Around 1 am I lost what I believed to be my mucus plug (it was), I knew that this could mean nothing because it could grow back but I texted my Doula anyway just to in case it was the beginning of labor. I then woke up to a contraction at around 3/4 am but I figured it was just some more Braxton hicks contractions as I had already been experiencing for the past week or two. At 7 am I woke to yet another contraction and realized they were not going away so I started timing them. They continued throughout the day being very inconsistent anywhere from 5-20 minutes apart on average was about 10 minutes. I was in complete denial that this was the real deal because of the inconsistency.
I went about my normal day, went for a walk, and cleaned the house. I did ultimately decide to have my husband stay home from work just in case things started to speed up. I did start to notice the surges were getting stronger and longer. I also had been texting my mom and doula all day though to keep them updated you know, just in case.
By 1:30 my doula suggested for me to get some rest before active labor kicked in, so when I put my son down to take his nap I took one too. With the contractions being so inconsistent I was able to sleep pretty much through them all.
I woke up around 3:30 and by 4 I finally gave in that this wasn’t going to stop, this was the real deal and I in fact was in labor so I called my mom to come over since we decided she would be at my birth to support me and my aunt who would be watching my son when needed. It was a good thing she was on her way because by 4:30 I could not handle him anymore and was getting extremely over whelmed. He was only 22 months at that time so he was still very much in that needy stage but my contractions were now stronger at this point and I could no longer give him the attention he needed.
Everyone got to my house around 5ish. My doula let me know that she would head out the second I felt I needed more support so I finally texted her to head on over at 5:30 because I could no longer talk through my contractions. When she arrived we talked for a bit about how I was feeling and how I wanted things to go moving forward. My mom had gone upstairs to start getting everything ready. After a little time passed my doula and I also headed upstairs to my birthing space. Surges started to get very close together at this time so we decided to start filling the tub since I had planned a home water birth. When we first got upstairs I sat on the bed trying to breathe through the surges but I was not comfortable. I then got on all fours on the floor swaying my hips back and forth and found that was the position that felt good to me and relieved the pressure.
At maybe 6:45ish I had my husband help me up from the floor position to the bed because the pressure got very intense and my instincts were telling me to grab onto something. I figured the bed would give me the support that I was looking for by being able to hold onto the bed frame and still be in the same position that I was in on the floor. I had one surge on the bed and pop my waters broke and I could feel her bulging out! I was still wearing clothes so I had to yell out for my mom and doulas assistance and I just remember saying “take everything off she’s coming out!” Sure enough they turned me over, pulled off my pants and there was her head. I didn’t even have to push because FER took over very quickly, not even a minute later, at 6:50pm Emerie was born at home.
