid there for a little bit to see if it
was for real. There were a few more
contractions, very mild, so I got up and went to the bathroom and laid down
again. I still wasn’t sure if this was
real, because I could lay down during the contractions and they were milder
than my other labors. But I thought this
was probably it so I got up and started moving around. Getting things packed, rolling around on the
yoga ball, stuff like that. The contractions
were about 10 minutes apart and not bad at all.
I could still walk and do things during them. I woke Travis up and told him they were 10
minutes apart. He grunted and kept
sleeping. Even though it wasn’t
progressing, I called my mom to come help with the girls because I knew things
could get intense fast. So she came and
we hung out in the living room for a little while. Travis came out (around 4:00am), looked at my
mom and said, “Are you in labor? Do we
need to go?” My mom looked at him and
was like, “What?” I was on the floor and
started laughing. I knew Travis didn’t
have his glasses on and he thought my mom was me. Haha!
Anyway, we all got a good laugh and I said no we didn’t have to go
yet. So we all went back to bed. My mom laid on the couch.
I still wasn’t progressing, but not able to sleep
either. So around 6:00am I got back up
and started walking on the treadmill. I
walked a mile and the contractions completely stopped for about an hour. Awesome.
So I sent my mom home and Travis to work. The contractions started again and were mild
and irregular. I did some cleaning and
entertained the girls. Around 11:30am or
so I texted Salli, my midwife, and she said to get as much rest as
possible. That just wasn’t going to
happen with me taking care of the girls. J
The contractions started progressing and getting a little
more intense. So I called Travis and had
him come home. I laid down when he got
home and had just a few contractions and couldn’t stay laying down
anymore. That was a good sign. So I texted Salli again and said the
contractions were 5 minutes apart and more intense. She asked if I wanted to come in to the birth
center. I told her, “Kind of, yes.” The contractions weren’t close yet, but it
was definitely progressing and we had a 45 minute drive. I knew it was probably early, but with Julia
we got there just in the nick of time, so I wanted to be safe this time.
I called my mom and told her to meet us at the birth
center. Sophie made us promise (every
day for the past 3 months!) that we would take her to get the baby out. So Travis packed up the girls and got my seat
ready for a car birth. Plastic bags and
towels. Haha! We got on the road and hit traffic on
I-35. The contractions were not bad and
not getting any closer together. I was
thankful for that as we were sitting in traffic. We got to the birth center and I was feeling
pretty good. We had 2 midwives and 1
student midwife waiting for us outside.
They made sure they were there before us because they remembered Julia’s
birth. And my mom pulled up right as we
did.
They had the tub ready for me, so I hopped right in. Seriously, the contractions were not bad so I
was moving around pretty well. They left
Travis and me alone in the room. We looked
at each other after 2 mild contractions that weren’t close together. We both wondered if getting in the water was
slowing down the labor. In fact, we were
both really bummed. At this point, I
wanted it to be quick like with Julia!
We thought we might be there all night and that was very depressing to
us.
I was feeling so good that I decided to try a new position
and I got on my knees and bent over the side of the tub during the next
contraction (this was maybe the 5th contraction since getting in the
tub). This was a very intense one and I
was really squeezing Travis’s arm. And
there was a pop and I felt something drop.
We called the midwives in and I told her I thought I lost my mucus
plug. She got the flashlight and shined
it in the tub and said it looked like maybe my water broke. Secretly I knew it wasn’t because with the
girls my water broke during pushing. It
turns out, this was my water breaking!
The next contraction was even more intense. After that one, I heard my mom and girls come
in. Sophie wanted to check on me. J They left after they saw us. And two seconds later, during the next
contraction, I couldn’t even kneel anymore.
And I felt the need to push!!!!
So I pushed!!!! Salli and Jesse
(the student) came over and Jesse said the head was crowning. And Salli came behind her saying surely it
couldn’t be yet and that it was something else (I can’t remember what she called
it). But then she came around closer and
said, “Head!” and reached down and held his head. I kept pushing and she said, “He’s out. Lisa, grab your baby.” I told her I couldn’t, so she put him on
my chest. And we were done. What?!
My mom didn’t even get down the hall from when they came to
check on me and heard the baby. She knew
it couldn’t have been my baby (even though we were the only ones there). So they ran back and saw little Bryce laying
on my chest. It was pretty surreal. Seriously.
So chill and relaxed and then bam, there’s a baby. Weird.
But I’ll take it!
He was born about 30 minutes after we got there and we hung
out for another 3 ½ hours then headed home with a newborn boy. I realize I am lucky to have these “easy”
births. He is one week old and we are
excited to watch this little guy grow up!
